06 December 1998
He doesn't appear on any Christmas card I've ever seen. No pictures of him surrounded by sweet little cherubs trailing gold organdy streamers. No halo. He's not Cosmetically Correct -- his hair is wild, his clothes are all wrong, he has a distinctly disconcerting look in those eyes, and his tone of voice is anything but genteel. Not somebody you'd want to invite to your holiday parties. But there he is -- making a lot of noise in the middle of Advent. Why would Matthew plop him down into the beginnings of the Good News? Lots of people around him thought he and his message were anything but good news.
But there he is -- barging into the Advent readings, haranguing the locals, eventually getting himself killed for his lack of political correctness... An altogether disconcerting fellow.
There he is, out in the wilderness near the place where the Jordan joins the Dead Sea -- and the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. They have responded to his message, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near. Why did they all troop out into the wilderness to confess and to wade out into the river for the baptism of repentance?
Matthew tells us that This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, 'The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: "Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." Foretold by the great prophet, becoming in turn a prophet calling out the coming of one greater than himself, John tells the people, 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. John's message is not a charming little Christmas-card sentiment; he tells the people, His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.
John sees the Pharisees and the Sadducees coming for baptism -- two groups known for their piety and practice of the law -- but he castigates them too, calling them a brood of vipers and warning them not to rest on their religious laurels. Bear fruit worthy of repentance, he challenges them. Do not presume 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. 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.
Why is he haranguing the people in this way? What does he expect? Is he just a wild misfit, hostile and angry and in serious need of therapeutic intervention? Does he just want to beat up on the crowds that come to see and hear him?
No. He is part of a long line of prophets called by God to call the people back to God. Prepare the way of the Lord, he and Isaiah and the others shout, make his paths straight.
Is he calling for the construction of a superhighway for the triumphal entrance? Not in the usual sense.
Rather, the way he calls us, as well as the people of his time, to prepare is the entryway of the Lord into our lives and our hearts, a path straight to the center of our being. He calls us to clear away the debris of things done and left undone, of our lapses of love for our neighbors and for God that clutter up God's pathway into our lives and keep us from doing God's work in God's world. He calls us to the washing-away of whatever keeps us from being prepared for the coming of the One who claims, challenges, and saves us. He calls for the washing-away of whatever keeps us from bearing fruit.
How can we do that work? First, we need to know and name those things that keep us from being prepared to do the work of the kingdom. Advent and Lent are two times of the year that people in the Church have recognized as times of spiritual house-cleaning, times of reflection and preparation and amendment of life. (These are not the only times for this work, but they are recognized ones for special emphasis on it.)
There are some basic tools in your prayerbook and your Bible that can help with this work. One that we use every week is the confession we say in the liturgy. It invites us to think on those things that we have done or left undone, in thought, word, and deed that are ways that we have not loved God with our whole heart, or ways that we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are sorry for those things and we humbly repent -- we turn again to God and we change our ways. We ask God, For the sake of thy Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us. We ask for mercy and forgiveness not just to get out from under our sins but that we may delight in [God's] will and walk in [God's] ways, to the glory of [God's] name.
There are other tools for us to use in this work. One is the Ten Commandments -- a review not only in the literal sense but in the sense of fuller observance of God's call to us.
Some people choose to use the Sacrament of Reconciliation, found in two forms in the Book of Common Prayer, for private confession. In our church, the short rubric for that is: "All may; some should; none must". Naming the ways we have fallen short in the presence of another human being and receiving assurance of God's love and forgiveness can be a very powerful means of spiritual growth and a way to leave our burdens at the foot of the Cross, so that we can travel more lightly and surely in the way of the kingdom. The purpose of the Sacrament, as its name states, is reconciliation. If you think you might wish to use the Sacrament or you wish to know more about it, please feel free to speak to any of your priests.
Matthew brings John the Baptist into the Gospel story as an adult, but Luke's account begins with the angel's appearance to Zechariah, John's father, before John's birth. The story makes clear that repentance is not self-castigation for its own sake, as some think of it, but rather a turning to God and to new clarity of purpose and action. The angel tells Zechariah that John will turn many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. With the spirit and power of Elijah he will go before him, to turn the hearts of parents to their children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.
That's the core of it -- to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Listen again to the collect we prayed at the beginning of the service this morning: Merciful God, who sent thy messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation: Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer...
We make ready for his coming -- and his coming again -- at this time of the year as a people of hope. Paul writes his prayer for the Romans: May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He tells the people to welcome each other, just as they (and we) have been welcomed by Christ, for the glory of God. And in him the Gentiles shall hope.
And Isaiah sings the beautiful song of our hope for the coming of the Kingdom: The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder's den. They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.
We long for that beautiful time, and we sing of it during this time of telling the story of the coming of Christ for the first time and the ultimate time. Let us use this current time wisely, preparing the way in our hearts and our lives in the world around us.
The Rev. Lois Hart
lhart@stmargarets.org
06 December 98