"Winnowed Wheat" - Sermon for Baptism of our Lord Sunday 2016

Sermon:

Text:

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who welcomes us in baptism.

            We talked about it briefly last week, but Wednesday was Epiphany, the time when the Wisemen arrive to visit Jesus and they bring him three gifts. Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh. The Gold showing that he will be a king, the Myrrh used in the anointing of Priests to show that he will be the great high priest, and Frankincense used in the process of anointing the dead, showing that Jesus, this great king, great high priest will offer himself as the sacrifice for our salvation. It’s told on Epiphany because it shows who Jesus is to the World, He’s the true king, the high priest, and the one who goes to the cross. Epiphany means manifestation, being made known, and so it’s here that Jesus is revealed to the world.

            And today we find ourselves on another Holy Day, which always falls the Sunday after Epiphany, the Baptism of Our Lord, when we read the story of Jesus’ baptism by John, which is when Jesus begins his ministry to the world. It too is another moment where we see Jesus made known to the world. In our Luke reading it is after Jesus has been baptized and he is praying that the heavens are opened and the Holy Spirit descends upon him like a Dove and we hear the words, “You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.”

            The people then, and us now, all become witnesses to God’s pleasure at what Jesus has done, and what he will do, and in the method of this revelation, we also see foreshadowing of what he will do. The opening and rending of the heavens are again revisited in Christ’s death as the curtains of the temple are torn in two. In Christ’s baptism we see God’s manifestation and revelation as the one who will go to the cross, and bring God forth from the confines of the temple to the whole world.

            Before we arrive at that part of our text though, we read an introduction from John the Baptist. “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.¹⁷ 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.”

            I want to look at this section for a little while. The process of winnowing and threshing is something that we don’t really witness anymore, with most combines the process is done as the wheat is harvested. But, before this automation, the wheat would be cut still on the stalk and dried, after it has dried, it would be brought to the threshing floor, pretty much a large open area, where it would be beaten on the ground to knock the grain off the stalk, but it would also release the chaff, which is the seed covering that helps keep the grain on the stalk as it grows. Resulting in a large pile of both grain and chaff. To then remove the unwanted chaff, the grain and chaff is thrown into the air using the winnowing fork which allows for the wind to blow the light chaff away, while the heavier grain falls back to the floor.

            It’s important to see that the chaff however is a part of the whole grain plant. It’s not a separate thing, it’s simply the unwanted part of the grain. Which means we understand what John is describing here as not Jesus dividing between those of us who are worthy and those who are not, but Jesus removing from us, that which is unwanted.

            It then of course relates to the baptism that John is referring to. It’s in our baptism that this is all done. The chaff of our life is removed in this process of threshing and winnowing, not punishing us, but making us clean and pure.

            Luther had a way of talking about this chaff, he used the phrase that we all have an old adam or an old eve in each of us. Not some old aged person, but the former adam, or former eve, the adam and eve that succumbed to temptation and sin. Those people dwell in us, they are a part of us. It’s the part of us that wants what we want, when we want it. That only cares about who we are and what we get, and doesn’t take even a moment to consider the needs of others. All that matters is us and our wants.

            And to Luther this is what dies in our baptism. Did you know that? That in Baptism you die? We die to sin in our baptism, and then we are raised anew in Christ, reborn into the Body of Christ. The old adam and old eve are in turn replaced by the new Christ. And our baptism happens only once, whether as a child or adult, but its effects are everyday. Everyday we die and are reborn as children of God, sealed by the Spirit and marked by the Cross of Christ forever. You can try to remember this everyday, as you shower or wash your hands, remember that through the power of the word of God, we have been washed clean of sin and joined to the body of Christ.

            And as the body of Christ, we are called to show forth to the world the love of Christ who goes to the cross for us, opening the door to eternal life. We are called to be little Christ’s to our neighbors, helping those in need, healing the sick, comforting the grieving, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked. To be people who God would say of, “With you I am well pleased.”

            And we do all this knowing that God has been revealed to the world in the one who is the great king, the great high priest, the one who goes to the cross for us, who brings salvation to us, and that is why we can go out to reveal this to the nations.