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Luke 3:1-18 Who Invited This Guy? Sermon preached December 1, 2013 Opening Well, here we are.

First Sunday in Advent. Tis the season to be jolly. Fasten your seatbelts and here we go. Now, there are a number of seasonal hazards that are part of the deal of this time of year. One of them, is that you have to deal with people youd really rather avoid. Like, at the office Christmas party - theres a guy you work with who skates right on the line of being inappropriate with women - the office lecher - and at the Christmas party he takes full advantage of the open bar and in the spirit of the season he tries to give the women big full-body hugs. Like, around the Christmas dinner table when you get together with family - theres Uncle Harold who tells rude, inappropriate and racist jokes at the table; cousin Sarah with her three wild children who are never disciplined, sticking their fingers in the mashed potatoes, running around knocking lamps over. But theyre family, and its Christmas...so you really have to see one another. And then youve got the guy in our scripture reading - John the Baptist. Another kind of unwelcome guest during the Christmas season. Who invited this hellfire-and-brimstone preaching, locust-munching, animal-skin wearing wild man of the desert, to our Christmas season? Angels and shepherds and wise men, we understand their place at the Christmas story - but this guy? John the Baptist, is someone Id rather avoid at Christmas-time. But the Bible wont let us. All four gospels have the story of John at the beginning of the story of Jesus. All four gospels insist that before we can go see the baby in Bethlehem, we have to go out to the desert and encounter John. So lets suck it up, and do the right thing, and go see John for a bit. Out in the desert Now in contrast to how we may feel, Johns contemporaries were excited to see him. You had people in the congregation listening to John preach, that youd never seen together anyplace else. Everybody went out to hear and see John - Roman soldiers, peasant farmers, religious leaders, Roman collaborators like tax collectors - all rubbing shoulders, craning their necks to see John, cupping their ears, to hear John. 1

Which is kind of surprising, given his message. John wasnt preaching any positive spiritual thoughts to help you become your best self now -he didnt begin his sermons with a funny story - he just went at you - You brood of snakes! What are you doing here slithering down to the river? You think a little water is going to save you from Gods judgment? His message boiled down to this - God is on his way, ready to deal out some real wrathof-God stuff and you - youd better clean up your act right now or youre going to be kindling for the fire to come. And people by the thousands took it to heart and got baptized as a sign of their repentance, getting the sin washed off of them. To prepare for the imminent arrival, of their God. So here we have John at the beginning of the Christmas season and all four gospel writers insist we have to listen to him in the desert before we can get to Bethlehem. In our house, Susan has Christmas music playing during every...waking...moment - and our house came with an old but still functioning Nutone radio system that plays the music in every room in the house - oh joy! So there music like - Silent Night playing sweetly in the background - but this message of Johns - well, imagine if the music stopped and a voice said We interrupt this broadcast to bring you an important message to help you get ready for Christmas - and you get Johns message, some voice thundering at us listeners, Brood of slithering snakes! Get ready for judgment! What in the world does this guy John, have to do with Christmas and sweet little baby Jesus? Unpacking his message The answer, may be hard to hear. Before we get to the good news of Christmas, we have to deal with some bad news. About us. Before we get to the light of the world coming to us at Christmas, we have to deal with the darkness. Inside us all. This is not a popular message. There is a Doonesbury cartoon that captures this perfectly. A couple is sitting in the ministers office in the Little Church of Walden. The conversation goes like this: Minister: So what would you like to know about Little Church of Walden? Dont hold back - I know how difficult it can be to choose a church. Well, whats your basic approach here? Is it traditional gospel? In a way. I like to describe it as 12-step Christianity. Basically, I believe 2

Husband: Minister:

were all recovering sinners. My ministry is about overcoming denial, its about re-commitment, about redemption. Its all in the brochure there. Wife: Minister: Wait a minute - sinners? Redemption? Doesnt that imply guilt? Well, yes, I do rely on the occasional disincentive to keep the flock from going astray. Guilts part of that. I dunno. Theres so much negativity in the world as it is. Thats right. Were looking for a church thats supportive, a place where we can feel good about ourselves. Im not sure the guilt thing works for us. (looking at brochure) On the other hand, you do offer racquetball. So did the Unitarians, honey. Lets shop around some more.

