Prepare Or Beware!
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Object:
Dear Fellow Preacher,
Someone has said that each different form of Christian piety concentrates on one of the following: thinking, feeling, or doing. Starting from only one of these determines your theology, your practice, and, to a large degree, your worldview. In the Gospel for the Third Sunday of Advent, Luke 3:7-18, John the Baptist preaches repentance with great urgency, but this repentance involves all three human functions: changing one's thinking, enlivening one's compassion, and -- perhaps most important -- becoming actively involved in doing justice.
In our lead article for this issue of The Immediate Word, Carter Shelley calls attention to questionable business practices in our culture as well as the questionable behavior of us typical Americans preparing for what has become a secular as well as (or rather than?) a religious celebration. It is therefore appropriate for us to ask, as did John's hearers, "What then should we do?"
As usual, team members offer responses, illustrations, worship resources, and a children's sermon.
Prepare or Beware!
Ancient Warnings for Modern Times
or
How to Really Get Ready for Christmas
Luke 3:7-18
by Carter Shelley
He stands outside Wal-Mart, his fingers and nose red from the cold, no hat or overcoat to protect him from the chilling December winds. We've all met his kind at some time or other. In a loud voice he calls to the holiday shoppers as they enter and leave Sam Walton's one-stop shopping discount store. The man proclaims the need to "Prepare or Beware!" of God's judgment. It's a message we've heard many times before. Sometimes it's accompanied by a religious tract or a pamphlet. Sometimes the preacher holds a large, limp black Bible in one hand while beseeching the crowd with his other.
We've already got Christianity, thank you very much. We don't have time to stop and listen to the deranged proclamation of someone who's probably mentally ill. We don't want to get trapped in a religious dialogue with someone whose very presence seems to deny the validity of our own faith commitment. The street prophet's very existence makes us uncomfortable, because
* he's willing to make a spectacle of himself
* he's willing to risk public ire by declaiming on Wal-Mart's current hiring practices
* he's willing to go to jail as a public nuisance, "a religious nut," if but one of us will listen and hear his proclamation
We pass the Advent prophet by, eyes averted, walking quickly, because he has the courage we lack. He has the conviction we need. He has the truth we'd just as soon ignore. He has the guts to live his faith to its fullest extent: making a spectacle, risking public ire, getting arrested, being rejected. His name isn't John the Baptist or Jesus of Nazareth, but he certainly knows their names, and he takes the prophetic call of the first and the heartfelt sacrifice of the second totally to heart.
This man would not be swayed by pragmatic discussion of the impracticality of Christian ethics at a mutual funds trustees meeting or in the boardroom of Wal-Mart or any of the other giant retail empires. This twenty-first-century preacher with a first-century message would not choose some enterprising shade of gray over the clarity of black and white, good and bad, truth or half-truth. He would not choose guilt over God's vital call for repentance, justice, and change.
Observations about Luke 3:7-18
While the events recorded in Luke 1-3 are presented chronologically, the lectionary always reverses the order. Thus in church we read and preach about the adult John the Baptist before we explore his remarkable birth to a barren older couple and before we read the annunciation to Mary and her response in the Magnificat. In some ways one might say that Jesus comes to us twice during the season of Advent. First, we are called by John the Baptist to prepare for the coming of the Lord, whom we know to be the adult Jesus so long anticipated by the people of Israel. Second, we are called to welcome this same Jesus as an infant, spanking new, totally vulnerable and dependent on the loving care of his earthly parents, Mary and Joseph.
This second Jesus' coming is embraced by us with joy and hope, the singing of Christmas carols, the production of Christmas pageants, the wonder of special candlelight worship services, etc. While John the Baptist's adult declarations about Jesus' imminent arrival get equal or more pulpit time, the emphasis in them is our readiness to receive and recognize God's adult Son when he appears. This event requires a different kind of preparation. We are called upon to examine our lives and our hearts, take note of all that is at odds with God's will and God's plan, and then repent, change, and turn back to God. This message doesn't hold much appeal for most Christians because, like the Jews who were part of the audience John the Baptist addressed, we like our religion as it is. We are too busy to listen to the ranting challenges of some self-appointed prophet (which is surely how many saw John's prophesying, as do we that of contemporary street-corner preachers), we resist criticisms about the inadequacy of our faith commitment, and we prefer to live with the guilt of our sins of commission and omission rather than repent and change.
For that reason, it's particularly helpful to read and preach on Luke 3:7-18. In it John the Baptist not only calls upon the people to repent and change their ways. He gives them explicit examples of what they must do: sacrifice half of the bounty of their own lives by giving what they don't need to those who have nothing; quit cheating fellow citizens out of their livelihood by taxing them not only for Rome but also for the luxurious lifestyle of the greedy local tax collectors; and soldiers in the region need to stop intimidating and blackmailing the populace.
All three of these calls for a change in behavior have startlingly modern applications in December 2003. We Americans know we have more food, more material goods, more of everything than any other people on the face of the earth. If the tax collectors were the greedy ones in John and Jesus' day, are not we, the taxpayers, the greedy ones of the 2000 election? With American soldiers stationed in Afghanistan and Iraq this Christmas, we pray for them, worry about their safety, and long for their stay to be short. As with the pax Romana, our soldiers and our superior military power make it possible for us to enforce peace. It is a position from which to attain great good and great evil.
It's painfully easy to make connections between John the Baptist's explicit call to repentance to Jews, tax collectors, and Roman soldiers in Luke 3:7-14, because all of the maladies John finds in that ancient society continue to command center stage today. The challenge in this week's preaching is to find a way to help the congregation recognize and identify with some of these charges without making them angry or overwhelming them with problems too large in scope for one Christian or congregation to solve. The second challenge is to inspire these same church members to seek a new vision for themselves and American Christianity that is more in keeping with the hopes and dreams initiated by Jesus' birth and called for by John the Baptist.
Preparations can come in a variety of forms: emotional, spiritual, ethical. We are called by John to bear good fruits: to share food and clothing with those who have none, to base taxes upon what is fair and just rather than what is personally expedient, to stop bullying the weak and poor in foreign lands by threats, intimidation, and military power.
How are Christians really to prepare? Find ways to reclaim God's promises in Jesus Christ, give them breath and life again, be renewed ourselves, be among those shouting to John the Baptist: How can we be saved? We want to be saved! Yes, please. Save us! What must we do to be saved anew?
Ethically: advocate for illegal and legal aliens in our country trying to make a living, to be aware of the injustices meted out to them in our country through below-minimum-wage jobs, substandard housing, and being victimized by unscrupulous landlords and employers, as well as recognizing the loneliness such folks feel at this time of year due to language barriers and missing their families.
Emotionally: standard, every-year stuff: present buying, card sending, special church services, special attention to the poor, getting a tree, etc. Some of us steel ourselves emotionally for Christmas because it's a hard time of year -- especially for many people this year, spouses and sons and daughters in Iraq and Afghanistan; loss of a spouse or dear family member or friend during the past year; divorce; homesickness. (For a fuller example, see an earlier sermon of mine, "Prepare the Way of the Lord," at the end of this entry.)
Spiritually and personally: change our harmful behaviors: quit smoking, drinking, or eating to a degree that's bad for our health; skip the office party this year if it rivals the celebrations of Bacchus; avoid gift-giving ourselves into debt; resolve to attend church more regularly; give more to charity; or take on some volunteer work.
How to Really Get Ready for Christmas
Prophets are not any more welcome in 2003 than they were in John the Baptist's and Jesus' day. None of us wants to be told that there are aspects of the life that we have chosen that God judges and finds lacking in compassion toward others or commitment toward our Lord.
Only in the Gospel of Luke does John the Baptist speak directly to the specific sins and injustices perpetuated by different groups of people co-existing in the society of his day: the pious citizens of the land who, like us, would have been comfortable having their coins and currency proclaim, "In God we trust," rather than in the latest emperor ruling in Rome or that local scoundrel, Herod. Like us, the Jews of John the Baptist's day believed themselves to be faithful people, righteous people, and, most importantly, God's chosen people.
But John the Baptist challenges the complacency of his native audience. It is not enough to claim that one's ancestry stretches back to Abraham and Sarah. It is not enough to do the things good Jews are expected to do. A far more radical approach is required of those who would prepare themselves for God's judgment and God's grace. "Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise." Having enough, or more than enough, when another of God's children lives in want, without the basic necessities of life, is intolerable to God. There is enough for all, but only if those who have share with those who have not.
The trick during Advent is to call people to examine the way we currently live our lives in America as people of faith and citizens of the world's most powerful and prosperous nation, so that we ask, "What can I do to make life better for others of God's children?" The challenge is to be able to approach this wonderful season with joy and hope while also acknowledging that we too need to reexamine our lives, our priorities, our commitment to sharing God's love and our own riches with those who have so little.
The image of the modern-day prophet standing outside Wal-Mart preaching identifies one form of our twenty-first-century Christian American malady. We have so much, plenty to eat, loads of clothes in the closet, warm, dry places to live, and, for the most part, safe neighborhoods in which we live. We know we are blessed and lucky to live where we do, serve the God we serve, and have what we have. Furthermore, all of us are happy to give to "those less fortunate" in our communities. We write checks, we bring bag-loads of food, we sponsor a specific poor family, we drop coins into the red Salvation Army bell-ringer's bucket. Yet John the Baptist probably wouldn't let us off the hook any more than he was willing to let the devout, compassionate Jews of his day off the hook.
