“He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” –Luke 3:16
The campfire crackled in the center of the rusted steel ring that marked the boundaries of the fire pit. The red and blue flames danced on the crisscrossed oak logs, a collection of deep orange embers growing below the clumsy wood pyramid. My family sat in lawn chairs circling the fire occasionally sliding left or right to avoid the smoke as it shifted in the faint breeze. The smoke always seemed to like me best. Quiet conversations passed between the adults as the children poked at the burning logs with branches and watched leaves curl up in the flames. Our dog lay curled up at the edge of the warmth.
I have always loved camping and have many fond memories of summer nights spent with my family and friends around the campfire. The fire bound us together somehow. Connected us. Touched at some primal memory of our ancestors gathered around the flames to tell the stories that gave their people meaning, and hope and purpose.
But fire has another side, doesn’t it? The pictures of whole towns destroyed in the California wildfires this past fall were gut-wrenching. I vividly remember the smoldering remains of our church in Wayne, NE on the day after lightning burned it to the ground. Fire destroys. It is no respecter of people or property. Its flames can bring destruction and death as easily as they can bring warmth and light.
Baptism destroys the old life of sin and death, and raises us up to new life. Baptism binds us to one another as siblings in Christ. Baptism purifies us, separating wheat from chaff. Baptism connects us to the old, old stories of God’s steadfast love and mercy, and to the death and resurrection of Christ. It is a fire poured out with the water, the Holy Spirit of God that washes us and burns us and blesses us on our journey from life to death to life. Baptism is a campfire and a forest fire and a lightning strike in a bowl or a bath.
But, to ask a good Lutheran question, “what does this mean?”
It means every day is a new day. Baptism, you see, is not just a once-in-a-lifetime event. Baptism describes a relationship between us and our God, a relationship bound by the Holy Spirit and fire, and established and sealed by Christ. Every morning the chaff is burned away, we are washed in the promise of Christ’s forgiveness, mercy and compassion, and set free to be forgiving, merciful and compassionate as we move through the day.
There is a candle on my prayer table that I light every morning as I settle onto my cushion to listen for the still small voice of God. A little light in the darkness. A bit of warmth in the cold. A reminder of the Holy Spirit who will walk with me through the day, sustains me when I struggle, and sometimes burns me too. A reminder of the community of faith I was baptized into through Christ. An imperfect community that carries the perfect love of God for me, and for all the world.
Peace,
Bishop Mike
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