The age-old battle for the remote control has claimed many casualties through the years. Monday Night Football on one channel, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition on the other, and a remote lying within reaching distance of two eager hands.
Recently, my hand moved slower than my wife’s, and so we spent that Monday evening basking in the spectacle that is…The Bachelor.
Now, what is so fascinating about this show? It’s not the romantic quest being played out by one man amidst a wilderness of women. In fact, the real intrigue is not seen on the screen at all; it’s heard on our couches and in our living rooms.
The real drama plays out in our judgment, and our judgment is simple. Someone is either “Good” or “Bad.” We see an edited 15-second clip of a young woman, and apply a blanket characterization.
We love the Black & White nature of these programs. We love the easy labels of “Hero” or “Villain,” “Nice” or “Mean.” This dynamic is made clear at the end of every episode of The Bachelor, when we witness the Rose Ceremony, a moment when the women receive roses if they make the cut.
What an illustration! What clarity! If you get a rose, you’re in; if you don’t, you’re out! Doesn’t get much more black and white than that.
In the Gospel of Mark, we find an interesting story that can help us understand today’s Gospel reading from Luke. In Mark 9, Jesus encounters a father and son. The boy has long suffered in the grip of a wicked Spirit, and the father begs for Jesus’ healing help. Jesus reminds the father that faith makes all things possible.
“I have faith!” cries the father. “Help me in my un-faith!” And, his son is healed.
How does this story play out in our culture today? How does this father look on one of our reality shows? Would we let him be the complicated, messy, “Real” man of faith and doubt that he is? Or would we demand one of two simple labels: Believer or Unbeliever? Faithful or Unfaithful?
Look into your own life; search your own heart. Has the road to faith been a simple path with one destination? Or have we gone from port to port along the way? Have we made stops at Anger? Doubt? Fear?
Perhaps we discover, in the end, that faith is not a destination, but the force that keeps us moving through all these painful pit stops.
As I approach the 6-month anniversary of my fledgling marriage, I have come to recognize how this relationship serves as a metaphor for Faith. When we are young, we might be tempted to think that something magical happens once we get married. As if one morning you wake up married, and your weakness is gone, your joy is permanent, the sailing is smooth.
Since my wife comes to the 11:00 service (Even though my wife is here), I’d like to take a quick minute for rebuttal.
Our marriage has presented us with bigger stumbling blocks than our years dating ever did. We had to decide together to move 1/6th of the way around the globe for this year. Now that we’re here, we have to learn how to make joint decisions with money that is now “Ours” instead of “Mine” and “Hers.” And, as mentioned earlier, we certainly have to learn how to share the remote. Let’s just call that a work in progress.
Marriage is not different because it’s so simple; marriage is different because it endures through difficulties. So, marriage is not a destination we arrive at after getting through the tough stuff; marriage is the promise that sustains us during that tough stuff!
That sure sounds like faith…
I’m willing to bet that there is one particular passage in today’s gospel lesson that draws the most attention. “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."
It’s this short section wherein we find the deep, dark secret of death and life. John the Baptist’s voice echoes through the centuries; his words carry the great mystery that we all puzzle over. Who is “In” and who is “Out?” Who is saved, and who is cast into fire?
Oh how we love this question today! Our minds are so accustomed to this kind of puzzle! This is nothing more than the Rose Ceremony all over again! This is what we do to ourselves late at night! We lie there wondering if we have earned a rose, or if our loved ones have earned a rose. This is torture!
Bible passages like our Gospel lesson don’t help much, do they? John tells us that the “Wheat will be separated from the Chaff, and the Chaff will be thrown into the fire.”
Yikes! Well, which are we—wheat or chaff? Actually, the fear around this question causes us to make things a little more specific. Which am I?! Forget about you guys! Which am I—wheat or chaff?
Pretty soon, this question dominates our lives. It turns our gaze inward; everything we do, we do for our own sake. It traps us in the Sinful Self-Centeredness we are trying to escape! Remember last week: The good that I should do, I don’t. The Evil I don’t want, I keep on doing.
The harder we try to “Do” our way into Wheat-iness, the further we are dragged into Chaff-iness.
Why is that? Well, when I’m stuck worrying about my own skin, it is impossible for me to worry about my neighbor. It is impossible for me to focus on God. This seems like a good time to remember what Jesus tells us is the Greatest Commandment. At Matthew 22 and Mark 12, Jesus speaks:
“This is the first and greatest commandment. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.”
But, when we are stuck in fear, uncertain of our own fate, how can we look beyond ourselves to love and serve God and our neighbor?
While we are focused on the fire, nothing else seems as important.
and
When we focus on God and neighbor, the fire fades into the background.
Now, this doesn’t mean we can forget about the fire. It’s right there in the Scripture. The Fire is real! Judgment is real! But, now we must be careful to avoid the temptation that surrounds us, the temptation to think only in absolutes: Black or White, Sinful or Righteous, Saved or Condemned.
Instead, we remember that the wheat and chaff grow from the same root. There is not a wheat plant and a chaff plant. Not one of us is purely sinful; nor are any of us perfectly righteous.
Remember the father who cried out to Jesus, “I have faith! Help me in my unfaith!” He is both wheat and chaff!
This is our situation! We are wheat, AND we are chaff. We don’t start out as chaff and turn into wheat over the course of our lives. We don’t exist as wheat and then backslide into chaff during moments of doubt.
At all times, we are both—simultaneously!
But that still leaves the question of the Fire. Nobody wants to wind up in those flames!
Well, the good news is, we’ve already felt them! The waters of our baptism double as the flames that burn away all the chaff in our hearts. The author of Luke writes that Jesus will baptize us with the Holy Spirit and Fire. Because of Christ’s promise, God will look on us with the grace and mercy we cannot earn.
What does this tell us? Just as Faith is not a destination but a travel companion along life’s doubt-filled path, this Fire is not the end of a sinner’s journey. Instead, this Fire washes over us every time we hear Christ’s promise, burning away our chaff and leaving us as pure wheat for God’s kingdom.
And, so we are free! Free to forget ourselves and remember God and neighbor. Free to move a few short verses before today’s Gospel lesson and fixate on what he wrote there. Focus on what we see when our eyes can be torn away from the Rose Ceremony that concerns us so greatly.
So, when we ask John the Baptist what do we do now that we don’t have to worry about wheat, chaff, and fire? John says, “If you have two jackets, share one with someone who has none. If you have more than enough food, share with someone who is hungry.”
May we walk confidently, serve God boldly, and love our neighbor truly! Amen.
Intern Mark Dixon