Sometimes you have to burn the chaff to get to the wheat.[1]

There was a newly ordained priest serving his first parish, and one of the first tasks he was given was to officiate a funeral for a man who had recently passed. The man had been somewhat eccentric. During the service, the priest turned to the widow and said, “Mrs. Vinson, I know this must be a terrible loss. But I can tell you this: that here lies only the body, it is the husk. The nut has gone to heaven.”

Now, I’m sure that’s not quite how he intended to deliver that message. But that idea of the husk and what’s inside shows up in today’s Gospel.[2] We find ourselves by the banks of the Jordan River, where John the Baptist is preaching. He’s preparing the way for someone greater than himself, someone so holy that John says he isn’t even worthy to untie his sandals. And then we hear this image of wheat and chaff: “He will gather the wheat into his granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

Now, if you’re like me, when you hear that verse, it’s tempting to think, “Well, obviously I’m the wheat. And those people over there, whoever “they” are, are the chaff. Surely Jesus is coming to burn them, right? But I’m here to tell you, that's not what Jesus meant. There’s something deeper going on. Today, we need to ask for God’s strength to speak this truth clearly, because the imagery in today’s Gospel, especially around baptism, speaks directly into our present-day experience. John says, “I baptize you with water, but one who is more powerful than I is coming. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” Water. Fire. Water... fire.

This is more than poetic language. This is real life. Right now, our country has been ravaged by water on one coast and fire on the other .Many of us here know all too well what it means to deal with flooding. And yet, on the other side of the country, others are living through destructive wildfires. (Hurricane Helene in Florida, Hollywood fires in CA). What if we could meet somewhere in the middle? Seems that one side could provide the other with what they need. One could dry out and the other could douse. What if we, as Christians, came together, not to judge who is wheat and who is chaff, but to uphold one another in these trials? Would we support each other? Or would we dare to think that someone “deserved” what they got?
Is that what Jesus meant by separating wheat from chaff?

Let’s think about wheat. It takes a lot of water, about 15 to 18 inches of seasonal rainfall, to grow and even when it’s grown, you can’t enjoy the wheat unless you remove the husk. The husk gets a bad reputation: it’s inedible, it’s seen as useless, so we toss it aside. We thresh the wheat, we beat it, so that the husk separates, and the kernel can be used. Back to the opening question: If faith is like a kernel of wheat, is it possible that sometimes we must burn the chaff in our lives to get to it?

Let’s reflect on our own lives, in light of the life of Jesus. Jesus, a man of prayer, sought baptism before beginning his ministry. But wait, was he not the Messiah? If so, why did he need to be baptized? Baptism, after all, was for the penitent, for sinners, for people in need of repentance. If we go back even further, in the days of Israel, baptism was not something every Jew did. It was for Gentiles, those outsiders who wanted to convert to Judaism. To be baptized meant saying, “I want to be all in. I want to be part of God’s covenant people.” So why was Jesus baptized? Not for repentance, as he was sinless. He came to show us how to be the wheat. He came in human flesh, surrounded by the “husk” of our earthly limitations, to meet us where we are.

He meets us at the water in his baptism, and he leads us to the fire at Pentecost. Water and fire. Wheat and chaff. They go hand in hand. God is our faithful harvester, inviting us to the threshing floor, to be refined, to be made whole. Shortly after Jesus is baptized, a voice comes from heaven. We heard that voice echoed today in the choir’s beautiful anthem: “Give us the voice.” Yes, there is a voice, a voice for each one of you. God is calling you: “Come to me. Come to me, all who want to be harvested, all who want to know their purpose. Come to me, all who are willing to lay down the husk and be made new.”

What is the chaff in your life? What is it that’s covering up your true nature, your soul? When we get to heaven, we will not be carrying this body with us. That is the husk. What God treasures is the wheat, the soul. And that soul, planted in faith, is meant to grow. To nourish. To reflect Christ in the world. But it takes vulnerability. It takes prayer. It takes courage to be separated from our false selves, from what we cling to.
Baptism is the beginning of this journey. It’s where we dedicate our lives to God. When do we get to harvest that wheat? When we are ready to be separated from the chaff. It may even occur at the moment when a newly ordained priest is standing over a worship service for the recently deceased. When he prays that this person will not be remembered as “the nut who went to heaven.”

Dearly beloved, if you love Christ, and I promise you, he loves you, then know this: He is bringing you water, to help you grow and he is bringing you fire, to purify, refine, and prepare your soul.

Faith is like a kernel of wheat. And yes, sometimes, all the time, we need to burn the chaff to get to it.

[1] The Rev. Jon Roberts
[2] Luke 3:15-22