Ways we Americans collude in injustice while exercising compassion are primarily invisible to ourselves on a day-to-day basis. We know most athletic shoes are made in far Eastern countries where factories pay the workers virtually nothing. We know that current unemployment problems in the United States largely exist because our own companies such as Lowe's Hardware, Talbot's, or L. L. Bean can produce their goods so much more cheaply in China, Indonesia, or Mexico. We all know that many of our Mexican and other Latino neighbors currently in the United States toil away at unpleasant jobs we don't want ourselves: killing and packaging chicken, ditch digging and road building, or serving as after-hours cleaners in office buildings, luxury hotels, and, of course, Wal-Mart. We know that our own understandable decisions to shop at Wal-Mart, Target, and other wholesale discount stores means that smaller businesses lose customers and cannot compete or perhaps stay in the red. Yet it all seems too big for us to take on. After all, wasn't this country founded on the basis of competition and ingenuity? If you can't make it, you go under. Sad, but true; that's the way our world works.
We may need to look at the world in which we live in a new way. In order for us to minister to and stretch beyond our own geographical borders, we need to embrace a new way of being Christian in the world. We are all interconnected. By satellite, cell phone, CNN, etc., we see pictures of and know what life is like for the citizens of Afghanistan. We know how frighteningly destructive AIDS has become in Africa, because we see it and read about it regularly. We know there are hungry people in our own community and hungry people in all parts of the globe. And, as citizens of the greatest and most powerful nation in the world, we have the ability to do more than send troops and Band-Aid emergency supplies. We have the ability to do more.
The question is: Do we have the will? Is it possible for us to begin to think of ourselves as children of God and citizens of the world? A street prophet shames us by his presence and his message. If we are lucky, he sticks to heaven and hell and keeps his nose out of the really hard stuff, like justice and fair wages for aliens working in our midst. If we are lucky, he sticks to heaven and hell and doesn't point a finger at us and ask, "How many coats do you have, Sister? How many pounds have you gained this year, Brother?" If we are lucky, he sticks to heaven and hell and doesn't inquire, "How did you use that tax refund you got this year? Did you tithe a portion to God? Did you use it to help someone who doesn't make enough to get a tax refund?" If we are lucky, he sticks to heaven and hell. If we are truly lucky, we hear God's word that's spoken and we realize he challenges those of us who live a life worthy of heaven to start to care for and minister to those whose lives are more like hell on earth.
John judges the faith of devout people when it lacks sensitivity and awareness of the basic needs of other people living in their midst. It wasn't a popular message then, and it's not a popular message now.
In his commentary on the Gospel of Luke in the New Interpreter's Bible Commentary: Luke-John (Abingdon, 1995), Alan Culpepper notes that most Christians organize themselves into church communities according to one of three principles: (1) an emphasis on the afterlife and helping people get saved into heaven; (2) an emphasis on an intimate and personal, spiritual life with Christ; or (3) an emphasis on a life and ministry focused primarily on social action. Most of our churches choose to emphasize one of these aspects over the other two and seek to attract more Christians to serve with them in this way. Culpepper asks the question, "What if a church emphasized all three? How might our churches, our lives and our world be different?" (p. 86). How indeed?
Prepare the Way of the Lord
Helen Henson had had a terrible day. She had a list a mile long of presents to buy, errands to run and nothing seemed to be going right. She'd looked everywhere for a copy of Finding Nemo for Jimmy, but everywhere she went it was sold out. She'd left one package at South Square Mall, and had had to drive ten miles through heavy traffic to retrieve it. Then, after she'd found several things she needed in Sears, the clerk informed Helen that the charge was denied, and Helen couldn't charge anything else until she'd paid more down on her charge card.
She still needed green sugar to decorate Christmas cookies -- all the stores she'd tried were out of that too. She'd run into Nancy's Sunday School teacher and had been informed that the material Helen had bought the week before for Nancy's angel costume was all wrong and she'd have to get some more. And, as she'd left the house that morning Ed had shouted after her to "Pick up a tree -- a cheap one. I won't have time!" But all the trees she'd seen were either scrawny or fake. None was cheap.
The last straw came as Helen walked to her car in the dark, cold December night. Another woman, flustered by the Christmas traffic, almost ran over Helen in the parking lot. Helen jumped out of the car's way and was missed by inches, but in the process Helen dropped half of her packages into a disgusting puddle of water. That was it! Helen had had enough.
Her house wasn't decorated. Her parents' gifts weren't mailed. Her cards weren't sent, and she was sooooo tired. Helen sat down on the curb and began to cry. She couldn't take it anymore. But even tears on a dreary winter night couldn't go without interruption.
Sitting there cold and wet, Helen noticed a crowd gathering outside the entrance of the shopping mall. Some of the people were laughing. Some were talking, but one voice could be heard at the center of the group. "Prepare the way of the Lord; make his path straight." Helen sniffed and got to her feet. What was going on? The man's voice grew louder and louder as more people gathered in curiosity. "Prepare the way of the Lord; make his path straight."
Helen walked to the edge of the crowd. At first she couldn't see for the large number of people, but some of them moved away and Helen was able to get a look at the man who was speaking. "Prepare the way of the Lord; make his path straight." Helen thought the man curious in appearance. He had a gray beard, and what little hair he had was sticking out all over his head. He didn't have on an overcoat, just an old gray sweatshirt and some brown trousers. Around his neck was tied a red scarf.
"Prepare the way of the Lord; make his path straight." Some of the people were laughing at him, but Helen didn't feel like laughing. There was something about the man that appealed to her. He had a pleasant face, and he seemed so earnest -- like he really cared about everybody present, like his message was so important. But what did he mean? He kept saying the same things over and over again, "Prepare the way of the Lord; make his path straight." What did he mean?
Helen wanted to tell him she didn't understand. Other people were shouting questions at the man, but he seemed oblivious to them. "Prepare the way of the Lord; make his path straight." Then the man look directly at Helen and he asked her, "Are you ready? Prepare the way of the Lord." And with that question Helen realized something she hadn't realized for a long time.
She wasn't ready for Christmas. But it wasn't because she hadn't bought her tree or found the Finding Nemo video. It was because she hadn't thought at all about getting ready for Christmas, for Jesus' birth. When the man looked at her, Helen understood what he had meant. She recognized that she wasn't ready for Jesus' coming. She suddenly realized that she had many needs which she herself could not handle. And she understood there's no need for Christmas, no need for Christ unless we recognize our personal inadequacy and distance from God.
Helen hadn't thought about God for a long time, but she did now, and she felt inadequate. She suddenly discovered that somewhere along the way, she'd left God to try to go it alone, and she hadn't done too well on her own. As Helen stood listening to the man's voice, she thought about her life: her family problems, her petty quarrels at work, her sense of weariness and lack of purposefulness, and she thought abut the baby Jesus. "Prepare the way of the Lord."
Christmas wasn't about a season, a special day, or a decorated house. Christmas was about a man, a very special man whose life had begun on Christmas day. The funny man speaking in the mall parking lot seemed to know about Helen's inadequacies and frustrations. He knew she didn't pray very much, that she had little sense of God. Standing there on a cold, dreary night, Helen recognized her need for Jesus Christ, her need for Christmas. Her own preoccupation with her family, her job, home, friends, and herself had kept her from seeing before what the old man was saying, "Prepare the way of the Lord; make his path straight."
Christmas was coming. For Helen to be ready she needed to be spiritually ready. Ready to share her need for God, her dependence upon his Son. Unless we prepare ourselves, like Helen, we can't recognize what Jesus' coming offers us. We have a need, a need for God's intervention in our lives and our world. We need God's protection from sin and emptiness.
God offers us that protection through his son, Jesus. Jesus taught us how to cope with emptiness. He taught us how to relate with sensitivity to other people. He taught us how to pray and depend upon God. Jesus' birth, life, and death were the beginning of God's saving acts in the world, but it was only the beginning. With the resurrection of Jesus Christ, God proved that his creative participation in the world would continue. God conquered sin and death through Jesus' resurrection. Jesus is alive now. He lives to guide us, care for us, and be with us.
Wherever the Gospel is present, there is the power of Jesus in the world today. The risen Christ is present wherever the good news of his saving words and deeds is announced. Today, on this Third Sunday of Advent, we can prepare ourselves for the coming of the Lord. We can be a part of God's saving acts in history. We can be persons whose lives illustrate what it means to live after the fact of Jesus Christ. For Helen Henson, becoming a part of God's history meant giving herself time to reflect each day, reading the Bible more, giving the church a bit more of her time, trying to be patient and listen to other people's needs, being more honest with herself and others about her failings, allowing others to help her when she needed it, not doing everything alone on her own. In addition, Helen found that being a part of God's saving acts in history meant she read the newspaper, watched television, talked to her husband and children with an awareness that Jesus' birth, life, death, and resurrection made a difference in how she approached all aspects of her life. Helen didn't have to go it alone on cold December nights. She could draw on a strength and resolve much greater than her own.
Wonderful things can happen when we discover our spiritual, emotional, and moral need for God. Wonderful things can happen to us as individuals and as a church. The times when I personally feel the most blessed usually come after a period of real despair when I've cried as much as I can and admit that I can't cope.
Christmas is the beginning of God's saving acts, saving acts that continue because we continue to need them. Can we experience God's love, concern, and salvation daily when we look diligently for them through prayer, Scripture, Christ, and each other?
Are you ready for Christmas?
A postscript: the lyrics of "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)," by Yoko Ono and John Lennon, are particularly germane in December 2003.
Team Comments
George Murphy responds: John the Baptist's message is a call to repent. We probably have our own ideas about what that means, but let's go back to the sources. John stood in the line of the Old Testament prophets, and a common word that expresses the idea of "repent" in the Hebrew Scriptures is shubh, which means literally "return" or "go back." "Return to the LORD your God," said the prophet Joel (2:13). You've been going the wrong way. The only way you'll get where you're supposed to be is to turn around and come back.
What do you do if you find that you're going in the wrong direction? What if you want to go to Chicago but get on the wrong ramp for the interstate and realize that you're going toward Denver instead? Why, you keep going, of course. And maybe you even speed up. The important thing, after all, is to keep moving.
