Advent III

Advent III One is coming who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

John the Baptist was not subtle.

Any one who begins a sermon by calling his congregation a brood of vipers is certainly not subtle. Yet, people flocked to listen to John. They listened, but they did not always believe.
John was a dramatic figure. He lived in the desert. He wore a coarse camel’s hair tunic. He ate insects and honey. He spoke loudly and passionately about the kingdom of God. His style guaranteed him an audience.

Yet, in all that John was and preached and did, he concludes: some one greater is coming. I baptize you with water from the river. But He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
People understood that the one to come would be the Messiah, the Christ, the anointed of God.
In John’s baptism the people waded into a river and immersed themselves under the water. It was a symbol of dying to sin and rising to a new life of righteousness. But, John’s baptism was only a symbol. It represented the will and desire of the moment.

The baptism that the Messiah would bring would be more than a symbol. It would be a sacrament. It would not only represent human will but divine will. This new baptism would infuse divine grace into the human soul. It would bring the personal real presence of God to each human being who received it.

The new baptism would also be a baptism of fire.
In our modern use of this phrase we think of an ordeal that some one undergoes to enter into a new profession or a new way of life. And so, for a soldier the first exposure to combat is called a baptism by fire.

For those who receive the Messianic gift of grace, the baptism of fire is the purification of the mind, heart and will that leads to the transformation of the soul.

The baptism of fire is the fire of the refiner. The refiner takes a metal ore, such as silver. The silver is mixed with base material that obscures its beauty and hides its value. The refining process burns away the base material until only the clear beauty of the valuable silver remains.
This is the image of sanctification. In the process of sanctification God immerses our soul into the process of transformation.

Transformation requires we give up something we currently have so we can achieve some greater and more fulfilling potential that is present but not yet realized.

Transformation is the result of the personal presence of God the Holy Spirit in our souls.
Unlike the image of the silver ore being refined in the fire, the Holy Spirit’s fire destroys nothing. Nothing is lost. Nothing is consumed. The fires of the Holy Spirit recreate the original purity of our souls by releasing the original grace we have chosen to condense and compress and distort through sin.

We don’t just give up our sins. We yield them to God the Holy Spirit to transform the hard compressed core of sin back into the expansive dynamic creative expression of virtue.
Human beings tenaciously hold onto sin in the mistaken belief that the way of sin is the way of freedom, happiness and power.

When we finally yield a particular sin to the process of sanctification we begin to discover the contrast between sin and virtue.

The great obstacle to sanctification is self will, the human will to power. And so, the most powerful level of transformation lies in the will.
The human soul lost in separation from God believes that self will is free will. Nothing could be further from the truth.

John explains this in very practical terms when various people ask him what they should do now that they have been baptized. John tells people to reclaim their sense of who they are according to their calling in life.

The wealthy are rich not to assert their will to power over the poor but to share their abundance with the poor. The choice is to embrace the principle of God’s will to love and reject human will to power.

The tax collectors have the legal authority to collect taxes for the common good of society so the state can build roads, bridges and aqueducts. They abuse that authority when they assert their will to extort money from people to enrich themselves. John simply tells them: do your job. Remember your original purpose. Choose the divine will to love and reject the human will to power.

Soldiers exist to serve and protect not to dominate and terrorize.
John advises soldiers: do your duty. Do not abuse your position in society. Choose the divine will to love and reject the human will to power.

The human will to power distorts human reason and allows us to rationalize our selfish behavior. The human will to power corrupts the human heart and produces false needs and insatiable desires that can never satisfy. The human will to power lives from the place of demand. That demand can never be satisfied. It can only lead to greater levels of fear, frustration and despair.
The refining process of sanctification starts with examining the principles by which we make decisions. The fundamental principle the prophets condemn is self will. The fundamental principle the prophets commend is God’s will. God’s will is always unconditional love. God’s will is always holiness in thought, word and deed.

People cannot make the choice to live by divine will apart from divine grace. And so, John- the last of the prophets- gives the people hope when he says that one is coming who will immerse the soul in the living waters of the Holy Spirit and transform the soul in the divine fire of the Holy Spirit.

It isn’t magic. It will not violate human choice. It is a sure and certain promise to those who hear the word of God, receive the word of God, believe the Word of God and desire a new relationship with God.

People came to John for many reasons. Some were curious. Some were seeking. Some wanted to be where the action was.

All who came had the same opportunity to hear the prophetic message. All who came had the same opportunity to make a real choice to receive the blessing God brought into the world through John.

That blessing is Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is the one whom John said was coming to baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
John recognized that no matter how hard we may try, human beings cannot simply say no to separation from God. Because we are lost in separation we are slaves to the rebellion of self will. It is God who must heal the breach. God must offer reunification as a free gift. God must initiate and sustain the process of transformation by His personal real presence in our souls.
The people who came to John, who believed his message, and who accepted his symbolic baptism wanted to know "what next?" What then should we do now that we have been baptized?

John’s answer was twofold.

First;:rediscover the gift of the divine will to unconditional holy love in your daily life. Surrender to that love. In the Presence of that love stop asserting your individual will to power to dominate others.

Second, prepare to meet and be embraced by the love of God in Jesus Christ here and now in this present moment.

The baptism of Jesus Christ is the total immersion of the soul in eternal love. In that immersion we begin to experience the transformation of our thoughts, our desires, and our will.
At every step of the process, the Holy Spirit invites us to make a real choice to reject the will to power and embrace the will to love.

Sometimes those choices seem small and insignificant.. Some times those choices seem difficult and overwhelming. In all of those choices God himself promises to be with us. God supplies us with the courage and grace we need for the moment as we respond to his invitation with the desire to grow in grace.

Jesus is greater than John and all of the prophets because Jesus can reunite the separated soul to God. Jesus baptizes our souls in the total immersion of the Holy Spirit and in the transforming fires of divine love.