Make Ready

my sermon from Sunday, Dec. 6, 2009 at Faith United Church, UCC, International Falls, MN.

Text: Luke 3:1-6

Why is Luke every historian’s favorite gospel? Why do we treat Luke’s account of Jesus’ birth as the “real one”—the one it wouldn’t be Christmas without hearing?

Probably because Luke adds all those lovely historical details that make the story come alive. Luke’s wealth of names, places, dates and events animates the ancient world, making it seem less like “scripture” and more like story time.

But what if we put today’s gospel text into a bit more current historical context—bringing Luke’s setting a little closer to home?

How about this?

In the 1st year of the administration of President Barack Obama, when Tim Pawlenty was governor of the state of Minnesota, Shawn Mason was mayor of International Falls and Doug Grindall was County Engineer in Koochiching County; during the time when Karen Smith Sellers was Conference Minister in the Minnesota Conference of the United Church of Christ, the Word of the Lord came to … YOU! And YOU went out into your neighborhood and appeared before your city council, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

Suddenly the beginnings of the Christmas story may seem a bit too real! It’s so much more comfortable and cozy to read Luke’s version, to feel the life pulsing through ancient characters, to sit here safely in the 21st century and know that this happened, like Star Wars, “long ago and far away.”

We don’t want the Christmas story TOO up close and personal! Today’s text is perhaps most disturbing when we move it into our own place and time. Suddenly, it begins to dawn on us how daring and bold John the Baptist’s message really was!

Of course, we can comfort ourselves with the thought that the first-century world to which the Baptist was called to preach was a very different place from the postmodern world of today. But was it really all that different? Luke describes it for us in traditional political terms all of us can recognize. First-century civilization was organized into political entities. There were local boards, city officials, regional directors, territorial governors and heads of state. Existing organizationally separate from this political structure was a religious structure. The religious leaders thought they wielded considerable authority. Political leaders tended to leave them alone until they threatened to interfere in something deemed important to the state. The two groups John the Baptist singles out, and the most reviled by the general population as needing behavior modification, are those the people in the street thought were always in their pockets—the “tax collectors”—and on their backs—the “soldiers.” (Luke 3:12-14)

Okay, so maybe the first century WASN’T all that different from the world we inhabit at the end of the first decade in the 21st century. But surely we can reassure ourselves that a raspy, rugged John the Baptist-type figure was needed in those days because it was a pre-Christian era, as yet untouched and unmoved by the Good News of the gospel. That culture was organized around the worship of pagan gods or simply designed around the political and economic powers of those who were rich and powerful, those who lived by different rules and standards than common people, those with money and status who became, themselves, popular cult figures.

So, now we can see what a difference there is between the 1st and 21st centuries, right?

Uhh… Well… maybe not!

The truth is, like John the Baptist, we are all now living in a pre-Christian era.

Yup, pre-Christian, not post-Christian. This is not a post-Christian era because “post” implies that Christianity was something we had so absorbed that it became part and parcel of popular culture. Can we honestly look at ourselves and our culture and claim it to be post-Christian? Has it ever really been a Christian culture in the first place?

The truth is, like John the Baptist, we are still living in a pre-Christian age. Humanity as a whole has yet to be touched, transformed and fine-tuned into communities that are the body of Christ. Facing this truth sets us free to do John the Baptist ministries. John’s message is still the precise one this culture needs to hear proclaimed: “Prepare the way of the Lord.”

Are you ready to stand out in a crowd like John did?

Are you ready to ruffle some feathers like he did?

Are you ready to speak out against customs and conventions that defy God’s ways, as John the Baptist did?

Are you as ready to look odd or foolish for the sake of the gospel as John the Baptist was willing to do?

Are you just as ready to live life “in God’s way” as John was?

If you are, then it’s time to make ready for the coming of Christ and the love he brings into the world—to all people, no matter what religion they may be!

Of course, things have changed since John the Baptist urged the crowds who followed him to participate in a “baptism of repentance.” Because Jesus entered into human life as a newborn baby, lived a human life as a simple man, and died on the cross that we all might live, we can now offer a message of salvation accomplished, offer a baptism of new life, and offer hope and love that transcends all human experience.

That’s why Advent is a season of preparation—a time to make ready. Christmas is not just the celebration of the birth of a baby; it is the beginning of a nuclear chain of events that transforms human existence. Christmas is not just recognizing God’s gift of the Incarnation—it is also our acknowledgment of what this Incarnation now means for EVERYONE. [1]

God is love, and Jesus came to teach humanity all about that love.

How are you sharing that love?

As a congregation we have begun a new ministry that I think prepares the way of the Lord. Our SOS [2] community shelter has its first guests this week while it’s been our turn to be the host site. And I found it exciting and rewarding. What a wonderful thing to open our doors to people who need a place to stay, and to provide a room with some semblance of homeliness because of the generous donations of church and community members! I find myself looking forward to seeing our guests one again tonight before they move on to the next location tomorrow afternoon.

Volunteers provide food, friendly faces, a warm welcome and conversation. And just as we were told (by the people from Bemidji) at the very first planning meeting, I find myself realizing that I am receiving at least as much as I am giving—if not more—simply by being involved in this project.

Advent is the time to make ready…to prepare the way of the Lord and to prepare a way FOR the Lord. We decorate our homes and churches, we give gifts, we celebrate love and joy, we recognize God’s amazing gifts to us and respond by loving and living as if we really are the Body of Christ. That’s how we make ready. That’s how we bring Christ into all the world—by living love! Amen.

Endnotes:

[1] Leonard I. Sweet, Homiletics, October-December, 1997, vol. 9, number 4, pp.59-61.

[2] Servants of Shelter