Baptized by Spirit and Fire

Scriptures: Acts 8:14-17, Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

As I said last week, on the liturgical calendar last Sunday, the first after Epiphany, is known as The Baptism of Christ.  But with Michael and Adrian and Gabriela here today receiving this sacrament, it makes a whole lot more sense to talk about baptism and its meaning for us on this Sunday.

What powerful images are connected with Jesus receiving his baptism!  The rushing water, John talking about being baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire, the Spirit descending out of heaven like a dove, even the voice of God pronouncing his pleasure at Jesus taking on his ministry.  It puts me in mind of how elemental this activity is.  The Holy Spirit is often characterized as a mighty wind – in fact, the Hebrew word ruah can be translated as spirit or wind or breath.  Wind, water, fire – if you add in earth you have the four basic ancient elements, which occur not only in alchemy but in nearly all of the world’s religions:  Hinduism and Buddhism and Taoism, as well as in Greek thought as categorized by both Plato and Aristotle.    The roar of a powerful wind – the rush of a great cascade of water – the cleansing burning of a wall of fire – all connected with this earth on which we stand – can you think of anything more elemental, more fundamental        than the act of baptism for Jesus, for the three kids, for any of us?

Of course, each of these elements, unleashed, has its negative side as well:  the wind of hurricane or tornado, the water of tsunami or flood, the fire of arson or the destruction of a whole city like San Francisco or Chicago, the earthquake which we know all too well after this past week in Haiti.  To say that you will be baptized by water or spirit (wind) or fire could conjure up these images of great destruction.

But clearly that’s not what John the Baptist or Luke are wanting to evoke when they say, “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”  Water and wind and fire in their elemental nature with possibilities of power for great good as well as possibilities of dire destruction remind us of how fundamentally God ties us to this earth through the sacramental act of baptism.  Even though I just sprinkled a few drops of water on Michael and Adrian and Gabriela, I trust they, and you, could feel the power that was coursing through that simple action.

Kate Huey in a reflection on this passage gives us even more depth to its meaning for each one of us:

“Water, wind and fire:  something important is about to happen, and it always helps to have special effects.  The Gospel of Luke has been full of important events, like the births of John the Baptist and Jesus, each one accompanied by the movement of God’s Spirit.  Often, people have been afraid, which explains why the words, ‘Do not fear’ have occurred so often already, by this third chapter of Luke….. [I]magine the heavens opening up and the voice of God speaking directly to Jesus:  ‘You are my Beloved.’  However, there are also those words of John the Baptist right before the baptism, when he says that Jesus will baptize them – us — with the Holy Spirit and fire.  Again, there’s that wind, water, and fire.  Today, people are still being baptized, still thirsting for God’s grace and a word of forgiveness, still hoping to find their place in the story of healing and salvation, still longing for the chance to start their life over. The voice from heaven says, ‘You are my Child, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’…. God’s love didn’t start yesterday, or even in the New Testament.  It is from of old, and it is focused on each one of us, by name.  We belong to God, and God loves us.  It’s as if God is trying to say to each one of us, ‘No matter what happens, no matter how low and discouraged you feel, no matter what is happening around you and in your life, don’t you ever let anyone tell you that you are anything but a precious and beloved child of God.’”

Note Kate Huey’s comment:  “God’s love…is focused on each one of us, by name.”  Baptism gives us our identity as a Christian.  Through it we are named by God.  For many years, as most of you will recall, the act of baptism was associated with christening – the endowing of a name – in fact, “baptism” and “christening” were often used interchangeably.  We’ve gotten away from that now, and an act of “christening” is more likely to be applied to the launching of a ship.  Baptism is not an act of conferring a name – Michael and Adrian and Gabriela already have their names – but it is that act by which one is marked with the name of Christ.  Those who are called by God’s name are now enabled to call upon the name of God with confidence in God’s faithfulness and the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Why is this so important?  Clark Hunt, a Methodist minister from Westfield, NJ, whom I worked with when I was a student at Union Theological Seminary, uses this illustration to get at an answer to this question:  We are frequently asked for reasons of official business to identify ourselves, and a baptismal certificate can often be used for this purpose [that’s one reason why I give out such a certificate to everyone who is baptized, by the way].  Now, it may seem inappropriate to have a baptismal certificate used in this way, but when we stop to think about it our baptism is our highest mark of identification as a Christian.  It signifies who we are – that is, someone who has given their life to Christ.  It is our means of self-identification within the Christian community and within the world.  Seen in this light, the same words could be used for the sacrament of baptism as are often used in a traditional wedding ceremony – that is, this is an act “not to be entered into unadvisedly, but reverently, responsible, and in the knowledge of the love of God…..”

