This Advent we have 2 Advent wreaths with candles! Today we light the third candle and remember John the Baptist. The first wreath is the usual one, where we remember people. The second is connected to the first, in that it remembers the reason why those people are so special – they prepared for the first coming of Jesus as a human being, just as we prepare for His second coming in glory. We reflect on what it means to W-A-I-T - WAIT every Christmas. So we have remembered the patriarchs who watched, the prophets who anticipated, and now we remember John the Baptist who immersed.
Two weeks ago John explained the meaning of the Latin advenere that the word Advent comes from. It means to ‘come towards’. It is a time of waiting for the second coming that is hoped for expectantly because God fulfilled His promise of a first coming in the flesh. The first coming convinces us that God is true to His word, so He will come again!
What did John the Baptist do in preparation for Jesus?
· He preached
· He baptised – he immersed people in water!
This is not a sermon on why we should practice baptism by immersion today! It is a reflection on the meaning of immersion – especially of the connection between John the Baptist’s words – repent! - and his actions – specifically immersion in water.
Last week my husband John and I were immersed. We spent a week in Israel on a familiarisation tour for people expecting to lead a tour group there in the future. It included visiting many more sites than most people take in, and touring hotels and kibbutzes as well, in order to provide us with the information we need to develop our own itinerary and dovetail the accommodation to the particular group we will take in January 2007. John and I were immersed totally. It was a complete change –
· of climate
· food
· language
· culture
· history
· geography
· relationships
· and much more!
We had no time to think of where we had come from, only of where we now were and to live in that reality. And we had an excellent Jewish guide, [a Sephardic Jew (which simply means that his family originated from Western Europe, in contrast to the Ashkenazi Jews who originate from Eastern Europe). His family went to Israel when the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492]. Isaac, who taught us some Hebrew language and shamed us all by knowing all the New Testament accounts of Jesus’ ministry by memory! He helped to immerse us totally. It was such a complete CHANGE that I was quite disorientated for the first 24 hours after coming back to London – as several people could testify!
Immersion signifies a change. We are plunged into a different environment and learn to live in a different way. That doesn’t mean that when John the Baptist immersed people in water they suddenly learned to live like fish! The action was symbolic. It followed on from his words – REPENT!! Repent is the English translation of the Greek word metanoia, which means ‘to change one’s mind’. So to repent is to CHANGE! It is to be transformed by turning to God and behaving differently. It is to live in a new reality, where sin is left behind in such a way that to go back to the old life would be completely disorientating (a bit like I felt on coming back to London) – in other words, a complete turnaround.
On Tuesday, the day we came back from Israel, the reading was from Isaiah 40:1-11. V.3 is repeated by John the Baptist, as recorded in the Gospel of John 1:23, when people asked him whether he himself was the Christ, or Elijah, or the prophet. He said, ‘NO….I am the voice of one calling in the desert, “Make straight the way for the Lord.”’ Luke 3 says even more. Vv.3-6 repeat Isaiah 40:3-5.
He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet:
“A voice of one calling in the desert, ‘prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth. And the whole human race will see God’s salvation.’”
By preaching repentance for the forgiveness of sins (a complete turn-around) and practising baptism – a symbol of purification by water, of change from death to life – John was ensuring that people’s hearts would be prepared and humble enough to recognise Jesus when they saw him. Repentance is a humbling experience – acknowledging that another way is a better way always is – but without it people would not have recognised the Messiah in the humble form he came in. Pride does not recognise those who are greater when they come in a humble form.
John made it very clear that his immersion in water was indeed just a preparation for what Jesus would do. Luke 3:16 tells us that ‘John answered them all, “I baptise you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”’ Jesus’ baptism would be an immersion with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
When John baptised Jesus it wasn’t because Jesus needed to repent. Jesus was identifying himself with all fallible human beings, and effectively saying that he was one with us – united to us in our humanity. But God the Father acknowledged him for who he was by the spirit. Luke 3:16-17 tells us that ‘As soon as Jesus was baptised, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
When Jesus made himself known, it was in Galilee, in a synagogue in Nazareth, the town where he was brought up. Last week we were there, and in that very synagogue, I read out to our group the very words that Jesus read out on that day, from Isaiah 61 (our reading for today) and recorded in Luke 4:18-19:
The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom to the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.
John prepared for Jesus with an immersion that signified CHANGE – a willingness to acknowledge sin and live differently in relationship to God and others – a change of commitments, really. Luke 3:10-14 gives a number of practical examples. Let me just read you one. ‘Tax collectors also came to be baptised. “Teacher,” they asked, “what should we do?”
“Don’t collect any more than you are required to,” he told them.
John’s baptism cleared the way for Jesus to
· preach good news to the poor (those who are aware of their poverty and therefore humble)
· proclaim freedom to the prisoners (that is anyone who is enslaved/trapped by anything)
· recovery of sight (that is, seeing things clearly – not being deceived)
· release the oppressed
· proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour (all of God’s good gifts)
God’s goodness and true freedom cannot be experienced by anyone that has not experienced the immersion of a changed attitude towards God and others – true repentance! Because in the end, the practice can only be carried out in the power of Jesus’ Spirit.
And that power is what releases all those powerful positive free gifts:
· good news
· freedom
· recovery
· release
· the Lord’s favour
To end:
Jesus baptises (immerses) with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Our passage for today from I Thessalonians vv.19-24 tells us, ‘Do not put out the Spirit’s fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil. May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. [This coming is what Advent is all about] The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.’
In other words, immerse yourself in the Holy Spirit’s fire so then HE will be able to do it! AMEN.