First Reading Isaiah 11:1-10
1There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. 2And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. 3And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, 4but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. 5Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins. 6The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. 7The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. 9They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. 10In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples — of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.
Psalm Psalm 72:1-7
1Give the King your justice, O God, and your righteousness to the King’s Son; 2That he may rule your people righteously and the poor with justice; 3That the mountains may bring prosperity to the people, and the little hills bring righteousness. 4He shall defend the needy among the people; he shall rescue the poor and crush the oppressor. 5He shall live as long as the sun and moon endure, from one generation to another. 6He shall come down like rain upon the mown field, like showers that water the earth. 7In his time shall the righteous flourish; there shall be abundance of peace till the moon shall be no more.
Second Reading Romans 15:4-13
4Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. 5May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, 6that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 7Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. 8For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God’s truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, 9and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, “Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles, and sing to your name.” 10And again it is said, “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.” 11And again, “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples extol him.” 12And again Isaiah says, “The root of Jesse will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles; in him will the Gentiles hope.” 13May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
Gospel Matthew 3:1-12
1In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, 2“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” 3For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’” 4Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. 5Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, 6and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 7But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. 9And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 10Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 11“I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
GET THE GARGABE OUT!
For those of us who are parents or grandparents, I’m betting you can recall the first word or words spoken by one of your children or grandchildren. Now for the most part, a parent wants to hear their child say momma or dada. However, this isn’t always the case is it? We spend the first six to nine months of our baby’s life just babbling at them and making all kinds of words and sounds. And one day, he or she suddenly responds! It’s a great feeling. That is, unless your baby’s first words are something unexpected. A friend of mine had a favorite 4-letter expletive that started with s; I won’t repeat it, but his first child did. Mom was none too happy that, that was her precious baby’s first word. Children will repeat what they hear, even when we don’t want them to won’t they?
A parenting website asked parents to submit stories of the strangest first words their babies ever said. Laura Conaway from Columbus, OH, said her youngest son’s first words were, “Let go.” That was a surprise! Laura and her husband were puzzled by this, until the day they walked into a room to find the child’s older brothers playing tug-of-war with his favorite blankie, and the toddler was yelling at his older brothers, “Let go!” Having older siblings can help to explain a lot of things a new child learns. However, we can’t always blame everything on them. The older ones learned much of what they know from us as well didn’t they?
A favorite story of mine of how children will repeat what they hear comes from Terry’s and my time in Las Vegas. The neighbors across the street had a pretty little girl named Kelly Nichole Patterson. If you asked her name, she’d sweetly say Kelly Nickel Patterson. If you asked what her mom’s name was, she’d say in the same sweet voice Denise. Then the fun came in. We’d then ask what her father’s name was and she’d yell at the top of her lungs, “Harold.” I’ll let you figure out the rest.
A woman named Sylvia from Campbell, OH, had the strangest story, in my opinion. Sylvia admits that she nags her forgetful husband all the time to take the garbage out. However, Sylvia and her husband were both surprised one morning when their infant daughter banged her little fist on her highchair and yelled at her father her first words, “Garbage out!” It’s things like this that help explain why the TV show, Kids Say the Darndest Things, was so popular.
Now when you stop and think about it, “Garbage out!”, isn’t too far off from how John the Baptist started his preaching in this morning’s gospel passage. If it were you or I called to prepare the way for the coming Messiah, how would we have prepared the people for the coming Messiah? My guess is, “Get the garbage out!” is about as good as any attention getter as you can get.
That’s like a funny list I saw of the top signs that your pastor needs a vacation. The number one sign on this list of ways you know your pastor needs a vacation is that his or her first words to the congregation on Sunday morning are, “All right, you heathen, listen up!” If you hear me start off a sermon like that someday, you’ll know it’s time for me to not only take a vacation, but probably a sabbatical. But I digress: when you stop and really think about it, it’s not too far off track to imagine that the first words that John the Baptist would use to start his preaching would be, “Get the garbage out!”
All his life, John’s parents had told him of the miraculous circumstances and events surrounding his birth. God had chosen John, from the womb, to be the prophet who would announce the arrival of the Messiah, God’s Anointed One. That didn’t leave John with any excuses to be timid or unclear in his preaching. The world needed to know the Messiah was coming! God’s plan for the salvation of the world was kicking into high gear. And people needed to get ready to see the Messiah, to hear Him, to follow Him. So, what were John’s first words to announce news this important, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” In other words, John was saying, “The Christ is coming. Get the garbage out!—repent!”
