Series A                                                      Advent II             December 5, 2010                                                                          

Matthew 3:1-12

GETTING READY FOR WHAT’S COMING

No one had ever seen the likes of him before.  A prophet who lived in the desert with snakes, cactus, and scorpions; wore itchy camel’s hair clothing; and shunned everything that civilization stood for.  He owned no house, lived with no family, had no neighbors, and took care of no yard or garden.  He ate whatever the desert provided: things like locusts and wild honey.  He slept on no bed, but on the ground looking up at the night sky.  He didn’t need friends, for he had God and a message that God had given him to share with the world.

It was odd that God would choose him to share such an important message.  One would expect that for this message to be truly heard and believed, you would want someone who was popular, who was part of the crowd and was friends with lots of people who could help spread the message.  But God chose this loner who became known as John The Baptist.

Maybe it was because he was so different, a curiosity, that they had to go out to see for themselves.  But it wasn’t long before people began to walk great distances out into the desert to hear him proclaim this message of one who was coming, and when they returned to civilization they told others who would go out and see for themselves.  And then they began to get baptized by him as part of their preparation.  What was it that drew them?  He had no temperature controlled cathedral with comfortable seating and beautiful woodwork and artwork.  He didn’t run busses to get the people out to him.  There was no 100 voice choir singing with a 3 manual pipe organ accompanied by a 20 piece orchestra.  No light show intrigued them, no entertainment held their attention.

They certainly weren’t coming to find pleasure and amusement, because his message was personal.  He listed all their sins, their faults, their failings.  He tore them down to the bare essentials, and then he told them what they needed to do.  They needed to repent

The Greek word means, “to change one’s mind.”  But the emphasis Matthew bestows on it includes “bearing fruit”.  Being Jewish, Mathew’s idea of “repentance” comes from the Hebrew “shuv”  – “to change one’s ways.”  It involves more than just thinking in a different way.

Repentance is not just being sorry for our sins, or even expecting that we can do better on our own.  Some denominations link repentance with our accepting God.   Christ teaches that repentance is about God accepting us.  We see it in Baptism.  We need to recognize that we are as helpless as that baby, but in that sacrament’s waters, God forgives us, adopts us and accepts us.  Repentance is continually recognizing our helplessness and allowing God to keep renewing that Baptismal covenant in our lives.  For the very word, “repent”, is in the present tense in Greek which means it is to be a repeated action.  It is not a once and done inoculation.  It is like a Pennsylvania road, it is never without pot holes in need of attention, and sometime road hazards like snow and ice require more attention.  Repentance is to be a lifestyle of every Christian.

However, Matthew’s Gospel is rather pessimistic when it comes to people responding to the message.  Both Jesus and John proclaim repentance, but John is beheaded and Jesus is crucified.  So when others ignore your invitation you are in good company.  But we are to still proclaim that we all need to “prepare the way of the Lord”!  And we are to proclaim this because “the Kingdom of Heaven has come near”

The word “kingdom” sometimes refers to the land ruled by a king; but it can also refer to the power or authority to rule as king.  Which probably means John is not proclaiming a place, but a power that has emanated from heaven into our midst.  We learn that it has “come near”.  Which can mean near as when a person has walked up to you, or it can refer to “time”.  “The time has come”, or “it is almost time”.  And the tense of the verb “come” means that it is now coming, and that it will continue to come.  In other words, Jesus brought the kingdom into our presence, but at the same time we are also still waiting for it.

And this waiting requires a response from us.  Of course worship is a part of that response, but “repentance” is the commanded response.  Jesus even tells those in Matthew chapter 11 that the punishment to Sodom would be more tolerable than the punishment upon those who refuse to repent.

And yet there are those who have come to some belief that God is so wonderful and good that he will forgive anyone for anything they do.  They don’t need to worship or repent.  There is only one way God can forgive and that is through His son.  Without turning to the cross, there is no hope of forgiveness.  Without the divine miracle that comes to us through the power of the sacraments that are given birth through the crucifixion of Christ, there is no gift of the Holy Spirit, no sanctification, no grace!  God’s forgiveness has a cost and that cost is Christ’s death and resurrection.

For even here, John demands repentance, and included with this repentance he demands, is the confessing of sins and then being baptized (which of course is certainly not our Christian baptism).  But notice that John does not proclaim any forgiveness for those who do this.  This is strictly preparation stuff.  John can’t proclaim forgiveness, for the act which will provide that forgiveness has not yet occurred: Christ’s crucifixion.  Yes, Jesus forgives sins of those who come to him, but then, he is the one through whom this forgiveness comes.

  True repentance always brings us to Jesus.  For repentance changes us.

Consider those Pharisees and Sadducees who came for baptism.  John confronts them at the heart of their intentions here.  For baptism alone would do them no good as he refers to them as a “brood of vipers”.  That phrase was considered as derisive in that day as any derogatory four letter word phrase you may use today to denigrate one’s good name.  He tells them they must “bear good fruit” for trees that don’t, have the ax taken to their roots, the very source of their life and existence.

Bearing good fruit is at the heart of John’s message of Jesus baptizing with Holy Spirit and Fire.  For the winnowing fork was used to separate the fruit of the grain from the useless chaff.  The Fork would throw the harvest up in the air, and then the “Spirit” which is the same word for “wind” would blow away the useless chaff and the heavier fruit would fall back to the granary floor.  But even though we are the baptized, we are still waiting, still preparing, for our Lord’s coming.  For we Lutherans know that we are both saint and sinner, we know that the grain and the chaff abide together until the Lord comes and His Spirit blows through us.  So we must still go to hear the prophet preach, and allow the message to continue to infuse our hearts and lives.  We continue to confess and take communion and in doing so that Spirit is enabled to nourish us with those things of Christ that facilitate good fruit to be produced in our lives.  Sometimes those changes are spectacular like a lightning strike.  And sometimes they are subtle, like the Hassidic Jewish boy who earns a scholarship to Notre Dame.  After graduation he returns to Israel and meets his rabbi.

The Rabbi asks him if those Catholics in South Bend had indoctrinated him with their Christian faith.

And the boy responded, “Absolutely not, father”

“Prepare the way of the Lord” … for he is truly coming!

AMEN