Rev. Dane Womack Ft. Smith FUMC Dec. 6, 2015 2nd Sunday of Advent 8:30 Roebuck Chapel & 11am Sanctuary Services Make It Plain Habakkuk 2:1 4 I will stand at my watchpost, and station myself on the rampart; I will keep watch to see what he will say to me, and what he will answer concerning my complaint. 2 Then the Lord answered me and said: Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may read it. 3 For there is still a vision for the appointed time; it speaks of the end, and does not lie. If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay. 4 Look at the proud! Their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous live by their faith. Luke 3:1 6 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, 4 as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 5 Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; 6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God. Just by a show of hands do you prefer a real Christmas tree or a fake Christmas tree? Real tree raise your hands. Fake tree raise your hands. Yeah, us too. We ve always had a fake tree. Not sure why. We just never considered a real tree. Even this year when we had to buy a new one. A few years ago we bought a pre lit tree it was supposed to be the answer to all of our problems. Those were fairly new to the market and our s was not particularly expensive. Needless to say, we got what we paid for! Bulbs started going out a few here and there. I tried to replace them, but I could not keep up. Soon whole branches and sections had gone dark. When we pulled it out of the box this year and plugged in, we knew it simply would not do. We could have added more lights to it, I suppose. But that would not cover up the old ones that had gone bad. We needed a new tree. But we stayed away from the pre lit variety this time! Of course, the tree is our only bit of decoration. Our entire house has been transformed to recognize the season. New dishes are in the cabinet. New decor on the wall. Stockings hung with care. A wreath outside. And advent wreath inside. I believe we have 4 nativity scenes. One was a gift. One from Guatemala. And two for Edith to play with. It s a bit odd to see her carrying around baby Jesus in her hands along with his mommy and daddy and her stuffed animals, cup of milk, and crayons. I m not sure if we re doing theological damage or helping her to become a more faithful disciple. Time will tell, I suppose. 1
It takes a lot of work to get ready for Christmas. A lot of work. Cleaning and organizing and re decorating. I find it quite odd the amount of time and effort people put into their preparation for the holidays. Even the city was putting up those Creekmore light displays back in October. Here at church it took nearly 100 people all afternoon to get our various decorations arranged. If you sort of step back and take a broad look, preparing for Christmas is a lot of work. A lot of work. In fact, I would say it s a little bit looney how much trouble we go to transform our spaces for the holidays. And yet, no one really seems to mind. There may be an occasional scrooge among us, but by and large folks seem to enjoy the preparation for the holiday as much as the holiday itself. I m wondering if, maybe subconsciously, we know we need a change. We need a break from the everyday and mundane. We need new and different colors and lights. We need decoration and stars and icicles and wreaths. We need bows and presents and songs. We need these things well before Christmas day as a way to help us feel differently about ourselves. About who we are. About the condition of the world. We need the beauty of Christmas well before the holiday itself, so that we are ready to celebrate when it finally arrives. Something in us knows that we can t just launch into Christmas day, you have to build up to it. You have to ready yourself. You have to be transformed, a least a little, before you can receive the day itself. We know, I think, before we can rightly celebrate Christmas, we have to make ourselves ready. That s what all these bows and lights and wreaths are about. Luke, chapter 3, is a reset of sorts for the opening chapters of the Gospel. Chapters 1 and 2 are about the birth and early life of Jesus. We ll get to that material in a few weeks. Chapter 3 moves in an entirely different direction, almost like the story is starting over: In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, Biblical scholars have long noted that references such as these are the author s way of dating the text. In ancient time, the way you remembered what time period it was, was by remembering who was in charge. In this case the reference is particularly specific, Tiberius, Pilate, Herdo, Philip, Trachonitis, and Lysianias. Luke goes pretty overboard here just to tell us the year is around 29 or 30. 1 And he doesn t stop there. He draws on not only the Roman political leaders, but the Jewish religious leaders too. 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, Given this robust reference, all of these names and places, and Luke s willingness to include the religious leaders, we get a sense that Luke is doing more than just dating his writing. It s as if Luke is painting with one broad stroke everyone who appears to be in charge. Luke is almost writing with a half smile, his grin breaking through. All of these people, Luke says, Tiberius, Pilate, Herod, Philip, and Lysianias, even Annas and Caiaphas. All of these men thought they were in charge, but the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. That is a profoundly disruptive and counterintuitive statement. You might have thought you knew where power, even God s power, rested. But have I got a story to tell you! The word of the Lord did not come to Pilate or Herod or Philip or even Annas or Caiaphas. The word of the Lord came to 1 Craddock, 46. 2
John. That wild man out in the wilderness. In the dessert, of all places! John s word maybe a disruptive word for us too! 3 He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, 4 as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 5 Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; 6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God. Included there on the third panel of the bulletin (the far right) is a small cropped image of the center panel of an important painting. You can see there in the citation it reads Mathis Gothart Grünewald, Isenheimer Altar, 1512 1516. This altar is in France and is actually qutie large around 9 feet tall, maybe 12 feet wide. I ve never seen it in person but I ve seen it reproduced many times. Some of you have probably seen in it before. I, of course, want to draw your attention to the figure on the right. To the left of Jesus crucified body is John the Baptist. As Grunewald so beautifully captures, John knows his place. John knows that he must decrease so that Jesus may increase. Grunewald elegantly paints the bony finger of John, casually yet confidently pointing to Jesus. Here he is, John says. Here he is. The one I told about. The Lord. I think we sometimes portray John as a crazed vigilante, yelling at everyone, drawing attention to himself. But Grunewald captures John with a quiet, almost subdued confidence. Pointing toward Jesus is not all excitement and drama and action. It can also be slow and steady work, as simple as pointing a slender finger to the left or right. The slow and steady work of preparation, reminding ourselves and one another to what, or rather to whom, we are going. In the face of the great powers of the world, the Herod s, the bishops, the news cycles, the jobs and careers the Word of God is at work among common people spreading the Good News of what has and is coming. 3