Of course, that's a crazy answer, but it's just what we often do -- as a society and as individuals. There's a recent book by Brian Czech on environmental and economic issues with the intriguing title Shoveling Fuel for a Runaway Train (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002). It's a good metaphor. The damage we've done to the natural environment and society by our insistence on unlimited "growth" is the runaway train, and we keep doing things to make the damage worse. As we approach the point where world oil production starts to decline, we start driving SUVs that burn more gas. As old growth forest disappears, we increase access for logging. The gap between rich and poor increases, and some people have far more money than they could ever need, so we cut taxes for the rich so they can have more. We've gotten desensitized by violence in movies and television so we produce and sell video games with more maiming and killing.
We shouldn't blame it all on "society," as if we weren't the ones who made up society. We do the same kinds of things as individuals. It's the pattern of addiction -- to chemicals or sex or gambling or just acquiring a lot of stuff. As the hold of the substance or behavior on the addict gets stronger, the more of a fix is needed. Your spending addiction has gotten your family to the verge of bankruptcy and your marriage to the brink of divorce, so to forget your misery you go out and buy something. Drink to forget your drinking problem and gamble -- in a casino or the stock market -- to try to get back the money you lost gambling.
We're creatures of habit, and as we get in the habit of cutting ethical corners and ignoring the needs of others in order to get what we want, it becomes easier to behave that way. Each Salvation Army kettle I walk past without putting any money in makes it easier to ignore the next one. The more I look out for Number One, the more important Number One becomes.
The message of John the Baptist, the message of Advent, is "You're going the wrong way. Stop shoveling, slow down, and turn around. Repent." It's not surprising that we have trouble hearing that simple message, because it calls for radical change. Turn 180 degrees and go in the other direction. The Greek word for repent in the New Testament is equally radical. Metanoeo means "I change my mind" -- not in the trivial sense of deciding to order soup instead of a salad, but making a fundamental change in the way I think. The wrong way is to put myself first. The right way is to "love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind -- and your neighbor as yourself."
This time of year is promoted as the Christmas season, but it isn't. It is a season of decorations, parties, spending lots of money, and anticipating gifts -- but that is something different. The secular winter festival that goes by the name of "Christmas" encourages the addictive runaway train behavior that I mentioned. Obesity has become a big medical problem (pun intended) in America, so we'll celebrate the holidays with boxes of candy. We're fixated on consumption, so we'll celebrate by buying more things. It's even supposed to be our patriotic duty to do that, to boost the economy. We're using up energy resources at an alarming rate, so we'll fill our yards and cover our houses with lights.
This is the season of Advent. It's a time when we hear the call to repent, to return to the Lord our God and love our neighbors as ourselves. It's the season of John the Baptist, whose task is to prepare us for the real celebration, the coming of God to us and for us in Jesus Christ.
The real Christmas season begins on Christmas Eve and runs through the fifth of January. (The Christian church invented the Christmas season. We, not Wal-Mart, get to say when it is.) The secular Christmas season ends sometime on December 25, when all the gifts have been opened, the batteries have died, and people are feeling stuffed and let-down. Then Christians have just begun to sing, "Oh, come, let us adore him."
Carlos Wilton responds: "How to really get ready for Christmas?" is the question you ask in your thoughtful contribution for this week. And a very appropriate question it is for most of us, in these hectic days before the holiday.
Most of our cultural Christmas preparations are centered around things: the acquisition of things, the unpacking of things, the wrapping of things, the cooking of things. Yet the preparation called for in the well-loved carol "Joy to the World" is different: "Let every heart prepare him room." To prepare for the Savior's coming, we are to push aside all the things that crowd in upon our too-hectic lives: to create space, to empty ourselves, to watch, to wait.
This is hard. It's a via negativa, whose pursuit runs counter to the hyperactive holiday activity all around us. From raucous sound, we are called to reflective silence. From garish lights, we are called to meditative darkness. From frenetic activity, we are called to receptive stillness. From obsessive concern with things, we are called to a demanding way of the heart.
Isaac Watts originally titled his hymn not "Joy to the World" (that's the first line), but rather "The Messiah's Coming and Kingdom." Although we know and love it as a Christmas carol, there's nothing in the text about the nativity of Jesus. Its themes resonate more with Advent than with Christmas: preparing for the coming of Christ as ruler of all. "Heaven and nature sing" not at the birth of a baby but at the divine triumph over the curse of sin.
Try putting the text of "Joy to the World" into the mouth of John the Baptist. It fits. The shaggy-haired prophet could well have shouted out those words. Watts' hymn plays better along the banks of the Jordan than beside the manger of the Christ child.
John the Baptist isn't exactly the person most folks hope to run into in these days before Christmas. Yet he has more reason to be part of our holiday preparations than angels, shepherds, or magi. From a purely biblical standpoint, John shows up more often than most of the characters we're used to seeing outlined in gold on the front of Christmas cards. All four Gospel writers mention him: even Mark and John, whose nativity accounts are minimal. Most of us don't particularly want to see old John, though, because he would come across like a party-pooper.
What if, riding atop the last float of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, there was not jolly old Saint Nick, but a wild-eyed John the Baptist? That image wouldn't do much for the retailers' bottom line, but it would at least be biblical.
"Prepare the way of the Lord!" screams John, into the hand-held microphone more commonly used by pop stars lip-syncing their lyrics. His voice reverberates in the high-rise wilderness of midtown Manhattan, making even the perpetually perky Katie Couric wince in her reviewing stand. "Bear fruit worthy of repentance," he warns those holiday-makers lining Fifth Avenue in lawn chairs, scarves bundled about their necks. "Even now the ax is laid at the foot of the plant" -- or maybe by the cables tethering the giant Garfield balloon.
"One ... is coming after me," John predicts, whose "winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire!" How cheery. (Not!) But how true.
Related Illustrations
Sometimes we have a tendency to treat business ethics as a sort of protected realm: "All's fair in love, war ... and retail." A memorable figure from literature is the real-estate entrepreneur George Babbitt, title character of Sinclair Lewis' brilliant 1922 satirical novel. Babbitt is proud, self-satisfied, even pious when it comes to such things as church attendance and keeping up the appearance of ethical propriety. Yet he demonstrates a chilling ability to rationalize even lying and stealing when it comes to business practice:
"But Babbitt was virtuous. He advocated, though he did not practice, the prohibition of alcohol; he praised, though he did not obey, the laws against motor-speeding; he paid his debts; he contributed to the church, the Red Cross, and the YMCA; he followed the custom of his clan and cheated only as it was sanctified by precedent; and he never descended to trickery -- although, as he explained to Paul Riesling:
'Course I don't mean to say that every ad I write is literally true or that I always believe everything I say when I give some buyer a good strong selling-spiel. You see -- you see it's like this: In the first place, maybe the owner of the property exaggerated when he put it into my hands, and it certainly isn't my place to go proving my principal a liar! And then most folks are so darn crooked themselves that they expect a fellow to do a little lying, so if I was fool enough to never whoop the ante I'd get the credit for lying anyway! In self-defense I got to toot my own horn, like a lawyer defending a client -- his bounden duty, ain't it, to bring out the poor dub's good points? Why, the Judge himself would bawl out a lawyer that didn't, even if they both knew the guy was guilty! But even so, I don't pad out the truth like Cecil Rountree or Thayer or the rest of these realtors. Fact, I think a fellow that's willing to deliberately up and profit by lying ought to be shot!'"
--Sinclair Lewis, Babbitt, chapter 4
* * * * *
Dag Hammarskjold, beloved secretary-general of the United Nations, died in a plane crash in Africa on September 18, 1962. He was on a diplomatic peace mission at the time.
At first, the reason for the plane crash seemed mysterious. The plane was in good working order and had sufficient fuel. The skies were clear. There was no evidence of poor health on the part of the pilot, or of guerrilla activity that could have brought the plane down.
The investigating commission concluded that pilot error was the cause of the crash. Airplane pilots keep in the cockpit books of "approach plates": diagrams of airports in their region, indicating the topography, elevation, number and location of runways, etc. The approach plate tells the pilot exactly how to make a safe landing.
The pilot of Hammarskjold's plane, investigators discovered, was using the wrong approach plate. He was seeking to land in Endola, Zambia, using the approach plate for Endola in the Congo. There was a difference in altitude of 3000 feet, leading the pilot to fly the plane directly into the ground just short of the runway.
How many people today are seeking to pilot their lives, ethically speaking, using the wrong approach plate? Prophetic figures like John the Baptist seek to call us to correct the flight plan of our lives, before it is too late.
* * * * *
"The right to do something does not mean that doing it is right."
--William Safire
* * * * *
"To make the avoidance of evil the summit of our moral endeavors is -- quite apart from its inherent impossibility -- to condemn ourselves to a life of pointlessness. Even worse, it is to tacitly condone what is wrong; evil prospers, as they say, when good people do nothing. The attempt to avoid evil at all costs should be a given of our lives: but it should be our starting-point, not our terminus...
The biblical tradition says that each of us is answerable to God. One day we will have to give an account to him of the use we have made of the life he has given us. When that day comes, what God will be interested in is not the bad things we managed to avoid doing, but the good and loving things we did. Not that these things can in any way earn salvation for us -- nothing but the cross can do that: but they are the practical signs of an attitude of heart modeled on the very love of God himself."
--Colin Sedgwick, "Accentuate the Positive," in The Guardian, November 18, 2002
* * * * *
Concerning the many relativistic ethical voices that whisper attractively to young people, Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley writes:
"The cultural voices seem to be saying different things, but the same message underlies them all: There is no ultimate truth, no moral code by which to live our lives. The message: that God is totally irrelevant if He exists at all. Life is what we make it. We choose. It's an attractive message because it eliminates accountability, and it's coming at our kids from all sides.
