Isaiah 43:1-7
But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you. Because you are precious in my sight and honored and I love you, I give people in return for you, nations in exchange for your life. Do not fear, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you; I will say to the north, "Give them up," and to the south, "Do not withhold; bring my sons from far away and my daughters from the end of the earth – everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made."
Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
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 strap 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."
Now when all the people were baptized and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."
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”When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.”
I remember well the first time that I prayed with these words. I was in the seminary struggling with the awareness of being a gay man. In a way, this was not a new revelation. But in another way, confronting the truth of this part of me at such a level was quite new. And very frightening.
What would it mean? Would I be expelled from the seminary? Shunned from my family and friends?
These and other questions kept swirling within me. But the assurances were present at an even deeper level: I will be with you, you will not be overwhelmed or consumed.
I had not thought about those days — nearly 30 years ago — in quite some time, but as soon as I read the lectionary readings for the Baptism of the Lord this Sunday, they came rushing back.
But this time, the text also took me deeper. It wasn’t just the assurances that caught my attention. It was also the invocations of the elements of Fire and Water — mingling with the elements as they mingle with us.
Of course, the elements that can be daunting and hazardous. The wildfires in Los Angeles this past week have served as a stark reminder of this.
The elements can also be strengthening, creative — bringing us into a state of flow, a strength of being.
But what to make of this in the context of baptism — the primary rite of initiation in the Christian path?
I believe that a life of following in the way of Jesus calls us to both — to sense the assurance of reality — to know that we are held in something much larger than us — something that cannot let us go because we are so etched into it.
We are also invited to sense our relationship with the elements — not only the flow of water, the transformative power of fire, but also the lightness of air, the groundedness of earth, and the expansiveness of ether. And through our relationship with the elements, we can share in the creativity of forging something new.
And maybe, just maybe… as we do, we can know our own belonging that is no less than that of Jesus: You are a child of the Cosmos, you are Beloved.
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