Malachi 3:1-4
See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight—indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. 2But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?
For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; 3he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness.* 4Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.
Luke 3:1-6
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler* of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler* of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler* of Abilene, 2during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, 4as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,
‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.
5 Every valley shall be filled,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth;
6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” ’
“The Harshness of Repentance”
Rev. Jeremy Watson
St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church
12/6/15
This is the season, as many of us know, when we take stock and evaluate how our favorite college football team has done. This is the season when we make judgments about whether or not the head coach of our favorite team needs to be let go, if they have what it takes to lead a team of 60 very young adults to success on the football field, or not. Some of you are still celebrating a Civil War victory, and looking forward to a bowl game. Others are mourning a tough season, but a nice finish to the Civil War, that showed the heart and determination that it will take to move into a new and better era. Others don’t care. However, all of us can celebrate the energy around that college football rivalry, which motivated the generous gifts of 8,582 pounds of food from this church family to the Neighborhood House Food Bank. If you must know, the Duck fans came in first, followed by the Platypus fans in 2nd, and the Beaver fans close behind in 3rd place.
In addition to the food drive, I think all of us, football fans or not, can appreciate the complexities of being a college football coach. Whether you are a parent, a teacher, a business owner, an employee, or any role that involves the leadership of people . . . coaching a college football team can be a microcosm of society. Leading a team of 60+ young men between the ages of 18-23 years old is a daunting task, a balance of drill sergeant, mentor, CEO, strategist, and spokesperson. I heard a debate last week on sports radio, as an argument ensued about the Beavers coach, Gary Andersen, in his first season at the helm. Clearly, his food-drive-motivation skills are lacking, as I think the Beavers won the previous couple of years here. One of the sports radio hosts argued that he saw a similar dynamic to this year’s Beavers in his playing career, when a head coach arrived who was much more of a disciplinarian than the previous coach. He argued that it is very difficult to move from a more lax environment into a more disciplined environment, especially for the veteran players. He argued that Coach Anderson is in the difficult role of allowing less freedom than his predecessor, Mike Riley, who had more of a reputation as a “players’ coach.” Andersen wants a tougher, more disciplined, less entitled group of players, where nothing is given and everything is earned, and the coach is not your buddy, and that will take time to develop. For upperclassmen, this is seen as a lack of trust, a restriction of the freedoms that they’ve grown used to. Arguments were presented in favor of both approaches to coaching, and, if you can believe it, they didn’t come to any agreement.
This same debate is played out in many arenas today, with more important outcomes than football games. There are some who argue that we need more discipline, that people need to become tougher, more responsible, less entitled, without a “victim mentality.” Others argue for more understanding, mercy, and grace, that if we would understand the deeper systemic brokenness, we would not blame the individuals, but recognize that they are simply a product of their environment. Whether the debate is about college athletes, college students, the youth of today, racial minorities, women, men, or about society in general, the debate rages on. My hunch is that many of our polarizing debates in society boil down to this argument. We need to toughen up and speak harsh truths, without fear of offending, or we need to withhold judgment, to show mercy and understanding. For some reason we can’t do both.
This past week , a university president issued a statement to his student body, and it is a great example of this grand debate.
Our culture has actually taught our kids to be this self-absorbed and narcissistic! Any time their feelings are hurt, they are the victims! Anyone who dares challenge them and, thus, makes them “feel bad” about themselves, is a “hater,” a “bigot,” an “oppressor,” and a “victimizer.”
Later, he concluded.
[this university] is not a “safe place”, but rather, a place to learn: to learn that life isn’t about you, but about others; that the bad feeling you have while listening to a sermon is called guilt; that the way to address it is to repent of everything that’s wrong with you rather than blame others for everything that’s wrong with them. This is a place where you will quickly learn that you need to grow up!
This is not a day care. This is a university![i]
These harsh words have been praised by many and condemned by many. This is message that we need to hear across society! Or . . . Another example of someone in power who wants to maintain the status quo in ignorance of the marginalized!
To use the vernacular of today’s Bible passage, there are some who argue for more of John the Baptist, and others who argue for more of Jesus. John the Baptist, who called from the wilderness, “you brood of vipers!” and spoke of wrath and repentance. He warned that axes will chop you down if you don’t listen. He spoke the harsh, unyielding words that were needed to pave the way of the Lord. Think of the imagery of paving a way. We are talking about road-building in the first century. Using nothing but human power and sharp tools, stones had to be broken down and then reduced to gravel in order to pave the way. Mountains had to be brought low and valleys raised up. Paving the way requires blunt, tough instruments. It is no-nonsense work. Jesus came later, full of forgiveness and hope, refusing to condemn and judge. The tools of Jesus seem to massage and smooth rather than break apart. As author and pastor Frederick Buechner has written,
“Where John preached grim justice and pictured God as a steely-eyed thresher of grain, Jesus preached forgiving love and pictured God as the host at a marvelous party or a father who can’t bring himself to throw his children out even when they spit in his eye. Where John said people had better save their skins before it was too late, Jesus said it was God who saved their skins, and even if you blew your whole bankroll on liquor and sex like the Prodigal Son, it still wasn’t too late. Where John ate locusts and honey in the wilderness with the church crowd, Jesus ate what he felt like in Jerusalem with as sleazy a bunch as you could expect to find.”[ii]
Buechner is admittedly tongue-in-cheek with that description, but you have to admit that it is tempting to characterize John and Jesus in that way, at first impression. John is harsh and unyielding and does not seem like an enjoyable guy to hang out with. Jesus is full of grace and acceptance, welcoming children, prostitutes and tax collectors alike. It seems like this very debate is with us in the midst of the Gospels. So let’s look a little deeper.