"The most dangerous thing kids can do is to handle this by 'compartmentalizing' the sacred and the secular in their minds. This is a split-level faith. God lives on the top floor; I live in the basement with no connecting staircase. Instead, we have to help them understand that the Christian faith is relevant to everything in their lives. Jesus knocks on the door of our life and wants to occupy all of our life."
--Mark Earley, "At Cross Purposes," 8/19/03; http://www.breakpoint.org/
* * * * *
A young Jewish student once asked his rabbi, "When is the best time to repent?"
The rabbi thought for a minute and then answered, "The best time to repent is at the last possible moment."
After he said that, the student replied, "But you never know when the last possible moment will be."
And the rabbi answered, "Exactly!"
* * * * *
"Now, my question this morning is this: When you hear Malachi's words, do you hear good news or bad news? When you hear John preparing for the coming of the Lord, do you hear words that fill you with hope, or words that bring you fear? ...
"I am convinced that most Christians -- at least those in the western, non-sectarian traditions -- have the lurking fear that John's message is the same as Malachi's, and that the second coming is about bad news rather than good. There's the rat in Advent preparation. We hear John, and immediately measure how far we fall short of who we are called to be, of who we might be, rather than hear the word that God's coming is a time of redemption, renewal, and release from the things that obscure the vision of God in our lives now. Indeed, God's coming is a refining fire. Indeed, it does burn out the dross, the things that obscure, distract, or keep us from living perfectly into God's purposes for us. Indeed, the ax is there to cut out all that is not good. But that is the glory of Christ's coming. When he returns, you and I will know God face to face. When Christ returns, we will not only know the joy of his presence; we will never again fall away from him. When Christ returns, anything that inhibits God's purpose for life will have been consumed. That is why we pray 'Even so, Lord Jesus, quickly come!' That is what we await."
-- Fred Anderson, from a sermon preached in the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York City, "There's a Rat in Preparation," December 7, 1997; http://www.mapc.com/html/07_sermons/sermondisplay.asp?sermonDate=12/7/1997&sermonTime=300
Worship Resources
by George Reed
OPENING
Hymns
"Great Is Thy Faithfulness." Words: Thomas O. Chisholm, 1923; music: William M. Runyan, 1923. (c) 1923, renewed 1951 Hope Publishing Co.
"Seek the Lord." Words: Fred Pratt Green, 1986; music: George Henry Day, 1940. Words (c) 1989 Hope Publishing Co.; music (c) 1942 The Church Pension Fund.
"God, Whose Love Is Reigning O'er Us." Words: William Boyd Grove, 1980; music: John Godd, 1869. Words (c) 1980 William Boyd Grove.
CALL TO WORSHIP
Leader: Surely God is my salvation;
People: I will trust, and will not be afraid.
Leader: God is my strength and my might;
People: God has become my salvation.
Leader: God goes forth with justice.
People: I will walk in the paths of God's justice.
COLLECT / OPENING PRAYER
God of justice, who upholds the poor and downtrodden: Grant us grace to live by your standards and to pursue justice by trusting in your faithfulness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
or
God, we worship you, for you are the One who acts completely from your true character. You are love and compassion and justice. You seek the welfare of all your children. As we worship you this day, may we be so filled with your Spirit that we go out and live in trust of you as your ambassadors of justice. Amen.
RESPONSE MUSIC
Hymns
"Where Cross the Crowded Ways of Life." Words: Frank Mason North, 1903; music: William Gardiner's Sacred Melodies, 1815. Public domain.
"Forth in Thy Name, O Lord." Words: Charles Wesley, 1749; music: John Hatton, 1793. Public domain.
"What Does the Lord Require." Words: Albert F. Bayly, 1949, alt.; music: Erik Routley, 1968. Words (c) 1949 Albert F. Bayly; music (c) 1969 Hope Publishing Co.
"O Young and Fearless Prophet." Words: S. Ralph Harlow, 1931; music: John B. Dykes, 1872. Public domain.
"The Voice of God Is Calling." Words: John Haynes Holmes, 1913; music: William Lloyd, 1840. Public domain.
"Jesu, Jesu." Words: Tom Colvin, 1969; music: Ghana folk song, arr. Tom Colvin, 1969; harm. Charles H. Webb, 1988. (c) 1969 and 1989 Hope Publishing Co.
"God of Grace and God of Glory." Words: Harry Emerson Fosdick, 1930; music: John Hughes, 1907. Words by permission of Elinor Fosdick Downs.
Songs
"Make Me a Servant." Words and music: Kelly Willard. (c) 1982 Willing Heart Music.
"We Are His Hands." Words: Mark Gersmehl; music: Mark Gersmehl, arr. J. Michael Bryan. (c) 1984, 1996 Bug and Bear Music.
"Refiner's Fire." Words and music: Brian Doerksen. (c) 1990 Mercy Publishing.
PRAYERS OF CONFESSION / PARDON
Leader: Let us come before the God of justice and compassion and confess our sins against God and our neighbor.
People: We confess, O Lord, that we have failed to act with justice and compassion. We are quick to seek revenge when we have been wronged and we are quick to excuse ourselves when we have been wrong. We see the faults of others but we have many excuses for our own behavior that adds to the hurt and oppression of our brothers and sisters around the world.
We say that we trust in you, but we act as if it is only by our own conniving and craftiness that we can feel secure as we seek to get an advantage over others.
Forgive us our sins and empower us by your Holy Spirit to place our trust completely in your faithfulness and to live as true disciples of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Leader: Hear the good news. God has compassion on all who would turn from their destructive ways and follow the path of justice. In the name of Christ, you are forgiven. Thanks be to God.
GENERAL PRAYERS, LITANIES, ETC.
We worship and adore you, O God of faithfulness. You have created us and you provide for all of our needs. The earth is full of your goodness and it blesses us every day.
(The following paragraph is most suitable if a prayer of confession will not be used elsewhere.)
We confess, O Gracious God, that we act as if you are stingy and that you do not give us all that we need. We strive not only to gather things for ourselves but we participate in institutions and governments that oppress the poor and the needy. We place our own comfort and our own political agenda over your call to live in justice. Forgive us and so fill us with your presence that we may join in your ministry of compassion and justice for all your children.
We give you thanks, O God, for all the signs of your faithfulness. The abundant, good earth and our own ability to love and care for others are signs of your never failing providence. You bless us with family, friends, and helpers. Most of all you bless us with your own presence in our lives and in our life together.
(Other specific thanksgiving may be offered.)
We offer up to you the hurts of your world. We pray for those who suffer injustice. Some are denied political freedom. Some are denied economic justice. Some are jailed, beaten, or killed. Some live in fear of hunger, exposure, and death. As you walk among them, take our love and care and wrap them in them with your own. Enable us to pray and work for justice for all your children.
(Other petitions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the Name of Jesus who taught us to pray, saying, "Our Father...."
A Children's Sermon
by Wesley Runk
Luke 3:7-18
Text: "And the crowd asked him. 'What then should we do?' In reply he said to them, 'Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.'" (vv. 10-11)
Object: A bone, some dirty socks, and a broken toy
Good morning, boys and girls. Each day we get closer to Christmas and the birth of Jesus. But it isn't here yet. Instead we have Advent, and this is the time we spend preparing ourselves for the Christ Child. How many of you think you are ready? (let them answer) All of you think you're ready.
Let me check you out and see if you are ready. I brought along three things to see if you are ready. First, I have this fine piece of meat that I know all of you will want to share. (hold up the bone) Can you smell it and tell how delicious it is? Did you know that your Sunday school teachers came very early this morning to cook it for you? How many of you are willing to share this special cut of beef with one another? (let them answer) You want to think about it for a little while?
All right, let's take a look at my second gift to you. (hold up the dirty socks) Here are some fine clothes that will make you look like a prince or a princess! They say that good-looking clothes make the man, and we know how lovely ladies look when they are dressed up in their finery. Who would like to wear these gorgeous clothes? Would you be willing to share these with one another? Remember, we are testing ourselves to see if we are ready for the Christ Child. Do you want to think about this also?
I have one final gift to share with you. It is a remarkable plaything. (hold up the broken toy) This is not your ordinary plaything. It brings joy wherever it appears. Laughter and happiness go with it. Everyone should be happy at the time of Jesus' birth, and you will also if you share this gift with one another. How many of you would wish to have such a fine gift under your Christmas tree this year? (let them answer)
Is there something wrong with my gifts for you? How many of you would be happy with these wonderful presents? (let them answer) Do you think I am trying to fool you?
Let me ask you a little different question. What about all of the hungry families that will have no Christmas dinner? Do we expect them to be as happy as we are when Jesus comes on Christmas? No sweet potatoes or turkey will be on their plate. No one in a hungry family will share a piece of pie or some warm bread with strawberry jam. But do we think they will be happy knowing that Jesus is born into the world?
I know some other families that do not have a warm coat or pants and shirts that fit them right. The pants are so old that the knees are bare and whenever the mother tries to wash the shirts she makes a hole in the elbow or around the place where there used to be buttons. Will they be happy with Jesus' birth?
And let's not forget the children who wish they had a new toy. Instead they play with rags and boxes. Should they be happy because Jesus is being born?
Some people seem to have it all and others don't have food, clothes, and toys. It is hard to look at the truth sometimes. It is better to try to fool others and us. But John the Baptist didn't try to fool anyone. He preached to the people who were waiting for Jesus to come and he told them to share their food, clothes, and toys and anything else they had with others. Not only do the people without good food, nice clothes, and super toys feel better when they receive them, but also you will feel very good when you give to them.
We try to fool ourselves some of the time, but it doesn't work very often. But while we are waiting for Jesus to come, there are a lot of things we can do to prepare for his coming. Talk to your Mom and Dad and see what you might share with the poor in Jesus' name. Amen.
The Immediate Word, December 14, 2003, issue.
