God's holy fire........

Not talking about guns here (at least not at first), but holy fire.  That purifying fire that Luke tells us comes with baptism. Hmmmm.  I can assure you that there is nothing like that in the Lutheran Rite of Baptism.  To be more precise, there is no mention of fire, but there is mention of renouncing all that separates us from God.

The three great renunciations in the baptism rite ask us to renounce (that, my friends, is a pretty intense word) all that drives us away from God, all that lures us away from God and everything that we manage to think up on our own....that pulls us away from God.

 In the old rite, (found in the Lutheran Book of Worship)  the wording was such  "Do you renounce the devil and all his works and all his ways?"  Rumor has it that this simple renunciation was expanded to three separate renunciations in the ELW rite in order to parallel the three sections of the Apostle's Creed (the creed by which we baptize).

One might want to ask, Why even bring the Devil into the conversation at all?  Because we need to recognize that the Devil represents all that opposes God's work of transformation and reconciliation throughout God's creation.  The renunciations are intended to banish the Devil from all participation in the baptism; it is, in fact, an exorcism.

God and the Devil (Satan) play on opposite teams.  One is about life; one death.  One is about love; the other power.  One is about unity; the other victory.  A clip from the movie, The Godfather, makes this distinction clear.  The ancient Latin of the Roman Catholic baptismal rite is juxtapositioned with the violent slaughter of the Corleone enemies.  Here is a link.....WARNING...it is violent.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CDlBLvc3YE

This scene offends us with the fire of this world. God's fire burns off this propensity to violence (word and deed) which lies within us because it keeps us from living out the life that God intends for us.  We watch as Michael Corleone compartmentalizes the life he lives, separating it from the promises he makes at the font. We see that it is possible to pretend to live in God and yet continue to seek the power of this world.

Few of us participate in violence of that degree, and so it would be easy to pretend that baptism is not about power at all.  That would be a mistake.  Each day we choose to trust in God's power in this world, or we choose to use Satan's approach.  The makers of The Godfather have given us a memorable view of the battle being waged.....with the souls of God's beloved children at stake.

Water, fire, spirit.  There is something very important happening at that baptismal font.