Luke 3:7-18
Metallurgy is the art and science of refining metals and modifying them for use. Ore is a rock which contains a valuable metal, and around 5000 BC humans discovered that by using fire we could melt down ore and get precious metals. Around 3000 BC humans discovered that by combining copper with tin or other metals they could create a stronger material called bronze. This important innovation led to widespread bronze tools and weapons and marks the beginning of the Bronze Age. Then around 1200 BC what’s known as the Iron Age began. To extract iron from rocks, fires needed to be almost a thousand degrees hotter than the temperature required to make bronze.[1] Civilizations that were advanced enough to achieve this had a major advantage weapon-wise over ones that did not have iron technology. Maintaining furnaces hot enough to make iron could be dangerous, but it became an important job in ancient civilizations. The metal purification process was not only important in creating bronze and iron, but in refining many precious metals. And to this day, humanity still depends on metallurgy to create the materials needed for constructing everything from buildings and bridges, to musical instruments and computer chips.
In the Gospel reading we just heard, John the Baptist talks about a kind of divine metallurgy. As we heard from the prophet Malachi last week, the coming Messiah is like a refiner’s fire that will purify and like fuller’s soap that will cleanse. This coming Messiah, according to John, will purify and cleanse the people. And as John says today, the one who is coming will baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. He has a proverbial winnowing fork in hand and will separate the chaff from the wheat. He will harvest the wheat and burn the chaff with unquenchable fire.
The image of fire is common in the Bible. Whenever ancient Israelites or early Christians heard fire mentioned in scripture, they would likely associate it with the refining process, with the metallurgy that was so important in the ancient world. Unfortunately, poor interpretations of scripture in our day have led many to associate fire with torture and punishment. But it’s important to realize that throughout the Old Testament and here in the New Testament, the image of fire is used to bring to mind the purification process. A process that can no doubt be painful, but which in the end brings about purification and transformation.
It’s no mistake that the Holy Spirit and fire are mentioned together by John. Because it is the Holy Spirit’s work in us that brings about this purification. In theology we call it the Spirit’s work of sanctification. To be sanctified means to be purified or cleansed, to be made holy. John the Baptist tells his listeners that this will be a fundamental part of what the Messiah is all about. The Coming One will purify us by the power of the Holy Spirit, will separate our chaff from our wheat, will bring us through the fiery ordeal of spiritual purification.
Recall what we discussed the past two weeks about the coming of the Kingdom of God which was the focus of Jesus’ teaching and ministry. Being cleansed thoroughly, being awakened to perceive the Kingdom can be challenging. It requires a lot of letting go. Letting go of past assumptions. Letting go of our egocentric desires. Letting go of our idea of ourselves. Jesus says it even means dying to yourself. This letting go, this dying to self, may feel like fire inside burning off our sin and selfishness, burning off the chaff in us that does not bear good fruit. It is this painful and transformative process that John is warning his listeners to be ready for.
What is the chaff that God is burning away in you? What’s God purifying in you? Is it your selfish attitude? Is it an addiction? Is it your focus on materialistic things? Is it a bias against the poor, the homeless, the imprisoned, the refugee? Whatever it is God may want to purify in you, John the Baptist is asking us this morning: are you ready for Jesus to burn your chaff, to purify you no matter how painful it may be? Are you prepared to share Christ-like love with all you meet? Are you ready to die to yourself and be transformed by the Spirit? John warns such transformation can be a mighty painful process. It will mean taking up our cross and putting ourselves last. It will mean inner struggles and outer trials. It will mean putting aside our own desires, our own agendas for the sake of God and our neighbor. It means leaving behind our own will and surrendering our wills to God’s.
Twentieth century Christian mystic Thomas Merton articulated well how necessary this purification process is to heal the world. Writing in the 1950s and 60s Merton described how the spiritual journey is about learning to die to our false self and discover our true self, which is the image of God we were created to be. In one book he wrote, “All sin starts from the assumption that my false self, the self that exists only in my own egocentric desires, is the fundamental reality of life to which everything else…is ordered.”[2] Elsewhere he said, “If we take our vulnerable shell to be our true identity, if we think our mask if our true face, we will protect it…even at the cost of violating our own truth. This seems to be the collective endeavor of society…a collective illusion.”[3]
Merton and other mystics taught that freedom from this false self came about through spiritual disciplines like contemplative prayer or meditation. Mystics from the world’s religions agree on the importance of these sometimes painful spiritual practices that bring you face to face with your unconscious and through which the Holy Spirit brings healing and transformation.
This refinement process isn’t about becoming better so that we’ll be saved or worthy of God’s love. We’re already saved and loved and accepted by God, absolutely unconditionally. This refinement process isn’t about earning anything; it’s not some sort of inner works righteousness. It’s about growing up into the mature children of God we were created to be. And it is not our own doing that purifies us into the people Jesus calls us to be. It is the work of God that burns our chaff and harvests our wheat, that makes us holy and transforms us so that we reflect the divine image in which we were created. This is the work of God in you.
So while this may sound like a tall order, and John makes it clear that it is, it’s not up to us to make it happen. Christ is transforming you and me and all of us into mature reflections of the divine. That’s why Jesus was born that first Christmas and that’s why John cried out in the wilderness. Jesus is at work: today, in you, in me, in every person’s heart calling us forth to live for God and God’s mission in the world. And he will not stop until all can join the magnificent feast God longs to share.
So, let us pray, as John says, that God burns our chaff and harvests our wheat. Pray that the newborn Messiah may transform you this holiday season. Pray that the Christ Child makes a home in your heart and rids you of everything that separates you from Him. Let this season of Advent be a journey for you. A journey of renewing your commitment to God each new day. A journey of following the stirring of the Spirit in every circumstance. A journey of ever deepening surrender to the will of God in your life. Let this journey be a lifelong adventure and relationship with our Newborn King.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Pastor Brian Rajcok | Sunday, December 15th, 2024 | Third Sunday in Advent
[2] Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation, 34-35.
[3] Merton, Raids on the Unspeakable, p. 15.
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