Baptism by Fire...or Not

Message for Epiphany 2 on Isaiah 43:1-4a and Luke 3:15-17, 21-22 given on Sunday, January 12, 2025 at St. Luke's Lutheran Church, Richardson, Texas

No one knew in 1992 when they finalized the schedule of bible readings for every Sunday of of a 3-year cycle, that passages about fire would come up the same week devastating fires in Los Angeles would destroy lives and homes.

The passages about fire today are hard to hear. They are made more difficult if you have heard our more fundamentalist Christian siblings go so far as to say that the fires are God’s judgment on Californians—either for their politics, lifestyles, or lack of morality, and these fires are a call to repentance. I would paraphrase John 8:7 and say, Let the one who is without sin walk into the fire and brimstone first.

I have never met this angry God, and preaching it doesn’t recommend to seekers our life-saving faith in Jesus Christ.

That doesn’t mean that faith is always easy—I have been disciplined, corrected, even scolded by the Holy Spirit in prayer, but God does not traumatize us into relationship or repentance. It may be that traumatic experience moves us to seek spiritual renewal, but God is not sending fires to LA or snow and ice to Dallas to get us there.

Even without the intensifying effects of climate change, humans have always experienced earthquakes, drought, fires, severe storms, floods. The natural world has its own life and processes and the sooner we learn to live in harmony with it rather than dominating and exploiting all its resources, the less angry and judgmental God will seem.

So, why does John the Baptist seem to revel in this prophetic notion that when Jesus arrives on the scene, his Baptism will usher in a fiery ordeal—one of threshing, separating and burning with unquenchable fire?

John articulates the Old Testament tradition of fire as purification. Jesus’ very presence and his Baptism by the Holy Spirit will remove that which is not of God—but John is not referring to burning sinners who are worse than others.

Jesus comes to release impurities from each of us, like refining silver or gold. John wants us cleansed of those things that hinder, block, hide, or damage the image of God in us, so we can live in relationship with God, and therefore fulfill our purpose. John’s vision is fulfillment, healing, not destruction.

So, for all the fiery ordeal that John preaches, what really happens when Jesus does arrive?

After Jesus had been baptized and while he was praying….the heavens were opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove.

Wait a minute—John predicted fire—but there isn’t any—the Holy Spirit could have come as a fiery Phoenix—or tongues of fire as it did later at Pentecost—
but no, how does this Holy Spirit come? A dove. A bird of peace, a bird of new life.

Then God’s voice also comes from heaven—but is it a voice of judgment as John predicts? No again. God’s voice instead announces, You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.

There’s no threshing floor. There’s no burning chaff. There’s no vision of hell or eternal punishment. There’s not even any judgment—coming from God or Jeus. There’s only God’s voice of affirmation: You are my Child, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.

Even with no fire, God’s words melt away isolation, self-hatred, pride—all the chaff that gets in the way of our deepening our relationship with God.

I wonder, as you hear this, what is one of the things that gets in the way you deepening your relationship with God? What can ask Jesus to release from you, right now, so you can be closer to him? Is it that you don’t think you are worthy, or important enough, or you feel guilty about something? Is it the demands in your life? Or that you do not know how? If Jesus took away one barrier for you, what do want it to be?

God says, You are my son, you are my daughter, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased. There is no barrier for God, so in this moment, we ask Jesus to take away the barrier, the chaff that you feel, so you can hear that you are God’s child, beloved, claimed and called to a purpose.

Christian author, Dr. Diana Butler Bass, writes that with this baptism three things are revealed and given to us that deepen our relationship with God:

• our true self,
• the central meaning of our existence, and
• a holy welcome.
• That is, we are given: Identity, love, and acceptance.

There is no fire here, only the warmth of a God who is burning with love to embrace us in Jesus Christ who came to be sure we receive all these gifts of God.

You are my Daughter, You are my Son, You are my Child, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.

Far from judgement, in our Baptism and in our life God gives us the three most basic emotional needs we all share—which one do you need to hear the most today? Which one, when you accept it into your heart, will deepen your relationship with God and therefore enable you to live in your purpose?

• The gift of your true self—rooting your identity in being a child of God. God says, You are my daughter, you are my son.
• The central meaning of your existence and purpose—to love, and be loved –to be loved by God and to love others. God says, You are Beloved. I love you, I made you for love.
• A holy welcome—to experience full and complete acceptance by God and belonging to God. God says, with you I am well-pleased.

Identity, love, acceptance—there is no greater, fuller blessing of you and your divine purpose—with this blessing, you can do anything, be anything, succeed at anything, and God can use you in any circumstance for good. When our identity, love and acceptance are all rooted in God, held in trust eternally through Jesus Christ, there is no fear. Fear is an illusion!

As long as you know who you are and Whose you are, that our ultimate, only and primary mission is to be loved and to love, and that you are fully accepted and belong to God, anything is possible—extraordinary things are possible!

In fact, it is in the trials, fires, and storms of this fallen world that we discover who we really are. There are stories in every calamity of those who run toward disaster to help and to save. This is where we see God, where we witness the beloved children of God. In Los Angeles, perhaps you heard the God-sightings:

• The story of the man who attempted to save his block with his garden hose. He felt worse about his neighbor’s losses than his own, because of his great love for them.
• There were other neighbors who rescued pets.
• There were some who watered down their houses not just to protect their property, but the neighborhood behind their homes.
• There were still others who were evacuated from their own homes, but spent time feeding, serving, and comforting other evacuees.
• Yes, they eventually fled. But not before helping, and trying to do something for others whether friends, neighbors, and even strangers.

Children of God, beloved and accepted, who know our ultimate purpose is to love, run toward the fire first, to help, to serve, to save. We are God-bearers who are loving friends, self-sacrificing neighbors, courageous human beings. We are God’s children, all worthy of saving. We are beloved, cherished, accepted. And with us, God is pleased.

Trusting who we are in God is what blesses and shapes our mission and purpose as individuals and as a congregation in 2025. In our mission, we run toward those in need. We run toward the hungry, the homeless, the unknown future, because Christ is already there, saving us all!

We do this because our true self is deeply safe, loved, and accepted in the God who made us. Isaiah’s promise is eternally true—nothing can take us away or harm us in the heart of God in this life, or in the life to come.

Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name; you are mine.
 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.
For I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
Because you are precious in my sight
and honored and I love you.

Amen.