We're going to change the world

You have been assigned a mission, should you choose to accept it. It will bring hardship, it will involve stretching your boundaries and being uncomfortable at times. This quest will colour every decision, and influence every choice. It is not to be undertaken lightly. But others who have gone on this quest have also reported findings of joy, fulfilment, and a deep sense of purpose. This quest involves slaying dragons, building networks of contacts, delivering messages, training padawans, and traversing unknown territory. But fear not. Nobody is sent on this great quest alone, and nobody is sent unequipped.

Do you accept?

Jesus’ birth story is only in two of the four gospels. The magi, the wise men, who are the reason for the season of Epiphany which we are now in, only appear in one. But all four include John the Baptist proclaiming the repentance of sins, and the coming of the Messiah. ‘One who is more powerful than I is coming’. And Jesus comes, and Jesus is baptised. The son of God himself undergoes the baptism of water, and receives the gift of the Holy Spirit. His quest is beginning. This is the real start point of Jesus’ ministry in each gospel. And as with all good quests, this one was going to change the world.

Now, does the prospect of changing the world seem a bit overwhelming? Never fear, it’s been done by many famous people before us. Frodo Baggins, Lucy Pevensie, Luke Skywalker, Harry Potter… the list goes on. The world has been saved many times over. But did you know you were next in line?

If you’ve followed in Jesus’ footsteps and been baptised, you too are on a quest. A quest of discernment and spiritual groundedness. A journey of challenge and change and life and death. The greatest of all callings - to embody God in your own self.

But the tricky bit is that for most of us, it sometimes doesn’t feel terribly obvious that we are on this mission. Of course some people do have more dramatic stories, but for myself, starting out on the quest of faith was a bit anticlimactic.

Through childhood, I was brought up to admire the dramatic conversion story. At youth group we watched videos about criminals turning their lives around in jail, or people being converted against all odds. It seemed that we were supposed to aspire to the most compelling and movie-worthy tales of lives of darkness turned to salvation. And I was very curious to see if the sky would cave in or if I would be transformed somehow if I took the plunge (literally) by saying the prayer and getting baptised myself. I mean, who wouldn’t want that transformative experience?

But when I was baptised, it was so… normal. The sky didn’t open to bestow a dove or lightsaber or sword. I found that when we become Christians, we are set on this quest, but it can seem like we’re in stealth mode, sometimes even to ourselves. And yet we are told that everything is changed. We are not who we were. Our purpose is something new. Because newness is what it means to be baptised with the Holy Spirit.

Yes, for Jesus it was pretty dramatic - complete with the voice of God rumbling from the heavens. But the coming of the Spirit isn’t really the singular Ta-Daa moment. Instead it’s just the beginning. The first page. The opening salvo that sets us on the path. Jesus being baptised was the first thing that happened, and then his whole ministry unfolded in the years that followed, complete with hardship, hunger, suffering and death, but with the Spirit guiding and accompanying him every step of the way.

For the gift of the Spirit is what equips us. Like Dorothy’s red shoes, a magic wand, or a coat of mithril, the Spirit is empowering us, there to lean on and draw strength from. The Spirit emboldens us, nudging us, giving us power and courage we may not have otherwise. In other words, it is transformation, but it’s a transformation that asks us to continually and consciously engage with it in order to utilise its full potential.

That’s where the New Covenant comes in. The way of living within God’s presence that Jesus made possible. That’s why we have the Baptismal Covenant, an affirmation of our faith and what it means to us. When we join together in saying the baptismal covenant together in a minute, you’ll notice that it isn’t just about belief. We don’t just say, “I believe in God and that’s great”, we commit together to actual action as a result of those things we say we believe. We commit to going on the quest.

Now, you all know that no good quest is without its challenges. In the gospel reading John talks about the winnowing fork and unquenchable fire, and that is partly what the Holy Spirit does as well. It works within us to remove what doesn’t belong, to turn us away from all that holds us back from being who God calls us to be. And the trouble is that fire burns. It’s not comfortable. This quest isn’t cosy. Being a person of faith, or part of a body of faith, isn’t comfortable - or it shouldn’t be.

My toddler Heather’s favourite book at the moment is the Very Hungry Caterpillar. At the end of the book, the caterpillar becomes something new - a beautiful butterfly. But the transformation required losing what he was before. Being refined or winnowed is similar. Our quest will transform us into something new, if we are willing to let it. This is the life-long journey of how God shapes us into God’s image through the gift of the Spirit.

The baptismal covenant is a reminder of this mission that we said yes to when we accepted the call to live Spirit-filled lives. Jesus’ own baptism started all of this off, and at our own baptisms we entered into this new covenant; we committed to continue the journey of faith, to resist evil, to seek justice, to love our neighbors, and to proclaim the Good News of Christ.

It’s a lot to take on, and we don’t get to finish until we reach those pearly gates. But the good news is that we don’t do it alone. The Spirit goes with us, guiding, sustaining, and empowering us every step of the way, even in the normal and mundane moments when we might forget the greatness of what we are called to. The Spirit strengthens us when we’re weary, inspires us when we’re uncertain, and equips us to live faithfully in all circumstances. If we let it. If we open ourselves to the winnowing and the change and the new existence of becoming the butterfly.

So, do you accept? The mission isn’t always dramatic, but it’s always significant. I wonder where your quest will take you. I wonder how it will shape you. I wonder how your calling will bring God into the world through your own Spirit-filled self. For whether we’re slaying dragons or serving quietly, the Spirit equips each one of us to live out our call.

Baptism with the Holy Spirit is a profound gift. It marks us as God’s beloved children and empowers us for God’s mission. It unites us as one family and transforms us into the image of Christ. And through it, we step into the great story of God’s ongoing work of salvation and love, the new covenant offered to everyone, spoken and given and held out to others by our own hands by the grace of God, as we follow our quests to embody that Spirit spark in our souls.

Amen.

Acts 8:14-17;  Luke 3:15-17, 21-22