25 December 2011 “Keep Unwrapping” Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)
I believe it would be the perfectly normal thing to come to church on Christmas day, feeling all warm inside from the joy of the morning, and expect at worship to have that joy sustained and even, if possible, raised a bit.
Christmas is such a wonderful time of the year. It is a time of anticipation and celebration. It is a time we unashamedly celebrate in our hearts the birth of the baby Jesus. While tinged with anxiety, a baby being born is also a time of celebration. And the Christmas birth is no exception.
We love hearing the familiar story and the eye witness accounts of the scene in the stable. And we can imagine the first time the baby Jesus must have cried and those standing by smiled and longed to pick him up and comfort him in any way they could.
We also realize more than just a baby has been born this day. Jesus becomes a man, a different sort of man. He becomes a man of peace, conviction, wisdom and moral fiber. This day a savior is born!
Shortly after his birth there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Than an angel of the Lord stood before them and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid.”
I can only imagine how those shepherds must have felt when the angel of the Lord stood before them. Actually, that’s not right, I cannot imagine. Having never knowingly had an angel of the Lord stand before me, I cannot imagine how they felt. But, something caused the angel to say to them, “Do not be afraid!”
There are times we need to hear those same words. In the midst of real suffering we long to hear, “Do not be afraid.” In our darkest hour we pray an angel will come to comfort us saying, “ Do not be afraid, for see I bring you good news of great joy for all the people.”
Good news of great joy. This is the emotion at the heart of Christmas, great joy. Not a joy that creates pleasure or euphoria. No, this is a joy that creates in us a new desire, an enthusiasm, a passion, an eagerness. This Christmas emotion of great joy is God’s joy, it is a joy that comes from a God who still cares for this creation and all those faulty selves that live in it.
Often we read in scripture of the importance of having wisdom about these things. If knowledge is the makeup of things and wisdom the significance of things, we learn through Luke’s gospel the importance of this Jesus who comes to us first as a baby, then a man, and finally, a messiah.
Let me caution you from the beginning. The story of Jesus’ birth, his life as a man, even as messiah does not tell us the complete story. Jesus has a deeper purpose. He lived to be in relationship with each of us. Which means we are all related to that child and we are all related to one another. This truth is hard to fathom. The world we live in is not a world that sees and acts and does things as if we were all related. On the contrary, we hear proclaimed every day, there are foreigners in our midst.
Janet and I have been blessed with the births of seven grandchildren and I can tell you, families come together at a birth like at no other time. Others of you have had similar experiences with a family, or friend, or neighbor. It is not that we don’t always get along, it just seems that at a birth particularly we find ourselves excited to see even the most cantankerous brother or sister, aunt or uncle. For they have come to see the baby and they too have traveled from afar, they have come bearing gifts of glad tidings. With each birth comes great hope and a new chance to love innocently again.
God really started the whole thing. From the very beginning, God creates. And that creation has not stopped. That is what God does. And babies may be the crown jewels of God’s creation. It should come as no surprise to us that God’s redemptive act often begins with the birth of a child. For Abraham it was Isaac, for Hannah it was Samuel and for Isaiah and all the people of God the promise again is through the birth of a child.
This child then becomes a man. A different sort of man. A man of peace, conviction, wisdom and moral fiber. Yet, there is more to this Jesus than this. Who among us is without sin? No one. Who among us is without material possession? No one. Who among us is wiser than the wisest ruler, wisest priest, wisest sage, and wisest truth teller. No one.
This man Jesus lives like no other before him. He was a teacher. His lesson was about living in this world and the next. He performed miracles. He healed the sick, cured the lame, and raised the dead. He was a prophet. He knew about the kingdom to come. He could see into the future and offered us a picture of a reality greater than the one of this world. He was a priest. He brought passion and gentleness and caring and healing to a bitter and frightening world. He was a peacemaker. He found gentler ways to respond to violence and terror and threats. He was a ruler. He ruled with love and justice and mercy. He was a sage. He was a wise man. He knew the significance of things and he committed his entire life to bring truth to a world torn by illusion longing for understanding.
This Jesus, this man of human flesh and blood, born to us again this Christmas is the truest compass to the good ever known to mankind. This Jesus, if we have ears to hear, teaches right living in the eyes of God. Right living with all of God’s creation. He excluded no one. He includes us and everyone around us and everyone known and unknown to us and everyone who has come before us and everyone who will come after us. Everyone is included in Jesus’ world both here and in the world to come.
His message is simple, yet impossible at the same time. Simple in theory, but impossible in reality. Simply to say, I can do that, impossible to actually do. Impossible if we dare take life on alone. Absolutely possible if we unite with the one who desperately desires our company.
With Jesus Christ, born this day to be our savior, all is real. This world and the truth found in our faith, they are real. This Christmas season makes that truth alive.
The zeal in this mornings Christmas story is in the personal nature of God’s promise, “to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.” “To you is born this day”, to you and to me and to all God’s people, our Savior is born.
