INTRODUCTION: Our Scripture Reading for today is a traditional reading for the Second Sunday of Advent. It describes the appearance of John the Baptist, who was the cousin of Jesus. John was a fiery preacher. He spoke--and dressed-- in the style of the Hebrew Prophets, and he called people to prepare for the coming of the Messiah by repenting of their sins. While John’s words may sound quite judgmental to us today, his message of prayerful preparation for the coming of the Lord is still relevant. Let us listen to the Spirit speaking through these challenging words.
SCRIPTURE: Matthew 3:1-12 In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, 2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” 3 This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said,
“The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.’”
4 Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. 5 Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, 6 and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
7 But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruit worthy of repentance. 9 Do not presume 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. 10 Even 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.
11 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
Sermon: “Prepare our Hearts for Christmas”
Jud Wilhite, a pastor from Las Vegas, asks some thought-provoking questions in his book, “Eyes Wide Open.” In a chapter about sin and grace, he asks:
Have you ever had something haunt you day and night? Something that follows you, gets into your dreams at night, and tweaks your perceptions of reality? Something from your past maybe? Something you would never tell anyone else? Something you wish with all your might you could just make go away? (p. 23)
At different points in our lives, I’m guessing all of us could answer “yes,” to these questions. Rev. Wilhite is, of course, talking about the power of sin to grab hold of us, like a pit-bull, and wreak havoc in our lives. None of us is immune to it.
Now, “Wait a minute,” you might be thinking, “Why is the pastor preaching about ‘sin’ before Christmas? Shouldn’t she be telling some heart-warming story about people discovering the true meaning of the Season?” That would be nice, and, to tell you the truth, I would prefer to do that—and just might do it before the season is over—but today I felt led to preach on this traditional Advent Scripture, set by the Lectionary, about John the Baptist appearing in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
But, before I go any further, let me say a word about the style of writing in this text. Like last week’s Scripture, the style of much of this passage is apocalyptic. It alludes to the end of the world as we know it, the time when Scripture predicts the Messiah will come to set up God’s Kingdom on earth. This passage presents John the Baptist’s understanding of what the Messiah will do. (New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary, Vol. VIII, p. 158) John believes that the Messiah--whom he names as Jesus--will come first and foremost to serve as God’s appointed judge and conqueror, separating the righteous from sinners, tossing the sinners aside to be punished, and victoriously establishing God’s reign on earth, defeating the Romans and all other world powers.
However, it becomes clear as we read further on in the Gospel that this is not the type of Messiah that Jesus turned out to be. (Ibid.) Jesus came first and foremost to share God’s healing love with the whole world, especially with those whom society had cast aside. In fact, later in Gospel of Matthew, when John the Baptist, who by this time was imprisoned by King Herod, heard reports of Jesus’ loving, healing, forgiving ministry, John actually sent messengers to Jesus questioning him. In Matthew, Chapter 11 John’s messengers say to Jesus, “Are you the One who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” John had trouble squaring his understanding of the Messiah with the loving, forgiving way that Jesus was behaving.
To put it bluntly, John’s primary characterization of the Messiah as judge and conqueror described in this passage turned out to be wrong. However, part of John’s message still applies. John called people to prepare for the Messiah’s arrival by means of repentance--that is, turning away from harmful behavior, turning toward God. (The word translated into English as “repentance” is based, in part, on a Hebrew verb that means “turn” or “return.” Turning from away from one thing and turning back toward another.) Repentance is a message that Jesus himself preached. We all need to turn away from sin and turn back toward God--we all need to accept God’s forgiveness for the ways we have hurt ourselves and others. Not so that we can avoid the wrath of God, but so that our lives can be aligned with God’s Love-- and so that we can live life to the fullest--with integrity. Or, to use an image that is present in today’s text: So that our lives can bear good fruit. And the good fruit spoken about here is the spiritual fruit that the Apostle Paul talks about--the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Galations 5:22-23)
So, we are here in the Season of Advent, the season before Christmas, and we are called to take the time to prepare our hearts and lives for the coming of Christ. (The word “Advent” means “coming.”) In today’s Scripture we read that the people of Judea and Jerusalem were going out into the wilderness, and John the Baptist was preparing them to meet Jesus. And the way he prepared them was this: he had them walk down into the river, confessing their sins, as a symbol of their repentance.
What a wild thing to do! I dare say most of us have never done anything like this. Even if we were raised Baptist and were baptized as teenagers or adults, as I was, I bet we’ve still never done anything quite like this. I was baptized as a teenager in a civilized, fiberglass pool, with clean, warm water, and although I was asked to give a few words of testimony, I was not required to bare my soul or share any of my sins with the minister or the congregation, thanks be to God!
But maybe I should have been! Not required to confess anything to any human being in a show of public humiliation, but I think my baptism would have been a more powerful experience if the minister had said to me, “Before I baptize you, I invite you—and all of us here today-- to take just a moment of silent prayer to confess your sins to God.”
That is what John the Baptist had the people do in today’s reading—confess their sins to God. And, then John baptized them as a symbol of God’s forgiveness. And here’s the most powerful part of the symbolism: After their baptism, the people turned, and walked back out of the river, but they left their sins behind! They let them go. They let go of their sins there in the water, and the flowing water carried their sins downstream, never to be seen again.
What an incredible gift! This is what we celebrate at Christmas—God gave the gift of love and forgiveness in Christ, who takes away the sins of the world. The Scriptures tell us, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has God removed our transgressions from us.” In Christ, we are forgiven for all of the harm--great and small--that we’ve done to ourselves, our neighbors, our world. We can start afresh with a clean slate, learning from our mistakes, trusting God anew each day for the guidance and strength to follow God’s way of Love.
But sometimes this gift of forgiveness can seem too good to be true. Sometimes it’s hard to believe in our hearts that God actually does forgive us so freely.
Let me give you an example. The Las Vegas Pastor I quoted at the beginning of this sermon--Jud Wilhite-- told a story about one of his parishioners who came to him agonizing over a sin he had committed years ago. (Apparently it was a doozey of a sin, but the pastor didn’t go into any of the details, so we’ll all just have to imagine what it could have been…) Anyway, this man told his pastor that he had been praying every single day for the past ten years, asking God to forgive him for the same thing, but he didn’t feel like God had forgiven him. So the man asked his pastor what he should do. His pastor replied—go home and read Psalm 51, where King David talks about a sin that haunts him, read it and offer it up to God as a personal prayer, asking God to forgive and cleanse you. Then the pastor said, and this is important—after asking God for forgiveness, “don’t ever ask God to forgive you for that sin again. God forgave you a long time ago—you don’t need to keep bringing it up.” (p. 25)
My brothers and sisters in Christ, I invite you (and me) in this Advent Season, starting today, to prayerfully reflect whether you are haunted by any sins from your past. Maybe there is something that you have held onto over the years that is still bothering you. Maybe there is something that you have had trouble forgiving yourself for. If there is such a thing, I invite you to lift that up to God and to ask for forgiveness one last time. And then, I invite you, to picture yourself standing in a river, letting go of that sin, watching it float downstream, never to be seen again. Let us all prepare for Christmas by accepting anew the gift of God’s forgiveness. Amen.
Rev. Dr. Marlayna Schmidt
Franklin Federated Church
Franklin, MA
[an earlier version of this sermon was written and preached by Marlayna on December 8th, 2019 in Manchester-by-the-Sea]