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| The Preaching of St. John the Baptist by Pieter Bruegel the Elder |
The Holy Gospel
according to St Matthew, the 3rd Chapter
according to St Matthew, the 3rd Chapter
Glory to You, O Lord
In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." 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.'" Now John wore clothing of camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance. 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. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. "I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 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." (Matthew 3:1-12, NRSV)
This is the Gospel of the Lord
Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Saviour, Jesus who is the Christ. Amen
The World's Only Way Out--Repent
There is a purely American art form that has been lost to the American scene over the last 25 to 30 years. It is the Circus Poster. Some of you can remember those colorful posters that were hung about a month before the circus would come to your area announcing the greatest show on earth. These posters would announce the glory, the "thrills, the glamor and the excitement of the most magical of worlds SOON to arrive for one day and one day only.The life of the bill poster was tedious and hard work, never accompanied by applause or any sign of appreciation. Few people even noticed him at work, but when he was done, the results of his hard work were seen on barn sides, wooden fences and store windows. It was not at all his job to call attention to himself; his job was to leave a visible sign, a visible proclamation of the greater than himself that was yet to come.
The Circus was coming to town!!
So, our text for this morning from Matthew’s gospel, tells of another whose job was not to point attention to himself, but to one who was coming who was greater than I." John was not the big show, but he came to proclaim that the big show was coming.
Jesus was coming!!
Yes, this is the season to get ready, to prepare for the one who is coming. We light the Advent candles on the wreath this morning as a signal that someone is coming and we have the next weeks to get ready.
But ready for who?? Who is coming?
Beginning today and continuing the next weeks of Advent, we will answer that question, who is coming.
We will answer the question posed by our hymn of the day,"What child is this, who laid to rest, on Mary’s lap is sleeping?"
What child is this who is coming?? Does he get confused with another who is coming this season? I would imagine if we asked our children who is coming they might answer with another song that is sung during this season.
You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout, I’m telling you why, Santa Claus is coming to town! He knows when you’ve been sleeping, he knows when you’re awake,he knows when you’ve been bad or good so be good for goodness sake!!"
Yes, this is the season to get ready. Ready for the Christ child in our lives. John the Baptist gives us a hint this morning about how we are to get ready for the Christ child in our lives.
John brought and still brings into our lives a message for personal repentance. This message that told people they needed, to get out of the ruts, the grooves they are in, to change, to turn around from the kind of lives they are living, to change, to make a 180 degree turn. Advent is the time for us to look at our lives, to note the changes that need to be made and then to make them.
The Greek word for repentance is metanoia. Meta means "to change or shift" and noia means "perspective." It literally means a change in the way one views things. Repentance means not only saying you’re sorry, it means you are going to genuinely change and mend your ways.
John was preaching a repentance, a change in the way things are done. Not just being sorry, but changing the way things are done by us.
"The repentance that John was preaching goes beyond making some flip comment about being "sorry". Sorry is what we are if we go to the store and bring home a loaf of pumpernickel bread when we were asked to bring home rye. The repentance that John preaches is better understood by the phrase "a contrite heart". This is a heart that finds its present condition unacceptable. A heart that seeks real and substantial change. A heart that is prepared for the coming of the Christ. This is a repentant heart for the forgiveness of sins. The question John puts before the people living in the Jordan valley and the question that people in each generation must ask is: What are those areas in our lives that need purifying? Where are the places where we have gone astray? Where the path that scripture led us was too hard to follow? Where does our indifference to injustice and oppression that others must endure stand as roadblocks to God’s rule on earth?
John’s voice comes down to us over the years. John’s voice is the stoplight in the wee hours of the morning. It is the lighthouse guarding ships from shallow waters, calling us to change our course. Calling us to prepare the way for the Christ.
"Picture yourself looking in the bathroom mirror as you begin your beauty regimen after getting up in the morning. I’m talking about after you get over the initial shock over what you see! I don’t want to gross anyone out by getting you to think of looking at yourself in the mirror. It is an essential part of the beginning of our day. If you are like me you want to have plenty of light to shine upon the blemishes and disarray and may want to squint very closely into the mirror as you begin the repair work.
