Even Through Fire: Luke 3:15-17, 21-22 - Baptism of Our Lord

¹⁵As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, ¹⁶John 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. ¹⁷His 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.”

  ²¹Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, ²²and 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.”

Red Hot Lava by [sara-ann].  Creative commons image on flickr

I’ll never forget my first baptism…

It was Memorial Day weekend in 2008.  It was my fifth day as a hospital chaplain intern, and I hadn’t a clue as to how I would provide spiritual support for hospital patients and their families.

Early Saturday morning, around 9 a.m., the chaplain’s pager rings.  I was summoned to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, where I met two young parents who couldn’t have been much older than twenty—and their son Adam, who was born fourteen weeks premature.

They asked if I would baptize their son.  I said “yes.”

There are no words to describe the child as he lay in the incubator.  His skin was bright pink; his head no larger than a tennis ball.  He was no more than eight inches long.

The nurse handed me a small plastic cup full of water, and explained that because this child was so fragile—I could only wet my hands and gently touch his tiny head.

The parents literally trembled as they spoke their baptismal vows as the Holy Spirit immersed this precious child in God’s love. 

My supervisor would later say that Adam’s parents were undergoing a baptism of tears.  Perhaps that explains what John the Baptist was talking about when he said Jesus “will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

Most of the time, Baptism is a joyous event.  Family and friends come from all over; we eat cake, take pictures, and give gifts. 

But Holy Baptism does not make any of us invulnerable to the calamities of life.  We still sin.  We still suffer.  We still die.

These are the reasons Jesus is baptized.  He stands in line, just like everyone else, to be baptized, just like everyone else.  We know for certain that Jesus will experience life, just like everyone else.  In his baptism, God immerses Jesus into all of the painful realities of our human existence, though he will be without sin. 

At the same time, God immerses us into Jesus’ reality…  We are baptized into his compassionate service to God’s people.  We are baptized into his obedience to God’s will.  We are baptized into his relationship with his Father to become children of God.  In baptism, we die with Jesus so that we may, in turn, live through Jesus.

Holy Baptism is a sign for all of us, that no matter what we may be going through, Jesus is in it with us.  This is a promise that makes all the difference when we’re going through fire…

Fire is the fear and sorrow that consumes you:

·         When you sit as the bedside or at the graveside of a loved one

·         When the money runs out, and you’re cold and hungry

·         When disease and old destroy your mind and body

·         When someone you love stabs you in the back

Fire is the shame of knowing that you’ve done something so terrible, that the words “I’m sorry” won’t fix it…

Sooner or later, we will all find ourselves baptized into the sum of all our fears.

 

Yet Jesus says, “I’m in it with you.”   Your baptism affirms this.  Jesus is closer than the fires; closer than the floods.  God takes fear, sorrow, and shame—and pours salvation into it.  The Holy Spirit envelops you to deliver you through the flames to the God in whose sight you are precious.  By grace, you are not destroyed.  You are saved. 

Make no mistake—we die every day; by the things we do; by the things we fail to do; by the things that happen to us.  God can take even fires of hell and use them to recreate you into a whole new person.  Can you imagine?  Because we are baptized, we shall always rise with Christ.

When the fires burn and the waters rage, remember God’s truth: “I have called you by name, you are mine.  You are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you.”  It is to God that we must turn our hearts and minds, and not to the floods or the flames.  It is God to whom we must entrust or fears, sorrows, and shame.  The fires of God’s love are mightier than the flames; and more powerful than the floods…