Unexpected People, Places and Things

Philippians 4:4-9
Luke 3:7-18

Like unto Old Testament prophets whose words were al= ways set in some historical context to begin, Luke’s gospel prepares us for the prophetic ministry of John the Baptizer by placing him in a particular = time and place. He went into all the region about the Jordan, we’re told, pre= aching and baptizing in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar and oth= er notables of church and state which historians say point to the year 28-29 in the Common Era. This son of Zechariah, looking, perhaps, like the most unke= mpt long-haired ‘hippie’ we could imagine from the ‘60’= s, with the sartorial splendor of Tarzan and a Vegan diet had been called by G= od from his ascetic life in the wilderness to prepare the way for one whose royalty he had recognized while yet in his mother’s womb. In a story unique to Luke’s gospel, we’re told that John leaped for joy wi= thin Elizabeth as she visited with a pregnant cousin by the name of Mary. Theologians interpr= et the historical information as a foreshadowing of the broad reach of the ministry about to be introduced. The one for whom John will make straight in the desert a highway will not only change the lives of the lame, the blind = and the poor; his message will transform the hearts of civic and synagogue VIPs, soldiers and tax collectors, governors and emperors for all time to come. T= he gospel story Luke tells is universal, inviting all who seek nearness to the= One who is already near.

Before the people’s expectation could be fulfi= lled --- the appearance of that One whose sandals, John said, he was not worthy = to untie --- there would be a wilderness experience through which they needed = to pass in preparation, a theme recalling the exodus and desert journey of the Israelites before what Christians call “the Old Covenant” was g= iven to them through Moses. People needed to empty themselves, John said, of the things they are and the things they do which corrupt their own souls and contribute to evil in the world --- which is sin in the sight of God. Peopl= e needed to repent, to confess their sin, to acknowledge who they have been and what they have done, and be baptized as a sign of renewal. Like a chalk board be= ing erased by a teacher at the end of a day, through the waters of baptism the expectant people were to become clean slates on which God could write directions for a new kind of journey.

Repentance and baptism weren’t the only things people needed to do, however. God had expectations beyond that, John said, = and they had to do with behavior toward others which would show that their repentance was genuine, that they’d left their self-centered and self-aggrandizing lives behind and understood their responsibility to others less fortunate. This is the critical turning point in the story. From the b= iblical prophets as well as those voices which challenge our destructive life-styles even today, God’s message to us dwells, finally, not on judgment for = the evil we do to one another and the creation --- and thereby to God. God̵= 7;s prophetic message is ultimately a call to renewal, a call to be cleansed---= as in John’s baptisms --- and henceforth live a different life --- in but not of the world, as another Gospel writer would put it.

Often quoting St. Paul as a favorite source, I remem= ber the Methodist camp meeting evangelists who, on some hot summer nights of my youth, would come first from one angle and then another to convince us that= all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God --- messed ourselves up and messed up others in the process. All of us need to repent and allow God to = save us --- most especially from ourselves! Those preachers were good at engaging our emotions as well as our minds and calling us, if not to an immersion in= the Jordan, at least to our knees at an altar rail to give our lives to Jesus. But they always went beyond the al= tar call to talk about what comes next: the transformed life in Christ which God wants us to live; the “dying” to self and renewal of our lives.=

After down-playing his role in God’s scheme of things and saying that someone much greater than he was coming into the wor= ld, John the Baptizer went on to say that a different kind of baptism was in st= ore for them from him whose way John was sent to prepare. It wouldn’t be a ritual baptism but rather one of fire and the Spirit --- images which fast-forward us to the description of what happened to the disciples at Pentecost, a story told in the Book of Acts which biblical scholars believe= was written by the same author as Luke.

A baptism with the Holy Spirit and with fire sounds = like news both good and bad. It makes faith in him-who-is-expected seem to be an absolute, either-or kind of choice. Most of us would prefer to pick and cho= ose from what the new life in Christ might offer us and demand from us. The whe= at and chaff metaphor makes that baptism sound potentially more threatening than promising. It is, indeed, with such descriptions that Christians are often divided in their understanding and emphasis.

Biblical scholars tell us that the Greek word for sp= irit in today’s Gospel setting can also be translated wind, which helps us make sense of what happens on the threshing floor when the expected One gather[s] the wheat into his granary. On a windy day farmers can toss their harvested wheat in the air with a fork or shovel and the lighter-weight, unusable chaff will blow away, leaving the grain itself to fall back on the floor where it can be gathered and put to good use. Wherever the chaff accumulates after separating from the grain is apparently another good place not to smoke!

It’s unfortunate for the witness of the Christ= ian gospel in our world today that those who get the head-lines are pre-occupied with the burning of the chaff when the farmer’s primary purpose is to save the grain! While driving home from a camping trip in the Smokey Mountains with some of our high school youth a few years back, contrasting messages of two churches in a small Ohio<= /st1:place> town caught our eye. The billboard outside the Baptist church proclaimed: “The wages of sin are death! . . . Prepare to meet thy God!” Directly across the street the Methodist billboard read: “Remember th= at God loves you.” Some who claim to follow the One we are expecting at Christmas clearly distort the gospel message when they spend their zeal in hatred toward those they believe to be the chaff, the undesirables of life. They never get much beyond the ‘bad news’ of God’s judgme= nt to the ‘good news’ of God’s love.

For this Third Sunday of Advent, the Chancel Guild h= as added to the wreaths on the third pillar a shell with the hint of a waterfa= ll and some praying hands. Most of us here have been baptized “as a sign that we belong to God,” the liturgy says, and a new one in our midst = will shortly have that sign placed upon him. We will pray for him that as he gro= ws he will look to God for guidance in separating the wheat from the chaff in = his life and that God’s Spirit will dwell within him, even as we continua= lly pray it will dwell in us.

It is God’s Spirit working in us that produces= those fruits worthy of repentance which the Baptizer said would express the genuine-ness of our turning from the ways of the world, and hopefully we and the community around us have experienced that grace. The Apostle Paul point= s to some of those fruits of the S= pirit in his letter to the Philippians which we heard today: whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable. Paul challenged the church to figure out what those ideals meant in the particular situations they faced and then put them into practice. He offers us the same challenge.

To the Galatians Paul described the fruits of the Sp= irit as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness= and self-control. (5:22-23) We’ll shortly pledge to help a newly baptized child and his parents seek along with all of us to understand how these good fruits can find Christ-like expression in our particular time and place. We are, after all, expected to put them into action.

Unlike Paul with his categorical lists of those fruits worthy of repentance might = look like, John was quite specific in his answers --- as we need always to be. In response to the crowd asking “what then should we do?” John addresses the injustices and inequities of the society in which they live, = and tells them to start doing something about it: food and clothing are to be shared with those who have none. When those ever-popular tax collectors, li= kely Jews working for the occupation government, ask their question, they’= re told to be honest and not take more money from people than they’re supposed to. The soldiers who ask the third question are likely, say schola= rs, to have been local mercenaries hired by the Romans to do their dirty work. = They didn't have suicide bombers or roadside bombs in those days, but we can ima= gine from our nation’s current experience as an occupation force how despi= sed those soldiers might have been in the eyes of some in that crowd. John told them to stop victimizing the poor with threats, intimidation and blackmail. Those in positions of power are not to abuse it but to act justly in their dealings with others, especially the most vulnerable.

The message is that there’s hope for us all! Let’s ask what we can do and then bear those fruits God asks us to bear. We can all be renewed.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> That’s the Good News. . . .<= /p>