Friday, March 12

by Amy Stratton-Smith

The Greek word from which we get “baptize” means “to dip so as to change” and was a common technical term in Jesus’ day. It was an every day working word, not an ethereal, holy, or abstract concept. Textile workers made their living “baptizing” fabrics in dye to infuse a piece of cloth with bright colors. Blacksmiths “baptized” hot metal in water to make it stronger. Warriors “baptized” the tips of their arrows in poison to make them more lethally effective. Peasants “baptized” hard, stale bread in their soup or stew to soften it enough to avoid breaking their teeth on it. In the same way housewives “baptized” their families’ dirty laundry in the river to make it clean, John the Baptist dipped his followers, and even Jesus, in the Jordan River to cleanse them of guilt for their sins.

The people were all agog, wondering about John, whether perhaps he was the Messiah, but he spoke out and said to them all: "I baptize you with water; but there is one coming who is mightier than I am. I am not worthy to unfasten the straps of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire" (Luke 3:15-16).

I have been wondering what it means to be baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire. What does that look like? How would you know if you were dipped, or immersed in the Holy Spirit and fire so as to remain yourself but become substantially different? Still a piece of cloth, but with a brighter color? Still a piece of metal, but much stronger, and with your atomic structure rearranged? Still an arrow, but more potent? Still a garment, but fresh and clean? Still a chunk of bread, but more appetizing and digestible?

In Paul’s letter to the Galatians 5:22, he suggests that the fruits, or harvest, of the Holy Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, fidelity, gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22)

What brightens your spirit so that you bring joy to those around you? What gives you courage to stand up for someone weaker? What makes you more effective acting on behalf of someone needing help? What enables you to give up a grudge and embrace the possibility of a new relationship with an old adversary? What softens your hard edges, making you more compassionate and accessible to others?

When have you been patient where you might have been irritable? Open and welcoming when you might have been reserved and aloof? Confident and bold when you might have been timid? Offering kind words instead of the snappy come-back that first flashed through your mind? Calm and clear-thinking in the midst of a crisis, enabling you to be much more useful than you could have imagined?

Answers to questions like these are the footprints of the Holy Spirit making tracks across our lives. And when we look closely enough, they show up in the most outrageously ordinary and amazingly unexpected places.

Dear God, open our hearts to receive this baptism of Holy Spirit and fire, so that we may be immersed in it and come out changed: brighter, stronger, cleaner, and more nourishing, to the glory of God. Amen.