Get Ready!

The traditional gospel reading for the third Sunday in Advent is another John the Baptist text. The setting is the wilderness, and John is telling the people what they should do to prepare for the coming of the Messiah. But equally important is what John DOESN'T tell the people to do. Interested? Read my sermon!

The people skills of John the Baptist were… well, not the best! He would never have won a Miss Congeniality award. Calling your listeners a “brood of vipers” is not the way to get yourself invited to holiday parties! If I stood in the pulpit on a Sunday morning and called my congregation “a brood of vipers,” I’m pretty sure that they would not-so-gently nudge me towards retirement! But that’s exactly what John the Baptist said. He didn’t stop there, either! After calling his audience a bunch of snakes, he told them that they needed to start behaving themselves. He followed that up by warning them, “Don’t think that you’re all that and a bag of chips because you’re God’s chosen people. God can choose rocks to be his people!” Yeah, John the Baptist didn’t mince words. But I have to hand it to him; he got results! Luke tells us that the people who were listening not only didn’t throw rotten tomatoes at him; they actually asked him what they should do to change! Even tax collectors and Roman soldiers asked for his advice!

When we read this morning’s text (Luke 3:7-14), we spend most of our time focusing on what John the Baptist told people to do to get ready for the Messiah. But equally important was what he didn’t tell people to do! Let me ask you a question: if you heard that the Messiah was on the way, how would you get ready for him? Would you take more time each day for prayer? Maybe you’d pick up that devotional book that you never got around to reading. You’d certainly go to church more often! My guess is that if you knew that the Messiah was passing Toledo heading south on I-75 on his way to these parts, you’d drop everything and concentrate on your spiritual life. But John the Baptist didn’t say anything to the people about getting their spiritual lives in order. He didn’t tell them to head for the Temple with a sacrifice. He didn’t tell them to enroll in a rabbi’s study group to learn to quote the Torah. He didn’t even tell them to pray every day! No, his instructions didn’t focus on the spiritual aspect of life; they concentrated on the physical. He said things like, “Share your extra clothing so that people aren’t cold, and give away your extra food so that people aren’t hungry;” and he told the tax collectors and the Roman soldiers not to squeeze money out of people so that they had enough to live on. Now, isn’t that odd? Most of us believe that God is way more concerned with our spiritual lives than with our physical lives. Some people even believe that our physical life here on earth is something to be endured, one weary day after another, while we wait eagerly for the glories of heaven. But John the Baptist doesn’t seem to agree with that! He insists that God cares about our physical lives, too!

Let’s consider that for a moment. Does God really care about our physical selves? We know that God created the whole universe and called it “good.” (Genesis 1) Then he created human beings and pronounced them “very good.” And throughout the Old Testament, God told the people through the prophets that just going to church was useless if they didn’t take care of one another, especially the ones who had less than they did. And to make sure that everybody got that message that our physical selves are important, God came to us as one of us. God was born of a human woman in a physical place at a physical time. As the gospel of John puts it, “the Word was made flesh.” That’s the good news of Christmas! God comes physically to be with us as a human being that we can embrace and kiss and hold hands with! The Messiah is more than just a spiritual idea; the Messiah is one of us!

We seem to forget that, thought, on a regular basis. Watch any 1960s movie of the life of Christ and you’ll see what I mean. The Jesus in those movies never crack their faces in a smile. Some of them never even seem to focus their eyes! It’s as though they are looking through everything physical to see something spiritual, because the spiritual is what is really important. But I don’t think that the real Jesus was like that at all. I think that when he was a baby, he cried and burped and spit up and did all the other things that babies do. And when he was a man, he laughed and cried and took afternoon naps and stubbed his toe and probably even told a joke or two! His spiritual life was perfect, of course, because he knew God intimately. But if we believe that in preparing to welcome the Messiah into our lives, we should concentrate only on the spiritual, we’re missing something very important. Jesus didn’t float down into this world as a spirit. He was born as a very physical human being.