Let’s look more closely at the first 2 verses of Luke 3, to start. “In the 15th year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, followed by Pontius Pilate, Herod, Philip, Lysanius, Annas and Caiaphas. Seven leaders are listed, with their lofty titles and domains. These are the people who were in control of that region, the hierarchy of the upper echelon of power . . . and the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. Who? Seven powerful rulers and high priests with titles and authority, and then . . . John, in the wilderness . . . as far outside of the halls of power as can possibly be. Luke is telling us something here with his irony. This is not what you expect! This shocking, powerful, authoritative voice comes from an unexpected place. His power is different than what we are used to. It comes from somewhere else, from someone else.
I’m indebted to Reverend Nancy Rockwell for a fantastic blog article[iii] on this passage in which she compares John the Baptist to Donald Trump. He is loud, brash, confident, and draws a crowd. But . . . when we read further in Luke 3, beyond what we already read, we see that the message is more like Bernie Sanders. Whoever has 2 coats should give one away, tax collectors should not use their position for gain, and soldiers should not use their power unnecessarily. The persona may seem like Trump, but the message seems like Sanders. And, to go further, the venue is like something we’ve never seen, a homeless man wearing animal skin speaking from the far margins of society. If Sanders is the anti-Trump, rejecting corporate sponsorships and golden hotels, John the Baptist is the anti-everyone, speaking from the wilderness, from the wild place. Where are our wild places today?
And there’s another thing to say about the ministry and message of John the Baptist. He was “proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” Baptism was not a common part of Jewish life. It is not mentioned in the Jewish Bible (our Old Testament), though it does flow from the story of Israel. Certain Jewish groups had begun to adopt this practice of baptism. We see this practice as obedience to Jesus and a re-enactment of Christ dying and rising. Going fully under the water and back up for those of us who were raised Baptist, or the more imaginative version that we practice here, as we saw last week with our own Luke. We look to Christ.
But for John the Baptist and his followers, they looked further back, to an ancient water. The crossing of the Red Sea by the Jewish people, as they fled slavery from Egypt, and again to the crossing of this same Jordan River, as they came into the promised land. The water of deliverance . . . the water of refugees arriving in a new place.[iv] Within this action of a baptism by repentance, the call is to journey back to when we were a people without a place being delivered by God to a new hope. Remember who you were and are, blessed by God, called to follow through the wilderness, the way of God. Then it makes more sense why John was calling out the people for their sense of entitlement.
Do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. 9 Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
Don’t think that your ethnicity will save you. You are called to more than that. These are harsh words, and they do not come from a place of traditional power. They come from the wilderness, they call us to justice and to generosity, and they call us to recognize that we are all refugees in need of a home. The repentance that John is calling us to is recognizing our own power and privilege and the ways in which we fail to share that with our brothers and sisters, to share with all of God’s children. This is the message of John the Baptist. These are the words that crush stones, lower mountains and raise valleys, to make the way smooth for all to experience God’s salvation.
We see on the screen one final thought about John the Baptist. This image is from the Isenheim Altarpiece by Grunewald. John is pointing toward Christ . . . a definitive summary of his ministry. The words behind him say, Illum oportet crescere, me autem minui. I’m sure you recognize this as the Latin translation of John 3:30 ‘He must become greater, I must become less.’
In all of his brash, confident judgment, John the Baptist defers to Jesus. This is not a battle between leadership styles, it is not a showdown between harsh judgment and welcoming acceptance. This is the perfect combination of the two. Both John and Jesus have harsh, difficult words for us, calling us to repentance, to change our ways. And both John and Jesus ended up suffering and dying because of their harsh words in speaking truth to power. These are not egotistical blowhards casting down judgment for their own enjoyment. Both derive their authority from their authenticity, living out their commitments at great personal sacrifice.
Following in their footsteps is not easy. Repentance, or changing our ways to the way of Jesus, is not easy. To forsake personal power, privilege, and comfort for the sake of all is a difficult road. But this is the road that John and Jesus have forged for us to follow. This is what it means to know God. As Jewish scholar Emmanuel Levinas has written, “To know God is to know what has to be done.”[v] It is easier to condemn and demonize those who are different than us, to channel the harsh words of judgment to those people who are causing all of these problems.
John calls us to turn those words toward ourselves, to return to a baptism of repentance, recognizing the common humanity of all people. We choose to follow Jesus onto the margins of life. We choose the difficult path of loving one another, for this is the path to salvation for all. This is where we see the salvation of God in the here and now,
when we practice hospitality
when we show generosity,
when we risk love,
when we use the gifts of God for all the people of God.
That is why we will say those very words in a few minutes, as we share the gifts of the Lord’s Table with all, an expression of how we live our lives with all the gifts we have to share. This is the way live as God created us to live.
As we go on this journey through the season of Advent, let us stand and sing a new song about the beautiful story of Jesus on the Margins, for the sake of all. It is called “A Weary Couple”
[i] http://theaquilareport.com/fed-up-university-president-this-is-not-a-daycare/#.VmBNwkJMeXc.facebook
[ii] http://www.frederickbuechner.com/content/weekly-sermon-illustration-john-baptist
[iii] http://www.patheos.com/blogs/biteintheapple/the-economics-of-hope/
[iv] for further insight, see Jones, Judith here: http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2702
[v] http://www.patheos.com/blogs/biteintheapple/wildmanjohn/
Upside Down World 