about the prologue of John's Gospel. The prologue is much more a resume, a summary of John's Gospel than it is an introduction. And as a matter of fact, in the book that I hope I will sometime finish on John's Gospel, I plan to make the prologue the conclusion because it will sum up everything that has been said about John's Gospel. It is this wonderful sweeping concept of the Lord beginning in eternity, coming down to earth, bringing the revelation of the Father's love, enabling us to be reborn in that love and then sweeping us back to heaven again to join Jesus in the bosom of the Father.

[01:08]

And the Holy Spirit, of course, we will see John's paraclete is the one who works with us to form us in this sonship of the Father with Jesus. Sandra Schneider points out that unlike Paul, John understands the Sonship in a very literal sense, never talking about adoptive Sonship, but just Sonship, that is how closely united we are with Christ and the potential we have for joining him in the experience of being a child of God. The doxology prior to the Arian heresy had this beautiful concept of the flow from the Father through the Son in the Spirit back to the Father.

[02:15]

And we had a great loss when the Church decided to combat the Arian heresy, decided to replace that old doxology with the one we have today. It used to go, Glory be to the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit. But because that didn't make it absolutely clear that the Son was equal to the Father, they changed it to what we have today. But we lose that wonderful flow that is the ideal presented by Scripture. John deals with the subject of initial Christian conversion in the first section of his gospel after the prologue, that is, from chapter 1, verse 19 to the end of chapter 2. L. William Countryman maintains that the chapters dealing with the public ministry of Jesus are to be read on two levels.

[03:24]

They do, of course, give us information about the life of Jesus, but on a deeper and even more significant level, they are concerned with the spiritual stages through which a Christian progresses toward mystical union in God with God in Christ. And so the first stage is conversion, followed by baptism, and then Eucharist, and as we said, enlightenment and life. I used to feel sort of left out by the fact that I was born as a Catholic and could not therefore be converted. So I am envious of Paul who was knocked off of his horse on the way to Damascus. Well, I soon became aware that I need not fear that all of us are being converted all through life and the greatest conversion will probably occur long after

[04:32]

the initial conversion, as we move from a faith which we have received from our parents uncritically, simply trusting them, which is fine and good, to a faith that is examined, and its implications are examined, and into which we therefore grow endlessly as we become constantly converted into one who is like what God wants us to be. In this section on conversion, I'll just choose a few elements of it to illustrate what John means by conversion. John the Baptist is featured in the first verses after the prologue. Priests and Levites are sent down from Jerusalem to the Jordan River where John has been baptizing. They are on a mission of inquiry.

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He is performing religious rituals and it is obvious that he has not consulted them. They want to know who he claims to be. They are to report back to the authorities about this phenomenon which has not been accredited by them. Are you the Messiah? No. Well, then are you Elijah? No. Are you the prophet promised by Moses in the last days? No. One has the distinct impression The John the Baptist is prepared to say no to every question they have. He has at least 25 no's left. For he has come to announce radical change and they are dedicated to the status quo.

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They have categories formed into which God must insert his Messiah. But God will not allow human categories to dictate how he does things. John came to break all those human structures and to announce a God who liberates on his own terms. They represent the established order which wishes to preserve itself at all cost. He represents the new divine order. which will challenge all human arrangements. When John does speak in a positive manner, he identifies himself as the one whom Isaiah had in mind when he wrote, I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord. The voice crying out in the wilderness.

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The wilderness is a metaphor for God's mystery. crying out from God's territory, from the territory of God's sovereignty and freedom and unpredictability, crying out, I am a voice from that mystery of God. And what do I say to humans? Make straight the way of the Lord. That is, prepare a path for the Lord according to the Lord's dictates. not the path that you would choose, but the path of radical openness. Lord, come as you wish, when you wish, and how you wish. One must wonder what these emissaries from Jerusalem might have thought about this answer. They certainly could not have been comforted because the words meant that the coming of the Lord would require that all human obstacles must be removed.

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a prospect that would strike fear in the hearts of all those who want to change nothing. Sometimes we have the impression that fidelity means to change nothing, to be traditional, to disregard the Second Vatican Council. Because change, you watch, that's frightening. I like those little flickering candles and the smell of incense. You know, I have this romantic familiarity. We are on a journey. Change happens every day. If we aren't ready to change, we have misunderstood completely the nature of the Christian call. And we have a strong tendency to get things arranged yet our little nest built, than to sit comfortably in that nest and call that fidelity.