Copyright 2003 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.
Someone has said that each different form of Christian piety concentrates on one of the following: thinking, feeling, or doing. Starting from only one of these determines your theology, your practice, and, to a large degree, your worldview. In the Gospel for the Third Sunday of Advent, Luke 3:7-18, John the Baptist preaches repentance with great urgency, but this repentance involves all three human functions: changing one's thinking, enlivening one's compassion, and -- perhaps most important -- becoming actively involved in doing justice.
In our lead article for this issue of The Immediate Word, Carter Shelley calls attention to questionable business practices in our culture as well as the questionable behavior of us typical Americans preparing for what has become a secular as well as (or rather than?) a religious celebration. It is therefore appropriate for us to ask, as did John's hearers, "What then should we do?"
As usual, team members offer responses, illustrations, worship resources, and a children's sermon.
Prepare or Beware!
Ancient Warnings for Modern Times
or
How to Really Get Ready for Christmas
Luke 3:7-18
by Carter Shelley
He stands outside Wal-Mart, his fingers and nose red from the cold, no hat or overcoat to protect him from the chilling December winds. We've all met his kind at some time or other. In a loud voice he calls to the holiday shoppers as they enter and leave Sam Walton's one-stop shopping discount store. The man proclaims the need to "Prepare or Beware!" of God's judgment. It's a message we've heard many times before. Sometimes it's accompanied by a religious tract or a pamphlet. Sometimes the preacher holds a large, limp black Bible in one hand while beseeching the crowd with his other.
We've already got Christianity, thank you very much. We don't have time to stop and listen to the deranged proclamation of someone who's probably mentally ill. We don't want to get trapped in a religious dialogue with someone whose very presence seems to deny the validity of our own faith commitment. The street prophet's very existence makes us uncomfortable, because
* he's willing to make a spectacle of himself
* he's willing to risk public ire by declaiming on Wal-Mart's current hiring practices
* he's willing to go to jail as a public nuisance, "a religious nut," if but one of us will listen and hear his proclamation
We pass the Advent prophet by, eyes averted, walking quickly, because he has the courage we lack. He has the conviction we need. He has the truth we'd just as soon ignore. He has the guts to live his faith to its fullest extent: making a spectacle, risking public ire, getting arrested, being rejected. His name isn't John the Baptist or Jesus of Nazareth, but he certainly knows their names, and he takes the prophetic call of the first and the heartfelt sacrifice of the second totally to heart.
This man would not be swayed by pragmatic discussion of the impracticality of Christian ethics at a mutual funds trustees meeting or in the boardroom of Wal-Mart or any of the other giant retail empires. This twenty-first-century preacher with a first-century message would not choose some enterprising shade of gray over the clarity of black and white, good and bad, truth or half-truth. He would not choose guilt over God's vital call for repentance, justice, and change.
Observations about Luke 3:7-18
While the events recorded in Luke 1-3 are presented chronologically, the lectionary always reverses the order. Thus in church we read and preach about the adult John the Baptist before we explore his remarkable birth to a barren older couple and before we read the annunciation to Mary and her response in the Magnificat. In some ways one might say that Jesus comes to us twice during the season of Advent. First, we are called by John the Baptist to prepare for the coming of the Lord, whom we know to be the adult Jesus so long anticipated by the people of Israel. Second, we are called to welcome this same Jesus as an infant, spanking new, totally vulnerable and dependent on the loving care of his earthly parents, Mary and Joseph.
This second Jesus' coming is embraced by us with joy and hope, the singing of Christmas carols, the production of Christmas pageants, the wonder of special candlelight worship services, etc. While John the Baptist's adult declarations about Jesus' imminent arrival get equal or more pulpit time, the emphasis in them is our readiness to receive and recognize God's adult Son when he appears. This event requires a different kind of preparation. We are called upon to examine our lives and our hearts, take note of all that is at odds with God's will and God's plan, and then repent, change, and turn back to God. This message doesn't hold much appeal for most Christians because, like the Jews who were part of the audience John the Baptist addressed, we like our religion as it is. We are too busy to listen to the ranting challenges of some self-appointed prophet (which is surely how many saw John's prophesying, as do we that of contemporary street-corner preachers), we resist criticisms about the inadequacy of our faith commitment, and we prefer to live with the guilt of our sins of commission and omission rather than repent and change.
For that reason, it's particularly helpful to read and preach on Luke 3:7-18. In it John the Baptist not only calls upon the people to repent and change their ways. He gives them explicit examples of what they must do: sacrifice half of the bounty of their own lives by giving what they don't need to those who have nothing; quit cheating fellow citizens out of their livelihood by taxing them not only for Rome but also for the luxurious lifestyle of the greedy local tax collectors; and soldiers in the region need to stop intimidating and blackmailing the populace.
All three of these calls for a change in behavior have startlingly modern applications in December 2003. We Americans know we have more food, more material goods, more of everything than any other people on the face of the earth. If the tax collectors were the greedy ones in John and Jesus' day, are not we, the taxpayers, the greedy ones of the 2000 election? With American soldiers stationed in Afghanistan and Iraq this Christmas, we pray for them, worry about their safety, and long for their stay to be short. As with the pax Romana, our soldiers and our superior military power make it possible for us to enforce peace. It is a position from which to attain great good and great evil.
It's painfully easy to make connections between John the Baptist's explicit call to repentance to Jews, tax collectors, and Roman soldiers in Luke 3:7-14, because all of the maladies John finds in that ancient society continue to command center stage today. The challenge in this week's preaching is to find a way to help the congregation recognize and identify with some of these charges without making them angry or overwhelming them with problems too large in scope for one Christian or congregation to solve. The second challenge is to inspire these same church members to seek a new vision for themselves and American Christianity that is more in keeping with the hopes and dreams initiated by Jesus' birth and called for by John the Baptist.
Preparations can come in a variety of forms: emotional, spiritual, ethical. We are called by John to bear good fruits: to share food and clothing with those who have none, to base taxes upon what is fair and just rather than what is personally expedient, to stop bullying the weak and poor in foreign lands by threats, intimidation, and military power.
How are Christians really to prepare? Find ways to reclaim God's promises in Jesus Christ, give them breath and life again, be renewed ourselves, be among those shouting to John the Baptist: How can we be saved? We want to be saved! Yes, please. Save us! What must we do to be saved anew?
Ethically: advocate for illegal and legal aliens in our country trying to make a living, to be aware of the injustices meted out to them in our country through below-minimum-wage jobs, substandard housing, and being victimized by unscrupulous landlords and employers, as well as recognizing the loneliness such folks feel at this time of year due to language barriers and missing their families.
Emotionally: standard, every-year stuff: present buying, card sending, special church services, special attention to the poor, getting a tree, etc. Some of us steel ourselves emotionally for Christmas because it's a hard time of year -- especially for many people this year, spouses and sons and daughters in Iraq and Afghanistan; loss of a spouse or dear family member or friend during the past year; divorce; homesickness. (For a fuller example, see an earlier sermon of mine, "Prepare the Way of the Lord," at the end of this entry.)
Spiritually and personally: change our harmful behaviors: quit smoking, drinking, or eating to a degree that's bad for our health; skip the office party this year if it rivals the celebrations of Bacchus; avoid gift-giving ourselves into debt; resolve to attend church more regularly; give more to charity; or take on some volunteer work.
How to Really Get Ready for Christmas
Prophets are not any more welcome in 2003 than they were in John the Baptist's and Jesus' day. None of us wants to be told that there are aspects of the life that we have chosen that God judges and finds lacking in compassion toward others or commitment toward our Lord.
Only in the Gospel of Luke does John the Baptist speak directly to the specific sins and injustices perpetuated by different groups of people co-existing in the society of his day: the pious citizens of the land who, like us, would have been comfortable having their coins and currency proclaim, "In God we trust," rather than in the latest emperor ruling in Rome or that local scoundrel, Herod. Like us, the Jews of John the Baptist's day believed themselves to be faithful people, righteous people, and, most importantly, God's chosen people.
But John the Baptist challenges the complacency of his native audience. It is not enough to claim that one's ancestry stretches back to Abraham and Sarah. It is not enough to do the things good Jews are expected to do. A far more radical approach is required of those who would prepare themselves for God's judgment and God's grace. "Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise." Having enough, or more than enough, when another of God's children lives in want, without the basic necessities of life, is intolerable to God. There is enough for all, but only if those who have share with those who have not.
The trick during Advent is to call people to examine the way we currently live our lives in America as people of faith and citizens of the world's most powerful and prosperous nation, so that we ask, "What can I do to make life better for others of God's children?" The challenge is to be able to approach this wonderful season with joy and hope while also acknowledging that we too need to reexamine our lives, our priorities, our commitment to sharing God's love and our own riches with those who have so little.
The image of the modern-day prophet standing outside Wal-Mart preaching identifies one form of our twenty-first-century Christian American malady. We have so much, plenty to eat, loads of clothes in the closet, warm, dry places to live, and, for the most part, safe neighborhoods in which we live. We know we are blessed and lucky to live where we do, serve the God we serve, and have what we have. Furthermore, all of us are happy to give to "those less fortunate" in our communities. We write checks, we bring bag-loads of food, we sponsor a specific poor family, we drop coins into the red Salvation Army bell-ringer's bucket. Yet John the Baptist probably wouldn't let us off the hook any more than he was willing to let the devout, compassionate Jews of his day off the hook.
