ADVENT 3C 2009
In our Old Testament lesson this morning we read one of the most beautiful promises of hope found in the Bible. It begins this way:
Sing aloud, O daughter
shout, O Israel!
Rejoice and exult with all your heart,
O daughter
The prophet exhorts the people to “sing aloud”, to “shout”, to “rejoice”, to “exult”… with all of their their heart. This sounds like a gathering of Lutherans, with all the singing and shouting and rejoicing and exulting… But in the prophets mind, the news he is giving them is so wonderful that they need to express it. The reason for all this partying is because of what the Lord has done and will do. Listen to this list:
·
The Lord has
taken away any judgment against them
·
has turned away
their enemies
·
is in their
midst
·
they need not
fear any more
·
The Lord is a
warrior who gives them victory
·
Their God will rejoice
over them and exult with loud singing
·
Deal with their oppressors
·
Save the lame
and outcast
·
Change their
shame into joy
·
Bring them home
and restore their fortunes.
As I said, I don’t think there is any more incredible promise in the whole Bible. One image that the prophet gives is amazing, that of the God of heaven rejoicing and dancing as if at a big party with the people because He is so happy with them.
As we have been saying, Advent is a season in which we are reminded
of the truth that a life of faith is a life of hope, a hope which is based upon the promises we
find in the Bible. Our day to day reality may shout out that this hope is
unreal or useless, but nevertheless, Christians, as these early Jewish people, are people of
hope. Many scholars believe that at the time this passage was written, the people
of
After pondering this passage for a while, I decided to read the book of Zephaniah, which is only three chapters, and as often happens with reading the Bible, I was confronted with what seems like a whole different prophet and God. Listen to these passages in the first chapter of Zephaniah.
2 I will
utterly sweep away everything
from the
face of the earth, says the LORD……….
17 I will bring such distress upon people
that they
shall walk like the blind;
because
they have sinned against the LORD,
their
blood shall be poured out like dust,
and their
flesh like dung.
18 Neither
their silver nor their gold
will be
able to save them
on the
day of the LORD’S wrath;
in the
fire of his passion
the whole
earth shall be consumed;
for a
full, a terrible end
he will
make of all the inhabitants of the earth.
Now these words aren’t as fuzzy and nice as the ones I read at first. These are words of warning and threats, much like what we hear in the voice of John the Baptist.
Luke 3:7-9 ( NRSV ) 7John said to the crowds that
came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee
from the wrath to come? 8Bear fruits
worthy of repentance. Do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as
our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up
children to Abraham. 9Even now the ax is
lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good
fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
And then this terrifying image of what Jesus is going to do when he comes.
Luke 3:17 ( NRSV ) 17His winnowing fork is in his
hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary;
but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
As I have said many times before, so often we will hear people say that the God of the Old Testament is a God of wrath while the God of the New Testament is one of Love. But whenever I hear this, I know that these people have not carefully read the New Testament. I am reading again the Gospels, and I am once more amazed, scared, and feel guilty when I read the words of Jesus. Years ago, when I was in my early twenties, I read the gospel of Matthew, and I was startled by who Jesus was and what he said. He was no wimp. He did not mince words. He talked about the way to life being narrow, and not broad. He talked about taking up a cross and following him. He talked about the door being shut on people and them standing outside begging to be let in. He talked about the poor man going to be with Abraham and the rich man suffering in Hades. He talked about branches being thrown into the fire and being burned because they did not produce fruit. He talked about sharing our coat, going the extra mile, turning the other cheek, and giving away all that we had to follow him. I could go on.
On the other hand, like the words of the prophet Zephaniah, we find in Jesus great love and compassion and forgiveness fore sinners. The poor and the blind and the lame find in him a great friend. Over and over again Jesus calls us to come to him and find peace and life and hope and forgiveness. So in the gospels, as in the prophets, we find this seeming contradiction --- words of warning and threats.. mixed with words of promise and hope.
So as I am sitting in my office, thinking about this, I wondered, what do we make of this seeming contradiction. What do we do with the words of John the Baptist and Jesus and the prophets when they threaten judgment.
Well in a short sermon like this, we can’t spend as much time as it would be fun to do, but let me suggest one reason why we need to accept both the promises and the threats of the Bible. For me, the concept of judgment, which all of the threats imply, lays the ground work for all ethical behavior, as well as makes sense of the Christian message of the gospel.
The concept of judgment implies a standard, or a measurement of what is right and what is wrong. It implies that what is done matters. If there were no judgment, than it would not matter what human beings did in their life, for all deeds would be equal. Killing a person or caring for a person would be equal in value. The concept of ethics, at least to me, to make any sense, means that there needs to be a standard that exists over and above human society. When one begins to read the Bible, they find out very quickly that this standard is believed to exist, and it comes from God.
The message of the prophets in the Old Testament is mostly about how the people are falling short of the will, or standard that God has set for their behavior. In our time we had a prophet like Martin Luther King, who pointed out to our nation how far short we were falling in our standard that all men were created equal.
So Advent, with its theme of judgment, is reminding us that what we do matters, that we cannot just think that God is love and therefore we can do whatever we want and God will love us anyway. I think we can say that Advent confronts us with the tension between judgment and Grace, or cheap grace with true grace, or presumption with true faith.
The Christmas message, of God coming to save us, makes no sense unless we need to be saved. Christmas is no more than a winter festival of parties if we cannot grasp the parts of the Bible which judge our behavior as sinful and falling far short of the will of God. We cannot sing and shout and exult with any passion unless we realize that there is a judgment, and in the face of that judgment we are in big trouble… but we can rejoice and sing and dance if we embrace our forgiveness in the face of deserved judgment, mercy in the face of justice.
In our Christian tradition we here the word mercy used a lot… Lord have mercy upon us… but we don’t need mercy unless we are in trouble. Mercy implies judgment, but judgment which has been forgiven. We deserve punishment, but the punishment is taken away. In a few minutes, in our Eucharistic prayer, we will say:
“.. you sent your beloved Son to redeem us from sin
and death, and to make us heirs in him of everlasting life; that when he shall
come again in power and great triumph to judge the world, we may without shame
or fear rejoice to behold his appearing.”
The warnings in the Bible are there to get our attention.. to wake us up… to teach us that we need to pay attention.. that we need to be saved…. That we cannot do it on our own.. that not everything is right in the world, nor in our lives…. So when we read John saying:
Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees;
every tree therefore that does not bear fruit is cut down and thrown into the
fire…. And that the Messiah, sweet Jesus with the little lambs on his
shoulders… will “burn the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
When we read passages like these… we pay attention.. They are speaking to us.. They are directed to us… we have a problem… we cannot, and are not, living as we should… and then, if we hear these passages…. then the promises of hope and salvation and grace and mercy and forgiveness make sense… why.. because we know that we need them!!
I can remember many years ago
visiting my brother in the
This morning I would challenge you not to ignore the threats and warnings of the Bible. Let them challenge you. Let the voice of John the Baptist calling us to repentance and a new life come into our hearts. Let the Advent theme of the second coming and judgment challenge our day to day lives. And then hear the promises of the Bible anew and sense the great joy and wonder and hope that this seasons brings. For us, it really is more than just a winter festival.. Christmas is so wonderful for us because it proclaims hope and salvation for the world, and for each one of us. AMEN!