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John the Baptist wants to break all those human constructs and let God come in his own sovereign way, which turns out, of course, to be the only way. The community of John was precocious in discovering the full implications of the divinity of Jesus. We are so accustomed to thinking of Jesus in terms of divinity that we forget how difficult it must have been for his Jewish disciples, grounded in the strict monotheism of the Hebrew scriptures, to come to an understanding of more than one divine person. After the resurrection, they certainly realized that Jesus was far more than the extraordinary human being they had come to know. But it would take years for them to move beyond the stage of wonder to the possibility of a clear declaration of his divinity.

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And we know that it took the church several centuries to find appropriate theological terminology for this astounding fact. That is why it is so surprising to find here in this early part of John's Gospel explicit and frequent references to the divinity of Jesus. For John the Baptist says, this is the Son of God. something that he could never have said at the beginning of the ministry of Jesus. And so this is by anticipation that he declares the divinity which is evident everywhere in John's Gospel. It is the victory of faith over history, faith over tradition. The best explanation is that the author of this Gospel not only had more time to reflect on the resurrection, but he also was a great mystic and was therefore attuned, instinctively attuned, to the full implications of the resurrection of Jesus.

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The calling of the disciples in John's Gospel, which is found in the following section of Chapter 1, obviously pertains also to the subject of conversion, because they are leaving their former state in order to follow Jesus. Jesus does not follow the synoptic Gospels in giving a list of all 12 apostles. Rather, he chooses several of disciples who represent the certain qualities which must be found in all those who wish to follow Jesus. The first example of this conversion is found in the rather simple story, deceptively simple story, in chapter 1, verses 35 to 39. John the Baptist has just pointed out Jesus with the words, look, here is the Lamb of God, referring no doubt to the prophecy of Isaiah about the suffering servant. Two of the Baptist disciples who are unnamed, upon hearing this, left him and began to follow Jesus.

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They were converted from the community of John to following Jesus. And then, when Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, what are you looking for? This apparently casual question, suggesting nothing much more than curiosity, takes on profound significance when we realize that Jesus is, in fact, asking them whether they are, like most human beings, searching for the meaning and purpose of life. He penetrates into their being and discovers what is in the heart of every human being. What is it all about? What are you looking for?

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I see that you are searching for something. You know, Jesus, in a way, is the original ET. The original extraterrestrial came from above. And in a sense, you could say that he is saying to them, oh yes, you must be earthlings because I see that you are searching for something. all of human history and much of human literature talks about the search, the Holy Grail, Shangri-La, all over and all through human experience is this searching, searching. What is the answer? What is it all about? Jesus sees in them typical human beings. You must be earthlings. Their reply is also a question, Rabbi, where are you staying?

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On the historical level, there's absolutely no reason for them to think that Jesus is a rabbi. However, on the symbolic level, It would be appropriate because they know that anyone who can see so clearly what is in their hearts must indeed be one who has answers to the deep questions that they entertain. He must be a teacher. And when they ask, where are you staying? It would be naive to think that this is simply a question about his place of residence. The answer to that question is not go down to the oak tree and turn right, third house on the left. We are invited to understand this on a symbolic level by the fact not readily noticed in translation that the verb for staying here Menno is the same one used by John to express the profound personal union that exists between himself and his Heavenly Father, where it is usually translated, abide.

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I abide in the Father, the Father abides in me. If you hear my commandments and follow them, you will abide in us. One of John's favorite words, profoundly theological, Not, therefore, the casual question it seems to be, what is your address? No, where are you staying? And when we understand its deeper implications, it can be paraphrased as, where is our true home? Where do we belong? What does abiding mean? Home is where we abide. No one can abide until they come home. The answer to you, Jesus, to this most important of all human questions is not, as we might expect, a catechism answer about heaven. Where do you abide in heaven? No. Jesus does not have an answer in terms of a statement, an answer of information.

