SERMON TITLE: Prepare the Way SERMON TEXT: Luke 3:1-18 PREACHER: Rev. Kim James OCCASION: December 6, 2015, at First UMC INTRODUCTION I want to begin my sermon today by thanking all of you who came here a week ago on Saturday to put up all the Christmas decorations. Seeing the tall tree with its giant star and the beauty of wreaths, garlands, and lights helps us get in the mood and the mindset for the birth of Christ that is coming. I also want to thank the youth group for their very nice play last Sunday. No, not even a grouchy mother can cancel Christmas. Every year, whether we re ready or not, Christmas day will come again. And, as the youth showed their mother and us, the best way to experience Christmas is to open up the Bible and remember what got it all started. That s why we put on Christmas plays and pageants and sing our beloved Christmas carols. That s why we light the advent candles and meditate on the importance of hope, peace, love, and joy. And that s why, in a season when we recall the story of Jesus birth as a baby in a stable, we also traditionally read the story of John the Baptist introducing his people to the adult Jesus who was soon to come. There s a lot to do to prepare for the birth of a new baby. But there s even more to do if that baby is going to grow up to be the Lord of the world. Like a movie scene that says 30 years later, today s scripture reading from Luke chapter 3 jumps past the angels and the shepherds to the time just before the beginning of Jesus public ministry. It shows John the Baptist calling on his people to get ready. Let s listen in and see how John the Baptist told them to prepare the way. 1 REPENT Luke 3:3 tells us that John went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. So, I think it would be fair to say that John s first instruction for preparing the way is to repent. We need to recognize that there are some thoughts, attitudes, and
2 behaviors in our lives that aren t doing us any favors. We need to acknowledge that our priorities are out of order. We need to be sorry for what we ve done wrong. Because there has been so much recent violence with mass shootings, it would be easy for us to think that sin is only defined as the perpetration of horrible terrors. But most human sin is a lot less dramatic than what we see in the news. Dishonesty, valuing our own well-being over that of others, shifting resources to our gain, and spinning the truth to make ourselves look better are more common. You know what I m talking about. And sometimes our sins are not in what we do, but in what we say or think, or in what we don t do. We frequently inflict harm on ourselves, our families, our community, and our world because we fail to stand up for what s right. We ignore the poor and the disabled. We make little effort to hold our leaders accountable. We fail to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. We don t care enough to get involved, or we let fear hold us back. We sin by omission as well as by commission, and the combination of it all adds up to trouble, so that we need to repent. The other day I was watching a TV drama in which some people were looking for a small red box that contained some valuable items. That box might have been difficult enough to locate in an ordinary house, but the house where they were looking belonged to a hoarder. There were piles and piles of stuff everywhere, so the people could hardly get through the rooms. I think our lives become like that sometimes. We have so many demands competing for our attention. Many of them are good causes. But many of them aren t as good or as important. And some of the clutter in our minds and hearts is just plain trash that should have been thrown out a long time ago. For the garbage that has been piling up in our lives, we need to say, I m sorry. I can t manage this mess anymore. I surrender it to the cleansing power of God. I need to be washed up and restarted fresh and new. In order to prepare the way for Christ s coming, we need to repent.