Ways we Americans collude in injustice while exercising compassion are primarily invisible to ourselves on a day-to-day basis. We know most athletic shoes are made in far Eastern countries where factories pay the workers virtually nothing. We know that current unemployment problems in the United States largely exist because our own companies such as Lowe's Hardware, Talbot's, or L. L. Bean can produce their goods so much more cheaply in China, Indonesia, or Mexico. We all know that many of our Mexican and other Latino neighbors currently in the United States toil away at unpleasant jobs we don't want ourselves: killing and packaging chicken, ditch digging and road building, or serving as after-hours cleaners in office buildings, luxury hotels, and, of course, Wal-Mart. We know that our own understandable decisions to shop at Wal-Mart, Target, and other wholesale discount stores means that smaller businesses lose customers and cannot compete or perhaps stay in the red. Yet it all seems too big for us to take on. After all, wasn't this country founded on the basis of competition and ingenuity? If you can't make it, you go under. Sad, but true; that's the way our world works.
We may need to look at the world in which we live in a new way. In order for us to minister to and stretch beyond our own geographical borders, we need to embrace a new way of being Christian in the world. We are all interconnected. By satellite, cell phone, CNN, etc., we see pictures of and know what life is like for the citizens of Afghanistan. We know how frighteningly destructive AIDS has become in Africa, because we see it and read about it regularly. We know there are hungry people in our own community and hungry people in all parts of the globe. And, as citizens of the greatest and most powerful nation in the world, we have the ability to do more than send troops and Band-Aid emergency supplies. We have the ability to do more.
The question is: Do we have the will? Is it possible for us to begin to think of ourselves as children of God and citizens of the world? A street prophet shames us by his presence and his message. If we are lucky, he sticks to heaven and hell and keeps his nose out of the really hard stuff, like justice and fair wages for aliens working in our midst. If we are lucky, he sticks to heaven and hell and doesn't point a finger at us and ask, "How many coats do you have, Sister? How many pounds have you gained this year, Brother?" If we are lucky, he sticks to heaven and hell and doesn't inquire, "How did you use that tax refund you got this year? Did you tithe a portion to God? Did you use it to help someone who doesn't make enough to get a tax refund?" If we are lucky, he sticks to heaven and hell. If we are truly lucky, we hear God's word that's spoken and we realize he challenges those of us who live a life worthy of heaven to start to care for and minister to those whose lives are more like hell on earth.
John judges the faith of devout people when it lacks sensitivity and awareness of the basic needs of other people living in their midst. It wasn't a popular message then, and it's not a popular message now.
In his commentary on the Gospel of Luke in the New Interpreter's Bible Commentary: Luke-John (Abingdon, 1995), Alan Culpepper notes that most Christians organize themselves into church communities according to one of three principles: (1) an emphasis on the afterlife and helping people get saved into heaven; (2) an emphasis on an intimate and personal, spiritual life with Christ; or (3) an emphasis on a life and ministry focused primarily on social action. Most of our churches choose to emphasize one of these aspects over the other two and seek to attract more Christians to serve with them in this way. Culpepper asks the question, "What if a church emphasized all three? How might our churches, our lives and our world be different?" (p. 86). How indeed?
Prepare the Way of the Lord
Helen Henson had had a terrible day. She had a list a mile long of presents to buy, errands to run and nothing seemed to be going right. She'd looked everywhere for a copy of Finding Nemo for Jimmy, but everywhere she went it was sold out. She'd left one package at South Square Mall, and had had to drive ten miles through heavy traffic to retrieve it. Then, after she'd found several things she needed in Sears, the clerk informed Helen that the charge was denied, and Helen couldn't charge anything else until she'd paid more down on her charge card.
She still needed green sugar to decorate Christmas cookies -- all the stores she'd tried were out of that too. She'd run into Nancy's Sunday School teacher and had been informed that the material Helen had bought the week before for Nancy's angel costume was all wrong and she'd have to get some more. And, as she'd left the house that morning Ed had shouted after her to "Pick up a tree -- a cheap one. I won't have time!" But all the trees she'd seen were either scrawny or fake. None was cheap.
The last straw came as Helen walked to her car in the dark, cold December night. Another woman, flustered by the Christmas traffic, almost ran over Helen in the parking lot. Helen jumped out of the car's way and was missed by inches, but in the process Helen dropped half of her packages into a disgusting puddle of water. That was it! Helen had had enough.
Her house wasn't decorated. Her parents' gifts weren't mailed. Her cards weren't sent, and she was sooooo tired. Helen sat down on the curb and began to cry. She couldn't take it anymore. But even tears on a dreary winter night couldn't go without interruption.
Sitting there cold and wet, Helen noticed a crowd gathering outside the entrance of the shopping mall. Some of the people were laughing. Some were talking, but one voice could be heard at the center of the group. "Prepare the way of the Lord; make his path straight." Helen sniffed and got to her feet. What was going on? The man's voice grew louder and louder as more people gathered in curiosity. "Prepare the way of the Lord; make his path straight."
Helen walked to the edge of the crowd. At first she couldn't see for the large number of people, but some of them moved away and Helen was able to get a look at the man who was speaking. "Prepare the way of the Lord; make his path straight." Helen thought the man curious in appearance. He had a gray beard, and what little hair he had was sticking out all over his head. He didn't have on an overcoat, just an old gray sweatshirt and some brown trousers. Around his neck was tied a red scarf.
"Prepare the way of the Lord; make his path straight." Some of the people were laughing at him, but Helen didn't feel like laughing. There was something about the man that appealed to her. He had a pleasant face, and he seemed so earnest -- like he really cared about everybody present, like his message was so important. But what did he mean? He kept saying the same things over and over again, "Prepare the way of the Lord; make his path straight." What did he mean?
Helen wanted to tell him she didn't understand. Other people were shouting questions at the man, but he seemed oblivious to them. "Prepare the way of the Lord; make his path straight." Then the man look directly at Helen and he asked her, "Are you ready? Prepare the way of the Lord." And with that question Helen realized something she hadn't realized for a long time.
She wasn't ready for Christmas. But it wasn't because she hadn't bought her tree or found the Finding Nemo video. It was because she hadn't thought at all about getting ready for Christmas, for Jesus' birth. When the man looked at her, Helen understood what he had meant. She recognized that she wasn't ready for Jesus' coming. She suddenly realized that she had many needs which she herself could not handle. And she understood there's no need for Christmas, no need for Christ unless we recognize our personal inadequacy and distance from God.
Helen hadn't thought about God for a long time, but she did now, and she felt inadequate. She suddenly discovered that somewhere along the way, she'd left God to try to go it alone, and she hadn't done too well on her own. As Helen stood listening to the man's voice, she thought about her life: her family problems, her petty quarrels at work, her sense of weariness and lack of purposefulness, and she thought abut the baby Jesus. "Prepare the way of the Lord."
Christmas wasn't about a season, a special day, or a decorated house. Christmas was about a man, a very special man whose life had begun on Christmas day. The funny man speaking in the mall parking lot seemed to know about Helen's inadequacies and frustrations. He knew she didn't pray very much, that she had little sense of God. Standing there on a cold, dreary night, Helen recognized her need for Jesus Christ, her need for Christmas. Her own preoccupation with her family, her job, home, friends, and herself had kept her from seeing before what the old man was saying, "Prepare the way of the Lord; make his path straight."
Christmas was coming. For Helen to be ready she needed to be spiritually ready. Ready to share her need for God, her dependence upon his Son. Unless we prepare ourselves, like Helen, we can't recognize what Jesus' coming offers us. We have a need, a need for God's intervention in our lives and our world. We need God's protection from sin and emptiness.
God offers us that protection through his son, Jesus. Jesus taught us how to cope with emptiness. He taught us how to relate with sensitivity to other people. He taught us how to pray and depend upon God. Jesus' birth, life, and death were the beginning of God's saving acts in the world, but it was only the beginning. With the resurrection of Jesus Christ, God proved that his creative participation in the world would continue. God conquered sin and death through Jesus' resurrection. Jesus is alive now. He lives to guide us, care for us, and be with us.
Wherever the Gospel is present, there is the power of Jesus in the world today. The risen Christ is present wherever the good news of his saving words and deeds is announced. Today, on this Third Sunday of Advent, we can prepare ourselves for the coming of the Lord. We can be a part of God's saving acts in history. We can be persons whose lives illustrate what it means to live after the fact of Jesus Christ. For Helen Henson, becoming a part of God's history meant giving herself time to reflect each day, reading the Bible more, giving the church a bit more of her time, trying to be patient and listen to other people's needs, being more honest with herself and others about her failings, allowing others to help her when she needed it, not doing everything alone on her own. In addition, Helen found that being a part of God's saving acts in history meant she read the newspaper, watched television, talked to her husband and children with an awareness that Jesus' birth, life, death, and resurrection made a difference in how she approached all aspects of her life. Helen didn't have to go it alone on cold December nights. She could draw on a strength and resolve much greater than her own.
Wonderful things can happen when we discover our spiritual, emotional, and moral need for God. Wonderful things can happen to us as individuals and as a church. The times when I personally feel the most blessed usually come after a period of real despair when I've cried as much as I can and admit that I can't cope.
Christmas is the beginning of God's saving acts, saving acts that continue because we continue to need them. Can we experience God's love, concern, and salvation daily when we look diligently for them through prayer, Scripture, Christ, and each other?
Are you ready for Christmas?
A postscript: the lyrics of "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)," by Yoko Ono and John Lennon, are particularly germane in December 2003.
Team Comments
George Murphy responds: John the Baptist's message is a call to repent. We probably have our own ideas about what that means, but let's go back to the sources. John stood in the line of the Old Testament prophets, and a common word that expresses the idea of "repent" in the Hebrew Scriptures is shubh, which means literally "return" or "go back." "Return to the LORD your God," said the prophet Joel (2:13). You've been going the wrong way. The only way you'll get where you're supposed to be is to turn around and come back.
What do you do if you find that you're going in the wrong direction? What if you want to go to Chicago but get on the wrong ramp for the interstate and realize that you're going toward Denver instead? Why, you keep going, of course. And maybe you even speed up. The important thing, after all, is to keep moving.
