nothingness...

[pynchonoid]

...at the heart of the defining Christian experience:

<http://www.wlu.ca/~wwwsem/rak/baptism.html>
Baptism, the Word of God communicated through water,
is the event that gives structure to the Christian
life. This is because Baptism is the beginning of the
Christian life of discipleship and because Baptism
embodies the fundamental mystery of Christian
existence.

Baptism makes us Christians by making us participants
in the death and resurrection of Jesus. When we are
baptized we die and we are buried with Christ and we
are resurrected from the grave in Christ, as indicated
by immersion in the water. We receive the gift of the
Holy Spirit for a life of fruitful discipleship, as
indicated by the anointing with oil. In this way,
Baptism is the work of the Holy Spirit contradicting
all of the values and expectations of normal
existence. Through Baptism the Holy Spirit overcomes
the plight of humanity - our longing for immortality
in the midst of the knowledge of death - by enabling
us to die and to give up our delusions of grandeur.

In this sense Baptism is rebirth. It is not that we
once again come forth from our mother's womb, but that
we become nothing and are created again from nothing.
We are sent into nothingness and called forth again
into new personhood in Christ. Our new birth is a
"birth" from the tomb, not from the womb. [...] 


...on and off the battlefield:

<http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/5554317.htm>

Army chaplain offers baptisms, baths
BY MEG LAUGHLIN

CAMP BUSHMASTER, Iraq - In this dry desert world near
Najaf, where the Army V Corps combat support system
sprawls across miles of scabrous dust, there's an
oasis of sorts: a 500-gallon pool of pristine, cool
water.

It belongs to Army chaplain Josh Llano of Houston, who
sees the water shortage, which has kept thousands of
filthy soldiers from bathing for weeks, as an
opportunity.

''It's simple. They want water. I have it, as long as
they agree to get baptized,'' he said.

And agree they do. Every day, soldiers take the plunge
for the Lord and come up clean for the first time in
weeks.

''They do appear physically and spiritually
cleansed,'' Llano said.

First, though, the soldiers have to go to one of
Llano's hour-and-a-half sermons in his dirt-floor
tent. Then the baptism takes an hour of quoting from
the Bible.

''Regardless of their motives,'' Llano said, ``I get
the chance to take them closer to the Lord.''

A blue-eyed 32-year-old with an abundance of energy,
Llano goes out every day to drum up grimy soldiers for
his pool.

He talks to truck drivers, tank drivers, computer
specialists -- anyone and everyone. He goes out to the
combat zone to the fighting soldiers and the combat
support soldiers who keep them in supplies.

''You have to be aggressive to help people find
themselves in God,'' he said.

He calls himself a ''Southern Baptist evangelist,''
and justifies the war and killing with a verse from
the Gospel of Matthew, which he often recites: ``Give
unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God
the things that are God's.

''This means we are called upon by our government to
fight and that is giving unto Caesar, as the Bible
tells us,'' he said.

Earlier this week, word went out that portable showers
might be installed here soon, but Llano was undaunted.

''There is no fruit out here, and I have a stash of
raisins, juice boxes and fruit rolls to pull out,''
the chaplain said optimistically.



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