CAMINANDO WITH JESUS: Baptized by Fire and the Spirit

Advent 2 | December 8, 2019

By the Rev. Stephanie Allen

CAMINANDO WITH JESUS is a series of reflections on the Sunday Gospel by clergy and laity from across the Diocese. 

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In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said,

“The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
     ‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
     make his paths straight.’”

Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance. Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

“I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

- Matthew 3:1-12

 
One of the best things about being a priest is getting to baptize babies. It's great to baptize anyone, but there is something special about fat-cheeked babies stuffed into christening gowns, never knowing if they are going to laugh or scream when you pour the water over their heads - both reactions incredibly appropriate when it comes to baptism. 

Especially the baptism promised by John the Baptist in Matthew 3. John baptizes with water, shouting repentance, but he points the way to one who is coming who will baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. The image of fire is compelling but frightening. At first glance, it offers fear and destruction, but fire also has the amazing ability to fundamentally change the essential property of the thing being burned.

Take metal, for example. When a piece of metal is held over flame, it becomes malleable, able to be shaped and formed into something new. Placing metal into fire displaces the atoms within the metal, forming a new structure, changing the fundamental structural property of the metal into a new creation. The right kind of heat treatment frees metal from undesirable impurities and increases the strength and durability of the metal. The fire allows the metal to change form without breaking into pieces.

I can’t help but think about the reading from the first Sunday of Advent from Isaiah 2:4: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks.” Those pieces of metal are changed from weapons of violence that destroy life into tools that bring forth growth, that sustain new life.

Perhaps this second Sunday of Advent is a reminder to us that baptism is not simply something that happened when we were fat-cheeked babies, or surly adolescents, or even clear-minded adults. Whenever in life our moment of baptism occurred, our formation into children of God - inheritors of salvation - continues. As our lives have moments of fire that seem desolate and destructive, perhaps that act of baptism by fire and spirit is shaping us into new creations, moving our lives away from violence into sustainers of new life.

Much like fire in a forest is necessary for new growth to occur, may your life as a disciple be one of baptism of fire and spirit so that your bring forth fruit worthy of repentance as we await the Lord’s coming.

The Rev. Stephanie Allen is the rector of Church of the Nativity, Raleigh.