Of course, that's a crazy answer, but it's just what we often do -- as a society and as individuals. There's a recent book by Brian Czech on environmental and economic issues with the intriguing title Shoveling Fuel for a Runaway Train (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002). It's a good metaphor. The damage we've done to the natural environment and society by our insistence on unlimited "growth" is the runaway train, and we keep doing things to make the damage worse. As we approach the point where world oil production starts to decline, we start driving SUVs that burn more gas. As old growth forest disappears, we increase access for logging. The gap between rich and poor increases, and some people have far more money than they could ever need, so we cut taxes for the rich so they can have more. We've gotten desensitized by violence in movies and television so we produce and sell video games with more maiming and killing.
We shouldn't blame it all on "society," as if we weren't the ones who made up society. We do the same kinds of things as individuals. It's the pattern of addiction -- to chemicals or sex or gambling or just acquiring a lot of stuff. As the hold of the substance or behavior on the addict gets stronger, the more of a fix is needed. Your spending addiction has gotten your family to the verge of bankruptcy and your marriage to the brink of divorce, so to forget your misery you go out and buy something. Drink to forget your drinking problem and gamble -- in a casino or the stock market -- to try to get back the money you lost gambling.
We're creatures of habit, and as we get in the habit of cutting ethical corners and ignoring the needs of others in order to get what we want, it becomes easier to behave that way. Each Salvation Army kettle I walk past without putting any money in makes it easier to ignore the next one. The more I look out for Number One, the more important Number One becomes.
The message of John the Baptist, the message of Advent, is "You're going the wrong way. Stop shoveling, slow down, and turn around. Repent." It's not surprising that we have trouble hearing that simple message, because it calls for radical change. Turn 180 degrees and go in the other direction. The Greek word for repent in the New Testament is equally radical. Metanoeo means "I change my mind" -- not in the trivial sense of deciding to order soup instead of a salad, but making a fundamental change in the way I think. The wrong way is to put myself first. The right way is to "love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind -- and your neighbor as yourself."
This time of year is promoted as the Christmas season, but it isn't. It is a season of decorations, parties, spending lots of money, and anticipating gifts -- but that is something different. The secular winter festival that goes by the name of "Christmas" encourages the addictive runaway train behavior that I mentioned. Obesity has become a big medical problem (pun intended) in America, so we'll celebrate the holidays with boxes of candy. We're fixated on consumption, so we'll celebrate by buying more things. It's even supposed to be our patriotic duty to do that, to boost the economy. We're using up energy resources at an alarming rate, so we'll fill our yards and cover our houses with lights.
This is the season of Advent. It's a time when we hear the call to repent, to return to the Lord our God and love our neighbors as ourselves. It's the season of John the Baptist, whose task is to prepare us for the real celebration, the coming of God to us and for us in Jesus Christ.
The real Christmas season begins on Christmas Eve and runs through the fifth of January. (The Christian church invented the Christmas season. We, not Wal-Mart, get to say when it is.) The secular Christmas season ends sometime on December 25, when all the gifts have been opened, the batteries have died, and people are feeling stuffed and let-down. Then Christians have just begun to sing, "Oh, come, let us adore him."
Carlos Wilton responds: "How to really get ready for Christmas?" is the question you ask in your thoughtful contribution for this week. And a very appropriate question it is for most of us, in these hectic days before the holiday.
Most of our cultural Christmas preparations are centered around things: the acquisition of things, the unpacking of things, the wrapping of things, the cooking of things. Yet the preparation called for in the well-loved carol "Joy to the World" is different: "Let every heart prepare him room." To prepare for the Savior's coming, we are to push aside all the things that crowd in upon our too-hectic lives: to create space, to empty ourselves, to watch, to wait.
This is hard. It's a via negativa, whose pursuit runs counter to the hyperactive holiday activity all around us. From raucous sound, we are called to reflective silence. From garish lights, we are called to meditative darkness. From frenetic activity, we are called to receptive stillness. From obsessive concern with things, we are called to a demanding way of the heart.
Isaac Watts originally titled his hymn not "Joy to the World" (that's the first line), but rather "The Messiah's Coming and Kingdom." Although we know and love it as a Christmas carol, there's nothing in the text about the nativity of Jesus. Its themes resonate more with Advent than with Christmas: preparing for the coming of Christ as ruler of all. "Heaven and nature sing" not at the birth of a baby but at the divine triumph over the curse of sin.
Try putting the text of "Joy to the World" into the mouth of John the Baptist. It fits. The shaggy-haired prophet could well have shouted out those words. Watts' hymn plays better along the banks of the Jordan than beside the manger of the Christ child.
John the Baptist isn't exactly the person most folks hope to run into in these days before Christmas. Yet he has more reason to be part of our holiday preparations than angels, shepherds, or magi. From a purely biblical standpoint, John shows up more often than most of the characters we're used to seeing outlined in gold on the front of Christmas cards. All four Gospel writers mention him: even Mark and John, whose nativity accounts are minimal. Most of us don't particularly want to see old John, though, because he would come across like a party-pooper.
What if, riding atop the last float of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, there was not jolly old Saint Nick, but a wild-eyed John the Baptist? That image wouldn't do much for the retailers' bottom line, but it would at least be biblical.
"Prepare the way of the Lord!" screams John, into the hand-held microphone more commonly used by pop stars lip-syncing their lyrics. His voice reverberates in the high-rise wilderness of midtown Manhattan, making even the perpetually perky Katie Couric wince in her reviewing stand. "Bear fruit worthy of repentance," he warns those holiday-makers lining Fifth Avenue in lawn chairs, scarves bundled about their necks. "Even now the ax is laid at the foot of the plant" -- or maybe by the cables tethering the giant Garfield balloon.
"One ... is coming after me," John predicts, whose "winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire!" How cheery. (Not!) But how true.
Related Illustrations
Sometimes we have a tendency to treat business ethics as a sort of protected realm: "All's fair in love, war ... and retail." A memorable figure from literature is the real-estate entrepreneur George Babbitt, title character of Sinclair Lewis' brilliant 1922 satirical novel. Babbitt is proud, self-satisfied, even pious when it comes to such things as church attendance and keeping up the appearance of ethical propriety. Yet he demonstrates a chilling ability to rationalize even lying and stealing when it comes to business practice:
"But Babbitt was virtuous. He advocated, though he did not practice, the prohibition of alcohol; he praised, though he did not obey, the laws against motor-speeding; he paid his debts; he contributed to the church, the Red Cross, and the YMCA; he followed the custom of his clan and cheated only as it was sanctified by precedent; and he never descended to trickery -- although, as he explained to Paul Riesling:
'Course I don't mean to say that every ad I write is literally true or that I always believe everything I say when I give some buyer a good strong selling-spiel. You see -- you see it's like this: In the first place, maybe the owner of the property exaggerated when he put it into my hands, and it certainly isn't my place to go proving my principal a liar! And then most folks are so darn crooked themselves that they expect a fellow to do a little lying, so if I was fool enough to never whoop the ante I'd get the credit for lying anyway! In self-defense I got to toot my own horn, like a lawyer defending a client -- his bounden duty, ain't it, to bring out the poor dub's good points? Why, the Judge himself would bawl out a lawyer that didn't, even if they both knew the guy was guilty! But even so, I don't pad out the truth like Cecil Rountree or Thayer or the rest of these realtors. Fact, I think a fellow that's willing to deliberately up and profit by lying ought to be shot!'"
--Sinclair Lewis, Babbitt, chapter 4
* * * * *
Dag Hammarskjold, beloved secretary-general of the United Nations, died in a plane crash in Africa on September 18, 1962. He was on a diplomatic peace mission at the time.
At first, the reason for the plane crash seemed mysterious. The plane was in good working order and had sufficient fuel. The skies were clear. There was no evidence of poor health on the part of the pilot, or of guerrilla activity that could have brought the plane down.
The investigating commission concluded that pilot error was the cause of the crash. Airplane pilots keep in the cockpit books of "approach plates": diagrams of airports in their region, indicating the topography, elevation, number and location of runways, etc. The approach plate tells the pilot exactly how to make a safe landing.
The pilot of Hammarskjold's plane, investigators discovered, was using the wrong approach plate. He was seeking to land in Endola, Zambia, using the approach plate for Endola in the Congo. There was a difference in altitude of 3000 feet, leading the pilot to fly the plane directly into the ground just short of the runway.
How many people today are seeking to pilot their lives, ethically speaking, using the wrong approach plate? Prophetic figures like John the Baptist seek to call us to correct the flight plan of our lives, before it is too late.
* * * * *
"The right to do something does not mean that doing it is right."
--William Safire
* * * * *
"To make the avoidance of evil the summit of our moral endeavors is -- quite apart from its inherent impossibility -- to condemn ourselves to a life of pointlessness. Even worse, it is to tacitly condone what is wrong; evil prospers, as they say, when good people do nothing. The attempt to avoid evil at all costs should be a given of our lives: but it should be our starting-point, not our terminus...
The biblical tradition says that each of us is answerable to God. One day we will have to give an account to him of the use we have made of the life he has given us. When that day comes, what God will be interested in is not the bad things we managed to avoid doing, but the good and loving things we did. Not that these things can in any way earn salvation for us -- nothing but the cross can do that: but they are the practical signs of an attitude of heart modeled on the very love of God himself."
--Colin Sedgwick, "Accentuate the Positive," in The Guardian, November 18, 2002
* * * * *
Concerning the many relativistic ethical voices that whisper attractively to young people, Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley writes:
"The cultural voices seem to be saying different things, but the same message underlies them all: There is no ultimate truth, no moral code by which to live our lives. The message: that God is totally irrelevant if He exists at all. Life is what we make it. We choose. It's an attractive message because it eliminates accountability, and it's coming at our kids from all sides.
