Sunday 13 January 2019

January 13 sermon: The Third Baptism

As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, 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. 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.” … Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, 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.”
(Luke 3:15-17, 21-22)

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     We’ve probably all heard the phrase “baptized by fire.” It’s pretty common. To say that someone has been “baptized by fire” means that they have had their ability to handle a new situation tested to the limit. “If you can handle this, you can handle anything,” is basically the message. Baptism by fire has become such a common catch-phrase in the English language that it’s entirely possible that most people who use it don’t even realize the biblical roots of the phrase, and, because we forget the biblical roots of the phrase, I take it as a given that we don’t really understand the biblical meaning of the phrase, but the concept of baptism with fire has a deep significance to our Christian lives, and it’s important for us to understand this powerful Christian phrase, and we begin to do so by putting the passage we just read into its proper context.

     As this passage began, we find that John the Baptist had gained a significant following of his own. He had been engaging in a ministry of water baptism, immersing people in the Jordan River as a symbolic way of cleansing them from their sins and allowing them to begin a new life devoted to God without the burden of guilt weighing them down. Aside from baptism, John was also preaching – he was proclaiming a message of repentance and judgment to people who had become disenchanted with their country, their society, their political institutions and their religious leaders. Do you see any similarities with our own generation? People were looking for options. They wanted to find something different and they firmly believed that God was going to act to bring something new about. They believed that God was going to send them their Messiah, who would right the wrongs of the world around them, and into that milieu stepped John the Baptist, preaching a message that touched the hearts of those who heard him because he denounced those things that the people had become so disillusioned with. He wasn’t hesitant to take on anyone he saw as responsible for the condition of society, regardless of who they were or how much power they had or what positions in society they held, and the people responded to John the Baptist’s message and, not surprisingly in the circumstances, many began to think that – just maybe – John was the promised Messiah.

     Well, John was not the Messiah, of course. He knew that, and he never claimed otherwise. He simply told the people that they would have to look for someone else. He said to them, ““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.” The people surely wondered what John could possibly have meant, because the only baptism they had ever heard of was water baptism. Many people probably still wonder about this. Most Christian churches place their emphasis on water baptism, but when you read a passage such as this one you’re forced to confront the reality that John himself said that water baptism wasn’t really that important in the broader scheme of things. In fact, John said that water baptism wouldn’t even be a part of the ministry of the Messiah. Then, of course, there are other Christian denominations that place great emphasis on the baptism of the Holy Spirit, but they often ignore the fact that John said that baptism with the Holy Spirit would be accompanied with a baptism with fire. So, here we have three baptisms: water baptism, Holy Spirit baptism and fire baptism, and when we try to set aside all the unfortunate and divisive rhetoric about the different kinds of baptism, we’re left trying to figure out what baptism itself is all about, and especially what baptism with fire is all about, because it seems to be the third and final baptism. To begin with, perhaps we need to consider the first two baptisms.

     The first baptism is water baptism. Keep in mind that water baptism was John’s baptism and not that of Jesus. John was very clear: “I baptize you with water.” But what is water baptism? In the United Church, as well as most mainline Protestant churches, water baptism is a symbol of our cleansing by God and of the new life that God offers us. We emerge from the waters of baptism recognized as members of God’s family. This is symbolic, of course. Water baptism has no magical power. Water baptism doesn’t guarantee us anything in particular; neither does a lack of water baptism mean anything in particular. So, water baptism may be an important symbol, but it’s only a symbol. As John said, it’s not the baptism of Jesus, and since Jesus is the head of the church, we need to understand those other two kinds of baptism.

