An Unlikely Frontman
Isaiah 11:1-10
Psalm 72:1-8
Romans 15:4-13
Matthew 3:1-12
Tim
Christoffersen
St. Anselm’s
December 9,
2001
If
you were selecting the Press Secretary for Jesus, would you pick a guy who
lived in the desert among snakes and scorpions, wore animal skins and a leather
belt, ate bugs and wild honey and saw the world only in black and white categories?
Most of us would not. But let me ask you to set aside that gut reaction for
the next few minutes.
Each year the gospel reading in the second Sunday in Advent is about John
the Baptist. In one sense the set of readings for this second Sunday in Advent
each year are transitional between the future Day of the Lord or Last Judgment
and the historical birth of Jesus. The last several readings before Advent
and the first and second Sunday in Advent have the theme of the Last Judgment
and the end times of the world, as we know it. Beginning this Sunday the focus
shifts to the birth of Jesus and baptism with the Holy Spirit as we prepare
spiritually to receive Jesus anew as our Lord.
But the coming of the Holy Spirit is also associated with the Day of the Lord.
The prophet Joel in 2:28, talking about that Day, prophecies "I will
pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophecy, your
old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions."
Isaiah in 44:3 says, "I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring,
and my blessings on your descendents." And the prophet Ezekiel in
36:26 says, "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you;
I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh…and
I will put my Spirit in you."
John’s message is simple and straightforward. "Repent, for the
Kingdom of Heaven has come near." Mark tells us the whole Judean
countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to John in the wilderness.
Confessing their sins they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. Wilderness
symbolizes where one struggles with the powers that resist God and is a place
of repentance and purification. We think of both the years the Hebrew people
spent in the Sinai desert and the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness confronted
by the temptations of the Devil before he began to preach the Good News.
There is no ambiguity about John’s message. There is no mistaking it.
John was an "in your face" preacher. The Pharisees and Sadducees
can testify to that. We also need to remember that John was not preaching
to atheists or agnostics. He was preaching to the smug and complacent or the
"zoned out" religious leaders and people. "You brood of
vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?…Do not presume
to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’"
For a moment let us stand there in our minds eye with the Pharisees and Sadducees
and listen. To the religious, John says the descendents of Abraham are as
numerous as the sand in the sea. Your ancestry will get you nowhere. The decision
to repent of your sins and be baptized for the forgiveness of those sins is
a choice you must make. It will show up in your behavior.
Mark Twain once said, "Some people are bothered by passages of Scripture
they don’t understand. I am bothered by passages I do understand."
John’s message is one I suspect that Mark Twain understood and probably
was also bothered by it. We get uncomfortable with the ‘either or’
directness of the choice John offers to us.
But John’s mission and preaching was to prepare the way for Jesus. "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."
The Good News that Jesus proclaims goes beyond John’s baptism in water
for the forgiveness of sins in one important way. John prepares us by calling
us to repent of our sins to be ready and open to hearing the Good News. Jesus
invites us to a total transformation of our lives. The Good News is that God
loves us and in our baptism with the Holy Spirit we participate in Jesus’
death and resurrection into a new life in Christ.
Jesus speaks to us clearly in his words to Martha in John’s Gospel. [John
11:25-26] "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in
me will live, even though he dies and whosoever lives and believes in me will
never die. Do you believe this?
There is some disagreement among scholars about the meaning of baptism with
fire. Some think baptism with fire refers to those who turn away from God
and baptism with the Holy Spirit refers to those who turn to God. I believe
baptism with fire refers to the process of transformation that takes place
as we live out our baptism in our daily lives. It is more than emotion or
an act of our will. It is turning our whole life toward God and away from
self.
Paul words in Romans describe this transformation. [Romans 12:1-2] "Therefore,
I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as
living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—which is your spiritual worship.
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed
by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what
God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will."
Advent is a time of preparation for us. It is a time of reflection and repentance.
It is the season when we meditate on the coming of the light of Christ into
our world and into our lives.
Last Saturday I had a personal experience of John’s message, "Repent,
for the Kingdom of God has come near." In the quiet moments before
my ordination, I prayed that my heart would be open to the presence of the
Holy Spirit and I asked God for the forgiveness of my sins. The tears started
to flow and I felt like I was asking Jesus to fill my heart. The tears felt
like waters of baptism washing away those sins. They continued quietly flowing
up to the prayer of consecration. When the bishop’s and the other priest’s
hands were laid on me, I felt a great sense of warmth and I knew the Kingdom
of Heaven had come near.
AMEN.
