Not Water But Fire - January 13, 2008 MP3: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Not Water But Fire - January 13, 2008 PDF: DownloadWater is the lifeblood of earth; it is well over half of the human body; water is the power to carve pillars from mountains and valleys from plains; it is the power to give life and to take it away. It floats in itself, it quenches thirst and fire. The people of the first century knew all that. and yet…and yet when they told the story of john the Baptist, John who came before Jesus, they told a story of one who said “I baptize with water, but one who comes after me, one whose sandals I am not worthy to tie, will baptize with the holy spirit and with fire.”
It’s a terrifying image. If we look back in the Bible it’s not impossible: the burning bush which spoke to Moses, the hot coal which called Isaiah to prophesy by touching his lips, the fires which consumed Sodom and Gomorrah when they were found to be unredeemable by a very angry God—but the fire images of the Hebrew Scriptures are wild. They inspire fear, and obedience through fear; they test loyalty and demand faith.
The one who comes after me will baptize with fire.
We can imagine the possibilities, Jesus and John standing side by side at the river, John in it up to his waist, Jesus standing beside a kind of funeral pyre on the banks. Choose, they might say, choose your baptism. In the already-scorched desert, fire would have been a way to cook food, but not essential for life. Choose, they might suggest, and the newly-convinced person looks between them, incredulous. Choose fire? You’ve got to be kidding.