So, the decision to bring a baby forward to be baptized or to present oneself as a young person to receive this sacrament is not simple or easy.  It is not an action to be taken because everyone else is doing it or because it seems to be the thing to do in our society.  It involves commitment – just as a bride and groom need to affirm their commitment to one another.  It involves understanding of Christian life and faith – just as a bride and groom need some understanding of the love that has brought them together (which is why we do pre-marital counseling).  It involves trust – just as a bride and groom need to resolve to trust one another.

Now, I want to shift gears a bit and look at this other image that John the Baptist uses:  he will baptize you with fire.  That seems pretty scary, doesn’t it?  How do you think you’d feel if some hairy, smelly old dude came up to you saying you’re going to have a baptism of fire?  Makes you pretty glad we only use a little bit of water, huh?

In the musical Godspell – and I can’t remember for sure whether it was the John the Baptist character or Jesus who said it – I have this tickler memory of one of them saying, “He will baptize you with fire” – and it was a big, powerful moment for both the characters and the audience.  Now, Godspell is based on the gospel of Matthew, and when I looked it up both Luke, which we read from, and Matthew have John the Baptist saying, “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”  However, Mark, the earliest gospel, and John, the latest, only have John the Baptist speak of Jesus baptizing with the Holy Spirit – and both intend this as a contrast to John’s form of baptism, that is, by water.  So, it’s a bit problematic whether John the Baptist really did add “fire” to being baptized with the Holy Spirit.  But let’s give him a little poetic license for the moment and assume that he did.  What later commentators have reflected on about Luke and Matthew’s use of this term is the purifying nature of fire.  Just as water can wash us clean, so also fire can burn us clean.  Fire can also thaw us – melt down the hardness and cynicism and stubbornness and rigidity which all too often affect how we live our lives as Christians.  It is a good image to use, therefore, when we want to reflect on what it is that baptism has done for us – no matter at what age we were baptized.

But there is a problem with using images of purification in relationship to baptism.  Over the centuries some came to believe that it was necessary to be baptized in order to enter heaven, and rather horrific theologies grew up about babies being cast into eternal damnation because they died before they could be baptized.  And that’s part of the reason, too, even though it may be only subconsciously in the back of their minds, that some parents are so concerned to have their babies be baptized as soon as possible.  But that’s a false understanding of the meaning of purification by water or fire or Holy Spirit.  It is so much more important to understand our baptism as our mark of identification as a Christian than it is to see it as some sort of magical talisman to ensure our salvation.

And so after water and after fire there comes the baptism by the Holy Spirit.  In that beautiful third chapter of the gospel of John Jesus tells Nicodemus that he must be “born from above…of water and spirit”.  It is what happens inside us, when the Spirit moves within us, whether at our baptism or at our confirmation or whenever we reflect upon this mark of identification, that is truly important.  It is what we feel and act upon as the result of our baptism that makes it a re-birth – a being “born from above”.

In the second scripture that we read from the book of Acts (which was also written by Luke, by the way) Peter and John – the two key apostles in the early church – are sent from Jerusalem to Samaria – why? because even though the Samaritans had “accepted the word of God” and “been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus” the apostles discerned they had not yet received the Holy Spirit.  Now, note:  these are Samaritans!  If you remember the parable of The Good Samaritan, then you recall that Jews and Samaritans hated one another.  And yet here is a mission to these people that someone as important as Peter and John need to undertake to confirm what Philip had been doing.  The laying on of hands and prayer with the two chief apostles from Jerusalem was like an experience of Pentecost in which the Spirit came upon those Samaritan believers.  This Pentecost kind of experience could be seen as marking a new stage in the Christian mission, and a total change in the relation of Jews to Samaritans.  And the wonderful thing is that this positive change was happening within the church. Samaritans are now joined with their former enemies, the Jews, in the new community of the Church.

The final word about baptism, then, is that it brings us into community and breaks down walls of divisiveness, making us, out of all of our diversity, one.  This will be our theme as we head into our Annual Meeting next week.

Amen.

Dave Pomeroy

Baptized by Spirit and Fire (Acts 8:14-17, Luke 3:15-17, Luke 3:21-22)

Acts 8:14-17

14 Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, 15 who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, 16 for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. (ESV)

Luke 3:15-17

15 As the people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ, 16 John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” (ESV)

Luke 3:21-22

21 Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, 22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” (ESV)

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