The Baptism of the Lord - 13 January 2013

“He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

• This is the festival of the Baptism of the Lord. We've come to that part of the Church year when the festivals of Christmas come to a close and the less festive but rather solemn season of Lent is yet to come. This year that comes rather quicker than we might expect.
• In this season, we return to a more sequential reading of the Gospel, and this year, of the Gospel of Luke.
• But first, our Christmas season ends with this festival of the Baptism of the Lord. It is John the Baptizer that does most of the speaking. His message sounds a bit foreboding to us. The talk of a baptism of fire and the burning of the chaff from the harvest in “unquenchable fire” would cause us some concern. I don't think that any of us are at all interested in having anything to do with unquenchable fire.
• According to John, it would seem that the coming of the Messiah – whom John not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. - would be a time of judgement and of separation. The image of separating the wheat from the chaff carries this message. In the Middle East of Jesus' time, the harvested grain was separated from the shell and the other uneatable parts of the harvest by throwing it into the air. The good grain seed, being heavier, would fall to the ground while the lighter chaff would actually be blown away by the wind. This was often done with a tool that let the worker throw the grain into the air more easily. Called a “winnowing fork” or a “winnowing fan”, it was often made of wicker and in many cases, looked more like a basket to a flat wicker tray than a fork or fan. I'm saying all this because the combine-harvesters do all this today, but the old way might be familiar to some here.
• In any event, the good seed would be gathered and saved while the chaff would be swept up off of the threshing floor and burned.
• John is speaking of the time of judgement and gathering-up that is to come with the presence of the Messiah. It will be a time of ultimate decision. There will be gains and losses on a cosmic scale.
• Now we could dismiss this and think nothing of it, calling it the ravings of an ancient prophet. We could take it to heart and end up living our lives glancing over our shoulder, wondering if we are wheat or chaff.
• Or we could accept it and look at it a different way. There will surely be a separation of wheat and chaff, but if we personalize this a bit, what it means takes on a different character.
• The separation of wheat and chaff is promised and why should it not take place in each of our lives. The Messiah, Jesus Christ, could well be doing such a separation in our lives right now.
• We know ourselves to be both blessed and sinful at the same time. That's basic Lutheran theology.
• For us, our own Baptism is not the end of our lives of faith but just the beginning. With Baptism, it becomes a daily thing, rather than a once and done experience. Our own Small Catechism tell us this about Baptism: What does such baptizing with water signify? It signifies that the old Adam in us should, by daily contrition and repentance, be drowned and die with all sins and evil lusts, and, again, a new man daily come forth and arise; who shall live before God in righteousness and purity forever.
• Holding this to be true, than the winnowing - the separation of wheat and chaff - is going on in our daily lives right now, often without our knowledge and more often without our complete understanding.
• In a grace-filled experience of what our lives bring to us, we are being purified. All that is worthwhile in us is being separated from what is less worthy. This can be a long process and is sometimes uncomfortable. It will vary with each person and, saint and sinner that each of us are, there will be set-backs. We might feel that we are covering known ground and not making progress. Yet, we can be sure that we are progressing. Our own perspective is rather limited. What might draw our attention constantly might not be the area that is being purified and might not even be the area that most needs purification!
• This purification may seem like a consuming fire. Indeed the Scripture uses the image of a fire, like the fire used to refine metal, burning off the less valuable alloys in the metal or consuming the less worthwhile parts of the harvested grain. This is not a bad thing for it makes what is left all the more precious.
• Now all this only makes sense in the light of the love of God, the love that will not leave us as we were, but reaches out to bring us to the One who loves us. The love of God changes us in ways we could not even imagine and changes us to the person God wishes us to be, a person we can't even begin to imagine... and the washing of Baptism is both the symbol and the beginning of that.
• Think of it as a process or a journey or a daily rebirth. Use whatever image you like or no image at all. We are being purified and God still loves us through-out our purification. If not, the purification would not have begun at all.

“He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."