A Sermon preached on December 13th (Advent
III) at St. Augustine’s, Wiesbaden
Zephaniah 3:14-20,
Philippians 4:4-7, Luke 3:7-18
This third Sunday
in Advent has a number of special names, one is Rose Sunday – and in some
churches the Advent candle for the day is rose colored … but don’t get any
ideas. I’m very happy with purple!
Another name is Gaudete Sunday, from the Latin, “Rejoice!” taken from the
first word of our Epistle this morning, Philippians 4:4. And as we heard, the
Prophet Zephaniah was also calling on his listeners or readers to “rejoice and
exult with all your heart!” (3:14) John the Baptist however, does not seem to
have got the memo, it sounds to me more like he is raging and not rejoicing. His
words to the crowd are harsh and somber, rather than joyful. “You brood of
vipers! Who warned you to flee? Even now the axe is lying at the root of the
trees.” (Luke 3:7ff)
But then perhaps
John got a different Memo. In England our Collect for today, with the opening
words: “Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us,” is
used on a different day, on the last Sunday before Advent which is therefore
also known as Stir up Sunday (and is by the way the traditional day for making the
Christmas pudding – because it is stirred up). And John was certainly stirring
things up with his words and actions, unfortunately for him with, as we know, a
fatal effect later in the Gospel story when he stirred up Herod and Herod’s
wife so much that they had him arrested and executed.
We were already
introduced to John, son
of Zechariah last week and were told that his mission was to prepare the way of
the Lord, so that all flesh shall see the salvation of God. Part of that
preparation was stirring up. People needed a good shake, they had become smug,
relaxed, sure of their salvation simply on the basis of their ancestry. And so John’s
words are a warning against this smugness of salvation, a smugness that could well
be their undoing. John rants and rages to emphasize the importance of his
message of repentance, the importance of seeking God and returning to God. Repentance
is not just something verbal – to be genuine it must be accompanied by action,
by a real change in behavior, by an outward and visible sign that the people had
turned back to God – and this sign cannot just be a ritual, like Baptism, it
must be more. That’s why our Baptismal Covenant includes promises to be active
and visible Christians.
There was once a sceptic,
a man who at least doubted the existence of God. But still one day, perhaps frustrated
by the world and the news, he goes outside and shouts up to the heavens. “God,
if you’re up there give us a sign and tell us what we should do!” No doubt to
his great surprise a voice comes back: “Feed the hungry, house the homeless,
establish justice!” At which the sceptic looks extremely alarmed. “I was just
testing,” he says. “Me too” replies the voice from above.[1]
And that’s a
little of what John is doing here. He is not certain whether all the people who
have come to see him out in the wilderness are serious about repentance. And so
when they ask him, “what then should we do?” he gives them some very concrete
and pragmatic advice in return. Share what you have with those who have nothing,
in your professions act justly and rightly. Show selfless concern for others. These
are, in John’s words, fruits worthy of repentance. Paul’s message to the
Philippians is similar. He wants them to be visible followers of Christ, to celebrate
publicly and to let their gentleness – that is their gentle and gracious
behavior – to be known to everyone. True
repentance is a matter of the heart and results in a change in our everyday
behavior.
Both John’s and
Paul’s role is to prepare the way for Jesus Christ. John was preparing the
people of Israel for Jesus’ earthly mission. Paul was preparing the Christians
in Philippi to be followers of Christ and to be ready for his return:” The Lord
is near!” As part of that preparation, both
of them want the people they are addressing to examine their personal actions and
to change any that stand in the way of a deeper relationship with God and with
our neighbor, both of them want their followers to live as children of God. And
we treat others is a real test of whether and how we are responding to God.
John the Baptist
is often held up as a model for the church – and of course we are the Church. His
role is not to gain followers of his own but to point to Jesus Christ. And so
when the people wonder whether he, John, is the anointed one, the Messiah, he
points away from himself to the one who is more powerful and who John, in his exaggerated
style of rhetoric , is not even worthy to act as a slave to. The church’s role
is also not so much to gain members of a particular church or denomination,
though I do prefer preaching to a full rather than an empty church, no our
purpose is to gain followers of Christ, to make disciples, or in the words of
our Presiding Bishop, members of the Jesus Movement. And like John the Baptist
we are also called to stir things up, to warn and to identify what is wrong. You
don’t necessarily have to use his language of course, calling people a brood of
snipers sounds a lot like some of the comments you read on Facebook. I would
defer to Paul’s advice about gentleness here. But we must still speak up. For
example:
Churches and religious
organizations, including many Anglicans, have been present in Paris at the Conference
on Climate Change and have been speaking up about the need for action and change
– for repentance – if we are to avoid the consequences of Global Warming. In the US, churches and religious
organizations, including our Episcopal Church, have rightly called on those
governors who want to refuse any refugees from Syria to change, to repent, and
they have been active and vociferous in their criticism of Mr. Trump’s inflammatory,
and frankly racist rhetoric. And in
Germany churches and religious organizations have been at the forefront of both
helping refugees and defending their right to seek asylum, a ministry we at St.
Augustine’s are already involved in and may soon be even more active in when
our new near neighbors move into the former
American Arms Hotel, just up the road.
But just as John
does not just criticize and does not just give good, simple pragmatic advice
about right behavior, so we must do more. John points to the only real solution,
to Jesus Christ. John points to the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit and
fire, who both purifies and refines us, who is able to purge us of the chaff of
sin and to transform us from within. John points us to the one who is God and
who calls us to into a relationship with Him and through him with all humanity.
That is good news to the people and it is good news that we must proclaim too
as we point people to Jesus.
In that sense today
is both Stir up and Guadete, Rejoice Sunday.
We prepare ourselves and the way for Jesus by stirring up, by initiating repentance,
by acting as outward and visible signs of change, and by pointing to Jesus
Christ. And we rejoice both in the fact that God has entrusted us with this
task and even more importantly that God sent God’s Son to show us how and to enable
and empower and to accompany us. So:
“Rejoice in the
Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.” (Phil. 4:4)
Amen.
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