1 But now thus
says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Do not
fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. 2 When
you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they
shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you. 3 For
I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as
your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in exchange for you. 4 Because
you are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you, I give people in
return for you, nations in exchange for your life. 5 Do
not fear, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and
from the west I will gather you; 6 I
will say to the north, "Give them up," and to the south, "Do not
withhold; bring my sons from far away and my daughters from the end of the
earth— 7 everyone
who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and
made."
Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
15 As the people were filled with expectation, and
all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the
Messiah, 16 John answered all of them by saying, "I
baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not
worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy
Spirit and fire. 17 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." 21 Now
when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was
praying, the heaven was opened, 22 and the Holy Spirit
descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven,
"You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."
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
·
I was baptized a number of years ago.
I was two weeks old, more or less, because that’s how it was done at that time.
If my grandmother had had her way, she would have baptized me in the sink of my
mother’s hospital room, but I think somebody must have talked her out of it. So
I was baptized in St. Gabriel Church on Donegal Hill. I really don’t need to
tell you that I don’t remember it at all.
·
What do you remember of your baptism?
Many here who share the same sort of experience of baptism with me – that is,
someone told you about it. There are those present who do remember their
baptism and I imagine that it was a rather different experience for them.
·
Jesus was baptized, but his baptism
was of a different sort all together. The baptism John the Baptizer preached
and performed in the river was one that was meant to show that the person
baptized was turning from sin and attempting to live a different kind of life.
Times such as this are often called experiences of conversion.
·
Of course, Jesus had no need of conversion
and repentance. So then why did he undergo the baptism of John?
·
It is possible that for him, baptism
was a way of showing he intended to follow a way of life in tune with all that
his Father wanted. This may have been the reason he went to the riverside that
day. I don’t know if he expected what then happened, but what did happen was
the beginning of his ministry according to Luke, Mark, and Matthew, the three
Gospels that “see together.”
·
John makes it clear that what Jesus
would bring would be a baptism with the Holy Spirit and with fire. The Holy
Spirit is the same Spirit of God that hovered over the waters at the creation.
This Holy Spirit remained within creation even though its presence might not
have been evident to everyone.
·
The baptism with fire is a little
harder to understand. We might say that something has had its “baptism of
fire”, but that usually means that someone or something has under gone some
sort of trial that tested the worth. It usually means that who or what was
being tested was “thrown into the deep end” and had to “sink or swim.”
·
I don’t think that this is what John
had in mind when he said the Messiah would baptize with fire. In the Bible,
fire is often a symbol for God’s cleansing work or God’s guiding mercy. Fire
burns off the impurities in metal and fire was the sign that God was leading
God’s people after the escape from Egypt by a pillar of cloud by day and a
pillar of fire by night. The baptism of fire and the unquenchable fire
that burns the chaff are both cleansing and purifying fires.
·
Now, we can take it that God’s
cleansing and purifying fire will burn off those who are not worthy in God’s
people, and that could lead to fear that we might not measure up and we’d be
burned up like the chaff at harvest.
·
There is another way to look at it.
If God is purifying God’s people, God will be separating the fine metal from
the dross, the kernel from the chaff. Any purification is done by the grace and
mercy of God to put aside the unworthy in each of us and gather what is worthwhile.
·
Why would this be done? For that
answer we have to turn to today’s first reading, where the prophet Isaiah tells
the people of the lengths God will go to for the people of God.
·
What word does the prophet speak to
the struggling and exiled people of God, a people who often feel that they are
forgotten and oppressed? It is simply this: Because you are precious in my sight,
and honored, and I love you, I give people in return for you, nations in
exchange for your life. Do not fear,
for I am with you…
·
This too can be a sort of baptism
with fire, especially since it stops us from striving to be worthy of God’s
love. The desire to be “worth it” is a hard one to give up. It’s ingrained in
us and so often we feel we have to earn the love of God. To feel that we must
earn it can lead to despair, and to feel that we have already
earned it can lead us to what is called presumption and to feel that God’s love
and mercy are unnecessary.
·
If Isaiah could convey his prophecy
to the people at one of the lowest points in their history, we too may take
those words to heart: Because you are precious in my sight, and
honored, and I love you… In our own baptism, we are marked as
Christ’s own and can know ourselves as God’s beloved children, and as God’s
beloved children, despite our faults, as the Father was pleased with Jesus at
his baptism, so the Father is pleases with Jesus in us.
·
This is the good news to us today. Do
not fear, for I am with you… I have called you by name, you are
mine.
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