RVCC Pastor's Sermon

Sermon - December 13, 2009

“Who Does He Think He Is Anyway?”

By Rev. Nancy Foran
Luke 3:7-18

John the Baptist: The man who was cut from the same mold as the ancient and venerated Israelite prophets. Some people who listened to John believed he was Elijah, the greatest of them all, come again.

John was not Elijah, of course, but he was an interesting fellow who still pops up each Advent season, preaching fire-and-brimstone – “You brood of vipers, you bunch of snakes in the grass.”

His are the vitriolic words we somehow get past in order to get to the good stuff – the comfortable stuff – the stuff about the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger because there was no room for him in the inn. I mean, who wants to talk about reptiles when we can talk about infants?

John the Baptist: Certainly not called to be pastor of First Church Jerusalem. In fact, John probably could not be called to any church, preaching the way he did.

Imagine if I had come on like John during my candidating sermon here four years ago, if I had shouted from the pulpit at you – “You brood of vipers, you bunch of snakes in the grass.” You probably would not have called me either. Nobody likes prophets, not every week anyway.

John the Baptist: A hermit abiding in the wilderness. He dressed in that funny looking camel’s hair suit and ate an odd carnivorous diet of locusts – with a bit of honey for taste. Freezing his feet in the cold Jordan River, he baptized with that same icy water, never letting anyone off the hook – Roman or Jew – for their greedy, self-serving, God-denying behavior.

John the Baptist: Whatever is he doing here in church with us this morning, seemingly bent on sucking all the joy out of this Advent Sunday of Joy? As Pastor James Love wrote, “Because of this, part of me wants to "do a John the Baptist" myself and call up the committee that chooses the scripture readings for this Sunday and say, "You brood of Vipers ... don't you know it is Christmas time! This is just a little too heavy. Choose something lighter…Let's get on to the part about the baby and the Shepherds and joy to the world!"

John the Baptist: He is trouble - what with bringing up that edgy judgment thing, scaring us silly with his talk of wheat and chaff and challenging us to take off every mask we wear in order to expose who we really are. What does John have to do with Christmas anyway?

But you know what? Luke’s Gospel writer tells us that, according to John, we can not get to the manger (in any meaningful way, that is) without going through the wilderness with the Baptist first.

In the midst of all of our shopping and caroling and decorating and bell ringing, we who say we are Christians can not block out that deep voice bellowing, crying to us from the wilderness. “Prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Things are about to change. God is coming and the even the rough ways are going to be made smooth."

And if we even begin to get caught up in the essence of Christmas, get caught up in the fact that it has always been God’s intention that the world be different than it is, that in Jesus God gives us a walking, talking, breathing instruction manual on how do it differently, if we even begin to acknowledge that the nostalgic carols we sing and the quiet nativity scenes we create point to something far greater than the birth of that impoverished refugee child in Bethlehem – then we, like John’s converts two millennia ago, surely sense that we stand at a pivotal point, a crossroads, and so they – and we – ask: How do we prepare the way for our God? What are we to do?

John answers us in a single word: Repent! Turn around because you and all humanity with you are heading in the wrong direction, and you will miss the one who is coming who is greater than I am.

As preacher Danny Bradfield wrote, “Stop living the way you’ve been living, and start living a whole new way…Stop following the way you’ve been following, and start following a new way, a new path, in your life.” Start living as God intended you to live, John cried to his listeners, even if it means contradicting Roman policy and politics. John the Baptist: Revolutionary and consummate boat-rocker.

John made a lot of enemies, as one would suspect. John’s words were a threat to Rome, to that political empire built on the oppression of the economically less fortunate. His words rattled the foundations of Pax Romana, Roman peace. His sermons flew in the face of laws proclaimed by the Emperor himself, that ruler in whom and through whom Rome declared that peace on earth was born.

No wonder that Caesar Augustus – you know, the one who demanded the census that brought Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem in the first place – no wonder that he formally took for himself the title of savior of the world and even changed the calendar so that his birthday became the first day of the year. Why? Because the day he was born was the ultimate “good news.” (Danny Bradfield)

But that crazy old John the Baptist did not back down. He stood on his bully pulpit and preached about another savior, one whom truly God sent to show us who we were created to be.

“Prepare the way of the Lord; repent and make a highway for our God,” John said. “And how are we do that? What does it mean to repent?” his newly baptized converts queried.

And rather than simply revolutionizing and boat-rocking in generalities, John got real specific when it came to how this whole repentance thing should be translated into concrete actions.

As Lutheran pastor, Edward Markquart, wrote, “Those who had clothing, food and blankets asked, “What can we do? And John responded bluntly, “If you have two coats, give one away to the needy. If you have two cupboards of food, give one away to the hungry. If you have two blankets, give one to a person who is cold at night.

The tax collectors asked, “What can we do?” And John again responded bluntly, “Don’t cheat people.”

The soldiers asked, “What can we do?” John again replied bluntly and specifically, “No violence. No raping. No torture.”

The Gospel writer of Luke goes on to say that John continued to preach this Good News of repentance as long as he lived – this Good News that raising a great army and perpetuating violence will not change the world into the peaceable kingdom of which the ancient prophets spoke.

- This Good News that the world will not change until people believe that you do not get peace by making war. You get peace by making peace.

- This Good News that the world will not be different until men and women understand that creating an equitable economic system lies at the foundation of peace.

That is the Good News of repentance, John says, and it is within our grasp. The baby who will be born in the stable will not make a whit of difference in your life, John tells us, until you repent, until you change direction.

Turning around is how you prepare for Emmanuel – God with us. Demonstrating to a jaded and cynical world that the Way of God is a new way, and the essence of that way - the message of that way - is the only way, demonstrating that is making the road straight and level for the Holy One.

So come, let us prepare the way of our God as John instructed us – by sharing our wealth, redistributing our resources, and equalizing our power. And if we do, I will lay odds that we will end up in that ramshackle barn behind the old inn in Bethlehem and, like the shepherds, our lives will never be the same.

Sermon - December 13, 2009

“Who Does He Think He Is Anyway?”

By Rev. Nancy Foran Luke 3:7-18

By Rev. Nancy Foran
Luke 3:7-18