Starting with verse one of our gospel lesson we read, “In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’ This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: ‘A voice of one calling in the wilderness, Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’ “John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River . . . .” (Matt. 3:1-6). I think it’s important to note the first thing that people did when they heard John’s message. They confessed their sins. And why? Because John preached a message of repentance.
Pastor David Guzik, in his New Testament commentary, writes that it is entirely accurate to say that the first word of the gospel is “repent.” Search it out for yourself. Repent was the first word of John the Baptist’s gospel (Matthew 3:1-2). Repent was also the first word of Jesus’ gospel (Matthew 4:14, Mark 1:14-15). Repent was the first word in the preaching ministry of the twelve disciples (Mark 6:12). Repent was the first word in the preaching instructions Jesus gave to His disciples after His resurrection (Luke 24:46-47). Repent was the first word of exhortation in the first Christian sermon (Acts 2:38). And repent was the first word in the mouth of the Apostle Paul through his ministry (Acts 26:19-20).
“Repent” is a critical word, yet we almost never hear the word repent in our society anymore. One could say that it’s definitely a churchy word—though it probably isn’t used very much even in church. The question is why? Why do we not use such an important word these days? It must be a word of great importance considering it was the first word preached by John the Baptist, Jesus, Peter and the Apostles and Paul.
“Repent” comes from two Greek words, noeo, which means “to think, perceive or understand with the mind” and meta, which means “to change.” So this is John’s challenge to his hearers: are you ready to meet God? Are you ready to get in step with God’s plan for this world? Then you’ve got to repent, to change your mind and understanding, to reflect God’s will and purposes. “Get the garbage out!” This is the first step in beginning a new life with Christ.
A forest ranger in Wales wrote an article about the most common questions visitors ask the forest rangers in his park. Many people, he said, come to the park to hike one of the beautiful trails that wander through the forest; trails designed to display the magnificent trees and plants, to let the hikers encounter the array of wildlife in the forest, and to take hikers on to hilltops for breathtaking views of the countryside. But the most frequent question that visitors ask the forest rangers isn’t, “Where does this trail go?” or “How long does it take to hike it?” or “Do we need bug spray on the trail?” Instead, they ask, “Excuse me, can you tell me where the trail starts?” That’s a good question for us today. If you want to know where the trail to God starts, it starts at repentance.
Repentance is about restoring our relationship with God. Some religions teach that sin comes from incorrect thinking or ignorance of what is good or true. But the Bible teaches us that sin comes from turning away from the love of, and reverence for, God. Sin is anything that misses the mark of God’s holiness. So, the farther we move away from God, the closer we move to sin. Think about the first sin of Adam and Eve.
Adam and Eve lost focus of what God wanted and focused instead on what they wanted. Their desire was to “become like God”. In other words, they wanted to be in charge and put God second in their lives. Luther defined our predicament as humans as homo incurvatus in se, that is, being “humans curved in on” ourselves. So, what we need most is to turn around.
God created this whole universe, and everyone in it, to know God and to reflect His glory. People who know each other intimately and spend much time with each other invariably start to reflect each other’s character and attitudes and priorities. John is saying, “The kingdom of heaven is near to you. God’s has a plan for restoring this world to His original design of justice and mercy and peace. And we’ll miss it if we don’t align our thoughts with God’s thoughts. If our mind is fixed on outward shows of religion rather than filled with the spirit and thoughts and priorities of God, then we’re going to miss the greatest thing we’ll ever seen, the Messiah, God in the flesh walking among you.”
I read recently about the FC Magdeburg soccer team in Magdeburg, Germany. This soccer team had a rough season in 2012. They had five consecutive matches without scoring a single goal. So, the Magdeburg fans decided the team needed a little help. The fans showed up one day at the stadium with large, brightly-colored cardboard arrows. They gathered at the end of the stadium nearest their opponents’ goal and aimed their arrows at it so the Magdeburg players would have no trouble finding the goal when they got the ball.