3 2 ACCEPT FORGIVENESS AND LIVE AS ONE WHO IS FORGIVEN! You will note, however, that Luke 3:3 doesn t just say that John proclaimed a baptism of repentance. It says he proclaimed a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. This indicates to us that the second step in preparing the way for Christ is to accept God s forgiveness and then live as one who is forgiven. We don t repent so we can miserably wallow in our guilt and forever feel bad about ourselves. Once we repent and get cleaned up, then we can rejoice in God s mercy. Once we have been purified by God s forgiveness, the good news is that we re ready to begin living a new forgiven life. That was John s point in verse 8, where he says, Bear fruits worthy of repentance. If our repentance is sincere and genuine and we claim the forgiving love of God, then we won t behave in the same old ways anymore. We ll be different people. With just our own willpower, we probably wouldn t be able to make such a significant change. But when we look to God for inspiration, when we accept the chaff-burning, forgiving power of God to help us overcome sin then our thoughts, words, and actions will head in a new, more-fruitful direction. Verses 10-14 give some examples of how John thought that would look for the repentant and forgiven people of his time. Those who had two coats would share with anyone who had none. Whoever had food would also share with those who were hungry. Tax collectors, who, in those days were notorious for lining their own personal pockets, would stop charging more than the people actually owed. And Roman soldiers who were serious about repentance and claiming God s forgiveness would change too. They would stop using their weapons and authority to extort money from the people. According to John s proclamation, anyone who was seriously repentant couldn t help but live by new standards. And anyone who was truly claiming God s forgiving mercy would definitely find their life shaped by new principles and values. These new perspectives and behaviors would open the door for
4 Christ s coming. These attitudes and actions changed by forgiveness would prepare the way for Christ s ministry of love and healing. 3 APPLICATION TODAY So, we who want to prepare the way for Christ could ask, What does a repentant and forgiven life look like today? Would it involve placing a package of underwear under our church Christmas tree, so a homeless child, youth, or adult might gain a little dignity? Would our repentant and forgiven life include supporting United Methodist student loans and scholarships? I know we don t all think alike in this congregation. So, is it possible that we repentant and forgiven people could prepare the way for the Lord by inviting some gun control advocates and some NRA members to have a rational, respectful, nonthreatening, and productive conversation about how to curb violence in our country? What John the Baptist was suggesting to the people of his day was pretty radical. Tax collectors and soldiers had power. They had advantage. They had opportunity. They would have been fools not to make use of their situation for gain, right? Who with a brain or a lucky chance shouldn t press forward quickly to capitalize on their potential? John wasn t saying that the tax collectors or soldiers should give up their jobs or be lazy. He wasn t saying that they shouldn t earn a salary and support their families. He was just saying that a truly repentant and forgiven life isn t characterized by socioeconomic disparity, greed, and the use of power to leverage our privilege at others expense. When we prepare the way for Christ to come into our hearts and this world, we live by a different set of rules. We use our brain and our brawn to help build others up. We use our potential to make peace. Besides the mass shooting in San Bernardino, this week s news has also been covering the climate change conference in Paris. Leaders of nearly 200 countries have been gathered there, learning the latest scientific evidence, revealing the global damage that has already occurred, and predicting what will happen if the world s population doesn t start behaving differently.
5 You know, when I was a teenager getting my religious instruction in the Church of the Nazarene, we were taught that a repentant and forgiven life was characterized not only by the positives of attending worship and developing a strong personal devotional life, but also by avoiding the negatives of drinking, smoking, gambling, dancing, and going to the movies. As teenagers, we were taught that avoiding those behaviors would prove we were serious about preparing the way for Christ. A holy life certainly can involve those and other personal spiritual disciplines. But, as I ve matured as a Christian and been educated in a much broader understanding, I ve come to believe that a life dedicated to Christ also has to be mindful of our impact on the world around us. Not only should we individuals not extort money from other individuals who have less power than us, but we as a powerful country should also not force other poorer nations to relocate from their islands and coastal lands. Inasmuch as we are able, we should not force impoverished peoples to endure droughts that threaten food production and exacerbate armed conflicts in their regions. Our desire to extract and burn more carbon-emitting energy so we can have a two-coat, two-car, twice-the-house lifestyle should not trump the rest of the world s need for basic survival. In the first century, John the Baptist stood in the Jordan River and told those who had two coats to give one away to those who had none. If John were baptizing people in the Ogden or Weber Rivers today, maybe he would tell those of us who have two cars to drive them half as much, so those with asthma and COPD could breathe easier. CONCLUSION I m not saying I know all the answers. And I m sure not saying it will be easy for you or for me. I m just relaying John the Baptist s message that it s up to us to prepare the way for Christ s coming into our hearts and into our world. By repenting of our sin and living like forgiven people, we will join John in proclaiming the good news. We will make the paths straight and level the playing field, so all flesh will see the salvation of God. We will get ready for the coming of the Lord. We will prepare the way.