First Reading:
11A shoot shall come out from the
stump of Jesse,
and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
2The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
3His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.
He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
or decide by what his ears hear;
4but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
5Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist,
and faithfulness the belt around his loins.
6The wolf shall live with the lamb,
the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
and a little child shall lead them.
7The cow and the bear shall graze,
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,
and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder's den.
9They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain;
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.
10On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to
the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall
be glorious.
Second Reading:
3In those days John the Baptist
appeared in the wilderness of Judea,
proclaiming, 2Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come
near.
3This 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.’
4Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a
leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild
honey. 5Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were
going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, 6and
they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
7But 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? 8Bear fruit worthy of
repentance. 9Do 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. 10Even 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.
11I 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. 12His 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.
I read a story this week about a child who made something for his
parents. It kind of hit close to home for me because it happened at
preschool as the parents of all the children gathered at pick-up time
to watch the Christmas performance they'd been working on. The kids
sang their songs and recited the poems they'd practiced. And as they
were about to be dismissed for the Christmas break, the teacher
announced that little by little and step by step over the last month
the children had made something, a special surprise that was to be a
Christmas gift for their parents. It was news to most of the parents
and they were told to wait until everyone had their gift before
opening. So as the kids were dismissed from their performance lines,
section by section, they ran to their cubbies to claim their projects
and then ran to give it to mom and dad. All the while the teacher
could be heard reminding them, no running in the
classroom
… but that didn't seem to matter. They were so
proud of what they had made and they were so excited to see their
parents' reactions… Kids kind of have a one track mind
sometimes. And there was one small boy who was trying to run, and
hold onto his brightly wrapped package, and wave to his parents all at
the same time… and his feet got tangled up with a chair or
perhaps another kid… it didn't really matter exactly what
happened but the surprise flew from his hands, bounced off the table
and then hit the floor with an obvious ceramic crash. Immediately the
child began to cry. His dad walked toward him and with the best
intentions he wanted to minimize the incident and also to comfort his
son so he reached out stroked his hair and said Don't worry about
it… it doesn't matter… it really doesn't matter at
all.
There are some who would say that's the same kind of sentiment God has toward us when something happens and we fall short of our intention… or when we aim short of our potential. They say it doesn't matter… it really doesn't matter at all, God's grace is bigger than that. And it is. But every year, as we observe advent and prepare for Christmas, we're met by John the Baptist, preaching a message of repentance and using images of all different sorts of judgment. John's definitely a wild character: living in the wilderness, wearing camel's hair, eating locusts and honey… He's not what you might consider an establishment person and yet he shows up in all four gospels. This passage from Matthew and the parallel passage from Luke are probably the best known description of a prophet for most Christians.
When the Pharisees and Sadducees came out to be baptized John didn't mince words. You brood of vipers, he called them. He filled them in that their status as Abraham's children didn't make them as special as they thought… and he warned them that the ax is at the root, trees that don't bear good fruit get cut down and that the one who is coming will separate the wheat from the chaff… With all that fodder in such quick succession, John and his words have been the subject of many a preacher's fire and brimstone sermon over the years giving a little dose of judgment and fear during this Advent preparation for Christmas. I can't help but be aware that probably the last thing most of us need, especially at this time of year, is a dose of judgment and fear, and yet at the same time, all of us are in a position to be able to hear a call to repent… and we have to remember that's what John was proclaiming in the first place.
So, let's look at the difference between the two… Every church that I've ever been to, this one included has some share of people in attendance who are recovering from Christian judgment… There are plenty of verses in scripture that call for admonition or rebuke of one sort or another… There are plenty of places in scripture where some behavior is called out as wrong or unhelpful. And throughout the ages there have been well meaning Christians who have used any number of those passages to beat up other well meaning Christians… Whether the particular issue in focus is drinking, or sex… food or gambling… lust or even biblical interpretation, a standard is raised and then backed up by the threat of judgment. Their spoken message is often that God will judge and their acted message is often that they will too… A good friend of mine who was a pastor in another denomination got divorced (it wasn't anything scandalous) but because he did he wasn't able to serve as a pastor any more in that denomination. A volunteer with a youth group where I used to work was a recovering alcoholic. One night he told me the story of how he ended up at that church because the pastor welcomed him in and helped him walk through the process of finding an AA community. He said it was the toughest point in his life and the previous pastor at another church told him that drinking was a sin and he was welcome back to church when he'd stopped. Now I like to attribute the best motivation possible so I'm sure that everyone involved wanted what was best for those two people, but the way they attempted to go about it had very little to do with repentance and it had everything to do with judgment.
When the Pharisees and the Sadducees came to John to be baptized, notice what he did… You see John, had a wonderful combination of acceptance and admonishment. He baptized them… which is to say that he welcomed them into community… and he also challenged them. He challenged them to examine themselves, to notice where they were not living up to their potential when it came to living for God, and then to let God change them. He said don't presume that being a descendant of Abraham is enough! Bear fruit worthy of repentance.
And repentance really is a holistic activity. It involves looking at the backward at the past and looking forward to the future. When we look back, there are a whole slew of things that we've done and a whole slew of things that we've left undone to reach the point where we are and without an honest assessment of the past, there's not the possibility of authentic change for the future. And then when we look forward and we see everything that's open to us, to repent is to desire and to ask for the grace to choose differently… and then further, to make that choice. It's a matter of choosing what will draw us, each of us closer to God, and closer to bearing fruit. Looking backward and looking forward, noticing where we've grown distant, where we've strayed and where we've chosen not to follow God's way and then also noticing what it is that we need in order that we might start doing, or stop doing something that would draw us closer to God… that's the movement of repentance. That's what John was proclaiming. Examine yourself and then let God change you. The lesson from Isaiah today speaks of justice and righteousness that are evidence of Christ's coming. And I'm aware that we can hope and pray and wait for God's promises… but it would be better if we chose to live toward them… to not settle for less than our intention and to not aim short of our potential. God's grace is certainly big enough to deal with our shortcomings and failures but still, what we do does matter.
The dad in the story earlier didn't recognize that… as he was
trying to console his son by saying don't worry, it doesn't matter,
what the kid was hearing is that all of his work and all of his effort
didn't mean anything… but the child's mother who was somewhat
wiser in such situations came over, gave her son a great big hug and
said But it does matter, it matters a great deal
and she sat
and she cried with him…
And as we look back at the things that have brought us to this place, there very well may be circumstances and incidents from our own lives that God will sit and cry about with us. But that's only because what we do matters. And as we look forward there are hopefully things that will make God rejoice with us because God does care about the effort that we put forth. God cares about the worship we offer, God cares about the fruit of justice, righteousness and compassion our lives produce, and God cares about what's going on in the world around us. It's a message that's consistent throughout the whole biblical witness… and perhaps there's no place where we see it as clearly as when we gather around the table…
The foregoing sermon was given by Rev. Dan Holland at the United Parish of Bowie on the Second Sunday in Advent, December 5, 2010.
© 2010 Daniel Holland