So it is with repentance. Repentance puts us into the frame of mind to shine the light on our lives, to look into the mirror, and begin to see all the clutter that is there. We see the blemish of sin, we see the disarrayed hair of inappropriate behavior, we see the scraggly whiskers or caked-on make-up of broken relationships. Most of us would no doubt make a decision right then and there to start the repairs, to do something about what you see. Some would simply go back to bed!!
But John does not want us to go back to bed, but to begin the process of repenting, of changing our ways.
An example;
Not too many years ago newspapers carried the story of Al Johnson, a Kansas man who came to faith in Jesus Christ. What made his story remarkable was not his conversion, but the fact that as a result of his newfound faith in Christ, he confessed to a bank robbery he had participated in when he was nineteen years old. Because the statute of limitations on the case had run out, Johnson could not be prosecuted for the offense. Still, he believed his relationship with Christ demanded a confession. And he even voluntarily repaid his share of the stolen money! ( Today in the Word, April, 1989, p. 13 )
What Child is this? A child that leads us to repentance, a child that challenges us to change our ways, to shine a light on our lives so that with and through that child we might change.
Repentance simply means to change form.
In Clarence Jordan’s Cotton Patch interpretation of the Bible he uses the illustration of the caterpillar-butterfly image to clarify the real meaning of repentance.
"The ugly caterpillar crawls along, in the dirt with the warm sun shining upon him. Then he climbs by instinct out onto a limb of a tree and weaves a cocoon all around himself. The sun continues to bathe him with warmth and when the time is right something wonderful happens to him. The protective shell begins to crack and break open with new life. He emerges changed, changed into a new form to face a whole new world.
Jordan’s continues," The happiest, most joyful thing you’ll ever do is to metoroia.
Would you say to the caterpillar,"Well little fellow, you know I sure feel sorry for you--you’re fixin’ to become a butterfly. It’s terrible man! "
And the little fellow weeps and moans and groans because he’s fixing to be a butterfly.
No! His birthday is here. He’s about to enter into a new order that God Almighty has prepared for him. The happiest thing a little caterpillar can do is to metamorphose. And the happiest thing for a person is for the light of God to shine on him for him to be taken out of his darkness and put in a new order of things."
John is calling us to change, to change our form. To look beyond what is, to what we can become. John is calling us to change, not to just say we are sorry for our misdeeds, or our deeds we should have done and didn’t. He is calling us to change, to become that caterpillar, to have a birthday in Christ.
And John calls us through the ages. He calls us through modern, "John the Baptist" to change in this modern age. We can look at this text and say, pastor that is then this is now. How do I know what needs to be changed? How do I know what to look for?
Modern John the Baptist are all around us, look, see, experience.
A closing story tells it well:
The streets of one suburban town in northern New Jersey ooze with history. There is a stately gothic Episcopal Church on one corner on the main street and a matching town library on the other. One can walk down the maple tree lined streets to the town green. To the south, on the hill, is where Washington's army spent one of the winters of the Revolution. Walking the streets from the church to the green there was, some years ago, an odd character dressed in a green parka with worn fake fur trim. Let's call him Robert. Robert wore the parka summer and winter. He talked to no one but muttered at everyone. Unclean. Strange. Robert was, during the 80's, as much a fixture in the town as the town hall or the Victorian building housing "The Men's Club."
Robert was the "dean," the "chairman" of the street people in that community. He certainly had his few minutes of fame. The library tried to ban him from the building because of his odor and odd habit of staring at library patrons. Robert's rights to smell and to stare were duly upheld by the courts in New Jersey. He refused to eat in the soup kitchen or sleep in the shelter. He would eat what he could scavenge and he slept in a mysterious cranny near the train station.
One cold clear morning, as the rector of the Episcopal Church made his way down the path from the rectory to the parish hall, Robert called out from the steps of the library: "Hey! Reverend, I need to talk to you! Hey, Reverend!"
