"He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire"

It's Wednesday, so I'm NOT thinking about John the Baptist

On Wednesdays, I workshop the sermon…

Scripture: Luke 3:7-18

John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do not begin 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."

And the crowds asked him, "What then should we do?" In reply he said to them, "Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise." Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, "Teacher, what should we do?" He said to them, "Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you." Soldiers also asked him, "And we, what should we do?" He said to them, "Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages."

As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by saying, "I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."

So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people.

Oh, John the Baptist!

The irony of those last two lines: the ones that reference burning in ‘unquenchable fire’, then end with ‘he proclaimed the good news to the people.’

Funny, I’m not feeling very joyful reading this.

Here’s my problem - I’m just put off by John the Baptist. And I get grumpy when I have to preach on him twice in Advent! Even though, technically, I did not preach last week, I still had to ponder a sermon with him in it.

And off I go down the rabbit hole of John the Baptist…

We all know one of the hallmarks of a bad relationship is obsessing over why it’s not working, so I have made a solemn vow that this sermon will not contain all the reasons I struggle with good old JBap, as we referred to him in seminary!

Instead, I’m letting myself be drawn to his words in today’s Gospel passage: “One who is more powerful than I is coming … he will baptize you with water and the Holy Spirit.”

And the image of fire.

And the Advent 3 theme of joy.