December 9, 2007
The prophet writes of a kingdom where the wolf dwells with the lamb, a kingdom where cows and bears share the same grazing pasture, where a child can play close to a poisonous serpent and not be harmed.
But that is not realistic. We live in a world where lions devour little lambs, where conflict rages, where in a place called Omaha, innocent mall shoppers were gunned down just a few days ago.
Someone has proclaimed: “God is in his heavens, and all is right with the world.”
[1] Indeed, God is in his heavens, but all is not right with the world.The man was sitting in the large chair, dressed in his recognizable red suit and white gloves and wearing a long beard that almost touched the black, shiny belt around his waist. Knowing the man as a stranger but sensing him also as a friend, the little boy climbed into his lap. After the boy settled there, the man asked, “What do you want for Christmas?” With a serious and somewhat forlorn look on his face, the boy said: “I want my daddy to come back home from Iraq.”
God is in his heavens but all is not right with the world.
The pounding on the door of this Advent season doesn’t help any. “On no!” we think, “it’s him again.” We look through the peephole and see a man dressed in camel’s hair, with a locust pinched between his thumb and finger. The boisterous John the Baptist is knocking and we are reluctant to let him in.
As one person suggests, “Like hot cider burning our tongues, John blazes white-hot. He’s got a winnowing fork in his hand for an object lesson; and he’s yelling like a street corner preacher.”
[2]The message is blunt and cuts deeply! (Here is one person’s paraphrase of John’s message) “You bunch of snakes (what a way to start a sermon). What do you think you are doing slithering down here to the river? Do you think that a little water on your snake skins is going to make a difference? It’s your life that’s got to change, not your skin! If your life is changed, people will be able to tell. You’ll bear fruit. And don’t think you can pull rank because you are a descendant of Abraham. Descendants of Abraham are a dime a dozen. God can take these rocks and make them into descendants of Abraham. What matters is your life. Is your life green? Is it bearing fruit? If it is deadwood, it goes into the fire. Repent! The kingdom of heaven is near.”
[3]During this season of joy, John’s message isn’t very joyful. “Tis the season to be jolly?” NO! Not when John the Baptist crosses the threshold of our Advent lives.
It’s the harsh message that makes us want to bar the door and keep this eccentric man out of our holiday season.
But he comes every year. As harsh and as rough edged as his message, we need to listen to what he has to say. Not only is John calling the church to repentance, he is directing the church’s attention to Jesus, the perfect embodiment of God’s realism. We know, and God knows we need the realism of God, a realism that contradicts and supersedes the realities of this world. Indeed, in the face of the world’s realities, we need the vision of Isaiah who proclaims a peaceable kingdom.
All is not right with the world. But God is in his heavens, and the message of Isaiah and of John, the message of Advent is that God is with us
In the gentle hand that reaches for the hand of the cancer patient…
…in the sights and sounds of our children presenting the Christmas Joy Program tonight. ..
In the beautiful scene of deacons delivering food boxes to some of our neighbors in need and in the smiles of gratitude etched on their faces.
“O come, O come, Emmanuel” we pray as we sing.
Emmanuel has come. The prayer has been answered.
John is urging us to see Emmanuel, even in the midst of the world’s realities of sickness and strife and of war and rumors of war.
You may remember this story I told from the pulpit a few years ago. It was about this time of the year, maybe a little earlier during the Advent season. Christopher and I had traveled up Horner Boulevard in Sanford to the makeshift Christmas tree lot, a lot filled with beautiful Frasier firs. Christopher and I took our time. We walked through the lot and examined each trees, some of them more than once. We finally selected a beautiful one. We lifted it onto the luggage rack of our minivan. I tied it down.
Traveling back down Horner Boulevard, (the busiest thoroughfare in Sanford, during the rush hour part of the day) I heard a sound. I looked in the rear view mirror, not knowing what had happened, but then seeing what had happened. Someone’s Christmas tree had fallen off his truck or her car or truck and was now lying in the middle of the road. Then I realized it was our tree that was lying there. I turned to Christopher and said, “Oh my goodness, our tree fell off.” We were in the right lane. So, I turned into the parking lot of a convenience store, conveniently located. Pulling in behind us was a car. It came to a stop. Two men bounded out of that car. I thought, “They are angry. I can see it on their faces. They are going to give us a piece of their minds for not securing our Christmas tree.” They bounded out of their car and began to walk hurriedly, not toward us but toward the road. Cautiously walking into the lane where our Christmas tree laid, they lifted it and began carrying it back towards the parking lot. I thought, “they are going to steal our tree.” “When I get home without a tree, what is my explanation going to be. They are stealing our Christmas tree.” “Hey, that’s our tree”, I was about to say. Then, I noticed they were moving beyond their car toward us. They arrived at our minivan. They hoisted the tree onto the luggage rack, securely tied it down. The only words they spoke as they left the scene were these words: “Merry Christmas.” They were gone, two men I didn’t know and still do not know; but I think I know who they represent.[4]
In the acts of strangers even, God is with us.
In spite of the reality of war’s destructiveness, of bodies ravaged by disease, of children dying from malnutrition, the unrealistic, unreasonable vision of Isaiah is being fulfilled.
Let us allow Isaiah and John the Baptist to point us towards the one who is mightier than us, mightier than the most evil tyrant or the worse disease imaginable, mightier than the realities of this world.
Let us be his modern day prophets whose work of pointing the world to Christ will not be done until every knee bows and every tongue confesses Jesus as Lord. To the glory of his name. Amen.
[1] A well known quote, though I do not recall the source
[2] Kimberly Clayton Richter, The Advent Texts: Glorious Visions, Dogged Discipleship, Journal for Preachers, Volume XXVIII, Number 1, p. 6.
[3]William Willimon, Repent! (Pulpit Resource, Volume 35, Number 4), page 51.
[4] A wonderful memory from the mid 1990’s
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