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A Lumberjack Series:
Coming Attractions Matthew
3:1-12 Second
Sunday of Advent, Year A A sermon preached at First UMC, De Queen, AR on December
9, 2007 by the Revd David S Williams Help us to accept John and John’s message of
repentance today, so that we may be prepared for the Coming Christ and make a
way for others; in Jesus’ name. Amen. Introducing John You ever met John? I have. I was preparing
to leave for work when a knock came at the door. Opening the door, I was
startled by two big Baptist
preachers blocking the way. They
were issuing religious subpoenas to anyone who wasn’t ready to meet their Maker. I assured them that my subpoena
had been pardoned and paid in full, but they persisted, pointing their boney-finger at me with a look of suspicion. Speak
about surprises. I was caught off guard. I was not prepared for that kind of intrusion. And you know, it
bothered me all day at work. They wouldn’t take, “I’m a Christian, preparing
for the ministry,” for a legitimate response. That’s John friends. And to be completely
honest, “I’ll take a rain check on John.” After all, he lives in the desert,
he’s wild, wearing a leather belt (and I assure you, I felt the sting of that
belt in my childhood) and eats a low-carb diet of bugs and honey. He is the
guy that we can’t reason with and justify much of anything in his presence.
And truthfully, he’s probably the main reason why most of us left the
childhood churches of our past. John is the one that
comes to us every year during the season of Advent, crying in the wilderness,
preparing the way, shouting slurs
about snakes, chopping down trees
wielding an ax, separating waste
with a winnowing fork, burning
unnecessary chaff in unquenchable fire. He’s a lot like, what one preacher
calls, the “Doberman Pincher of the gospel” (Barbara Brown Taylor). Each year on this second
Sunday of Advent, we find John in a wilderness pulpit, as if he’s just
stepped out of the pages of the Old Testament dressed as an Elijah
look-a-like, doling out subpoenas, pointing
fingers with pitchfork in hand,
dosing people down with water and dispensing
a message so hot that by the time you hear
it you’re hoping that indeed,
“hell will freeze over.” But as much as we want
to avoid John, the gospel writers seem to think we need him, as if this fiery
brand were God’s gracious idea. And if that seems to stick in your crawl this
morning, Jesus says, “None was greater
than John the Baptist.” In order to get to Jesus, you have to first get through John. John the Baptist is Heaven’s guard dog put on a leach,
nipping at our ankles with the life-changing gospel, demanding transformation
of life and loyalty to God’s purposes in the world. John is the precursor, the
preparer, the introduction to the story of Jesus, the prophetic pointer pointing to divine
Son. Before we run-off to
Jesus, cute and cuddly in a manger, the season of Advent invites us into the wilderness-wrestling-ring with John. Even John will be caught
by surprise when he meets Jesus on the banks of the John’s Message If that is who John is, then that is John’s message. It is two fold: repentance and kingdom. “Repent … the kingdom is near …” It
is close at hand. God’s in-breaking is any moment, so we need to be prepared. The message he is proclaiming is actually politically and socially
explosive. In John and Jesus’ day you don’t easily separate religion and
politics, they go together. If you are talking about God’s reign/empire
coming into the world, then what does that mean for It is an intrusion. It
upsets the status quo. You and I know there’s no room for two empires to
co-exist in this world. One co-opts the other. John’s message and later,
Jesus’ message, is dismantling the myth that These are the Democrats
and the Republicans, the fundamentalists and the liberals of the Bible. These
are the leaders who embodied polar opposites of the religious and political
spectrum of Jesus’ day. However, they come today on a non-partisan united
front against John and John’s message; another way of saying, they come
against God and God’s messenger. Throughout Matthew’s
gospel these are the leaders who refuse God’s agenda in Jesus and they hedge
all their bets on They see their position
and pedigree with saving significance. But John unmasks their false pretense
and calls for repentance. John’s kingdom message unmasks our pride, our false
pretense, our religious pedigrees and says those things have no saving
significance in the life of God’s coming reign in Jesus. God can turn stones
into Abraham’s children. Just because we were born into covenant relationship
doesn’t mean that we are living a loyal
covenant life. So John is calling
them and us to give an account. “Bear
fruit worthy of repentance,” if you are indeed, children of Abraham. Repentance Repent. That is what we
are invited and called to do today by the Baptist. Repentance is more than
a mere ritual washing and hiding in the shadow of our parent’s faith or using
religion as a crutch to avoid the real issues in our lives. Repentance is
more than simply being sorry for running a red light, driving past the speed
limit, having a bad thought or having a bad hair day. The biblical word is metanoia. It is a call for a changed
mind, changed direction, a prepared way of life, making room for God’s coming
reign in our lives and world. In light of God’s coming, it suggests that we
see ourselves and our world radically different, therefore living radically
different lives. It means redirecting our wills for God’s will and purposes
for our lives and for the world. It means reorienting our lives after God’s
agenda and redemptive purposes in our world. It is not enough to say, now that I’m a
Christian, “I love sinners, but hate sin.” Often times that gives us
permission - a poor excuse - to dismiss the people we don’t like, whether
they be gay or straight, black or white, poor or rich. Metanoia says for the first time, “I will begin to see all people as God’s
creation, created in God’s image, loved with an everlasting love.” Even my own
enemies, those who I legitimately disagree with, those who don’t share my
political and social sensibilities, those who hurt me, those who want to
destroy me and make life miserable for me – even my own enemies are God’s
creation. Metanoia says for the first time, “Now that God’s reign has come and is coming in
Jesus, then I will begin to seek to love rather than hate, I will pray rather
than spread gossip, I will turn the other cheek rather than retaliate. I will
put away my racial slurs, my prejudice, my homophobia and seek a more
compassionate way of life toward all people, seek a more neighborly way
toward those who are not like me,
seek to understand rather than be a
‘know-it-all.’” Metanoia is the addict who comes to the end of his or her rope. For the first
time in their life they begin to see the possibility of a life free of
substance abuse. For the first time in their life they begin to make steps
toward their healing. For the first time in their life they join a community
of addicts, naming their addiction, naming the truth about themselves, no
longer living a lie, and naming the dreams, the vision that God has for them
in a new life healed of their abuse. For the first time in their life rather
than living behind all their excuses they begin to pray, “Lord, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.” Metanoia
is the person who comes to accept they cannot change the way they were
raised, they cannot change the way their parents spoke harmful words or
didn’t show enough attention or didn’t affirm or feed their esteem. There is nothing the child can do about those
circumstances. But for the first time they begin to see their life the way
God sees them: as royalty, as a child of the king, as a beloved child of God.