     The baptism of Jesus, you see, is different. John said that, first, the Messiah “will baptize you with the Holy Spirit ...” Baptism with the Holy Spirit is usually a topic that guarantees at least two or three hours of debate among Christians of various denominations and traditions. But, working on the assumption that none of you wants to sit here and listen to me for two or three hours – although I can’t imagine why! - let me try to summarize the two competing views. Mainline churches such as ours argue that baptism with the Holy Spirit is another way of saying that a person has come to Christian faith. In other words, at the moment one comes to Christian faith, one is empowered by the Holy Spirit. There may be other powerful spiritual experiences awaiting a Christian, but Spirit baptism occurs at the moment of conversion. Charismatic Christian churches such as the Pentecostal Church believe that baptism with the Holy Spirit is something that takes place at some undefined point after one comes to Christian faith, and most believe that the sign of Spirit baptism is the ability to exercise the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues. They would also believe that not all Christians experience baptism with the Holy Spirit. Suffice to say that I agree with the mainline view of Spirit baptism. But there’s a third baptism – the one that often gets ignored – and that’s the baptism with fire.

     John said that the Messiah would also “baptize … with … fire.” We don’t talk about that very much in church, and I suspect that we ignore it for the worst possible reason: because it makes us uncomfortable. And yet, it’s these uncomfortable subjects we should be addressing in the church, because these are the subjects that push us to a deeper understanding of how God works. Fire is an uncomfortable and frightening thing. Fire can destroy. We have to be careful with fire. Fire departments tell us how dangerous even the flames of small candles can be, and we regularly see on the news scenes of forest fires and wild fires raging out of control, destroying entire communities as they advance. And yet, it’s this uncomfortable, uncontrollable and dangerous thing called fire that the Messiah will baptize with.

     In Christian terms, when we think of fire I suspect that we tend to think first of hell, and some have suggested that the reference John the Baptist makes to baptism with fire is, in fact, a reference to judgment, and that those being baptized with fire are actually being condemned. They base that largely on the reference in v.17 to the burning of “the chaff … with unquenchable fire.” But I don’t believe that the fire of v.17 is the same as the fire of baptism referred to in v.16, because v.16 seems to very deliberately say that those being baptized with fire are the same ones being baptized with the Holy Spirit. “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” So it’s believers who will be baptized with both the Holy Spirit and with fire, but what does the part about fire actually mean? I suspect it’s a reminder to us that no matter how hard we try, we can never win God’s favour by how nice we are or by how good we are. If baptism with water is the symbol of our acceptance by God, and baptism with the Holy Spirit is the guarantee of our acceptance by God, then baptism with fire is the final step in our acceptance by God, because it’s the process by which God takes care of those parts of our lives that don’t quite measure up. You see, fire destroys, but fire can also purify, and perhaps this is what John was getting at. Water cleanses temporarily – but fire purifies. The Holy Spirit accepts us as we are – but fire makes us what God wants us to be. Fire makes a lasting impression, and baptism with fire makes a spiritual mark upon us that will never be erased. Fire is that which purifies us and makes us ready for our welcome not into God’s family, which we’re already a part of, but into God’s Kingdom, into which nothing impure can ever enter. And perhaps this is the ongoing part of the Christian experience. The baptism with fire is the ongoing process of God re-creating us into what God wants us to be.

     Fire is powerful. It can destroy or it can purify. Either way, when it strikes it changes our lives forever. Perhaps that’s what makes so many people so nervous about Jesus; perhaps it’s why so many back away from Jesus; perhaps it’s why so many people try to reduce the King of kings and Lord of lords to just another religious teacher or good man, rather than the Incarnate God that he is. You see, Jesus comes with purifying fire, seeking to change us forever. This third baptism is in many ways the key to our Christian faith, because it reminds us that not only does God accept us as we are, God will make sure that we become what we’re supposed to be!

     In Discover Magazine a few years ago, Leeaundra Kealy wrote that “fire is an event, not a thing.” She was referring to fires in nature, of course. But I think it applies to faith as well. The baptism with fire is an event and not a thing. It’s ongoing. Just as in nature the full effects of fire often aren’t seen for many years, so it is with the baptism with fire. In nature, it’s through fire that forests eventually regenerate; in a life of faith it’s the baptism with fire that regenerates us and brings us vibrantly alive, purifying and preparing us for the Kingdom of God.

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