Husband: Wife:

Husband: Wife:

We Americans want our religion to be happy, upbeat. We want spiritual growth without guilt, want change without repentance, want wisdom without suffering, want patience without trials. And we want the sweet baby Jesus of Christmas, without any of this talk of sin and darkness. But its in me. An example. A few years ago, the men and teenagers of my previous church had a paintball outing. I quickly realized that large, lumbering middle-aged men like me, up against teenagers, dont have a chance - all I was good for, was being an excellent target. Now remember - Im the pastor at this event, the one who is supposed to set some kind of Christian example to my congregation, especially the young people. But during one battle, I got shot with a paintball at close range and it hit me square in the forehead, right above the protective face mask and man, it hurt - and I said, no I really yelled, a very, very bad word - right in front of some of our teenagers! Where did that come from? Inside me - from that mysterious dark place inside me. One shot to the forehead, and it popped right out. Johns mission, was to strip away all the pretending and posturing that weve got it together. And when you got baptized by John in the Jordan River, you stripped down to your birthday suit and went into the water start nekked - no hiding, no pretending anymore. But with John, baptism meant you also got naked, figuratively. You had to cast aside all the devices and schemes one uses to hide the brokenness, you had to face the darkness within. You had to stand naked before God, with no defenses, no excuses, no self-justification that Im basically a good person, and with little help, every day and in every way, Ill get better and better.

And then - repent Not only did you have to get baptized by John - but you also had to repent, clean up your act, get it together. People came to John and asked, What should we do? How should we live? And Johns instruction - was to share what you have, dont use power or force to take advantage of people. In a nutshell, love your neighbor - by sharing with the needy, by not abusing the weak. Its the second half of the great commandment, love your neighbor as yourself. John was a prophet and foresaw that the Messiah was coming and he was going to bring a new world where the hungry were fed and the sick, healed and, where tyrants would be toppled, where swords would be hammered into plow-blades...where finally wed live in peace with one another and with God. And in that new world theres no place for greed and selfishness - and if you want to live in that new world, youd better get with the program. If only it were that easy Really, thats pretty simple and basic. Its kindergarten stuff. Share, and dont be mean to people. Visualize world peace, they say - well, this stuff would be a good start. And yet, we just cant seem to do it. What Johns call to repentance does, is expose our inability to do it. I mean, have you ever tried to change, clean up your act? Its hard, really hard. And how do you clean up your act so radically and deeply so that youre acceptable not just to your neighbors and friends whom you can fool and cover up the mess that still remains - how do you clean yourself up to Gods standards of perfection? Maybe you've heard the story of the little boy who decided to write a letter to God one Christmas. He started out by writing: "Dear God, I've been a really good boy this year." Unfortunately, he remembered that God was all knowing and all seeing and he decided that he couldn't lie to God. So, he crumpled up that letter and started over. This time he wrote: "Dear God, I know I haven't done everything I should have, but I really tried to be good." He stopped and crumpled up that letter, too. And he was stumped, what to say in his letter to God. As he sat there thinking he looked up and saw his mother's favorite piece of sculpture on the mantel. It was a beautiful rendition of the Madonna, the mother of Christ. The boy perked up and ran out of the room. He came back with a towel and a shoebox. He walked over, carefully picked up the Madonna, gently wrapped it in the towel, carefully put it in the shoebox and then hid it in the closet. He 4

