Christmas Fire

A Sermon Based Upon Luke 3: 7-20

By Rev. Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, DMin

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

Third Sunday of Advent, December 16, 2012

“He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire (Luke 3:16 NRS)

John the Baptizer would not be a welcomed guest at most Christmas parties.  His message of repentance, judgment, change and baptism by water and fire, are just too much for our traditional, generic, polite family Christmas traditions.

Christmas is supposed to be fun.  It’s primarily a holiday, not a holy day.  We’ve changed the meaning and the message, softened it’s story that is much too stuffy for our wants.  What’s more, Christmas can’t be about change or repentance, because Christmas is about doing things just like we always done them, right?  It’s about putting up the tree and putting on the decorations.  It’s about children, family gatherings, food, festivities, music, warm services and celebration.   As the fatherly character Tevye sang over and over in the musical “Fiddler on the Roof”: It’s about “TRADITION!”  Christmas is supposed to be about keeping these wonderful cultural, family and religious traditions.  These ‘traditions’ are heart-warming and nostalgic, as they remind us of home, hearth, and happier days.  A Christmas most wished for is a Christmas that reminds us of what it used to be, and should be for our children, just as it was or should have been for us.   

There is a lot to love about Christmas and its traditions.  No one would want to take away from the beauty of the season---even its childlike focus and fun.   Christmas is about the birth of a child, but this child, we must also know, was born for more than fun, happy, or sentimental reasons.   So, to get the whole picture of Christmas, we also need to hear John’s side of the story and to contemplate his very important message.   If we don’t include John’s serious and solemn part of the story, all our celebrating becomes shallow, superficial and artificial.   

ANOTHER SIDE TO CHRISTMAS

Luke’s focus on John’s message centers around this very impressive question every preacher likes to hear after the sermon: “What then should we do?”  (Luke 3.10).  After John calls upon his listeners to “bear fruits worthy of repentance” (3.8), the people basically ask what does repentance look like.  John’s answer is not churchy at all, but it’s very practical.  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."  (Luk 3:11-14 NRS).“

However you view Christmas, however you view religion and church, these are not our normal answers to “what should we do” are they?   What would it take to get us interested in this other side of Christmas? 

It would take a lot, wouldn’t it?  It might take a Hurricane blasting through your world!  It might take having your house set on fire and losing everything.  It might take losing your job or some other shocking event to shake you into considering this other side of Christmas.   You might have to be left out in the cold, without a coat, before you consider others who have none.  You might have to experience a Christmas with no food on your own table, before you think about sharing your table with someone.   You might have to be “soldier” experiencing the ravages of war before you understand just how hate, evil and injustice is out there.   It might take some realization of what happens when people get greedy, before we understand what we can lose. 

Can we see this ‘other’ side of Christmas from where we are standing? Is it not closer than ever before?

John sees the world differently than most of us have ever seen it.  This is also why John sees Christmas differently.   John sees Christmas from the point of view of the voiceless, the disadvantaged, the struggling, the poor and the suffering.   From this side of things, Christmas always looks different and it’s sometimes hard to look at, especially when all we want for Christmas is for fun.  Why spoil the fun, right? 

When Teresa and I were missionaries, for 5 of six years, we were away from home at Christmas.  We couldn’t go to the normal Christmas events---the family gatherings, the church services, the American traditions—No Rudolf, No Charlie Brown, No Miracle on 34^th Street.    We had to learn to be, just us, alone at Christmas.

One year, our second year of living in the eastern part of Germany, Teresa had a great idea.  We lived in a town filled with political refugees from all over the world.  Sometimes they would show up at our church.  So, what did Teresa do, but she invited a couple of those refugees who were also alone, to share our table at Thanksgiving and at Christmas.   One of them was a Romanian and the other was African.  It was a moment sort of like answering John the Baptizer, “Whoever has food must share with anyone who has none”.

I remember specifically, how I said a prayer and we started eating our delicious meal that Teresa had prepared.   The young man from Africa, named John, just stared at his plate.   “Do you not like this kind of food”, we asked him.   “Of course, it’s fine!”  “Are you O.K.?”  We asked again.   “Yes,” John answered, “It’s just that I don’t know where my family is!   Here I am, with all this in front of me, and I don’t know whether my wife and children are even alive!”    I had to flee!   I had to run for my life!   It’s so hard to eat, when I don’t know.  I feel so guilty!”

