by Linda Kraft
- Pastor Karzak had just about had it with Mr. Thompson. No matter how many quiet personal conversations pastor had had with him, Mr. Thompson was resolute. He continued to be a bully in the congregation. He was loud and inconsiderate and never seemed to take anyone else’s feelings into consideration. All he did was pick, pick, pick, and it was killing the enthusiasm of the entire congregation to reach out. Several members had spoken to their pastor and told her that they were embarrassed to bring friends or relatives to worship and activities because they never knew what kind of thing Mr. Thompson would be griping about or criticizing that day.
Pastor Karzak decided she was just going to have to do something that might possibly affect Mr. Thompson in a way she hadn’t been able to do before. She composed her “brood of vipers” sermon, as she called it. In that sermon Mr. Thompson’s behavior was a central point. Although she used a pseudonym for the alligator among them, pastor was sure he would recognize himself and be overcome with a desire to repent and begin again.
It was a horribly difficult sermon to preach. Where was the good news in a sermon like that? Pastor felt the gospel message at the conclusion of her sermon was terribly weak and practically impossible to hear, but what was she to do? Mr. Thompson needed to know what his behavior was doing to the congregation and he hadn’t responded to any earlier efforts by her or the governing board.
The sermon ended, the meal was served, the final hymn was sung and the benediction given. As Pastor Karzak stood at the door shaking hands at the end of service, Mr. Thompson was among the first to head directly toward her.
“Pastor,” he nearly shouted. “That was a marvelous sermon! Boy, you sure told THEM a thing or two!”
That day in the wilderness – in the scrub brush and sand covered area by the river Jordan outside Jerusalem – John was delivering a message. “Hey, you!” he might have said, “what’re you doing out here? I don’t have the easy answers you seem to want for your life’s troubles!
“You’re like a bunch of poisonous snakes fleeing a wildfire. You’re here today because you think I will tell you everything is really okay and you have nothing to worry about.
“Well, guess again! Face the facts: you’ve royally messed up the way you’ve been living your life, and the time is now to shape up!”
John sure told THEM a thing or two, didn’t he.
Uh, wait. What if John’s really talking to us? What if the one God called to prepare the way of the Lord is really speaking to us, here, now, at Holy Trinity, in Trumbull, in our homes, at our work or school or senior center? What if John is calling US poisonous snakes?
Nah. That couldn’t be; that has to be the guy sitting over there, the woman in the other room, the one who never comes to church. It couldn’t be you and me. Could it?
Guess what. John IS speaking to us, to you and me. He’s telling us there is no better time than right now to examine our lives. Look back and search out the times we’ve hurt feelings, broken relationships, misbehaved and feared being found out. Each of us has SOMETHING we wish we’d done differently, something that resulted in pain, disappointment or fear.
John says now is the time to offer that sinfulness up to God and promise to turn our lives around. That’s called repentance. Repentance offers us a chance for hope. When we truly repent, we know we have options: things don’t have to remain the way they are. Families can establish better ways of holding together and becoming healthy. Regrets can be addressed and changes made so whatever was wrong isn’t likely to happen again. We can start over.
The people who’d come out to hear John preach that day didn’t know how they could accomplish all that needed to be done. Some probably realized they were on the wrong track. They did repent; they walked into the water to be washed clean, to acknowledge that they were ready to turn their lives around.
We may not be able to change what we’ve already done, and we may not be fully able to escape the consequences of those past choices. But we never have to repeat the behavior. We never need to continue along a destructive path. We can repent and start again. (1)
Advent is a good time for us to examine our lives and prepare the way for the Lord.
Last Wednesday, up in the hills where I live, we received over four inches of heavy wet snow. And to top it off, sleet and rain added to the roadway mess making travel inconvenient if not dangerous. My husband and I needed to shovel the driveway before we would be able to get the cars out onto the road, and I decided to play it safe and worked from home.
Sometimes life is like that. We need to clear a path through the slush and the snow before we can progress. We need to acknowledge what needs to be done, make a plan and follow through. Sometimes it’s back-aching work, but it really needs to be done.
John helped his listeners identify how they might start their process of repentance. Before they could clear a path through the muck and mire of their daily lives they needed to acknowledge that there really was a need for change. Speaking to individuals among the crowd, John gave them some concrete ideas to start with.
Basically, John told the people to be honest in their daily lives. Don’t cheat each other. Don’t threaten harm. Don’t forget to welcome outsiders. Don’t forget...
Hmmm... what is it WE need to do? What is there in our lives we need to repent? In what area would you like to begin again?
Advent is one of the best seasons of the year for repenting. While everyone (including many of us) hurries around and tries to do too much in too little time, we can be brusque. We can snap at sales people. We can be short with family members. We can ignore the needs of others.
John calls us to examine our lives and find what needs to be changed. But he doesn’t leave us on our own to make those adjustments. What does he tell the crowds?
“One who is more powerful than I is coming. I am not even worthy to take care of his sandals.”
Ohhh... THAT’s how you and I can do what needs to be done! We don’t have to do it alone! When we find those shady places in our past, those awkward areas in our present day lives, we can get some help with the clearing away.
Remember that baby born in Bethlehem? That Messiah for whom the nations waited? That one, that Jesus, is coming, coming again. Just as John prepared the way for him all those years ago, you and I can clear the way for him to enter our hearts again. He’s never really been gone, you know; but sometimes the trivia and troubles of our everyday lives make it really hard for us to find him.
So clear away the rubble. Take out the trash. Make your heart ready. The King of kings is coming (1 Tim 6:15; Rev. 19:16). The Light of the World, (John 8:12) The Son of David (Lk. 18:39), Son of God (John 1:49; Heb. 4:14) and Son of Man (Mt. 8:20) is coming again.
He comes to us in this holy meal to forgive our sins, to give us strength to repent and begin again each day and to be reminded of the promise of resurrection that is ours. As we celebrate the birth of the Christ Child in the weeks to come, let us remember the gift that is eternally ours. New life is possible; it’s already ours today because God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in Jesus may not perish but have everlasting life. (Jn 3:16)
Thanks be to God. Amen
- Some concepts reflect my reading “Sermons on the Gospel Readings,” Cycle C, J. Ellsworth Kalas, CSS Publishing Company, 2003, 0-7880-1968-6a @ esermons.com.