ADVENT 2A - Isaiah 11:1-10; Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19; Romans 15:4-13; Matthew 3:1-12 -

9 December 2007 - A sermon preached by The Rev. Peter A. Munson for St. Ambrose Episcopal Church, Boulder, Colorado

 

Able to Hear a Challenging Word

 

INTRODUCTION - Going to Boulder Creek?

 

That area of Boulder Creek above the Justice Center is fairly tame in the summertime. It is sort of a “tuber’s haven”. Grab your inner tube, hike up the canyon a little ways, jump in, avoid the big rocks, and float on down. Maybe you’ll see meet someone cute who is trying to cool off on a hot summer day, just like you. Who knows what could happen?

 

Suppose you heard that a strange man - known only as John - was living up that way, somewhere along the riverbank. Suppose you heard that he was preaching the word of God with power and conviction, without mincing any words. Suppose you heard he had a beard down to his chest, sort of crazed eyes, and was wearing clothes that weren’t exactly the latest fashion statement, something that made you wonder about him even more. A camouflage outfit with combat boots, perhaps, or a long, black trench coat. Perhaps you heard he was surviving on only what a few kind souls gave him to eat, and that he had one of those cardboard signs that said, “Repent!” in one hand, and “Enter at your own risk, you brood of vipers!” in the other. And suppose you heard that people from all over Boulder and Denver and Weld and Larimer Counties were heading up to this section of Boulder Creek in droves, not with inner tubes, but to hear this man who seemed to be speaking the very words of God. And suppose you heard that he was baptizing many people who came - right there in Boulder Creek! - and that he was scaring off many religious folks, telling them to think about what kind of fruit they were bearing in their lives, before they thought about coming back to see him again.

 

Would you head up Broadway, turn west, and go see him? Would you invite some other people from St. Ambrose to come along, too? And what if, when we got there, all of us heard:

 

“You brook of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance! Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘My parents and grandparents and great-grandparents were all Christians’ or ‘I’m a cradle Episcopalian!’; for I tell you, God is able from these boulders to raise up Christians who bear good fruit. (And if God is able to raise up Christians from these boulders, it goes without saying that He can raise up some Episcopalians, too.) 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. I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Paraphrase of Matthew 3:7-11)

 

If you went up to Boulder Creek and heard that, what would you do then? Would you get defensive? “Who does he think he is? He can’t say that to me! I’ve been a faithful, church-going, God-fearing, Bible-reading Christian for how long now? I give some of my money to the church. I try to be a good person.”

 

“I know all the colors of the Church Year, and I’ve memorized all the responses in Eucharistic Prayers A, B, and C, and I’d know the responses in Prayer D if our priest ever used it, and I go to most of the Holy Week services, and I’m always there on Christmas Eve, and I’ve had my children baptized, and - hey! - I’m a pretty good Christian and a darn good Episcopalian, if I do say so myself!”

 

CAN I HEAR A CHALLENGING WORD FROM GOD?

 

I wonder what I’d do, if I went up to see such a man along Boulder Creek, and his eyes locked with mine, and he said to me, “Repent, you viper! Bear fruit worthy of repentance!”

 

I wonder what I’d do, if I was just standing there along the bank of the creek listening to John, and I realized, “This man is really on fire for the Lord in a way that I’m not. This man preaches with a passion for God that goes way beyond my preaching and my passion for God. And yet, he says he’s not worthy to carry our Lord’s sandals. Where does that leave me?”

 

This isn’t just a hypothetical scenario, by the way. These are some of the feelings that came up for me as I entered into this passage, starting a week ago today. Has it ever made you squirm that both John the Baptist and Jesus saved their harshest words for the religious people of their day? It sure has gotten my attention over the years. Like today, for example.

 

Here is what I’d like to believe about myself. I’d like to believe that after all these years following Christ, I can hear a challenging word from God - whether that word comes through Holy Scripture, whether it comes from the mouth of a member of my family or from a friend, whether it comes to me during a time of prayer or from the mouth of an innocent and honest child during the Children’s Sermon or from one of you during a forum or a Vestry meeting - I would hope that I could hear that challenging word from God without getting defensive.

 

I would hope that I could hear that word, even if it made me squirm. I’d like to think that I’d consider it, and mull it over as long as I needed to, and wrestle with it, and pray about it, or go on a long walk and mull it over some more, or write about it - whatever I needed to do to grapple with it - and let the truth of that word sink in, deep down, where my spirit meets the Holy Spirit.

 

GOOD NEWS

 

Is there any good news in the scriptures for us today? There’s lots of good news.

 

First of all, we have a God who loves us enough to challenge us, who is not just satisfied with us no matter what, especially when we are stuck or doing things that aren’t productive. Even more so, our Lord challenges us when we are doing things that are self-destructive. Think of a good teacher or parent who doesn’t put up with lousy effort, or who tries to get you to produce more than you think you are capable of doing.

 

Multiply that person’s desire for you by some large number, and you get an idea of how much God wants for you, and how much God loves you.

 

Second, the Holy Spirit is always leading us back to God when we realize we have fallen short of who God is calling us to be. It is the Holy Spirit that helps us see our sins, the Holy Spirit that moves us to repentance, the Holy Spirit that makes it possible for us NOT to be defensive, the Holy Spirit that enables us to say, “You’re right, Lord. You’re absolutely right. Bring me back. Deepen my love for you. Bring your fire, and help me to be on fire for you the way that John the Baptist was on fire for you.”

 

And when we pray that prayer... when we utter even the first word that indicates our desire to return to God - our desire to take that next step, and become who God knows we can be - the Holy Spirit is already our work, the Lord is already running to meet us, leading us on, empowering us, refining us in the fire of God’s gracious love. The Lord is already bringing us to the next phase of formation and transformation that needs to happen in us, once we indicate that we are willing and open and receptive, once we move away from that place of presumption and smugness, where we say, “I’m already a Christian. What do I need to worry about?”

 

The Lord who judges us is also the same Lord who loves us like no one else can, and who takes us to where we need to be. And suddenly we discover that a shoot is coming up from what looked to be a dead stump. Suddenly there is reconciliation, and the wolf and the lamb are lying down together. The blind are seeing, the lame are healed, the deaf hear, and we welcome one another, just as Christ has welcomed us.

 

CONCLUSION

We never know how God is going to show up, and what His next word to us will be. The people of Israel were desperately looking for a Messiah. They would never have guessed that the one who would prepare his way, who would prepare the people to meet him by baptizing them in the Jordan River, would be a half-crazed man hanging out in the wilderness. And yet, somehow, that is exactly the person God led them out to meet. Not only that, the Messiah went out to the river Jordan, and he, too, was baptized by that same, half-crazed man.

 

Or was he crazy?

 

It all depends on how you look at things. It all depends on whether or not you are open to hearing a challenging word from God. It all depends on whether you try to call the shots on where and how God will show up in your life, or if - on the other hand - you are open to God showing up in unexpected ways, at unexpected hours.

 

Be aware! Be ready! Be on the lookout! Don’t be caught off guard! God may send a modern-day John the Baptist into your life this week. And that person might throw you for a loop at first. If so, hang in there. You never know where it might go from there.