The people were filled with expectation, and everyone wondered whether John might be the Christ. John replied to them all, “I baptize you with water, but the one who is more powerful than me is coming. I’m not worthy to loosen the strap of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. The shovel he uses to sift the wheat from the husks is in his hands. He will clean out his threshing area and bring the wheat into his barn. But he will burn the husks with a fire that can’t be put out.” With many other words John appealed to them, proclaiming good news to the people. But Herod the ruler had been criticized harshly by John because of Herodias, Herod’s brother’s wife, and because of all the evil he had done. He added this to the list of his evil deeds: he locked John up in prison. When everyone was being baptized, Jesus also was baptized. While he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit came down on him in bodily form like a dove. And there was a voice from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I dearly love; in you I find happiness.” (Luke 3:15-22, CEB)
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
A baptism of fire? Maybe an understanding that when the Spirit comes upon you you will be changed and propelled into the world to change the world? In doing this you will be put at odds with the world and there will be pushback and tension and it will feel as if you are with Rack, Shack, and Benny in the hot firey furnace.
If this is true, I think many have not been baptized with fire.
Are we complacent to let others not be fully human and not be seen as part of the body of Christ?
Would God look at us and say “You are my child, whom I dearly love; in you I find happiness?”
Do our actions spread love, or are we like Herod who wants to maintain the status quo for power and ease?
Choose love, and know you will never walk alone in the fire.
Loving People. Loving God.
aSacredRebel 