For the first time they begin to see a life healed of those painful realities
and rather than live behind the bitterness, the excuses, and legitimate
anger, forgiveness becomes a possibility, a new beginning, a way of life. Metanoia
is the person of privilege who was born with a silver spoon in their mouth.
They grow up spoiled, entitled to their privilege, their wealth, and make
everyone else feel inferior to them. For the first time, they begin to see
themselves in light of God’s love and saving significance. They begin to
accept the reality they were given as a precious gift, growing up a child of
privilege. They begin to see how their education, their wealth, their
respectability in the community is a gift to be shared with humility,
compassion and service, especially toward others who have never known a life of privilege, love
and esteem. Metanoia
is the person who has an Ivy League education. They are full of themselves,
with all of their accomplishments, achievements. While all of those things
are worthy accomplishments and blessed talents, they begin to see themselves
in light of God’s saving significance. Rather than depending on their smarts
to get them through life, they see wisdom as more precious than gold, more
valuable than silver, because, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of all
wisdom.” They begin to seek more understanding, they see themselves as a
life-long learner, gaining wisdom from the farmer with an eighth grade
education, gaining gifts from a generation ago, embodying more wisdom than
smarts. Metanoia
is the church that has been distraught and disillusioned by the past. The
church has focused on this loss, that deficit, that pastor far too long. The
church, for the first time in a long time, begins to see themselves, their
past, present and future, caught up in the amazing life-giving purposes of
God. They begin to see the kingdom bigger than their little corner of
existence on Fifth and Heynecker. They begin to see the possibilities of
God’s love spreading to people everywhere – to the poor and rich, the hungry
and filled, the Hispanic and racist, to the republican and democrat. They
begin to see their time, talent and treasure as a gift from God who has
treasure beyond measure, who owns the cattle on a thousand hills. They begin
to move in a direction of mission. They find the power and grace by the Holy
Spirit to arise to the challenges, the adversity. They leave a legacy for
their children’s children, for two more centuries of mission in De Queen.
They become Methodism’s powerhouse of prayer and spiritual discipline, once
again. Invitation: To Point And Prepare Today we are invited and
called to change the way we think and live in light of God’s coming reign and
seek God’s justice, peace and mercy for all people, to see all people on a
level playing field, and to seek God’s peaceable kingdom in the world and
caring concern for the earth. The message, is not just saying the “sinner’s prayer”
and hunkering down on earth, isolating ourselves from the world, knowing that
we have a down payment in the eternal “safety deposit box” for a heavenly
home someday. That is not what “Repent,
for the kingdom of heaven is near” means. It means much more than that.
It is a change of mind, a change of heart, a change of direction, a way of
life in light of God’s coming reign in Jesus. That’s who John is and
what John’s message is about. It comes as prelude
to Jesus’ ministry and message. John’s ministry was the voice, the prophetic pointer to the divine Son
and preparer of God’s people. I
don’t know any better way than we should see ourselves, as people who respond
to his call of repentance and
preparation today. Let us repent so that we may point and prepare others for the Advent of Jesus Christ, whose
loving-kindness and mercy endures forever. So the next time you are
out in the back yard, wielding that ax, preparing firewood for family warmth,
remember that God’s world has interrupted your life through the life-giving
message of the Lumberjack – God’s agenda is changing your life and mine. Let
us prepare so that we may point to him and prepare others in his name. “Repent,
the kingdom of heaven is near.” In the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Let us pray. Timeless, Eternal God,
we are gathered in holy fellowship today to worship you, aware of our humble,
dependent need for you. You have gifted us with senses to be conscious of the
world around us and to know that there is more to life than meets the eye. We
ask that you guide us in the way that leads to life as we make our way on
life’s journey. Today, O God, we reflect on the way that we can prepare
ourselves for your work and ask that you would help us to prevent blocking
your intention for our lives and the lives of others. We recognize that we
must humble ourselves, that we must turn to you, and open ourselves to your
leadership and Lordship. Help us to enjoy the seeking and the changing. Help
us to repent and know that we will indeed better rest once we have truly
found our rest in you. Help us, we pray, to ever remain sensitive to the amazing grandeur and profound
infinity of that that is. Help us to ever remain astonished by the discovery
of the new. And help us to ever remain young at heart, with the eyes of a
child, rejoicing in each new day, in each new opportunity and in each new
experience of renewing love. In the name of Emmanuel, our Savior. Amen.
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