| December 5, 2004 Isaiah 11·1-10 + Romans 15:4-9 + Matthew 3:1-12 |
| John, our guide in every Advent speaks to us today as more than the “herald” of Jesus.He does not rise up in our scriptures simply to point to Jesus and then disappear from history.He returns again and again each advent as the one after whom the church should model itself.And so in these first Sundays of this new year of grace and holiness,we take a look again at this one whose prophetic voice and prophetic vision is the model of what a prophetic church must become.Just as his voice prepared for the first appearance of Jesus, so must the voice of this church ready itself and then all humankind for the second and ultimate coming of Jesus. In more simple language,the agenda of John the Baptist is the agenda of our church:work for peace,struggle for justice and an enduring harmony among all people. |
| Our world is hardly any different from the world of Isaiah whose poetic and prophetic words we just heard.This is still a world marked by social injustice spiritual laxity,and poor leadership.His voice rose up at a time when the leaders and the people faced an enemy relying upon military might and the support of allies rather than fidelity to God. The consequences of their choice is a matter of history. The became divided among themselves and an easy prey to their foes. |
| The danger for them is the same danger we face.That danger is spiritualizing the reality of the Kingdom of God.At the root of the Incarnation -At the bottom of what God does by becoming one of us -is making real, historical, concrete, temporal, and earthly the Kingdom of God. It is not for some other age or some place or condition called: “heaven.”In order for the peaceable Kingdom to become the possible kingdom, it must be political as well as spiritual.And I do not mean political in the sense of Democrats and Republicans. I mean it must happen here on earth. We are the ones who will make peace, and we will do it by faithfully living the will of God. We are the creators of our own demise bringing on most of our problems. If we could just stop and ask ourselves what we could do for our Creator rathar than what our Creator can do for us, we might find ourselves following a much different path than the one we have previously chosen. |
| Our life together as church is not about what we can get here, or whether it is fun, entertaining, or “interesting” for that matter.Our life together as a church is about what and how we give and do for God.Yet this age all about pleasure, entertainment, and “ME.” And so this church rises up, looking a little “out of it”like a man dressed in camel’s hair eating locusts and wild honey. What we do is not about feeling good or being happy.It is about pleasing God. |
| Again and again, the prophets and Jesus tell us that Justice pleases God. And so, little works of charity that make us feel good are off the mark.They are short term repairs when there is need for long term solutions because we like instant things that feel good and look good.An example: Why are we ringing bells in front of stores every year? Because, we didn’t fix the problem the year before.Now my example is not an excuse for silencing the bells, it is a prophetic challenge to do something that gets usto the day and the season when it will not be necessary to ring them.If we did nothing all year to address and challenge a system of injustice, then we’ll be ringing those bells forever pretending that there will be no poor people in heaven. That heaven will never come. It was never promised us.Charity is something that happens out of our surplus. It is demanded of us. Justice, and the demands of justice come from an obligation to share God’s creation more generously even if it means tapping our very sustenance when the needs of others so require. |
| So, here he is again. John, the model of the prophetic church.And here is Advent again, the time to remember and the opportunity to get it right. If what we hear from Isaiah is the Word of the Lord, and you said so at the end, then the Will of God is that the dream Isaiah possessed is our to possess,and the wolf can become the guest of the lamb. |
| Before we walk into this holy place in another week,we should have made that day more possible and more certain, because the Kingdom of God is at hand. |