What makes for a meaningful baptism service, meaningful also to those who know very little about the Bible? Should Noah's ark re-appear?
In the ark a few, that is eight souls, were delivered through water. And this prefigured baptism, which now saves you– not the washing off of physical dirt but the pledge of a good conscience to God– through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who went into heaven and is at the right hand of God with angels and authorities and powers subject to him.
1 Peter 3:20b-22, New English Translation
ALMIGHTY and
everlasting God, who of thy great mercy didst save Noah and his
family in the ark from perishing by water; and also didst safely
lead the children of Israel thy people through the Red Sea,
figuring thereby thy holy Baptism; and by the Baptism of thy
well-beloved Son Jesus Christ, in the river Jordan, didst sanctify
Water to the mystical washing away of sin: We beseech thee, for
thine infinite mercies, that thou wilt mercifully look upon this Child; wash him and sanctify him with the Holy Ghost; that he, being delivered from thy wrath,
may be received into the ark of Christ's Church; and being stedfast
in faith, joyful through hope, and rooted in charity, may so pass
the waves of this troublesome world, that finally he may come to the land of everlasting
life, there to reign with thee world without end, through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen.
Book of Common Prayer (1662)
The Alternative Service Book (1980) made the ark disappear. The Common Worship provision, from what I can see, makes no mention of the ark either, anywhere. Instead, we have allusions to Genesis 1:2, the Spirit of God hovering over the waters at creation.