In the movie “Field of Dreams”, a child of the 1960’s turned Iowa farmer suddenly hears a voice telling him to plow up his fields and build a baseball field. “If you build it, he will come” says the voice. Ray, the farmer, obeys the voice and finishes the field. The voice visits again, telling Ray, “Ease his pain.” Mystified by whose pain he is supposed to heal, Ray begins a long search for the one who will be healed by this cornfield turned baseball diamond. One day, Ray’s father, who had died before Ray had ever had a chance to build any kind of meaningful relationship with him, appears on the field for a game with several other ballplayers. With tears in his eyes, Ray believes he has finally found the one in need of healing. “Ease his pain,” murmurs Ray. As his father steps across the field Ray says, “It was for you Dad that I built this field.” “No Ray,” says one of the players gently. It was built for you. “It was for you.”
It was for you and for me that Jesus came this Christmas season. It was for our hurts, our sins, our failings, our broken heart, our doubt, our grief, our anger. We were in the dark and he wanted to be the light to guide us back home.
The transforming moment of Christmas comes when we claim our place at the manger. When we realize that the Christ Child has come, not just for the world, but for us. It is not just world peace that he promises, but our peace.
My prayer this Christmas is that we will accept this gift, that we will realize our exhaustion is good, for our weakness is God’s strength. Our emptiness gives God room to enter in to our lives and to allow us to take our place alongside the manger and join with the heavenly host who proclaim, “For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and his is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
In the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever. Amen
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Sunday, December 25, 2011
Sunday, December 11, 2011
11 December 2011 Waiting for the Light John 1:6-8, 19-28
11 December 2011 Waiting for the Light John 1:6-8, 19-28
Along with age, we would hope, should come wisdom. While wisdom is often elusive, I have come to the understanding, sometimes the hard way, learning patience in the meantime can be helpful.
When younger, I liked cars. I had a 1955 Chevrolet that I wanted to ‘fix up.’ I was not patient about it. I wanted it fixed up immediately. It was a costly lesson.
My next ‘schooling’ was when we had children. Being patient with children is like trying to mix oil with water. When babies, they need immediate attention to keep them dry and fed and not crying. They will not wait. When two, they want what they want when they want it, which is, as you know, immediately. Being patient is a foreign notion in the world of young children.
Despite the immediate nature of life and family and work and play we can learn about patience. We can learn it may help keep us out of trouble. That too we may have to learn the hard way. We may also learn being patient is instructive. How often have we hurriedly packed for a trip then patiently waited for others to finish their packing, only to remember something we had forgotten. Having a time of patient waiting is a good thing.
Today is the third Sunday of the advent season. We have learned these past two Sundays about being prepared, holding vigil, waiting and watching for the coming of our Lord Jesus. He is to come at first for his birth and then again for his second coming. We may be surprised how taking a moment, waiting, and being patient may help in our preparation.
The thought of Jesus’ coming at Christmas brings joy and excitement with thoughts of family and celebration . And we cannot wait! The though of Jesus’ coming to judge us, on the other hand, can bring a fair amount of anxiety. For that we could wait many life times.
Preparation for Christmas offers honest delight. Memories from before. Hope for the time to come. Preparation for the second coming offers a wholly different preparation. It is about living our lives as faithful covenant people, following God’s commandments, loving one another, praying and being penitent. Sometimes patience and waiting seem to have no place in either.
When in High School, our son Kevin, was in the play “West Side Story”. It is a musical about a New York street gang, the Jets, and the return of one of their former members, Tony. At first Tony doesn’t want to return to that old life, but then his enthusiasm builds. In his excitement about being back with his old friends and the new adventures they will have, he sings a song called “Something’s Coming.”
This could easily be our theme song for advent. Something’s coming, a messiah, Jesus, who will be our savior and our judge. But, we have to wait. We have to wait until the 25th for Christmas and we have to wait for a second coming we have no date for. With built in excitement for one and anxiety for the other, I wonder how patient we will be.
Tony sings on, “There is something due any day, it may come cannon balling down through the sky, gleam in its eye, bright as a rose! Who knows?”
In the gospel reading this morning we learn who knows. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. Bright as a rose! Who knows?
Like Tony, our excitement for this season is building, but unlike Tony, we are not being asked to return to an old life, we are being called to an alternative life, a new one, to a new place, a place of hope and expectation. “Something’s coming,”
Last Sunday, John was identified for us in Mark’s gospel as a baptizer. This Sunday, in John’s gospel, his role has changed. Here John is to be a witness to Jesus. Through John’s witness, the world will come to know the presence of God in Jesus. Through John’s witness, the world will come to know the presence of the light to the world. The light in the ancient world was a symbol for recognizing God and life everlasting. In the New Testament, the light is Christ, the light of the world who calls us out of darkness into his marvelous light.
The good news this Christmas season is this marvelous light has already entered into many of us. Here, in our heart and soul, we have received the light of Christ. Our entry point to this truth is our baptism.
Baptizing babies, all dressed in white, doesn’t appear to be so life changing on the surface. Without it, however, we are lost to a world of darkness. John warns us, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord.” Here is a clear and powerful critic of our lost world of darkness and sin. John’s voice is crying out to tell where he is and where we are also. It is from our wilderness of sin that we are to make straight the way of the Lord. Our baptism becomes our entry way to making our life straight, making an alternative lifestyle.