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He says, come and see. Come and see. Walk with me. Learn from me. And you will discover where you belong and where home is, where we abide. We learn from this meaningful episode that the first and most important precondition for conversion is a yearning for the meaning in life. A little later on it says, And they came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o'clock in the afternoon. Well, we have to be careful. That sounds like it's nothing but history. But the day in the Bible is more than a 24-hour period. It is any span of time that constitutes a special opportunity, as we see, for example, in Hebrews 3, verses 13 and 14.

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But the surprising statement that it was at four o'clock in the afternoon, John, is that really important? This is not just information to satisfy our curiosity. No, no, we are in the context of Genesis here, in the beginning and those days that suggest the days of creation. And something very significant happened at four o'clock in the afternoon in Genesis, in the cool of the evening. God was walking in the garden and he said, where are you, Adam? Now the disciples are walking and saying to Jesus, where are you, God? The question is reversed. Genesis 3, verse 8. Raymond Brown would probably consider this speculation, but it has the ring of truth in it.

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I speak more freely of Raymond Brown now that he is dead. And he cannot contradict me, literally. In the car of the disciples, as I mentioned, not the twelve, but a few disciples who illustrate qualities required in disciples, qualities required for authentic conversion. First of them is Peter. And Jesus says to Peter, you are no longer to be called Cephas, But Peter, that is Rock, this suggests that the first requirement for authentic conversion is stability. To be a good disciple, one must be able to make a firm commitment and to stay with it through thick and thin. Oh, there are people who make decisions at the whim, one whim or another, and they last a few days, and then it's another direction.

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They're on the shifting sands. But you must be capable of making a firm decision, a stable decision. Philip then finds Nathanael and tells him he has found the one who seems to be the promised Messiah, Jesus, son of Joseph from Nazareth. Nathanael is skeptical when he hears that Jesus comes from Nazareth. a tiny town in Galilee. He says to Philip, can anything good come out of Nazareth? No, it couldn't be from Nazareth. It couldn't be from the Styx. Philip suggested you trust his intuition rather than human estimation. Come and see. Come and see and make your own judgment. When Jesus sees Nathanael coming toward him, he says, here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit. Nathanael understands then that his personal experience is far more trustworthy than his provincial prejudice.

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And he cries out, Rabbi, you are the Son of God, the King of Israel. This tells us that to be a faithful disciple one must, like Nathanael, learn to trust one's experience rather than traditional labels. A great many people learn all the right words in theology but never have any experience that corresponds to those words. And they do not ever learn to trust their instincts. and our instincts are for God. The changing of the water into wine is a conversion. The story is primarily about the change of water into wine, not about the exchange of Jesus with his mother. That is the secondary theme. The story is primarily about the miracle. What does the water stand for? It's life that is good,

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you know, but bland. Good but bland. And Jesus says, oh no, look again. Look now with the faith and the vision that I offer to you. Oh my goodness, life has become exciting, adventuresome, wonderful, full of opportunity. Not something to be endured, something to be accepted without any understanding. The victory of faith is to turn the banality and the dullness of life into an exciting adventure. Now that doesn't have to happen every minute of every day, three o'clock in the morning. But there must be that overall sense that this is a wonderful gift from God, not a burden to be borne, but an opportunity to be exploited.

[24:12]

Suddenly the water becomes wine, fresh, effervescent, full of joy. The tiffy got core hominess, gladdened the heart of man. You know, it doesn't say that it was red wine. But I'll bet that it was red wine, because it was colorful too. The exchange of Jesus with his mother can only be understood in connection with the other exchange with her at the foot of the cross. And I will refer to it at that time. Here she asked, inappropriate in a certain sense, because she asked from her natural motherhood, Jesus, my hour has not yet come. No, wait till you stand at the cross and suffer with me and then we'll talk about what motherhood really means. The cleansing of the temple by Jesus. Stop making my father's house a marketplace.

[25:17]

This is not the correction of some liturgical abuse. Jesus is not there as a liturgist telling them that they're doing it wrong. even though what they were doing was, by their terms, liturgically incorrect, violating the temple precincts with commercial activity. But his intention is much deeper than that. He comes as a prophet who is scandalized by what this structure has come to mean. It has come to mean an institutionalized church dominated by human beings and by their interests and not open to the mystery of God. You know, the prophets, prophets always had an ambiguous relationship to the temple in Jerusalem. Remember what Jeremiah said, do not trust in those deceitful words, it is the temple of the Lord, the temple, you know, they kept saying, oh, we don't have to worry about the Babylonians, we have the temple, that's all we have to worry about, just gather around the temple.

