Water and Fire

We recently heard of the death of Colin Luther Powell, an American politician, statesman, diplomat, and United States Army officer. He died on November 18th of this year. In his remarkable life, he seemed always to have had clarity about who he was as an American; staying clear about who he was within each role and function he held. Quite humbly, he did not think more of himself than who he was or less of himself either. I want to bring that point back, below, in the description of a figure from the Gospels.

In his book, It Worked for Me–In Life and Leadership, Powell moved through a set of principles and practices that served him well in his military experience. He describes one principle, that of giving correction as soon as it was noticed. He would not turn a blind eye even to little things that were not as they should be. Powell used the example of seeing something awry with a soldier’s uniform. It might have been unpolished brass or something very slight. If possible, he would set the soldier to correcting it immediately. He stated that if the standard procedure were relaxed in one thing, a seemingly harmless laxity, things could drift toward sloppiness about a critical thing in which lives were at stake.

Correction in the moment wherever possible, conditions a soldier to not let big or little things go. Having exacting attention with the operation of equipment in the heat of battle, for example, could mean saving the soldier’s life, and the lives of those at his or her side. That is why he would correct things as soon as he saw the need. In this season of Advent, a figure we remember without fail is John, Son of Zechariah and Elizabeth, who preached and baptized all about the region of the Jordon River. His ministry was one of correction. He urged people to mark their preparation for the coming Savior with a spiritual washing in the river. He urged their attention so that they would turn from destructive life habits toward righteous, life-giving behavior.

John the Baptist’s style was harsh, but his ability to persuade was effective. He pointed out sin, but the Holy Spirit, it seems, powerfully moved through him, because the crowds that came out to hear were large. The phrases he chose to get people ready for the Redeemer were not those, as the Rector recently pointed out, those we would want on the Christmas cards we send: "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” He also said, “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."

John softens nothing; his message is strident and hard-hitting, but still, the crowds come. People ask, “What then should we do?" He tells them how they should correct. John has the kind of humility that keeps him aware of his exact role, and no more. Humility is not a declaration like “I am nothing!” “It is a declaration of I am, what I am!”

When the Gospel of John introduces John the Baptist, he notes that people come asking him who he is. He tells him he is not the Messiah and not the Prophet, but he uses the prophet Isaiah’s words to answer their inquiry. (John 1:20-23) He says, “I am the voice of someone shouting in the desert: make a straight path for the Lord to travel!” John can answer the question of who he is because he knows his role. He claims to be neither more nor less than he is. He knows he is the harbinger of the coming Lord. He points in effect not to himself but to the one who comes after him. He wants people to repent because they must prepare for the Lord:

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. (Luke 3:15-18)

So it is, that John draws people into a preparatory ritual washing, but the Savior has a refining transformation for us: a winnowing fork that separates the grain from the dross. The Holy Spirit’s fire can burn off all the impurity, and makes us has God wants us to be. Humanly speaking, we should be about the cleansing we can do with our habits and behavior. At the same time, we are preparing to offer ourselves for the radical purification that the Holy Spirit means to accomplish in our souls.

John points beyond himself to Christ, saying as it were, “I am the water guy, the Messiah is the fire guy.” Availing ourselves to Christ is to receive the baptism of fire and the Holy Spirit, a transformation like that of the refining of gold. We should keep washing up, repenting of that which corrupts and destroys us. We should metaphorically undergo what John accomplishes for us in the waters of the Jordan. Know also, that the sacrament of Christian Baptism accomplished grace within you, which conveys grace to you that will manifest in the final judgment as God’s own refining purification. So, hear me now, soldier: I am telling you, you will shine.