On Threshing and Winnowing
Sermon for Sunday, January 10, 2010 (Year C, Epiphany 1)
The Feast of the Baptism of our Lord
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. (Luke 3:17)
The gospel today is Luke’s account of the baptism of Jesus, which is prefaced by John’s denial that he himself is the Messiah. Messianic expectation is building in Palestine as people struggle to survive under the burden of Roman occupation. John’s preaching and baptizing along the Jordan clearly has made people wonder, “Maybe this John is the one!” But John throws cold water (no pun intended) on their speculation: “I baptize you with water,” he says, “but one who is more powerful than I is coming… He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Luke 3:16)
John’s comment, along with other apocalyptic texts in both the Old and New Testaments, have led to endless speculation about when the end of the world will take place. Indeed, as I worked on this sermon yesterday afternoon, the History Channel aired an hour-long program on “The Seven Signs of the Apocalypse,” featuring earthquakes, volcanoes, celestial anomalies, and maybe Detroit winning the World Series again. Predicting the end times has become a lively and lucrative cottage industry.
For example, some are saying that Dec. 21, 2012, will mark the end of time, because that is the day the Mayan calendar is supposed to end. If you need proof, look no further than the movie “2012” which lays it out in a computer-generated, surround-sound cataclysm of earthquakes, windstorms, tsunamis, and some really mediocre acting. Unfortunately, the idea that the world will end on Friday, Dec. 21, 2012, is based (so I read) on a misinterpretation of the Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar. This calendar has a unit called a b’ak’tun, which is equal to about 394 years, and it is the 13th such b’ak’tun which ends in 2012. Unfortunately for Hollywood, the 14th b’ak’tun begins on Dec. 22, 2012, and there are at least six more thereafter. By my estimate, then, the world will not end for at least another 7,882 years, or until the year 9894 — on a Tuesday, at 4:37 in the afternoon. So relax! You still have time to pack.
Being so taken with our apocalyptic visions, we might not give sufficient weight to John’s reference to that winnowing fork and to the wheat and chaff. This is often lumped in with the apocalyptic material and interpreted as Jesus’ culling of good folks from evil folks, with the evil receiving their just deserts in eternal and “unquenchable fire.” (Luke 3:17) But I think John intends something else by this reference to common agricultural practice in 1st century Palestine.
If you remember your high school science classes, wheat is a protein-rich grass of the genus Triticum. Domestic varieties have been cultivated for at least 9,000 years. The more primitive types — einkorn, emmer, and spelt — have hulls which tightly enclose the wheat grains. Varieties grown today, such as common (or bread) wheat and durum, have brittle hulls which easily break away. These hulls, once loosened, are called chaff.
People in John’s day grew the more primitive kinds of wheat, and therefore had to loosen the hulls mechanically, usually by placing the grain on a hard surface and beating it with a flail or having donkeys or oxen walk on it. This is threshing. The chaff was then removed by winnowing. This generally involved using a basket or special fork to throw the wheat into the air so that the breeze could blow the chaff aside. The chaff was later burned, tilled back into the soil, or fed to animals. John’s winnowing image speaks to the kind of baptism the Messiah would administer.
Now, we generally think of baptism as an event — as a sweet and joyous ceremony which usually takes place when we are just a few weeks old or, more rarely, and as is the case today, when we are old enough to remember our baptism. We even get a handsome certificate, suitable for framing, which declares that this event has taken place.
However, I would suggest that John’s image describes not an event, but a process. And more especially, this process does not involve separating good wheat from evil wheat. Remember that threshing and winnowing is the way grain is made suitable for human consumption. In the case of wheat, the inedible, dry, scaly protective casing is removed so that the wheat grain inside is usable and its nutritional value is available. I have to assume, then, that baptism at the hands of Jesus is a threshing and winnowing process by which our own hard hulls are removed so that the rich wheat inside us is exposed.
Suddenly, baptism doesn’t seem the sweet naming ritual so many people imagine it to be. Or more precisely, its sweetness has a sharp, even bitter, edge. The sweetness of baptism is in the many good things which come to us with this ritual. We are adopted by God as his children. We are made members of the Body of Christ and inheritors of the kingdom of God. We are given gifts of the Holy Spirit. We are ordained as ministers of the Good News of Christ. We are born again and assured of eternal life.
But there’s no such thing as a free lunch. As baptized Christians, we share in the both the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We share both his suffering and his triumph. Thus, along with all the good things of baptism, we should also expect — in some form, at least — to be beaten with flails, walked on by farm animals, and thrown into the air so that whatever in us is unworthy will be blown away. Only this threshing and winnowing will make us ready for the Lord’s granary.
If all this sounds a bit threatening, let us remember the great Irish hymn known as St. Patrick’s Breastplate, the words of which are attributed to Patrick himself. You sang it just a few moments ago. Today, as we renew our baptismal vows — and as Mark Lindquist takes those vows for the first time this morning — let us bind unto ourselves the fullness of our faith in God. As verse 2 declares:
I bind this day to me forever, by power of faith, Christ’s incarnation;
his baptism in the Jordan River; his death on cross for my salvation;
his bursting from the spiced tomb; his riding up the heavenly way;
his coming at the day of doom: I bind unto myself today.
It is this commitment, forged in baptism, which makes sense of verse 6, when we pray:
Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.
In baptism we bind ourselves to the Lord who, by his life, death and resurrection, has won for us everlasting life. Knowing that, we may be certain that Christ will see us through every test, and share with us every joy, this life may bring. Amen.
— The Rev. John E. Laycock, Interim Pastor
Readings for Year C, Epiphany 1: Isaiah 43:1-7 • Gradual — Psalm 29 • Epistle — Acts 8:14-17 • Gospel — Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
Collect for Epiphany 1:
Father in heaven, who at the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan proclaimed him your beloved Son and anointed him with the Holy Spirit: Grant that all who are baptized into his Name may keep the covenant they have made, and boldly confess him as Lord and Savior; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.