Mathis Gothart Grünewald, Isenheimer Altar, 1512 1516, retrieved from Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain) Every week in worship we share in some form of prayer of Confession and Pardon. It is a participatory prayer. We all say the same words. Those words are designed to be specific enough to get you thinking in a new, fresh way about our sins. But they are also general enough that anyone should be able to related in some sense. Then we have that section in the middle where you (and I) offer our own prayers of confession in silence. I ll admit, when I am leading the prayer, I always wonder just how much time y all need. Sometimes I feel myself rushing through to the pardon, but then I look up and see you all and I think, Nope. They need a little more time. Lots of confessing needs to be going on out here. That s not entirely untrue. I don t know how long to pause. How long does it take for one to confess their sins silently? And honestly, I am curious what sorts of things you are confessing. I wonder, in that brief moment, do you try to think of a couple of very specific things you need forgiveness of or do you sort of name a couple of general categories of sins? I ll confess that I often think something like, Forgive me of my selfishness. Forgive me of my pride. Something like that. Something that I know I am guilty of but also not something so specific that I might actually feel guilty. Can any of you relate? If you are like me, it s fine to talk about sin in general. We know the world is sinful and we know we participate it in, but I rarely get down to actually dealing with my specific sins. That s my preferred approach with my spirituality don t take it so seriously that it might actually make me uncomfortable. We put forth a good deal of work in preparing to celebrate Christmas. Trees and wreaths and lights. And by and large, these are enjoyable times of tradition and celebration. Unfortunately, today s Gospel Reading does not say, [John] went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a season of holiday lights with bows and nativity scenes, The 4
voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, decorate your tree with care and put a wreath on your front door, maybe a few lights on the outside of your house too No. That s not what the scripture reading says. It says, [John] went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, 4 as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 5 Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; 6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God. Proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Every valley filled, every mountain and hill made low, the crooked made straight, the rough made smooth. Repentance and the Forgiveness of Sins. Making the crooked straight and the rough smooth. We know John is preaching a message or preparation, but I worry we have missed it s content. We ve traded the hard work of preparing to see the Lord the uncomfortable work of repentance and forgiveness for the more superficial and less challenging work of decorating and Christmas sing alongs. Now, I don t mean to sound like a scrooge. I am not! I love getting ready for Christmas. I spent $30 on a blow up Mickey Mouse Santa Claus for my front yard this weekend. It s precious, by the way. But when we follow John s bony finger that points toward the Lord, we better slow down and take stock. This sort of preparation does not come easy or fast. It is not glamorous or exciting. What John is telling us is simple but profoundly challenging if you want to meet and know Jesus, if you want to feel the full effect of Christmas; then you must do the uncomfortable work of digging around in your own soul and finding the places that need light shone on them. To embrace Advent, to prepare for Christmas means we must be honest about our sin. We must seek forgiveness from God and those we have hurt. And we must be prepared to forgive those who have hurt us. That is what it means to make the crooked straight and make the rough smooth. This is how we prepare the way for the Lord, to be a people of justice, peace, forgiveness, and grace. John s invitation is not a particular direction. John is actually offering us correction or re direction. The way to Jesus is not any one direction. It is not left or right. It is not from point A to point B. The way to Jesus is through the muddy work of forgiveness and repentance. You cannot go to the manger like you are right now. You need to repent and be changed. You need to allow God to deal with the ugly things in your life as the way to prepare you to fully know God s revealing God s self. John s invitation, of course, extends well beyond the Advent season. We are reminded in these weeks leading up to Christmas that Christians are fundamentally a waiting people. We are waiting for our eternal communion with God to be perfected in whatever form that may take. We wait on the return of the Lord. We wait on our own death. Our time here on earth is so brief in the scope of the history of the created world not to mention in comparison to the eternal, Triune God. What s 80 or 90 years to God. Not much I assume. These few years we have on earth are our brief opportunity to participate in the work that is the waiting on the Lord. And waiting on the Lord, as we ve said here today, really means practicing forgiveness and repentance.you get 80 or 90 years to learn how to repent of your sins and forgive others. If you can learn to do that well, you ll be ready to see the Lord when the time comes. If you can learn to seek repentance and offer forgiveness, your faith will be made plain not only to yourself but to 5
all those who encounter you. We Make the Story of Christianity Plain by being the patient people of forgiveness and repentance. Now that would have been a good place to end this sermon. We all could have gone home and thought, What a thoughtful sermon. I really hope the people who needed to hear it heard it! I hope the right people were listening! But that won t do! We ve got to make it a little more real than that! So here s my challenge for you. No, not a challenge. Here are my instructions. Before Christmas day, you need to offer a sincere apology and ask for forgiveness from 3 people. Now, that s not a big number, but it should still be a challenge. I want you to have 3 occasions between now and Dec. 25th where you look someone in the eye and tell them you are sorry for what you did. It doesn t have to be a major thing, but it needs to be personal. Specific. Now, for some of you, you ll get 3 chances real quick. Maybe today. I am calling you to be attentive to your own words and actions. When was I selfish? How was I hurtful? Who needs to forgive me? If we take these questions seriously and act on them at least 3 times between now and Dec. 25th, then I think we will be following John s instructions for properly preparing for to meet the Lord. Amen. 6