[26:27]

Don't be so sure. God has not provided the temple as a kind of a refuge from life. The temple is a challenge. And if you allow the presence of God in the temple and do not make it a human structure with human rules and human violence sometimes in applying those rules, then you will not meet God in the temple. God is not committed to the temple. As Jeremiah said, the temple passed away. The temple was not protected against the Babylonians. I get the impression that the prophets broke out in a rash when they got near the temple. They were allergic to this concept. What was the ideal presence of God with these people in the Bible? The tent. The tent, which is the habitation for people on a journey. The temple belongs more to a pagan concept of religion, for there's an established building and God must come to the building.

[27:32]

Oh God, remember when Solomon dedicated the temple and he plundered all those animals and the priests were singing up a storm and all of a sudden the glory of God, the Kibbutz Yahweh, came into the temple, that smoke, and it filled the temple and the priests were running out of the doors as God took over his temple on his terms. I have a strong impression that Jesus, when he went through with that whip and drove out the money changers and the animals from the precincts of the temple, that he took some swipes at the pillars too. This whole place is not fit anymore for God because you have made it a bastion of conservatism, a bastion of tradition, which allows no future And God always comes from the future. We come then to baptism, conversion, being open to God, welcoming God, letting everything else go.

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to allow God enter one's life. Come as you will. Come when you will. Baptism confirms one's conversion in the presence of the community. John talks about baptism in a conversation with Nicodemus. And Jesus said to Nicodemus, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born from above and born again or from above. This Greek adverb, anosen, can mean either from above or again. In many translations, choose one or the other and put the alternative, the alternate translation in a footnote, or it could also be from above. I think the author of this gospel knew Greek well enough to understand that there was an ambiguity here.

[30:02]

I think he meant both. He meant us to say, unless you are born again from above, that you don't have to choose between the two. Nicodemus, played the straight man, asked the dumb question, which allows Jesus to give further explanation. You mean I, as an adult, must get back into my mother's womb? Oh, no, Nicodemus. No, no. As the wind blows and is powerful, but you cannot see it, so shall be the new birth. No longer in water, but now in the Spirit. a new baptism, a new birth, infected by the Spirit, by the one who is responsible for creation. The Spirit of the Lord, the wind of the Lord, the Ruach Yahweh, hovered or blew over the deep and called forth creation originally.

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Spirit is always associated with creation. And when in the baptismal account of the synoptics, the Spirit appeared over him in the form of a dove, this is the symbol of creation, signaling that with the coming of Jesus, with the appearance of Jesus, with his public identification, we are entering into a new era, a new dawn of life, a new kingdom, new world, new creation. No one can enter the kingdom without being born of water and the Spirit." And then he talks about what happens in creation, in this new creation, in this baptism. 3.16, wonderful, wonderful verse. recognized by evangelical Christians, too, so much so that you frequently see it.

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In sporting events, there'll be a big sign behind the home plate, John 3.16. Well, it is a great text. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believed in him may not perish, but may have eternal life. This is what the baptism effects. Baptism makes us discover the love of God, makes us hear what Jesus heard. You are my beloved son. I love you very much. Those are the only words in this life that we actually must hear. We live in a blizzard of words. I mean, it's like a North Dakota blizzard. We hunker down, they come at you from every side, word processors, and it's being spit out constantly. And there's only certain words that are absolutely indispensable.

[33:21]

These words are, that we must hear, you are my beloved child. I love you very much. So much so that I think a very, very appropriate form of prayer is to sit very quietly, very, very quietly, try to make a, you know, as Swami from India said, the human mind is a tree full of monkeys. You've got to get them to quiet down. And so you try to quiet down, quiet down, and then say, Lord, tell me what I need to know. And in a thousand ways, God will speak to our hearts and say, you are my beloved child. I love you more than you will ever know. Those are the words that enabled Jesus to get through his ministry. He heard them every time he went aside to speak to the Father. He heard them again. They weren't just spoken at baptism.