So what does all this have to do with our preparations for Christmas? Just this. If John the Baptist told us that the way to prepare for the Messiah was to physically take care of other people (and he did); and if Jesus the Messiah came to us as a human (and he did); and if Jesus himself focused on our physical lives (and he certainly did that) – well, then, maybe we should spend a little time on the physical aspects of life, too, and not just the spiritual. After all, our physical behavior reflects our spiritual behavior. There’s nothing wrong with hanging Christmas lights and singing Christmas carols and buying gifts! While it’s true that the Christmas season often feels more like an orgy of commercialism than preparation for the Messiah, those strings of lights that we put up in such abundance reflect the light that has come into our lives in Jesus Christ. Those evergreen wreaths that we hang on our doors reflect the eternal life that we have in Jesus Christ. The gifts that we give to one another reflect the gift of love that God gave us in Jesus Christ. And when we collect clothing for Rosebud, or wrap shoe boxes for the children there; when we purchase Angel Tree gifts and donate for gift cards for needy families; when we drop a dollar in the Salvation Army kettle or donate to the United Church of Christ Christmas Fund, we are living out the love that God gave to us first. So rejoice! The Messiah is almost here! Get your lives in order! And if you’re not quite sure how to do that… well, when the Messiah gets here, he’ll model that for us in his physical life so that we can be more than a brood of vipers. We can really and truly be God’s people!

Turn Around!

John the Baptist tells us that we need to get ready for the Messiah. But he isn't talking about putting tinsel on the tree or roasting chestnuts oven an open fire. He wants us to repent! What exactly is that all about? My sermon may help to explain it.

I used to have an hourglass sitting on my desk at home, just for my own amusement. When I was stuck writing a paper or outlining a sermon (which was frequently), I would turn that hourglass over and watch the grains of sand falling from the top to the bottom. Sometimes I wondered what it would be like to be one of those grains of sand. I invite you to imagine that with me, just for a moment. As we begin, we’re in the top of the hourglass, shoulder to shoulder with all the other grains of sand; and we’re doing whatever it is that grains of sand do with their time – working in little sand offices, eating in little sand restaurants, and maybe even going to the beach to take a vacation. Our world is wide open and expansive. But then we feel the foundation of our world begin to shake; and we are jostled closer and closer together to all our other sand friends. And then, almost before we realize it, we’re plummeting through a tunnel that becomes narrower and narrower, until we finally tumble through the very center of the hourglass and fall into a world that is very much like the one that we came from, but where everything is upside down! The hourglass opening isn’t “down there” anymore; now it’s “up there.” We are once again in a wide expanse; but now we’re in the bottom of the hourglass.

These verses that we read just a moment ago (Luke 3:1-6) give me that same feeling of falling through an hourglass. The structure of this short section is something like an hourglass itself. It begins by considering the vastness of the entire Roman Empire that is governed by the emperor Tiberius Caesar. Then we move to the slice of the Middle East that we now call Israel, and we meet its governing powers: Pontius Pilate, Herod, Philip, and Lysanias. Next, we move to Jerusalem with the high priests Annas and Caiaphas. Finally, we stand next to a single person: John, the son of Zacharias. From our consideration of the entire Roman Empire, Luke has narrowed our vision to one man in the wilderness. But then, as quickly as it narrows, the scene widens again. John moves “into all the region around the Jordan” to preach. His message is that the Messiah is on the way, and we must prepare for his arrival! Our perspective expands to include the road on which he will travel, the mountains that will be leveled to construct that road, and the crooked paths that will be straightened out so that he can travel faster. Finally, “all flesh” is drawn into the picture. Everyone will see the salvation of the Messiah who is on the way even now, traveling somewhere along that highway. Do you see why the text reminds me of an hourglass? In just six verses, Luke has moved us from the entire Roman Empire all the way down to a single man, and then moved us back out again until everyone on earth has been included.