Our conversion to this new life will only be successful through the steady, patient, there is that word again, intentional, prayerful, and worship filled new life that we Christians testify will draw us closer to Jesus and indeed make us safe and joyous. That alternative life is one grounded by scripture and enacted through the tradition of the church. We have both at hand here with us this morning.
The preparation we face today is one of living and practicing this new life by remembering the baptismal light that is alive in our very soul, then living as if this truth makes a difference. Every step we take in our preparation for the coming of the babe is a step toward a life dedicated to our new life as an apostle, as a disciple, as one who loves Jesus more than life itself. Every step we take in our preparation, in our ministry, as beloved followers of Jesus Christ, is a step to improve our baptism by living with increasing singularity of purpose and commitment to honor our calling as children of God.
God’s Spirit will work where it will and accomplish its purposes. But often what stands in our way is our own impatience and our belief that the Spirit in us cannot be stirred and that we cannot be opened to new possibilities. When we cover over and deny our impatience, our faith grows hard and we find ourselves committed to the wilderness without the grace to rethink our position.
The Old Testament theologian, Walter Brueggemann, says, “The darkness in our life hides the source of the grace we need to live in the light.” Our darkness hides God’s grace, Jesus’ love and the power of the presence of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit that indwelled us at our baptism is not a wall, it is like the wind. It is not coercion, it is possibility. It is not a threat, it is our opportunity, our guiding light, to this new life of hope and expectation.
It is vital and necessary that we have this advent season. It is our time to prepare ourselves for a life with Christ because, when we are honest with ourselves, we are simply not prepared. Who among us can truthfully say, take me today Lord, I am ready. This is truth telling about the shape we are in. And that truth telling makes us free. Free to live a life of new possibility.
“Who knows?” Tony sings in the musical, “I got a feeling there’s a miracle due.” The Christian writer, Vicki Lumpkin, agrees, “The Light of the world stands in our midst. In taking a human body, Jesus has blessed our humanity and given tangible form to God’s reconciling love.” Isaiah 61:9 also agrees, “We are truly the people whom the Lord has blessed. We are blessed by God’s presence, by God’s intervention in our lives, by God’s grace and love given to a people who often fail to recognize it.”
John tells us that the One for whom we wait often stands unrecognized. He often appears in unexpected places and acts in surprising, unexpected ways. What then are the things that prevent us from recognizing this miracle? Living in our public life perhaps. Needing to slow down. Being patient enough to open our eyes to see the miracle before us.
The Epistle reading for today calls us to live in a state of intimacy and communion with God, to do that which is good and avoid what is evil. We may have more straightening out to do than we realize. But there is hope filled good news!
The wilderness in our lives is also a place of holy encounter – holy ground. The ‘wild place’ we inhabit on a daily basis is also the dwelling place of one who is extraordinary. We have not been abandoned. We don’t have to wait until some future date to experience the miracle of God’s grace.
Tony sings, “And something great is coming!” Indeed, something great is coming, something beyond our wildest expectation is coming. It is right around the corner. God has spoken a Word of love, made it real, and set it in our lives. It is an incarnate, an en-fleshed Word of justice, mercy, and restoration. His name is Jesus.
“Who knows!” Tony sings, “Maybe tonight . . . ” The message of John is “maybe today!” And this is a message worth waiting patiently for; this is a message worth our preparation. Someone great is coming, his name is Jesus.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit one God now and forever. Amen.
Additional resources:
“The Christian Century,” November 29, 2005, pg. 22.
“Preaching and Worshiping in Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany,” pg. 108.
121111.gpc
Along with age, we would hope, should come wisdom. While wisdom is often elusive, I have come to the understanding, sometimes the hard way, learning patience in the meantime can be helpful.
When younger, I liked cars. I had a 1955 Chevrolet that I wanted to ‘fix up.’ I was not patient about it. I wanted it fixed up immediately. It was a costly lesson.
My next ‘schooling’ was when we had children. Being patient with children is like trying to mix oil with water. When babies, they need immediate attention to keep them dry and fed and not crying. They will not wait. When two, they want what they want when they want it, which is, as you know, immediately. Being patient is a foreign notion in the world of young children.
Despite the immediate nature of life and family and work and play we can learn about patience. We can learn it may help keep us out of trouble. That too we may have to learn the hard way. We may also learn being patient is instructive. How often have we hurriedly packed for a trip then patiently waited for others to finish their packing, only to remember something we had forgotten. Having a time of patient waiting is a good thing.
Today is the third Sunday of the advent season. We have learned these past two Sundays about being prepared, holding vigil, waiting and watching for the coming of our Lord Jesus. He is to come at first for his birth and then again for his second coming. We may be surprised how taking a moment, waiting, and being patient may help in our preparation.
The thought of Jesus’ coming at Christmas brings joy and excitement with thoughts of family and celebration . And we cannot wait! The though of Jesus’ coming to judge us, on the other hand, can bring a fair amount of anxiety. For that we could wait many life times.
