Matthew 3:1-12 NRSVUE
3 In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, 2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” 3 This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said,
“The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord;
make his paths straight.’ ”
4 Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. 5 Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region around the Jordan were going out to him, 6 and they were baptized by him in the River Jordan, confessing their sins.
7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Therefore, bear fruit worthy of repentance, 9 and do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. 10 Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
11 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is more powerful than I, and I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
How many of you know what winnowing is?
How many of you have winnowed?
I had never done this before I practiced it this week!
I chose to simulate winnowing with paper and candy, rather than trying to buy a sheaf of wheat.
So the idea is that rather than trying to shell your grain crop by hand, you first thresh the crop — basically beat it with sticks to dislodge the wheat from the straw.
Then rather than trying to pick all of grain out of the straw you toss it all in the air and let the wind do the work.
The lighter straw blows away and the heavier grain, falls onto the threshing floor, where it is swept up and placed into clay jars for storage.
Winnowing would have been a very familiar practice at the time today’s Bible reading was written, and for many centuries following, until the invention of the Combine machine, which cuts, threshes and winnows in one machine that leaves the straw behind for convenient bailing.
In modern farming the Combine leaves the chaff with the straw and it is used for animal bedding and garden mulch.
But before Combines, the chaff was a mess of prickly, small, sawdust like stuff that was often full of bugs and mold – so the best thing to do with it was to burn it. Burn it to kill the bugs and the mold to prevent the bugs and fungus from infecting the soil or getting into the grain.
So John the Baptist is saying a lot in verse 12!
Most of us just don’t have the agricultural context to hear it!
So John is out by the river telling people that God is up to something new —
The Kingdom of God is among us, so repent — turn away from your sins – turn away from the things that harm others and harm ourselves.
And John was offering a ritual bath – Mikvah is the Jewish word for a ritual bath that involves full immersion into clean or flowing water.
Some Jews still do observe Mikvah — as a ritual of purification after illness, or childbirth….or as a ritual of transition or healing.
https://www.jewishportland.org/ourcommunity/rachels-well-portland-mikvah
So John wasn’t doing something brand new or distinctly Christian, when he began baptizing people in the Jordan. John was inviting people into a ritual of purification and transition.
Right now, we are in a season of transition.
The post world war 2 era that was the second half of the twentieth century is over.
COVID didn’t start this transition, but COVID is a time marker – a sticker on the calendar of our imaginations that feels like it draws the line between how we used to live and how things are now.
Everything is being called into question.
Church membership.
Our form of government.
How we work and how much we work.
How or if we retire?
Most importantly – our values and daily choices are being called into question.
The first Century was also a season of transition.
A season of political change.
A season of religious change.
A season of social change.
That’s why people went to be baptized by John.
Their lives felt uncertain, so they came to John for a ritual of transition.
A ritual bath to help them commit to letting go of what wasn’t working in their lives and reorient themselves towards God.
When John saw the Pharisees and the Sadducees he didn’t believe that they were there to commit themselves to change.
John didn’t believe that the Rich and Powerful Rabbis and Priests were there to let God winnow their lives. John thought the rich and powerful were there to use John’s baptism as a publicity stunt to justify themselves and keep doing what they were doing.
John yells, “You Brood of Vipers… do not presume to say to yourselves,” that you’re right with God just because your ancestors were members of the faith.
That’s why John starts talking about fruit trees and axes and winnowing and burning chaff.
Because in seasons of transition…
When God is doing a new thing…
When the world has gone crazy….
There’s no room in our lives for chaff.
So with everything being too much right now, I’m asking myself 3 questions:
Is this mine to do?
This week a colleague asked me if I could participate in a climate action. I believe that climate change is a critically important issue. I care about climate change. But that’s not the work I’m being called to do right now, so I said no.
Is this mine to do, doesn’t mean that something isn’t important or good, it just means that it’s somebody else’s work.
We are the Body of Christ together and God has called somebody else to do that work.
Is this mine to do?
Is this chaff?
Is this chaff that is infesting my schedule and eating up my time and energy, without producing anything good?
It’s so easy for me to get sucked into arguing with people on social media. I try to be pastoral, but still, most of those accounts aren’t even people – they’re bots. Spending time arguing with them doesn’t change hearts or minds. It just sucks time and energy out of me that is needed for important things.
For me, that’s chaff and I need to let it float on by.
Is this chaff?
Is this fluff?)
Is this fluff?
I think it’s important not to confuse chaff with fluff.
We all need some fluff in our lives.
Fluff being the soft, comforting things that get us through hard times.
For me fluff is spending time with my guinea pigs, playing games with my family, or going on Star Trek the Cruise, and visiting NASA, February 19th- March 2.
For me the difference between chaff and fluff is that chaff drains my energy and fluff restores my energy.
Fluff is the harvest of cotton balls, that are lighter than the hard shells they are grown in, that can be woven into the warmth and shelter that we need to get through difficult times.
In times like these, I find winnowing helpful.
Is it mine to do? Or someone else’s.
Is it chaff? That drains my time and energy
Is it fluff? That restores my soul.