It was bitter cold and the street was covered with ice and packed snow. Robert slowly maneuvered his way to the church driveway. The priest stood shivering as he watched the strange figure in the bright sun, make his way across the street. "Reverend, it's too cold at night. You'll have to keep the church open at night and turn up the heat." Always the gentleman, the rector pulled his scarf over his face to keep out the cold - and the smell.
"Robert, you know the church is open from 9 in the morning until 5 o'clock. Everyone is welcome." Ignoring the words being spoken, Robert continued, "It's too cold. Some folk won't go the shelter and there's not room for everyone. Now, you keep the church open and it'll give people a safe place to go. It's what you're supposed to do, isn't it?" Robert didn't wait for an answer. He had finished giving his orders for the day and turned to take his place at the library.
That morning at the parish staff meeting the bitter cold was discussed and the need for a safe place for the homeless to gather. Calls were made to the shelter. The soup kitchen's director was invited up to join the conversation. That night the doors were left open to the church and the heat was turned up. Volunteers served coffee. Robert was no where to be seen.
Robert took a liking to the church's curate. Hired to oversee the soup kitchen and other outreach ministries, this newly ordained priest was always around the street folk. Robert decided that the curate was all right. He cornered the curate at the bank ATM machine near the town green on a hot August day. As Robert did with the folk he liked, he got right up into the priest's face. "Hey, Reverend. Are you doing O.K. today? You know, I need to talk to you about someone." "Well, that's fine Robert." The priest moved up wind as he responded. Robert continued, "You know Shirley? Well Shirley wants to go to your church. You need to invite her." The curate thought for a moment and slowly asked, "You mean she wants to attend a service." "Yeah, she wants to go to church. She thinks you and the guys in the soup kitchen are real nice. So, you invite her to church."
Shifting in the sun, the curate decided to pull Robert's chain a little. He asked, "Well, Robert, why don't you bring her to church on Sunday. There are services at 8, 9, and 11." Robert stared at the priest indignantly and replied, "Well Reverend, I'm Jewish and I make it to Temple on High Holy Days. Shirley is one of yours and if she's good enough for you to feed, she's good enough for you to have in church, isn't she?" "Well yes," the curate said.
Robert turned and walked back down the street toward the library. The curate watched the man in the green parka turn into the doorway of the library. The money from the bank machine was still caught in the metal jaws waiting to be collected.
Shirley walked into church with Mrs. Terwilliger on Sunday morning. The colorful scarves and flowers in her short-cropped Afro highlighted Shirley's dark brown skin. A thin woman in her late forties, she had fought the demons of mental illness for years. She was educated and articulate. Except for the extra skirts and the paper bags filled with her worldly possessions, she seemed as natural part of the community as her blue-haired patrician guide. They took seats next to Mr. Terwilliger. She nodded to the clergy as they processed into the sanctuary. She had found a place. Robert was at his usual place in front of the closed library.
The voice of one crying in the wilderness - or in the desert - or on the street corner - or in the seat next to us: "Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." The voice of one whom points to this kingdom. What is it like, this kingdom? This is place where there is room for everyone. Room for almost everyone - although the smug, self-confident, those with all the answers, "you brood of vipers," might find it hard to find a place. Yet even the "vipers" hear the voice of warning and of new possibilities.
For those of us who know Jesus Christ as Lord, the "kingdom of heaven" makes real the presence of the king in our lives. The voice of warning is also the promise of a New World, a new way of living life. In this New World, honor and welcome are a given. There is no room for smugness and self-righteousness. This voice is the word reminding us of what we know: God has come to dwell among us. We are therefore reminded of God in the faces and the lives around us.
What child is this? A child who call for repentance.
Listen to the voices that remind us that "The kingdom of heaven is at hand!"
Amen
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The New Revised Standard Version Bible may be quoted and/or reprinted up to and inclusive of five hundred (500) verses without express written permission of the publisher, provided the verses quoted do not amount to a complete book of the Bible or account for fifty percent (50%) of the total work in which they are quoted. Sermon by Tim Zingale.
