Can sin be drowned in water,
E’en with a flood of tears?
Or is it rather Spirit
That grafts the sinner in?
Does parting of the waters
Make Exodus come true?
Or is it rather death to sin
That makes one born anew?
Between the two creations
Two baptisms confess
The one depicts the story,
The other makes one blest.
Immersion in Christ’s story
Death, burial, new birth
Begins the tale of Christians,
New beings on old earth.
– Ben Witherington III
Water Rites – a poem
spes clara 