This text is like an hourglass in another way, too. Just like the sand in an hourglass falls from the top part of the glass to the bottom, Luke moves us from one way of life to another. As the text begins, we are enmeshed in the political power of the world. We are in the company of earthly rulers: Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate, Herod, and Caiaphas. Whatever is accomplished is done by human hands, with human motives, on a human timetable.

But once we fall through the hourglass past John the Baptist, there is not a human being in sight, political or otherwise. We hear a voice – but it isn’t a human voice. We hear a prediction that valleys will be filled, that hills will be leveled, and that crooked roads will be straightened – but human effort won’t accomplish it. And our ultimate destination is the salvation that only God can offer! As we fall through the hourglass, we move from the area of human power into the realm of God’s activity. We travel from politics into mystery; from possibility into impossibility; from the grimly predictable into the wildly unexpected. We move from a place of human control into a place that is under God’s control alone! And at the point of contact of the two realms – at the very narrowest point of the hourglass – stands John the Baptist. He lives on the boundary between a time that ticks along routinely, one controlled, predictable minute following the other; and God’s time that breaks through into ours and allows us a enthralling glimpse of the eternity that is filled by our creator. John may not be the gatekeeper into God’s time, but he is the one who points toward it. He shows us the way to the Kingdom of God!

Now, I don’t know about you, but that’s where I really want to live! Whether we’re calling it God’s time or the Kingdom of God or a transformed life or heaven, we’re all talking about the same thing. It’s a life that’s not mere existence but quality, infinite quality! It’s a life that is so full of the love of God – and the God of love – that there isn’t room for pettiness or hatred or greed. It’s the kind of life that the gospel of John tells us Jesus came to give us in abundance! That’s what John the Baptist is pointing towards. That’s the life that the Messiah offers us. And that’s where we can all live if we will listen to John the Baptist and fall through the hourglass out of the world’s kingdom into God’s.

But John the Baptist preached repentance, didn’t he? And we don’t typically think of “repentance” as being very appealing. We usually think that “repentance” is feeling bad about what we have done. But “repenting” doesn’t mean “feeling bad” at all! Repentance means “turning around.” When we repent, we turn away from the world’s way of doing things and turn towards God’s. We give away our control of things and allow God to take charge – and who knows what will happen when we do that! And John tells us that to get ready for the Messiah, we need to do just that: to change our minds and our lives and fall through the hourglass into God’s kingdom where anything can happen! And what a kingdom it is when we reach the bottom of the hourglass! It may look upside-down when we fall into it, but it is really the place where everything is right-side-up! In the bottom of the hourglass, God is so anxious to get back to his people that God builds a superhighway through the desert so that he can travel more quickly! In the bottom of the hourglass, the ones who God cares for the most are the ones who don’t have any power at all. In the bottom of the hourglass, everybody will see God’s salvation, not just the folks we think are acceptable! In the bottom of the hourglass, the Messiah doesn’t live in a palace, but is born in a stable, rides into Jerusalem on a donkey, and dies on a cross. In the bottom of the hourglass, the victory banquet is bread and wine, given by the Messiah himself; and there’s enough for everybody, from every time and place!

Listen to John the Baptist calling us to repent! Turn around! Change your minds and your ways! Fall through the hourglass out of the ways of the world and into the Kingdom of God! And when you do, then you will be ready to join together with all the other people in God’s Kingdom in welcoming the Messiah.

Pay Attention!

The sections of the Bible that talk about the coming of Christ are not terribly popular with most mainline churchgoers, because these texts have been hijacked by folks who want to use them to predict the future (and scare us in the process). On this first Sunday of Advent, the text is one from Luke in which Jesus is describing what will happen when he comes again. I think that it has something to say to us, especially in these troubled times. After you read this sermon, I hope that you'll agree with me.