"The most dangerous thing kids can do is to handle this by 'compartmentalizing' the sacred and the secular in their minds. This is a split-level faith. God lives on the top floor; I live in the basement with no connecting staircase. Instead, we have to help them understand that the Christian faith is relevant to everything in their lives. Jesus knocks on the door of our life and wants to occupy all of our life."
--Mark Earley, "At Cross Purposes," 8/19/03; http://www.breakpoint.org/
* * * * *
A young Jewish student once asked his rabbi, "When is the best time to repent?"
The rabbi thought for a minute and then answered, "The best time to repent is at the last possible moment."
After he said that, the student replied, "But you never know when the last possible moment will be."
And the rabbi answered, "Exactly!"
* * * * *
"Now, my question this morning is this: When you hear Malachi's words, do you hear good news or bad news? When you hear John preparing for the coming of the Lord, do you hear words that fill you with hope, or words that bring you fear? ...
"I am convinced that most Christians -- at least those in the western, non-sectarian traditions -- have the lurking fear that John's message is the same as Malachi's, and that the second coming is about bad news rather than good. There's the rat in Advent preparation. We hear John, and immediately measure how far we fall short of who we are called to be, of who we might be, rather than hear the word that God's coming is a time of redemption, renewal, and release from the things that obscure the vision of God in our lives now. Indeed, God's coming is a refining fire. Indeed, it does burn out the dross, the things that obscure, distract, or keep us from living perfectly into God's purposes for us. Indeed, the ax is there to cut out all that is not good. But that is the glory of Christ's coming. When he returns, you and I will know God face to face. When Christ returns, we will not only know the joy of his presence; we will never again fall away from him. When Christ returns, anything that inhibits God's purpose for life will have been consumed. That is why we pray 'Even so, Lord Jesus, quickly come!' That is what we await."
-- Fred Anderson, from a sermon preached in the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York City, "There's a Rat in Preparation," December 7, 1997; http://www.mapc.com/html/07_sermons/sermondisplay.asp?sermonDate=12/7/1997&sermonTime=300
Worship Resources
by George Reed
OPENING
Hymns
"Great Is Thy Faithfulness." Words: Thomas O. Chisholm, 1923; music: William M. Runyan, 1923. (c) 1923, renewed 1951 Hope Publishing Co.
"Seek the Lord." Words: Fred Pratt Green, 1986; music: George Henry Day, 1940. Words (c) 1989 Hope Publishing Co.; music (c) 1942 The Church Pension Fund.
"God, Whose Love Is Reigning O'er Us." Words: William Boyd Grove, 1980; music: John Godd, 1869. Words (c) 1980 William Boyd Grove.
CALL TO WORSHIP
Leader: Surely God is my salvation;
People: I will trust, and will not be afraid.
Leader: God is my strength and my might;
People: God has become my salvation.
Leader: God goes forth with justice.
People: I will walk in the paths of God's justice.
COLLECT / OPENING PRAYER
God of justice, who upholds the poor and downtrodden: Grant us grace to live by your standards and to pursue justice by trusting in your faithfulness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
or
God, we worship you, for you are the One who acts completely from your true character. You are love and compassion and justice. You seek the welfare of all your children. As we worship you this day, may we be so filled with your Spirit that we go out and live in trust of you as your ambassadors of justice. Amen.
RESPONSE MUSIC
Hymns
"Where Cross the Crowded Ways of Life." Words: Frank Mason North, 1903; music: William Gardiner's Sacred Melodies, 1815. Public domain.
"Forth in Thy Name, O Lord." Words: Charles Wesley, 1749; music: John Hatton, 1793. Public domain.
"What Does the Lord Require." Words: Albert F. Bayly, 1949, alt.; music: Erik Routley, 1968. Words (c) 1949 Albert F. Bayly; music (c) 1969 Hope Publishing Co.
"O Young and Fearless Prophet." Words: S. Ralph Harlow, 1931; music: John B. Dykes, 1872. Public domain.
"The Voice of God Is Calling." Words: John Haynes Holmes, 1913; music: William Lloyd, 1840. Public domain.
"Jesu, Jesu." Words: Tom Colvin, 1969; music: Ghana folk song, arr. Tom Colvin, 1969; harm. Charles H. Webb, 1988. (c) 1969 and 1989 Hope Publishing Co.
"God of Grace and God of Glory." Words: Harry Emerson Fosdick, 1930; music: John Hughes, 1907. Words by permission of Elinor Fosdick Downs.
Songs
"Make Me a Servant." Words and music: Kelly Willard. (c) 1982 Willing Heart Music.
"We Are His Hands." Words: Mark Gersmehl; music: Mark Gersmehl, arr. J. Michael Bryan. (c) 1984, 1996 Bug and Bear Music.
"Refiner's Fire." Words and music: Brian Doerksen. (c) 1990 Mercy Publishing.
PRAYERS OF CONFESSION / PARDON
Leader: Let us come before the God of justice and compassion and confess our sins against God and our neighbor.
People: We confess, O Lord, that we have failed to act with justice and compassion. We are quick to seek revenge when we have been wronged and we are quick to excuse ourselves when we have been wrong. We see the faults of others but we have many excuses for our own behavior that adds to the hurt and oppression of our brothers and sisters around the world.
We say that we trust in you, but we act as if it is only by our own conniving and craftiness that we can feel secure as we seek to get an advantage over others.
Forgive us our sins and empower us by your Holy Spirit to place our trust completely in your faithfulness and to live as true disciples of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Leader: Hear the good news. God has compassion on all who would turn from their destructive ways and follow the path of justice. In the name of Christ, you are forgiven. Thanks be to God.
GENERAL PRAYERS, LITANIES, ETC.
We worship and adore you, O God of faithfulness. You have created us and you provide for all of our needs. The earth is full of your goodness and it blesses us every day.
(The following paragraph is most suitable if a prayer of confession will not be used elsewhere.)
We confess, O Gracious God, that we act as if you are stingy and that you do not give us all that we need. We strive not only to gather things for ourselves but we participate in institutions and governments that oppress the poor and the needy. We place our own comfort and our own political agenda over your call to live in justice. Forgive us and so fill us with your presence that we may join in your ministry of compassion and justice for all your children.
We give you thanks, O God, for all the signs of your faithfulness. The abundant, good earth and our own ability to love and care for others are signs of your never failing providence. You bless us with family, friends, and helpers. Most of all you bless us with your own presence in our lives and in our life together.
(Other specific thanksgiving may be offered.)
We offer up to you the hurts of your world. We pray for those who suffer injustice. Some are denied political freedom. Some are denied economic justice. Some are jailed, beaten, or killed. Some live in fear of hunger, exposure, and death. As you walk among them, take our love and care and wrap them in them with your own. Enable us to pray and work for justice for all your children.
(Other petitions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the Name of Jesus who taught us to pray, saying, "Our Father...."
A Children's Sermon
by Wesley Runk
Luke 3:7-18
Text: "And the crowd asked him. 'What then should we do?' In reply he said to them, 'Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.'" (vv. 10-11)
Object: A bone, some dirty socks, and a broken toy
Good morning, boys and girls. Each day we get closer to Christmas and the birth of Jesus. But it isn't here yet. Instead we have Advent, and this is the time we spend preparing ourselves for the Christ Child. How many of you think you are ready? (let them answer) All of you think you're ready.
Let me check you out and see if you are ready. I brought along three things to see if you are ready. First, I have this fine piece of meat that I know all of you will want to share. (hold up the bone) Can you smell it and tell how delicious it is? Did you know that your Sunday school teachers came very early this morning to cook it for you? How many of you are willing to share this special cut of beef with one another? (let them answer) You want to think about it for a little while?
All right, let's take a look at my second gift to you. (hold up the dirty socks) Here are some fine clothes that will make you look like a prince or a princess! They say that good-looking clothes make the man, and we know how lovely ladies look when they are dressed up in their finery. Who would like to wear these gorgeous clothes? Would you be willing to share these with one another? Remember, we are testing ourselves to see if we are ready for the Christ Child. Do you want to think about this also?
I have one final gift to share with you. It is a remarkable plaything. (hold up the broken toy) This is not your ordinary plaything. It brings joy wherever it appears. Laughter and happiness go with it. Everyone should be happy at the time of Jesus' birth, and you will also if you share this gift with one another. How many of you would wish to have such a fine gift under your Christmas tree this year? (let them answer)
Is there something wrong with my gifts for you? How many of you would be happy with these wonderful presents? (let them answer) Do you think I am trying to fool you?
Let me ask you a little different question. What about all of the hungry families that will have no Christmas dinner? Do we expect them to be as happy as we are when Jesus comes on Christmas? No sweet potatoes or turkey will be on their plate. No one in a hungry family will share a piece of pie or some warm bread with strawberry jam. But do we think they will be happy knowing that Jesus is born into the world?
I know some other families that do not have a warm coat or pants and shirts that fit them right. The pants are so old that the knees are bare and whenever the mother tries to wash the shirts she makes a hole in the elbow or around the place where there used to be buttons. Will they be happy with Jesus' birth?
And let's not forget the children who wish they had a new toy. Instead they play with rags and boxes. Should they be happy because Jesus is being born?
Some people seem to have it all and others don't have food, clothes, and toys. It is hard to look at the truth sometimes. It is better to try to fool others and us. But John the Baptist didn't try to fool anyone. He preached to the people who were waiting for Jesus to come and he told them to share their food, clothes, and toys and anything else they had with others. Not only do the people without good food, nice clothes, and super toys feel better when they receive them, but also you will feel very good when you give to them.
We try to fool ourselves some of the time, but it doesn't work very often. But while we are waiting for Jesus to come, there are a lot of things we can do to prepare for his coming. Talk to your Mom and Dad and see what you might share with the poor in Jesus' name. Amen.
The Immediate Word, December 14, 2003, issue.
Copyright 2003 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.