Preparation for Christmas offers honest delight. Memories from before. Hope for the time to come. Preparation for the second coming offers a wholly different preparation. It is about living our lives as faithful covenant people, following God’s commandments, loving one another, praying and being penitent. Sometimes patience and waiting seem to have no place in either.
When in High School, our son Kevin, was in the play “West Side Story”. It is a musical about a New York street gang, the Jets, and the return of one of their former members, Tony. At first Tony doesn’t want to return to that old life, but then his enthusiasm builds. In his excitement about being back with his old friends and the new adventures they will have, he sings a song called “Something’s Coming.”
This could easily be our theme song for advent. Something’s coming, a messiah, Jesus, who will be our savior and our judge. But, we have to wait. We have to wait until the 25th for Christmas and we have to wait for a second coming we have no date for. With built in excitement for one and anxiety for the other, I wonder how patient we will be.
Tony sings on, “There is something due any day, it may come cannon balling down through the sky, gleam in its eye, bright as a rose! Who knows?”
In the gospel reading this morning we learn who knows. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. Bright as a rose! Who knows?
Like Tony, our excitement for this season is building, but unlike Tony, we are not being asked to return to an old life, we are being called to an alternative life, a new one, to a new place, a place of hope and expectation. “Something’s coming,”
Last Sunday, John was identified for us in Mark’s gospel as a baptizer. This Sunday, in John’s gospel, his role has changed. Here John is to be a witness to Jesus. Through John’s witness, the world will come to know the presence of God in Jesus. Through John’s witness, the world will come to know the presence of the light to the world. The light in the ancient world was a symbol for recognizing God and life everlasting. In the New Testament, the light is Christ, the light of the world who calls us out of darkness into his marvelous light.
The good news this Christmas season is this marvelous light has already entered into many of us. Here, in our heart and soul, we have received the light of Christ. Our entry point to this truth is our baptism.
Baptizing babies, all dressed in white, doesn’t appear to be so life changing on the surface. Without it, however, we are lost to a world of darkness. John warns us, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord.” Here is a clear and powerful critic of our lost world of darkness and sin. John’s voice is crying out to tell where he is and where we are also. It is from our wilderness of sin that we are to make straight the way of the Lord. Our baptism becomes our entry way to making our life straight, making an alternative lifestyle.
Our conversion to this new life will only be successful through the steady, patient, there is that word again, intentional, prayerful, and worship filled new life that we Christians testify will draw us closer to Jesus and indeed make us safe and joyous. That alternative life is one grounded by scripture and enacted through the tradition of the church. We have both at hand here with us this morning.
The preparation we face today is one of living and practicing this new life by remembering the baptismal light that is alive in our very soul, then living as if this truth makes a difference. Every step we take in our preparation for the coming of the babe is a step toward a life dedicated to our new life as an apostle, as a disciple, as one who loves Jesus more than life itself. Every step we take in our preparation, in our ministry, as beloved followers of Jesus Christ, is a step to improve our baptism by living with increasing singularity of purpose and commitment to honor our calling as children of God.
God’s Spirit will work where it will and accomplish its purposes. But often what stands in our way is our own impatience and our belief that the Spirit in us cannot be stirred and that we cannot be opened to new possibilities. When we cover over and deny our impatience, our faith grows hard and we find ourselves committed to the wilderness without the grace to rethink our position.
The Old Testament theologian, Walter Brueggemann, says, “The darkness in our life hides the source of the grace we need to live in the light.” Our darkness hides God’s grace, Jesus’ love and the power of the presence of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit that indwelled us at our baptism is not a wall, it is like the wind. It is not coercion, it is possibility. It is not a threat, it is our opportunity, our guiding light, to this new life of hope and expectation.
It is vital and necessary that we have this advent season. It is our time to prepare ourselves for a life with Christ because, when we are honest with ourselves, we are simply not prepared. Who among us can truthfully say, take me today Lord, I am ready. This is truth telling about the shape we are in. And that truth telling makes us free. Free to live a life of new possibility.
“Who knows?” Tony sings in the musical, “I got a feeling there’s a miracle due.” The Christian writer, Vicki Lumpkin, agrees, “The Light of the world stands in our midst. In taking a human body, Jesus has blessed our humanity and given tangible form to God’s reconciling love.” Isaiah 61:9 also agrees, “We are truly the people whom the Lord has blessed. We are blessed by God’s presence, by God’s intervention in our lives, by God’s grace and love given to a people who often fail to recognize it.”
John tells us that the One for whom we wait often stands unrecognized. He often appears in unexpected places and acts in surprising, unexpected ways. What then are the things that prevent us from recognizing this miracle? Living in our public life perhaps. Needing to slow down. Being patient enough to open our eyes to see the miracle before us.
The Epistle reading for today calls us to live in a state of intimacy and communion with God, to do that which is good and avoid what is evil. We may have more straightening out to do than we realize. But there is hope filled good news!
