2. Advent, 12/05/2010

Sermon on Matthew 3:1-12, by Walter W. Harms

1 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea 2 and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." 3 This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: "A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.'" 4 John's clothes were made of camel's hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. 5 People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. 6 Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. 7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.' I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 10 The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. 11 "I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with^[c^] the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire."

Time for a New Recipe

She was not an indifferent cook, not a timid one either when it came to complex recipes. She had tried many times, always to please her husband whom she knew liked spaghetti at least once a week.

It never quit pleased him. He couldn't tell her what it was, but something was not like he had when he parked under his parents' table She consulted his mother, meticulously followed her methods and procedures. Never quite hit it, however. She was not going to be defeated; she was that kind of person.

Then it happened. She was distracted near the end of making the "perfect" sauce. The telephone rang. A friend. She momentarily lost track of time as she listened to the news from her friend's trip. The sauce? Well, it burned, slightly, but make no mistake it was burned.

The husband was pleased. It was exactly as his mother made. She had discovered the secret of making good spaghetti sauce! Burnt! Almost ruined! It was time for a new recipe for that husband, as he learned what his mother had been doing all those years.

The voice calling to us today is calling for us to use a new recipe for our life. The old will not do. The comfortable ways to acting, living, thinking will no longer be acceptable.

It is rather an uncomfortable call as we come to the celebration of Jesus' birth. We have our traditions, we have our ways of doing things-comfortable, pleasing to us, and just perhaps a little on the "burnt" side of things.

The voice needs to be listened to. It is the voice promised that would come before the Lord would put in his appearance. It makes us uncomfortable, challenging, upsetting that we, yes, you and I should repent so that we would be ready for the Lord's appearing.

Well, of what should we repent? Don't we do that Sunday after Sunday--telling God and each other what we have erred in thought, word, and deed? Can't we be comfortable after that?

Didn't the people that John the Baptizer was talking to, do that as well? You know, going to the temple, offering "sin" sacrifices, getting assurances that all that they have done wrong in life, in thinking, in speaking, in action is wiped away? Then why should they, should we be called to some kind of special different recipe of repentance just as we are about to welcome this big celebration called Christmas?

A clue about the new recipe needed comes from John when he tells those religious leaders whom he sees as dangerous vipers that they cannot say: "We have Abraham as our father."

Have we believed that the old burnt recipe of saying: "We were born in a Christian home. We were baptized. We attended confirmation classes and were confirmed. We went to youth group. We attend worship regularly. We give "lots."

Is that what God really wants?

All the ingredients of the recipe for pleasing God taste worse than burnt to him. They stink. A new beginning. A re-baptism is needed. The old must be washed away as we come to the time to celebrate that God's love for us was so great, that he sent his one and only Son into our world to give us a new recipe for pleasing him.

That recipe is simple. It is to know, to believe and to trust, to live on the basis of knowing that God loves me, accepts me, is present with us because of Jesus-his life lived because we don't live righteous lives, his death to pay for all our evil, sins, failures to live to our God-given potential, and then his unbelievable resurrection which give us a life with him and which is never ever going to come to an end. Wow!

It's time to prepare the way for the Lord, to make straight paths for him in our lives. That is the new recipe for our lives.

How many of us still have family problems? We don't get along with some member, somehow believe that they were loved by parents or favored by them more than we.

How many of us are not jealous of others? We believe they have more than we do for no other reason than that they somehow are favored more than we are by God. Isn't that the old Cain recipe when looking at all who are the family of God?

Don't some of us buy to impress others? Give as good or better presents that we receive? How many of us don't we spend too much at this time of year? Does that recipe tell us that we are still trying to follow the ancient recipe of the lie that we can somehow buy love, perhaps even God's love?

How many of us still are fearful of the times, of our health, or our investments or jobs? How much anxiety still consumes our energies? How much do we still despise others-immigrants, Muslims, people who homeless, or whom we put in the category of not wanting to have contact with "those kinds"?

Are our days filled with the joy of salvation or the boredom which needs to be broken by drugs, whether legal or otherwise so that we can "make it through the day"?

What is our purpose in life? What recipe do we follow? Is it categorized by the word "fun"? Is pleasure the recipe for life? Buying, eating, experiencing, playing, gaming, or the pleasure of sex our recipe for the good life?

Perhaps John's call for a new recipe of life still needs to be regarded as up-to-date, a "for us" recipe for the coming of our Lord to our hearts and lives.

This Jesus knows what recipe we have been following. He cannot be deceived. He separated the wheat from the worthless trash of our lives. He knows whether we are producing fruit which shows we trust God more than we trust ourselves.

Shepherds heard, saw, went on their way rejoicing and telling of the wonderful things they had seen and heard. That sounds like a winning recipe to me. I really don't think it can be surpassed. And it creates joy and peace in the hearts of others.

What have you seen? What do you hasten to see? What do you rejoice to hear Sunday after Sunday? What gives your life the lift it needs to survive in these last days before He comes?

It may just be time for a new recipe for your life. I know it is for mine.

retired pastor Walter W. Harms
TX U. S.
E-Mail: waltpast@aol.com

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