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Nor are they spoken only at our baptism. They're spoken every moment of our lives. If we listen, And only by the courage and confidence that comes from those creative words, only by that power can we deal with life and find the opportunity in life. It is interesting to note that when John describes the dynamics of baptism, that you shall become a child of God You shall experience the love of God. He does not speak about the water. He speaks about faith. Baptism is the sacrament of faith. There is a water ritual, but the water ritual is not what effects the salvation. It is the faith that accompanies the water ritual. The catechumen who believes in God

[35:29]

is on his way to baptism hit by a truck, he goes to heaven. But if you're baptized without faith, it means nothing. So it's a combination of the water ritual and the faith, which is why it's so important that we as adults, you know, understand what was said for us by our sponsors. They spoke the faith for us Too often we never learn later what the meaning of what they said for us. Claiming our baptism. Understanding that renouncing Satan means to move away from our powerful instinct for self-centeredness. To move away from that. To dare to become unselfish. To dare to reach out to others. and that belonging to Christ means precisely to dedicate one's life to unselfish behavior as much as our freedom permits us.

[36:38]

And so when John does describe that, he speaks about the fainting that makes baptism valid and makes it effective. To believe in Christ means that one accepts not only the facts about his life and death and resurrection, not only that he existed and that he died and that he was raised up again. Those things are important, but you can believe all those things and still live selfishly. But also one must accept the significance of those facts for one's own life. In other words, one will come to understand that he or she must be committed to the same unselfish love that we see in Jesus and which found its most perfect expression in his dying for us on the cross. Without such a commitment, with its endless implications, it is possible to accept as true every detail of the Gospel stories and to observe all kinds of religious ritual

[37:50]

and still lives in a selfish manner, thus effectively negating in one's own life the power of salvation that Jesus came to share with us. I emphasize this because this is not only a preoccupation of John, it's almost an obsession of John in his gospel, that we understand that we must go beyond the rituals, important as they are, beyond the doctrines, to the living of their meaning in unselfish behavior. As you know, of course, the ministry of Jesus, the climax of his ministry comes with his dying. And his dying is the last act of unselfishness on his part. Greater love has no man than he who gives his life for his brother. Give my life for you. Every time we love unselfishly, we die a little bit.

[38:53]

We're learning how to die. And then, after you've lived a lifetime of dying, because you love, the dying will not be a problem. Just more of the same. The last and best opportunity to trust God and to give oneself for others. But those who are selfish and self-centered have a terrible time dying. They are pulled backwards into eternity rather than walking freely into the future that God gives us. John goes on to say, with the baptism comes light, and with the light comes judgment. And this is the judgment, this is the crisis, this is the decisive moment that the light has come into the world and people love darkness rather than light.

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The light has come into the world, the light of revelation, the light of the truth about what human life is all about. But many have preferred darkness. Why would anyone in his right mind prefer darkness to light? Well, he goes on and says they prefer the darkness because their deeds are evil. Darkness is preferred because it's so much easier than the light. Darkness means selfishness. Darkness means I become the standard for everything. And that is easy, that is what you're inclined to do. Unselfishness is difficult, and therefore people choose the path of selfishness because it is the easy road. But then Jesus said, I did not come to judge, I come to reveal.

[41:10]

And how you respond to revelation will determine the judgment. It's very clear in John's Gospel that anyone who is lost has committed suicide, has simply refused to accept life, because they refused to accept this unselfishness that leads to life. Chapter 4 in John's Gospel according to countrymen, belongs to the theme of baptism also because it deals with water. For ancient Israel, the well was the center of their lives. They were sheep herders. They all met at the well. Marriages were arranged at the well, Rebekah, the center of their lives. They were shepherds, and during the hot, dry summers, the well which tapped into the groundwater was the only thing that stood between them and slow death through starvation or through thirst.

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It was also a gathering place for lonely shepherds. Sometimes they fought over the water, but usually it was an occasion for friendship and laughter. It was even a place where family history was made. Therefore, when Jesus sat down by the well of Jacob in Samaria, we must be alert to the possibility of profound symbolic meaning. In particular, the presence of life-giving water connects their stories with the Christian experience of baptism. The scenario is sketched in a few words. Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon, the brightest part of the day, the time of full light, and the light had come to sit by the well. A synagogue of women came to draw water.