The wilderness in our lives is also a place of holy encounter – holy ground. The ‘wild place’ we inhabit on a daily basis is also the dwelling place of one who is extraordinary. We have not been abandoned. We don’t have to wait until some future date to experience the miracle of God’s grace.
Tony sings, “And something great is coming!” Indeed, something great is coming, something beyond our wildest expectation is coming. It is right around the corner. God has spoken a Word of love, made it real, and set it in our lives. It is an incarnate, an en-fleshed Word of justice, mercy, and restoration. His name is Jesus.
“Who knows!” Tony sings, “Maybe tonight . . . ” The message of John is “maybe today!” And this is a message worth waiting patiently for; this is a message worth our preparation. Someone great is coming, his name is Jesus.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit one God now and forever. Amen.
Additional resources:
“The Christian Century,” November 29, 2005, pg. 22.
“Preaching and Worshiping in Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany,” pg. 108.
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04 December 2011 Wilderness Survival Mark 1:1-8
04 December 2011 Wilderness Survival Mark 1:1-8
I admit to a wave of nostalgia every time I hear the old 60’s protest song, “Abraham, Martin, and John.” It may sound familiar, “Has anybody here seen my old friend John? Can you tell me where he’s gone? He freed a lot of people but it seems the good die young. I just look around and he’s gone.” The song, first recorded by Dion, is a tribute to the memories of Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr., and John and Robert Kennedy.
“My old friend John” refers to the late President John F. Kennedy. But I wonder if during this second week of Advent we might consider a reference instead to John the baptizer? Has anyone here seen our old friend John? The one who first appeared in the wilderness.
Perhaps John is someone like Jason Cole, the associate pastor at Parkway Baptist Church in Natchez, Mississippi who happened to answer the phone when National Public Radio called in late September 2005, and he spoke for the heroism of a church that was in its fourth week of providing shelter to hundreds of people displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
Jason reported, “We have said several times during our worship services that we don’t want to go back to being ‘normal.’ People have stepped up to be involved in ministering to people. We have seen a lot less self-centeredness and a lot more servant hood. We’ve grown very close to the people taking shelter at the church; we’ve loved them as if they were our own family.”
Pastor Cole and his congregation have learned a valuable lesson. In the midst of providing Christian witness to people who were taken from the comfort of their homes and their cities by a fierce force of nature and then thrown into a place of desperate isolation without resources, a strange and imposing wilderness, both groups have answered the Advent call and are preparing the way of the Lord. Normal will never be the same normal again. Jesus’ path has been made straight.
In the midst of a violent wilderness, peace and tranquility had a chance to overcome sin. Repentance was given a chance in the form of the challenge to provide for those in desperate need. Repentance was given a chance in the form of the challenge to accept assistance from that desperation.
I wonder, where has our friend John the Baptist gone now? The one proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
John is Jesus’ break out prophet. He lived in Judea and had close contacts with the wilderness where he began his public ministry by proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. In obedience to the words of Isaiah, John was in the wilderness crying; “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”
The wilderness of Judea was the center of religious hope as well as a place of refuge. It was the symbol of the wilderness in which God had led his people for forty years before bringing them to the Promised Land. In the wilderness, the way of the Lord was to be made straight, and some believed the Messiah would first appear there. Jesus had been baptized by John in the Jordan River. He did not really have any sins to confess. He was baptized as a sign that he was willing to obey God fully.
Following his baptism, Jesus remained in the wilderness for forty days. His waiting represents a period of waiting upon the Lord, a period of temptation and discipline corresponding to the forty-year period of preparation Israel spent in the wilderness before entering the Promised Land. Sounds like an Advent time doesn’t it?
From my earliest recollection I have this image of our John as that of a wild man. He looks and sounds like a hairy fire and brimstone preacher, whose breath smells of locust and honey. Not a likely candidate to attract us to baptism, I dare say, especially if we have to go to the wilderness to find him.
The wilderness. Just speaking it brings thoughts not to dissimilar to those of John. Wild looking, wild acting, unpredictable and potentially dangerous. The wilderness can be a very dangerous place.
As we sit here this morning in the comfort of our sanctuary, I do wonder, where is our friend John? The one who freed a lot of people. The one who told us that Jesus, who is more powerful, is coming after him.
About this time of year Christmas begins to take our attention from such questions whether we want it to or not. Christmas certainly isn’t the enemy here. But the preparation for Christmas with lights, sales, parties and Christmas cards is not the sort of preparation the gospel calls us too this Advent season. Admittedly, for many of us, the holiday preparation becomes a real distraction from our Christian witness.
But we are here and our minds, hopefully, have the time for the question. Where is our friend John? It seems he has left us. We won’t find him rushing about town at Wal-Mart or Target. John’s words of repentance, his good news preached in the wilderness doesn’t sell well in the days before Christmas at the shopping mall. Christmas and the shopping mall are normal for us. We know what to get there. Presents and stuff. Gifts for loved ones and ourselves too.
But John is not at the mall. John offers something the mall doesn’t offer. What John offers we can only get in the wilderness where the message is different. Something quite different.