So, what zodiac sign are you? That question is more than just a line that you can use to pick up a good-looking girl (or guy) in a bar; because many people think that the stars determine our character. If you were born around this time of the year, for example, you’re probably a Sagittarius: open-minded and loving, but a bit blunt with others. And, of course, you need to read your daily horoscope so that you’re working with the stars instead of against them. If you’re smiling right now at what you consider to be harmless nonsense, remember that lots of people really believe that the heavens determine our destiny. We are fascinated by the possibility that what happens up there has an effect on us down here! But our interest in astrology pales in comparison with the attention that people gave the stars in the time of Jesus. They were convinced that the gods made their actions known to human beings through the movements of the stars and planets! The heavens were alive with activity that we could interpret if we paid attention to it. Van Gogh has captured that activity in his painting Starry Night. It fairly bursts with color and movement! Those are the stars that we watch for clues about our future, and even the future of our world.

Near the end of Luke’s gospel (21:25-28, 34-36), Jesus describes some heavenly activity; and it’s not a happy scene at all. The movement of the stars in the heavens predict disasters on the earth. The sea roars and foams, and the stars themselves are tossed about as the entire universe is shaken and turned upside down like a cosmic snow globe. In this snow globe, though, we are the ones who are thrown hither and yon like snowflakes! And what is the reason for all this commotion? Why, it’s a sign that God himself is coming to set things right in the world that he created but that has gone badly astray. So, what does Jesus tell us to do in response to all this chaos? Should we run and hide in a fortress with a collection of AK47s and a year’s worth of canned food and bottled water? Not at all! “Lift up your heads,” Jesus says, “because your redemption is drawing near!” Far from being victims of all these cosmic disasters, we can rejoice because God is about to rescue us from all the suffering that the world has imposed on us.

I surely see the kind of chaos that Luke describes, and I'll bet that you do, too. Oh, the stars may be fairly secure in the heavens; but we live with chaos on this earth all the time. Hurricanes and tornadoes and wildfires are a big part of it; but that chaos invades our personal lives, too, like termites that silently eat away at the foundation of the house that we had thought was secure. When the checkbook has shown a negative balance for weeks; when the doctor comes into the room where you are waiting and says, “I’m afraid the news isn’t good;” when the voice on the other end of the telephone says, “I’m sorry, there’s been an accident…” Those are the times when the stars fall from the sky, and our world is shaken like a snow globe. At those times, the chaos is so deep that we almost drown in it. At those times, we can’t count on much of anything, and certainly not the worldly powers that caused all that chaos in the first place!

But those are the very times, Luke declares, when we can rejoice, because the Messiah is about to arrive. When our world is in turmoil and there seems to be nothing that we can rely on, we can bet the farm on the fact that the Messiah is coming. Of course, we don’t know when he is coming; so Jesus tells us to pay attention! Watch for signs that God is on the way! Don’t lose sleep worrying; don’t drown your troubles in booze; and don’t run after things that really don’t matter like money or possessions or status! If you don’t keep your eyes open for signs, Jesus says, you’ll miss what really does matter! But when we do pay attention… those are the times when we can see that God has already begun to creep into our world wielding the power of love. The Messiah’s new world of love and justice is springing up around us even in the midst of the chaos! Arundhati Roy affirms that “Another world is not only possible; she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”

Now, the signs of God’s coming aren’t always obvious. There are no neon signs in the sky announcing, “I’m on the way!” and signed “God.” But wherever we see love, charity, compassion, unselfishness, and hope, we catch glimpses of the God who is creeping in among us. Those glimpses are sometimes very hard to see. But the Kingdom of God won’t arrive with trumpets and cymbals. It will creep in among us like a baby born in the night. If you are quiet, you can even hear that baby breathing – soft baby breaths of God’s Spirit that will one day fill the hearts of everyone on this earth! God is coming to be with us! The one who created us – the one who created this whole world – is on the way to set it right! So don’t be afraid when chaos surrounds us! It’s not the sign of the end of the world! It’s the sign of the beginning!