What does John say to this?  What do you say when you share your food and they still can’t eat it?  I’ll tell you what John says.   John says, “I baptize you with water, but the one who comes after me will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”   Here we were, gathered around that table, and everything we thought about Christmas was on fire.   It was a baptism of fire—the fire of God’s Spirit.   We were all trying to eat, and God was baptizing us with the Holy Spirit.

A REAL SPIRIT  WITHIN

What kind of “baptism” is this?   A lot of people get confused about the ‘Baptism of the Holy Spirit”.   They think it some kind of unique religious experience that God only gives special people who are good enough, right enough, religious enough.   Others think it is some kind of “out-of-the-body” other worldly experience of God’s grace.  But what we discovered and what I think John was preaching, is that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is nothing more and nothing less than a baptism in to reality.  It is not to rise above how things are, but it is to dive into seeing life as it really is, and not just seeing it as we would like to see it.   It is that baptism of the water that becomes a baptism of fire when people realize who they are and how they are, and even how they aren’t, and then ask themselves, “What should we do?”  “How should we respond”, not just saying, “What’s in all this for me?   For you see, you don’t get to this “fire” of Christmas, without also looking straight into the pain, the suffering and the hurt others have, and that you can help answer.   This is the Baptism of Fire which can come as a time of questioning, testing and trial.   Christmas is warm, but that warmth can also burn.  Here I’m reminded of my daughter’s own words, some of her very first, when we adopted her in November.  She was only 16 months old.  She walked up a Christmas candle, stared straight into it, put her hand close and then she said,  “Ahnie, burn!  Meaning, that will burn!   “Yes, dear, Christmas is warm, but it can also burn.

In our text, John says to the people, “I can only baptize you with water….”   John really can’t make them understand the need to look into this fiery side of Christmas.   The burning of the fire can only come from THE ONE who is coming---THE ONE who is more powerful.   He’s the one who brings the fire.   John says, “I am not able to even untie his sandals as a slave would do.”   This baptism of fire, the real fire of life, can only come when you let HIM baptize and burn his truth into your heart.

We talk a lot at Christmas about the difficulty that some of us have, getting into the Christmas spirit.   Sometimes we are like Ebenezer Scrooge.  Bah Humbug!  It will take a lot to move us, excite us, stir us.  We’ve seen too much and know too much to get excited about Christmas.  Some of us want Christmas to hurry up and get over with.   It isn’t yet here, but we are ready to move on.   It’s understandable.  Some of us are setting there with John at that table.  We have have too much reality to get into what people call the Christmas “spirit.”   It’s so artificial.  It’s so shallow.   We’ve seen too much.  We just can’t manufacture Christmas anymore.  The Christmas that was, just can’t “bless us” anymore.  Instead of warming us, the ways and season of Christmas can leave us feeling as if we have been left out in the cold.   The fire is gone.  Our wood is wet.  No matter what we turn on to spark the flame, it gets quickly extinguished.

Perhaps this is even more of a reason we need God’s fire this Christmas.   We need a fire that still burns when all other flames have burned out.  We need a spark that will ignite our frustrations into feelings that fill our empty spirits with new life.   Do we feel a need for God’s fire, at Christmas?

Herod didn’t.   You can read what he did when he heard about John’s preaching.   When John’s preaching got into Herod’s heart, he didn’t like it.  So, what did Herod the ruler do?   He shut John up by putting him away in prison (3.20).   Why did Herod do that?  Was it any different than what we too might do, when we like to be in charge of our own kingdom and our own life?   Herod was his own person.   Herod had his own way.  Herod wasn’t going to let God’s fire get into him.   He wasn’t going to let God get a word in edgewise.  Like many, too many this Christmas, Herod already had his plans, and he wasn’t going to let any fiery preacher or God of fire, upset his applecart.   He would live his life without anyone else’s recommendations.   While most of us would take Christmas to be “good news”, John took Christmas to mean something else.   He rightly understood that the this message of John laid the “axe at the root” of his own tree, but Herod was not going to let anyone pick up that axe; and he definitely wasn’t going to pick it up himself.