One could easily say that John the Baptist’s message is like a brightly colored cardboard arrow pointing right at God’s plan for humanity: Repent. Restore your relationship with God. It’s the only way to prepare ourselves for the Messiah and the coming of the kingdom of heaven. Repentance is about restoring our relationship with God. To truly repent, we must first recognize a need to change. In other words, the first step in true repentance is to acknowledge that we have a problem. Broken relationships can’t be restored until we sincerely step up and say, “I was wrong. I sinned against you. And knowing that I caused you pain breaks my heart.” That’s true in any relationship. And the same is true in our relationship with God.
Dean Chabot is a former neo-Nazi who left behind his old lifestyle of hate and prejudice and violence to start a new life as a man committed to peace and reconciliation. The last step in leaving his old lifestyle behind was getting rid of the racist tattoos he had gotten in his teen years. Another former white supremacist who had left the movement paid for a plastic surgeon to remove Dean Chabot’s old tattoos. In an interview with journalist Scott Pelley from CBS News, Chabot said, “The reason I’m doing this is to end a chapter of my life, getting the hate off my skin.” True repentance acknowledges our broken relationship with God. It’s not so much about getting hate off our skin but about getting it out of our heart.
Another young woman named Tatiana Gor-i-cheva, who was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, grew up to become a leader of the Communist youth movement. She was raised as an atheist, but at the age of twenty-six, she and her best friend heard the story of Jesus Christ. They became Christ-followers. As she read the Bible, Tatiana discovered what sin is, and it broke her heart to know that she had rejected God’s love and will and purposes for so many years. She felt this horrible burden, this desperation to be cleansed and restored to God, but she didn’t know how to go about it. She would later discover that her best friend was undergoing a similar spiritual journey.
One day, Tatiana walked into a Russian Orthodox church and asked to make her confession. The priest listened to her lengthy confession and offered her prayers and advice. Through the act of confession, Tatiana and her best friend experienced the joy of restoration with God. She writes about that day, “. . . we had already had a miraculous experience: from the nothingness of a meaningless existence bordering on desperation, we had come into the Father’s house, into the church, which for us was paradise. We knew that with God anything is possible.” To Tatiana Gor-i-cheva, confession opened up the door to God’s house, the church, which she described as paradise. That’s true restoration to God. Repentance is about restoring our relationship with God. The first step of true repentance is acknowledging that we “have fallen short of the mark of truly being [God’s] obedient sons and daughters”. The good news is, there’s life-changing benefits to confession besides forgiveness and reconciliation to the Father. The fruit of repentance is joy and peace.
John’s message might sound harsh and undiplomatic to us. It might sound out of keeping with the soft, warm feelings of the Christmas season, but it’s motivated entirely by love, by a desire to shake us awake and get us to turn back to God while there’s still time to experience His love. Festo Kiv-en-gere is a former Bishop of the Anglican Church in Uganda. Festo was raised in a pagan family, but he became a follower of Jesus in early adulthood. His ministry was so influential that he is sometimes referred to as “the Billy Graham of Africa.”
Before he became a follower of Jesus, Festo describes his life as a “spinning top.” He said, “I worked, I played, I worked. . . I was just running faster and faster, thinking that the faster I ran the more lively life would become. How wrong!” But a friend shared the message of Jesus with Festo, and he prayed to follow Jesus as his Lord and Savior. He says, “That day God smashed my heart open and introduced me to the living reality of Jesus Christ, who entered in. My top stopped spinning, and He gave me direction that lasts through eternity.”
“God smashed my heart open”—that may sound like a Country and Western song about someone who has just fallen in love. But that’s what happens, when we understand who God is, and how much He loves us. And that’s what repentance does for us—it smashes open our heart, and we learn to love God as much as He loves us. Repent, get ready to greet the Messiah when He comes! That’s John the Baptist’s message to us on this Second Sunday in Advent.
The kingdom of God is here, and Jesus has warned us that He will return unexpectedly. His plan to restore all creation to a right relationship with God is already in motion. We don’t have time to simply go through the motions this Advent and Christmas season. It doesn’t make sense to simply make an outward show of our religion. We need to whole-heartedly repent and turn back to God. We need to get the garbage out . . . when we do, we will bear the fruit of joy and peace that comes from knowing that we’ve been restored to God and are in a right relationship with Him.
Amen
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.