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And Jesus said to her, give me a drink. Jesus has been on the road with his disciples since early morning, and as the hot sun melts in the sky, he becomes tired and thirsty. Jacob's well is a welcome sight. The fact that it is high noon means that it is the brightest as well as the hottest time of the day. Time for revelation. Since the disciples have gone into the village for food, Jesus is alone when the Samaritan woman comes to the well. His request for a drink may seem quite natural to us, but it was far from ordinary in those days. The woman is shocked that Jesus should speak to her. How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria? What she is really asking is, where are you from that you do not know the customs of this place, the rules of behavior?

[44:32]

You must be from Patagonia. Otherwise, you would surely know, because I am one of those who are condemned to social invisibility. I'm not supposed to be noticed. I'm not supposed to be seen. That's the rule here. And I am condemned to social invisibility on two counts. First of all, because I am a woman. And no adult male in Israel was allowed to speak to a woman in public. She was to be ignored. And secondly, because I am one of the hated Samaritans. On a deeper level, she is sadly reminding this mysterious person from another land that power and violence are what count in the real world where human beings live.

[45:35]

Jesus does not say, Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know about your customs. Thank you for informing me. I'll be more careful the next time." No, not at all. He says he knows that all those terrible rules, he knows all about them, and he has come to cancel them. It is not he that is unaware, but she needs to realize that God does not approve these human rules that enslave others. He says to her and to all of us, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. The woman is confused because Jesus does not even have a bucket for drawing water. But of course Jesus is not talking about the stale, stagnant water in the well.

[46:40]

It offers a new and different kind of water. Water that gives life in a way that humans have never experienced before. Life and freedom and dignity and respect. Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again. It is the water of life without faith. But those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give them will spring up in them, gushing to eternal life." On one level, Jesus is referring to spring water, always fresh and bubbling. But the real contrast, of course, is between the stale well water of a human life where violence rules and a life where love and respect and compassion are the primary values. He has come to transform human society so that a situation where destructive competition is the prevailing reality gives way to a life where kindness and loving care guide the lives of people.

[47:49]

The woman says, sir, give me some of this water. By now the Samaritan woman realizes that Jesus is offering her much more than water. Her eyes must have glistened as he awakened in her the dream of possible respect and dignity and freedom. This has always been the role of the prophets, to awaken the imagination of us human beings so that we might dream of a world where love replaces violence and might trust the possibility of that by replacing violence with love in our own lives. Sir, give me this water that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming to draw water. Jesus, deliver me from the world of fear and frustration. In Chapter 5,

[48:56]

the story of the cripple who was by the pool of Bethelda in Jerusalem. And he had been there for 38 years. And when the groundwater, when the volcanic hot water from deep volcanic activity, when it bubbled up into this pool, it was filled with strong chemicals and was very hot. and people who were able to get into the pool at that moment when it was hot would get the most benefit from it and would feel cured, at least temporarily, from their arthritic condition or whatever. But this poor fellow, for 38 years, talk about patience, For 38 years, he'd been trying to get down to the pool while it was still hot and effective, beneficial. But he was crippled and he couldn't make it.

[49:59]

He was jostled out of the way. Well, it's exaggerated to make the point. He's trying to find a remedy and he can't find it. And Jesus comes. And notice what Jesus does. He does not say, oh, here, I will help you down to the pool. so we can beat the crowd." No, he says simply, take your mat, rise up, and walk. It gives him life without benefit of water, only on the basis of his faith. Once again, John wants us to see, be careful. The ritual of baptism is important, but baptism is not magic. And the ritual does not work magically, saving you in spite of yourself. The ritual must be joined with living faith, which is the operative force, power in the sacrament.

[51:01]

And that living faith means that you commit yourself to the wonderful prospect of a life of unselfish concern for others. And so we see that although John does clearly affirm the importance of ritual, the importance of sacramental actions. He is constantly concerned about the spiritual reality that must enliven these actions, which is the faith of the believer. And of course, that means that as we go through life as baptized Christians, we are constantly, hopefully, enlivening and perfecting our faith. And as we do that, our baptism continues, continues to be active in our lives. The power of baptism continues all through life. And it begins sometimes, you could rightly say, only at age 40 did my baptism really begin to operate in my life, because only at age 40 I began to believe in the way that Jesus invited me to.

[52:14]

or 60 perhaps, or God knows, 70. And so he says the operative principle is the faith that enables me to live as Jesus did in a loving, caring, considerate, unselfish manner.

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