Second Sunday in Advent, 12/04/2016

Sermon on Matthew 3:1-12, by Carl A. Voges

“In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.”’

“Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

“But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our father,” ‘for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.’”

“’I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.’”

[English Standard Version]

“For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through

endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”

[Romans 15.4]

In the Name of Christ + Jesus our Lord

The season of Advent always gives us a different look from what we are accustomed to as we make our way through this culture’s life. While the culture is pushing us to insure these December weeks to be better and brighter than the ones last year, the Lord is pushing his baptized people to honestly notice the reality of sin as it surrounds us with its attractive, destructive and deadly ways.

Last Sunday we saw how the Lord’s comings from the holy places of his Scriptures and Sacraments are always unsettling, violent and numbing. This Sunday we see the familiar fierceness of John the Baptizer, the man who prods us to get ready for the Man whose Life will make all the difference in this world.

There is an urgency to such readiness because there are people around us whose lives are

being hammered: the acquaintance at the workout place who melted down after the November election, the destructive commitments of people who surface in the Lord’s parish communities, the friend who is fighting off a dangerous illness.

There are four basic sections to this passage from Matthew 3:

[1] Repenting and preparing the way for the Lord

[2] Baptizing and confessing one’s sin

[3] Warning to the Jewish leaders

[4] Baptizing with the Holy Spirit and fire

The Baptizer’s call to repent so the Lord’s way can be prepared is rooted in Isaiah 40.

In that chapter the purpose of such repentance is so that the Lord’s people will be ready for the revealing of his glory.

It is startling to be reminded again of how strong sin is (remember, biblically, it is the desire to be like the Lord God). This desire to always be concerned for ourselves is strong enough to block the Lord’s attempts to rescue us. Until that desire is broken, we will always be at a distance from the Lord’s redemption. Recall, too, that repenting is being turned away from ourselves to the Lord God; it is a simple, yet very difficult, act.

For the people swarming to see John, this act of repenting involved being baptized by him while confessing their sins.

John’s work stirs the curiosity of the Jewish leaders (the Pharisees and Sadducees) who come out from Jerusalem to observe the Baptizer’s work. The Pharisees were laymen who rigorously observed the Law, both in its written and oral forms. They believed the goal of all Jews was to be a holy nation, a goal reached by knowledge and practice. They avoided contact with those who did not follow their prescriptions. They believed in human freedom, the resurrection of the body, the coming of the Messiah and the gathering of Israel at the End-of-Time. It is striking that these characteristics still exist in the Church’s life and work today!

The Sadducees were aristocrats, descended from the Old Testament line of priests. They were wealthy and often had poor manners. They opposed the Pharisees and their oral interpretation of the Law. They concentrated on the first five books of the Old Testament. They believed the sacrificial worship in the temple to be a crucial requirement in maintaining a relationship with the Lord God. They understood men and women to be totally responsible for their actions. They denied divine providence, rejected any belief in the resurrection of the body and life after death. Here too it is striking that these characteristics still exist in the Church’s life and work today!

These leaders were immersed in themselves, but they did not think they were! They honestly (but wrongly) thought they had the ability to throw off anything pressing in on their lives. That’s why John’s response to their observations was so violent and harsh – they had no idea they were already separated from the Lord’s Life (that’s why their need for repentance is so overwhelming!)

John then points to the Man coming after him. He notes that he is not worthy to be in this Man’s presence, but he also notes that this Man will baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. The Man’s Baptism will draw people into the Life of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It will purify the people immersed in the Trinity’s life, consuming the life given them by the world and imbedding them in the Life streaming from the Man’s crucifixion and resurrection.

John the Baptizer’s call to repent and prepare the Lord’s way can be illustrated with a washcloth and the Lord’s cross. When John confronts us with the order to repent, he is not only addressing the wrongs in our lives, he is also addressing our attitudes. Those attitudes are rooted in the natural desire to have our lives revolving around ourselves in everything (if you do not think this is accurate, recall your most recent conversations and think of all the personal pronouns that were running through them!).

This washcloth is very good for getting dirt off our faces, but it cannot penetrate under our skin. The wrongs that surface in our lives are as obvious as the dirt on our faces, but the attitudes that stimulate and sustain such wrongs are not so obvious. This washcloth cannot do a thing about the natural desires of self-absorption.

The Lord’s cross, however, can handle both realities – the wrongs we commit and the attitudes that drive those wrongs! The cross slams into those realities and crushes the life out of them! The wrongs and the attitudes think they are killing the Lord’s Life but his Life, in reality, is killing them! Note that this killing is preparing the Lord’s ways, it leads to his rising from the crucifixion!

That’s why the cross is used in the Church as a visual for the Lord’s forgiveness. The cross not only drips with the crucifixion, it also drips with the resurrection. It alone has the ability to pierce not only the wrongs in our lives, but also the attitudes that create and maintain those wrongs!

That’s why John’s baptism was temporary, it was getting the attention of the people around him. That’s why the Son’s Baptism was and is permanent, it rescues people and sets them firmly in the Life of the Holy Trinity. In these weeks before the celebrations of the Son’s Incarnation, may we pick up on John’s call to repent and prepare the Lord’s way.

The sin into which we are born needs to be confronted, not with a washcloth, however, but with the Son’s cross. It is wrenching and humbling to note how the cross impacts our lives. When the Lord God strides into our lives from his Scriptures and Sacraments, it is unsettling, violent and numbing. But it is the Lord’s way of breaking us free from the world’s life and imbedding us in the Life that streams from the Son’s dying and rising.

This Life can sustain those who are fighting off dangerous illnesses. It can transform those who are wreaking havoc in the Lord’s parishes. It can rescue those whose lives are grounded only in elections. As we make our way through this world’s life, we are taught to reach for a washcloth when there are wrongs in our lives. John the Baptizer, however, teaches us this morning to reach for the Son’s cross. When our lives are unsettled, violent and numbed, it is the cross alone that pierces such lives and sets them firmly in the Life of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!

Now may the peace of the Lord God, which is beyond all understanding, keep our hearts

and minds through Christ + Jesus our Lord.

Pr Carl A. Voges
Columbia, SC
E-Mail: carl.voges4@icloud.com

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