John promised that someone was coming, someone so spectacular that it was not enough simply to hang around waiting for him to arrive. No, this is no pre-Christmas sales line to get in. But, it is time to get ready, to prepare the way in our hearts, our minds and our actions, so that when he comes he can walk a straight path right to our doors.
This is the good news John brings. Yet, one of the striking things about John is, he was not near a church or synagogue. He was in the wilderness and only those willing to go there were able to taste his freedom.
I suspect John the Baptist would not be welcome in most churches today. He wouldn’t be affirming, sensitive, or inclusive. He’d peak out loudly and forcefully and tell us to mend our ways. His message is short, unmistakable, and simple: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Admittedly his message is inconvenient. It is demanding. Most of us would rather forget it. But this message is the key to our completely new life. That is why crowds poured out of Jerusalem to hear John’s preaching. They confessed their sins to John and begged him to baptize them.
For his part, Jesus did not seek the counsel of a scribe or Pharisee – Jesus turned instead to John. His counsel was to baptize Jesus and open his life to receive the Holy Spirit. That was John’s counsel.
Advent reminds us that the Christian life means “living toward a vision.” That vision revealed to us at Christmas only means something when we see it as part of the larger story, God’s story. From Abraham and Sarah, to David, to Isaiah, to Peter and Paul, our faith has always strained forward to God’s future, God’s vision. The Christian community is always a waiting, longing, hoping people, looking beyond the horizon of the daily news to a God who has great plans for the creation.
Advent hope isn’t some pleasantry that sets us nodding off in our Christian comfort zone. People of hope don’t just shrug their shoulders at violence or injustice, or AIDS, or the poverty in our own community, or people displaced by hurricane or wildfire or economic collapse. People who walk in the light of the Biblical hope refuse to accept the world as it is, normal, because they cannot forget the vision of what it will be. Every time we reject violence, or feed the hungry, or hug those who weep, or work for reconciliation, we are living toward the vision, we are walking in its light.
Jim Wallis the founder of the Sojourner’s community says, “The new order of the kingdom is breaking in upon you and, if you want to be a part of it, you will need to undergo a fundamental transformation . . . God’s new order is so radically different from everything we are accustomed to that we must be spiritually remade before we are ready and equipped to participate in it.”
Perhaps it is time we consider the wilderness before us. Rhonda Van Dyke Colby tells a story of meeting John the Baptist one day at the Kmart. Kmart can be a scary place. Her John the Baptist was in the person of a disheveled man, a bit wild in the eyes, standing on the corner at the entrance to the store. He held a sign made out of a torn-up cardboard box. It read, “It’s time for a change.”
Once inside Rhonda didn’t think about him again. On her way out she heard someone ringing a bell, thinking it was the Salvation Army she turned to see her John the Baptist ringing the bell and still holding his sign, “It’s time for a change.”
‘Nice sign,’ she said as she reached in her purse for some change.’ Are you prepared,’ he asked her. ‘Well,’ she replied, ‘not yet. That’s what all these packages are about. I’ve got a lot of decorating to do, and my husband and I have our annual Christmas open house, and I haven’t even started baking. It’s more than a little overwhelming. So, I’ve started a list of things I simply must do to be prepared.’
‘Let me help you,’ he said. ‘Let me help you take your packages to your car. Then I’ll buy you a cup of coffee.’ When Rhonda opened the car door he saw her daily planner and said, ‘better bring that with you.’
Back in the snack bar at the store he leafed his way through my life – my lists and schedule. Most of the time, he just shook his head. Then he brightened up. ‘O.K. here is something I like. Get rid of clutter. Clear a path. Tell me about that,’ he asked.
I explained the den was stacked with boxes of Christmas decoration and I needed time to sort out the Santa place mats from the nativity scenes and clear a path through the den. He was clearly disappointed.
When he had finished he turned to a new page and with his old pencil stub he wrote, ‘Do List, number 1, hold a baby.’ Before I could ask him to explain I heard a woman let out a squeal. Her toddler had crawled under a table and was about to bump his head. Without a word, she passed me her newborn to hold as she ran after her little crawler. For a moment I wasn’t in Kmart but in Bethlehem. The tiny hand was the hand that would reach out to embrace the cosmos.
I looked back at my planner and saw Number 2, ‘Wonder.’ Wonder? Wonder what? Wonder why God chose a helpless little baby to bring salvation into a hostile world. Wonder why after thousands of years we still haven’t gotten the message. Wonder when Christ will come again.
I looked back at my planner and saw Number 3, ‘Look to the Stars.’ What did that mean? As I walked out of the store I looked up to see a clear sky, full of stars. There were thousands of them. They took my breath.
There in the parking lot, looking into the night sky, I had a strong sense that I had been looking in the wrong place for Christmas. I had been too busy rushing around to look up. I had been so busy worrying about what I had to do that I forgot to appreciate what had already been done for me. I had been so preoccupied with following the crowd that I had neglected to follow a star.
No matter how your Advent season is going so far, it is not too late. Not too late to hold a child, to wonder, to look up, to follow a star. It is not too late for a change. I learned it the night I met John the Baptist at the Kmart.”