FANNING THE FLAME

We all know what Herod was not going to do.  He was not going let the fire burn in him.  He was not going to pick up the axe that was laid at his own tree.  He was going to shut up reality in a prison.  He was not going to face how things really were, nor was he going to do anything to let the fire get close to him.    But I hope you are not like Herod.  You don’t want to shut Christmas away.  You face a hard reality, but you still want to feel the warmth of the flame.  You want to see the fire, so you ask yourself, in spite of how things are, who I am, or what’s real, is there any way you can move toward or re-light the Christmas fire in your heart?  John, what then should we do?

When I was pastor in Shelby, back in the 80’s, I was part of the Kings Mountain Baptist Association.   Rev. Bob Davis had established a social ministry in that area; the first one in North Carolina, called a “Toy Store” ministry.   Annually we churches got involved by collecting toys for needy families so they could have some way to celebrate Christmas.   We wanted them to give some gifts, and we wanted to share our love.

It was a very successful event.  We collected much  more than toys and we interviewed families, shared our faith, counseled them, and it all made Christmas real for us, as much as it made it possible for them.

I encouraged my church to get involved.   We all had what we needed, and some people did not have that.  Some were enthused to work in the ministry.  Others felt it was a bother to their own family time and traditions.   But I’ll never forget how one Sunday School teacher and class responded.   They got involved with the toy store ministry, but they wanted to go deeper.   The decided, as a Sunday School class, to adopt their own needy family, not just for Christmas, but for the whole year.   They learned a lot of hard things about life, about poverty, and about caring that  year.  They learned a lot of things they did not know.  They also learned that a lot of things they had believed about people was wrong.   But what one lady named Lynn learned, was the most amazing witness of all.   It was a witness to the real fire of Christmas.   She told me, that never again could she or her class ever have a Christmas party again, without inviting, adopting or helping a family in need.  Christmas was not Christmas, unless they all jumped into the fire of people’s needs, hurts, pains and problems.  Without this Christmas was not warm enough.  Without doing something put them into reality, Christmas was just not Christmas.   I think that Sunday School class had a “baptism by fire”.  

Do you remember what the disciples came to Jesus and asked?  James and John came to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”   That’s what a lot of people think Christmas is, or what Jesus is.   They think Jesus gives me “whatever” they ask.   So they ask Jesus, just like the Zebedee sons did: “Grant us, that we sit on your right and on your left in the kingdom?”  When they get what they want, they think the Kingdom has come.   But Jesus thinks otherwise.  Then, Jesus then turns to them, saying, “You don’t realize what you are saying?  Are you able to “drink the cup” and be baptized with the baptism I’m baptized with! 

“We are able! They answered.  Sarcastically, or ironically Jesus answers:  “Oh Yes, you will be baptized with my baptism” (Mar 10:39-40 NRS) but it’s not at all what you think. 

“Whoever wants to be great, must be a servant…whoever wishes to the first, must be a slave.”   And whoever wants the true warmth of Christmas has to first be baptized with the fire---the very same fire that burns with the pain of this world is the very same fire than can make your Christmas real.  But if you want to get warm, the word says, you must move closer to the fire.

John’s final picture of this Christmas fire is unforgettable.  John says that only one who can baptize you and I with this fire has, “His winnowing fork is in his hand…”  (17).   In the ancient world, when they were threshing wheat, someone would build a fire, fan the flame, and then someone would use a pitchfork-like instrument, especially made for wheat---a winnowing fork, to toss the wheat into the air so the wheat would be thrown into the direction of the granary, but and the worthless chaff or husk would then be blown away straight toward the fire.   As one has rightly commented, we wrongly think of the devil as having the pitchfork of authority, when all power and authority really belongs to Jesus Christ.   (http://hyperactivetheology.blogspot.com, May 15, 2011).

What Christ allows to come through the fire, will not burn you, but it will burn in you.   It is a flame that will not just make you warm, but it will make you alive.  When you let God’s fire burn in you, this flame that burns for others, it will not just make your Christmas alive, it will make your family alive, and it will make you alive.   When Christmas is more than getting what you want, this is when, and only when, Christmas can give us all what we really need---a world set on fire, and baptized with a spirit of love, purpose, mission and hope.   The only kind of Christmas fire that lasts is the fire that will burn within our hearts, as our hearts burn with the loving Spirit of God.  This is only way to truly warm you heart, and set your faith on fire this Christmas. 

Anybody got a match?  Anybody care to fan the flame?  Anybody realize what you can do to feel the fire, Gods fire, this Christmas?  John knows.  You can know too.  Amen.