We had a baptism yesterday at our church and I had the honor and privilege of baptizing two of our students. We have a new, portable baptistery at our church and yesterday was our first opportunity to use it. The water was warm and the baptistery worked out really well. It was a little boring, though. Here are some Star Wars baptisteries that would be far more exciting.
Carbonite Han Solo
Last week some concept art for unreleased Star Wars products made its way onto the Internet. There was a mini fridge shaped like Han Solo in carbonite from Jabba’s palace. Sadly, that mini fridge never came to fruition. Even more sadly, I don’t think anyone has created a baptistery that looks like Han Solo frozen in carbonite. Baptism is important because Jesus commanded it and it’s an outward expression of what he is doing within our lives. I got baptized when I was 13 and it was a great moment. It could have been much greater, though, had I been baptized within the frozen, hibernating body of the Millennium Falcon’s captain.
Bacta Tank
The bacta tank looks like a baptistery already. In The Empire Strikes Back Luke was placed in a bacta tank after being rescued from the wampa. The bacta tank was used to heal Luke and help him recuperate from his injuries. Baptism is used to symbolically show how we’ve been healed and redeemed from our sins. If someone was baptized in a bacta tank, not only would they be following Jesus’ example, but they could also get some extra help fighting off a nagging cold or healing a twisted ankle. It might not be worth it, though, if it meant getting baptized in whatever little diaper Luke was wearing.
Podracer
Our new baptistery is portable. I didn’t see it getting put together, but I imagine it’s like building a waterproof Lego set in which a sacrament is performed. Imagine, though, if the baptistery didn’t need to be set up and taken down but was still portable. A podracer baptistery wouldn’t need to be set up or taken down but would still be portable because of the massive engines attached to it. It would also be easy to share the baptistery with other churches because it would be so mobile. “What’s that? You’d like to borrow our baptistery and you need it in an hour and you’re 100 miles away? No, that shouldn’t be a problem.” It would be great and I’m also pretty sure you can’t get a ticket while performing a sacrament.
Baptism is a great step for a follower of Christ because, when we take it, we are literally following Christ’s example. The symbolism of being lowered into the water with Christ’s death and coming back up alive and renewed is so powerful. Being baptized inside something from the Star Wars universe would still be powerful but also totally awesome and nerdy.
What else would make for an exciting baptistery?
The very earliest Christians were baptized naked (hence all the “clothed with Christ” imagery in the epistles), so Luke’s “little diaper” would have been out of the question, anyway, for a whole other set of considerations!
For those of us who baptize infants as well as adults and who therefore don’t need a whole baptistery pool, some ideas that occur: the pensieve from Harry Potter… the mirror of Galadriel… the Holy Grail (from “Monty Python and,” of course!)
Sarlaac pit!
HA! That’s perfect!