The child is coming. Advent is our time to search for our John the Baptist. Advent is our time to find our real star. And thanks be to God, Advent is our time to be found by that baby who will come to be born in a manger.
I pray during this time of expectation our gracious Lord God will open our eyes and open our ears and open our hearts so we will not miss the miracle that awaits us. So that once found, we will walk in his way this day and for ever more.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit one God now and forever. Amen
Additional resource:
Lectionary Homiletics, volume XVII, Number 1, p. 11.
120411.gpc
I admit to a wave of nostalgia every time I hear the old 60’s protest song, “Abraham, Martin, and John.” It may sound familiar, “Has anybody here seen my old friend John? Can you tell me where he’s gone? He freed a lot of people but it seems the good die young. I just look around and he’s gone.” The song, first recorded by Dion, is a tribute to the memories of Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr., and John and Robert Kennedy.
“My old friend John” refers to the late President John F. Kennedy. But I wonder if during this second week of Advent we might consider a reference instead to John the baptizer? Has anyone here seen our old friend John? The one who first appeared in the wilderness.
Perhaps John is someone like Jason Cole, the associate pastor at Parkway Baptist Church in Natchez, Mississippi who happened to answer the phone when National Public Radio called in late September 2005, and he spoke for the heroism of a church that was in its fourth week of providing shelter to hundreds of people displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
Jason reported, “We have said several times during our worship services that we don’t want to go back to being ‘normal.’ People have stepped up to be involved in ministering to people. We have seen a lot less self-centeredness and a lot more servant hood. We’ve grown very close to the people taking shelter at the church; we’ve loved them as if they were our own family.”
Pastor Cole and his congregation have learned a valuable lesson. In the midst of providing Christian witness to people who were taken from the comfort of their homes and their cities by a fierce force of nature and then thrown into a place of desperate isolation without resources, a strange and imposing wilderness, both groups have answered the Advent call and are preparing the way of the Lord. Normal will never be the same normal again. Jesus’ path has been made straight.
In the midst of a violent wilderness, peace and tranquility had a chance to overcome sin. Repentance was given a chance in the form of the challenge to provide for those in desperate need. Repentance was given a chance in the form of the challenge to accept assistance from that desperation.
I wonder, where has our friend John the Baptist gone now? The one proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
John is Jesus’ break out prophet. He lived in Judea and had close contacts with the wilderness where he began his public ministry by proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. In obedience to the words of Isaiah, John was in the wilderness crying; “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”
The wilderness of Judea was the center of religious hope as well as a place of refuge. It was the symbol of the wilderness in which God had led his people for forty years before bringing them to the Promised Land. In the wilderness, the way of the Lord was to be made straight, and some believed the Messiah would first appear there. Jesus had been baptized by John in the Jordan River. He did not really have any sins to confess. He was baptized as a sign that he was willing to obey God fully.
Following his baptism, Jesus remained in the wilderness for forty days. His waiting represents a period of waiting upon the Lord, a period of temptation and discipline corresponding to the forty-year period of preparation Israel spent in the wilderness before entering the Promised Land. Sounds like an Advent time doesn’t it?
From my earliest recollection I have this image of our John as that of a wild man. He looks and sounds like a hairy fire and brimstone preacher, whose breath smells of locust and honey. Not a likely candidate to attract us to baptism, I dare say, especially if we have to go to the wilderness to find him.
The wilderness. Just speaking it brings thoughts not to dissimilar to those of John. Wild looking, wild acting, unpredictable and potentially dangerous. The wilderness can be a very dangerous place.
As we sit here this morning in the comfort of our sanctuary, I do wonder, where is our friend John? The one who freed a lot of people. The one who told us that Jesus, who is more powerful, is coming after him.
About this time of year Christmas begins to take our attention from such questions whether we want it to or not. Christmas certainly isn’t the enemy here. But the preparation for Christmas with lights, sales, parties and Christmas cards is not the sort of preparation the gospel calls us too this Advent season. Admittedly, for many of us, the holiday preparation becomes a real distraction from our Christian witness.
But we are here and our minds, hopefully, have the time for the question. Where is our friend John? It seems he has left us. We won’t find him rushing about town at Wal-Mart or Target. John’s words of repentance, his good news preached in the wilderness doesn’t sell well in the days before Christmas at the shopping mall. Christmas and the shopping mall are normal for us. We know what to get there. Presents and stuff. Gifts for loved ones and ourselves too.
But John is not at the mall. John offers something the mall doesn’t offer. What John offers we can only get in the wilderness where the message is different. Something quite different.
John promised that someone was coming, someone so spectacular that it was not enough simply to hang around waiting for him to arrive. No, this is no pre-Christmas sales line to get in. But, it is time to get ready, to prepare the way in our hearts, our minds and our actions, so that when he comes he can walk a straight path right to our doors.
This is the good news John brings. Yet, one of the striking things about John is, he was not near a church or synagogue. He was in the wilderness and only those willing to go there were able to taste his freedom.