immediately went back to the table and wrote: Dear God, if you ever want to see your mother again . . . Share, and be nice to people. We cant even seem to do that. Whats the matter with us? Its a mystery - but we all seemed to be curved in on ourselves, making the puny self the center of the universe. Thats obvious with the rich and powerful and egotistical - who want more - more attention, more praise, more stuff, more fame - but its the same way with the weak and insecure too - they are some of the most selfcentered people in the world - they think, my insecurity is the result of other people being mean to them and if I just get other people to like ME, if I just find some success to validate ME, then Ill be ok. So maybe we really do want to repent and so we go out into the desert to see John, and we get baptized and come up out of the water after John baptizes us and dry off and put on our clothes and vow, this time were going to do better, this time, were really going to clean up our act, but we are also afraid, so afraid, that well go right back to being the same scumbuckets we always have been. That once again, we will be, in Fred Craddocks memorable phrase, Crucified between the sky of what I intend and the earth of what I perform. My God, what an awful place to be. God is coming and hes bringing a new world and I need to change my ways to be fit to live within it or theres judgment coming and Ill be kindling for the cosmic bonfire unless I change but I know down deep that I cant, Ive tried and tried and Im the same old schlub Ive always been - somebody, please help me, save me! Jesus our Savior So hear this: I bring you good news of great joy - for today, in the city of David, is born to you a savior, who is Christ the Lord. So said the angel to the shepherd out in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night. We need saving...and in Jesus Christ, we get a savior. And what we see in Jesus, is a God who does not demand we clean ourselves up before we dare approach him - we find that God, comes to us, in love and humility, as one of us. And heads straight for the people who most need saving - the tax collectors, the prostitutes, the poor and downtrodden. And he said, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Meaning, you get in on this new world God is bringing, only when you know youre not worthy to enter. Only when you admit, that youre lost and broken and foolish and need to be saved. You have to go through Johns desert of despair and emptiness and the end of human hope, to get to the beauty and wonder of Bethlehem. John foresaw the day of Gods coming judgment, told people to get ready. But he didnt 5

foresee, nobody did, that instead of that judgement falling on us and wiping us out, it fell on Jesus Christ crucified - as he took into his great heart all of our wretchedness meanness and selfishness and cruelty and paid the price we never could, so we might be forgiven and freed. Now we can repent And now we can repent, not out of cringing fear, but because we know were loved by the God the maker of all things. We come full circle - the call to repentance, the impossibility of doing it driving us to cry out we need a savior - who comes to us as Jesus Christ who shows us we are loved and dont have to be afraid, who takes on himself the judgment due us all and frees us from sins tyranny so finally, finally, we really can begin to repent. And be changed. And some of us, we have us some repenting to do. You probably already know what it is, even if you dont admit it fully yet. Could be substance abuse...could be emotional abuse of your family... Could be indulging in porn...could be a marriage gone cold... Could be a refusal to forgive...could be a refusal to admit you wronged and hurt someone and need to be forgiven... Could be youre a gossip and tear people down with words... Could be youre addicted to the rush of buying new stuff and youre in the prison of perpetual debt... Could be youre tight-fisted with your money, youve got two cloaks and refuse to share with those who have none... Or could be youve just given up on most everyone and everything and live in your private little righteous world and from that perch you look down on everyone else. The bad news is, you and I are a mess and we need to repent and we cant get there on your own. But the good news is, in Jesus Christ we have a savior who really can heal us and change us and set us free.

Closing Carl Michalson once told about playing with his young son one afternoon. They tussled playfully on their front lawn when Michalson accidentally hit the young boy in the face with his elbow. It was a sharp blow full to his son's face. The little boy was stunned by the impact of the elbow. It hurt, and he was just about to burst into tears. But then he looked into his father's eyes. Instead of anger and hostility, he saw there his father's sympathy and concern; he saw there his father's love and compassion. Instead of exploding into tears, the little boy suddenly burst into laughter. What he saw in his father's eyes made all the difference!1 Endnotes 1. James W. Moore, Some Things Are too Good Not to Be True, Nashville: Dimensions, p. 43.

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