Last week we played Jeopardy asking about Prophetic Promises from Isaiah’s words about valley’s being raised up and mountains being made low and how water was the earthly answer to that question. We also looked at God being the heavenly answer to smoothing our internal landscapes when hurt and emotions need hope. John preached baptism of repentance. Scripture is filled with earthly examples of heavenly things. I love how Jesus uses every day, familiar things to help us understand the spiritual and holy parts of life. Just think of all the parables Jesus told: the prodigal son, the seeds falling on rocky or good soil, Peter do you love me, feed my sheep.
Today we are continuing with the account of John the Baptist. Having two weeks about John can be a little hard, especially when we are all trying to get into the holiday spirit. William Willimon, Chaplain at Duke University, says that John the Baptist reminds us of boundaries we must respect and gates we must pass through. At Duke, Willimon reminds the students,
“If you are going to graduate, you must first get past the English Department.
If you are going to practice law, you must pass the bar.
If you want to get to medical school, you must survive Organic Chemistry.” Likewise,
“If you want to get to the joy of Bethlehem in the presence of Jesus, you must get past John the Baptist in the desert.” (Richard A. Wing, Deep Joy for a Shallow World, CSS Publishing Company).
John has a crowd following him in the desert, people from all walks of life. They have heard his baptism of repentance and want and need direction. They all are asking him, “What then should we do?” A daily Double question on Jeopardy. Don’t we want clear direction about how to live our lives as Christians? John gives us three very direct and helpful answers. Be Generous, Be Honest and don’t use fear to get what you want. Notice that he makes his answers job specific, the tax collectors he tells to be honest, and the soldiers he reminds to not intimidate or threaten. Yet I believe all three answers offer us insights into how to be better Christians. During Advent, a faithful and fruitful arrival at the manger requires careful self-examination and reflection. John is asking us to do just that.
To the soldiers with power, the ones tasked with keeping order, John admonishes them to not use fear tactics to extort money. Threats and false accusations were their way of lining their pockets and keeping power. Certainly not the way civil servants should behave. Our society seems to be brimming over with fear mongering.
People intimidating others through social media and cyber bullying,
trade wars that seem to threaten economic stability,
fear of jail time creating cooperating witnesses, journalists threatened for their reporting.
Fear is never the way of the Spirit, never what we are called to use in the world. One way to think about fear is with the acronym for fear which is False Evidence As Real. FEAR. That kind of fear, using false evidence as real, is hurting our society and keeping us from our advent joy.
John also tells the tax collectors to be honest. Tax collectors would often add more to the tax bill and then pocket the money for themselves. John wants them to be honest about what people owe and be honest in their lives. Dr. Madison Sarratt taught mathematics at Vanderbilt University for many years. Before giving a test, the professor would admonish his class something like this: “Today I am giving two examinations one in trigonometry and the other in honesty. I hope you will pass them both. If you must fail one, fail trigonometry. There are many good people in the world who can’t pass trig, but there are no good people in the world who cannot pass the examination of honesty” (Sermons.com, George Sweeting). As you do your self-examination preparing for the arrival of Jesus, do you pass the examination of honesty? We certainly do not want to fail that examination. What shall you do? Be HONEST!
John is reminding us: do not use fear to get what your way. Be honest in all you do.
Finally, John asks us to be generous. “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.” That is why we give showers to the homeless, and feed people through recuperative care, we are being generous by being the hands and feet of Christ in the world.
There is an old rabbinic parable about a farmer that had two sons. As soon as they were old enough to walk, he took them to the fields and he taught them everything that he knew about growing crops and raising animals. When he got too old to work, the two boys took over the chores of the farm and when the father died, they had found their working together so meaningful that they decided to keep their partnership. So each brother contributed what he could and during every harvest season, they would divide equally what they had corporately produced. Across the years the elder brother never married, stayed an old bachelor. The younger brother did marry and had eight wonderful children. Some years later when they were having a wonderful harvest, the old bachelor brother thought to himself one night, “My brother has ten mouths to feed. I only have one. He really needs more of his harvest than I do, but I know he is much too fair to renegotiate. I know what I’ll do. In the dead of the night when he is already asleep, I’ll take some of what I have put in my barn and I’ll slip it over into his barn to help him feed his children.
At the very time he was thinking down that line, the younger brother was thinking to himself, “God has given me these wonderful children. My brother hasn’t been so fortunate. He really needs more of this harvest for his old age than I do, but I know him. He’s much too fair. He’ll never renegotiate. I know what I’ll do. In the dead of the night when he’s asleep, I’ll take some of what I’ve put in my barn and slip it over into his barn.” And so one night when the moon was full, as you may have already anticipated, those two brothers came face to face, each on a mission of generosity. The old rabbi said that there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, yet a gentle rain began to fall. You know what it was? Some say God weeping for joy because two of his children had gotten the point. Two of his children had come to realize that generosity is the deepest characteristic of the holy and because we are made in God’s image, our being generous is the secret to our joy as well.
On this third Sunday of Advent we are seeking joy. We are wanting to find the holy in the ordinary parts of our lives. John baptized people with water preparing the way for Jesus. But he was clear that his baptism was only the beginning, and that Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit. We experience the earthly moments, so we can glimpse the holy moments of God. As you engage in self-reflection, live these three truths: Be Generous, Be honest and don’t use fear to get what you want.
Then we won’t just get through John the Baptist on the way to the manger, we might be blessed by the wisdom of this prophet who helps us to live joyous lives is advent seasons. Amen.