I suspect John the Baptist would not be welcome in most churches today. He wouldn’t be affirming, sensitive, or inclusive. He’d peak out loudly and forcefully and tell us to mend our ways. His message is short, unmistakable, and simple: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Admittedly his message is inconvenient. It is demanding. Most of us would rather forget it. But this message is the key to our completely new life. That is why crowds poured out of Jerusalem to hear John’s preaching. They confessed their sins to John and begged him to baptize them.
For his part, Jesus did not seek the counsel of a scribe or Pharisee – Jesus turned instead to John. His counsel was to baptize Jesus and open his life to receive the Holy Spirit. That was John’s counsel.
Advent reminds us that the Christian life means “living toward a vision.” That vision revealed to us at Christmas only means something when we see it as part of the larger story, God’s story. From Abraham and Sarah, to David, to Isaiah, to Peter and Paul, our faith has always strained forward to God’s future, God’s vision. The Christian community is always a waiting, longing, hoping people, looking beyond the horizon of the daily news to a God who has great plans for the creation.
Advent hope isn’t some pleasantry that sets us nodding off in our Christian comfort zone. People of hope don’t just shrug their shoulders at violence or injustice, or AIDS, or the poverty in our own community, or people displaced by hurricane or wildfire or economic collapse. People who walk in the light of the Biblical hope refuse to accept the world as it is, normal, because they cannot forget the vision of what it will be. Every time we reject violence, or feed the hungry, or hug those who weep, or work for reconciliation, we are living toward the vision, we are walking in its light.
Jim Wallis the founder of the Sojourner’s community says, “The new order of the kingdom is breaking in upon you and, if you want to be a part of it, you will need to undergo a fundamental transformation . . . God’s new order is so radically different from everything we are accustomed to that we must be spiritually remade before we are ready and equipped to participate in it.”
Perhaps it is time we consider the wilderness before us. Rhonda Van Dyke Colby tells a story of meeting John the Baptist one day at the Kmart. Kmart can be a scary place. Her John the Baptist was in the person of a disheveled man, a bit wild in the eyes, standing on the corner at the entrance to the store. He held a sign made out of a torn-up cardboard box. It read, “It’s time for a change.”
Once inside Rhonda didn’t think about him again. On her way out she heard someone ringing a bell, thinking it was the Salvation Army she turned to see her John the Baptist ringing the bell and still holding his sign, “It’s time for a change.”
‘Nice sign,’ she said as she reached in her purse for some change.’ Are you prepared,’ he asked her. ‘Well,’ she replied, ‘not yet. That’s what all these packages are about. I’ve got a lot of decorating to do, and my husband and I have our annual Christmas open house, and I haven’t even started baking. It’s more than a little overwhelming. So, I’ve started a list of things I simply must do to be prepared.’
‘Let me help you,’ he said. ‘Let me help you take your packages to your car. Then I’ll buy you a cup of coffee.’ When Rhonda opened the car door he saw her daily planner and said, ‘better bring that with you.’
Back in the snack bar at the store he leafed his way through my life – my lists and schedule. Most of the time, he just shook his head. Then he brightened up. ‘O.K. here is something I like. Get rid of clutter. Clear a path. Tell me about that,’ he asked.
I explained the den was stacked with boxes of Christmas decoration and I needed time to sort out the Santa place mats from the nativity scenes and clear a path through the den. He was clearly disappointed.
When he had finished he turned to a new page and with his old pencil stub he wrote, ‘Do List, number 1, hold a baby.’ Before I could ask him to explain I heard a woman let out a squeal. Her toddler had crawled under a table and was about to bump his head. Without a word, she passed me her newborn to hold as she ran after her little crawler. For a moment I wasn’t in Kmart but in Bethlehem. The tiny hand was the hand that would reach out to embrace the cosmos.
I looked back at my planner and saw Number 2, ‘Wonder.’ Wonder? Wonder what? Wonder why God chose a helpless little baby to bring salvation into a hostile world. Wonder why after thousands of years we still haven’t gotten the message. Wonder when Christ will come again.
I looked back at my planner and saw Number 3, ‘Look to the Stars.’ What did that mean? As I walked out of the store I looked up to see a clear sky, full of stars. There were thousands of them. They took my breath.
There in the parking lot, looking into the night sky, I had a strong sense that I had been looking in the wrong place for Christmas. I had been too busy rushing around to look up. I had been so busy worrying about what I had to do that I forgot to appreciate what had already been done for me. I had been so preoccupied with following the crowd that I had neglected to follow a star.
No matter how your Advent season is going so far, it is not too late. Not too late to hold a child, to wonder, to look up, to follow a star. It is not too late for a change. I learned it the night I met John the Baptist at the Kmart.”
The child is coming. Advent is our time to search for our John the Baptist. Advent is our time to find our real star. And thanks be to God, Advent is our time to be found by that baby who will come to be born in a manger.
I pray during this time of expectation our gracious Lord God will open our eyes and open our ears and open our hearts so we will not miss the miracle that awaits us. So that once found, we will walk in his way this day and for ever more.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit one God now and forever. Amen
Additional resource:
Lectionary Homiletics, volume XVII, Number 1, p. 11.
120411.gpc
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