Geneva Presbyterian Church

Weekly Sermon

December 3, 2000 - "The 21st Century Sermon of John the Baptist "

Reverend Anne Benefield
Geneva Presbyterian Church, December 3, 2000

Isaiah 40:3-8; Luke 3:3-17

Luke 3:3-17 John the Baptist went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, "The voice of one crying out in the wilderness; 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, And every mountain and hill Shall be made low, And the crooked shall be made straight, And the rough ways made smooth; And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'" John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do not begin 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. 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." And the crowds asked him, "What then should we do?" In reply he said to them, "Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise." Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, "Teacher, what should we do?" He said to them, "Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you." Soldiers also asked him, "And we, what should we do?" He said to them, "Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages." As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by saying, "I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire." Prayer: Lord God, as we hear these ancient words telling the story of John the Baptist, we pray that you would erase the distances of time and culture, so that we would hear these words with immediacy and respond to them by making a path in our hearts to welcome our Savior. Amen. There are a several sermons found in the Bible. For example, in the gospels we have Jesus "Sermon on the Mount" and in Acts we have Peter's Pentecost sermon. The passage from Luke that I just read is a sermon, too. It is the sermon that John the Baptist delivered on the banks of the Jordan. And judging from the results of his words, it was a very good sermon. It was a sermon of power and passion. You can hear the wrath in his words and the need for immediate action, but there is hope in his words, too. Like all good sermons, the outline is simple and the points are clear. First, John the Baptist says, "Prepare the way of the Lord." His second point is "believe in the way of the Lord." His final point is "Live in the way of the Lord." Prepare, believe, and live faithfully to the Lord. Let's follow John's outline. First, he says, "Prepare the way of the Lord." When John used that phrase it was easily understood and visualized. In those times, when a king or army had to travel, a road was often made. In the twentieth century, we did the same thing. When the federal government began to the networks of highways across the United States, it was primarily to provide roads for moving military personnel and equipment. Do you remember when you regularly saw long convoys of green trucks snaking across the country? I remember as a child complaining once about how we were stuck behind an convoy and my father explained that if it weren't for the military, we would not have the road on which we were traveling. Perhaps his statement was a bit of an exaggeration, but in general it was true. Today during Advent, I think we understand John's words in a personal as well as a communal sense. When he says, "Prepare the way of the Lord," we understand that we are to make room to receive the Lord in our hearts, but there is no way to separate making a home for Jesus in our hearts from making room for him in the rest of our lives. We must make an hospitable place for him. The idea of hospitality reminds me of a story that Marjorie Thompson tells in her book Soul Feast: An Invitation to the Christian Spiritual Life. She says that when she graduated from college, her mother and she made the trip of a lifetime. Their first stop was Scotland. (She is a good Presbyterian.) One day they traveled into the Scottish countryside. When they arrived by bus in the isolated town where they had reservations in a bed and breakfast, it was pouring, cold, and dark. The bed and breakfast was already full. Since there was no phone they were just given the name of another house to try. They were completely soaked when they arrived at the home. A pleasant couple answered the door, but they explained apologetically that they already had a boarder for the night. Marjorie and her mother must have looked dejected, because the couple asked them to wait inside the door for a moment. A few minutes later, they were ushered into a warm, comfortable room. They quickly fell into a deep sleep. In the morning, they were given a scrumpious breakfast. Not until they were ready to leave did they inadvertently discover how generous their hosts had been. "With guest quarters already occupied, the couple had given [up] their own bedroom. They had slept in the living room." [Marjorie J. Thompson, Soul Feast: An Invitation to the Christian Spiritual Life, (Westminster John Knox Press: Louisville, 1995) p. 119-120. The Scottish couple prepared a way for the Lord and shared it with him through sharing with Marjorie Thompson and her mother. We are called to prepare the way, too. During this Advent, let us prepare the way of the Lord, too. The second point that John the Baptist makes is that we must believe in the way of the Lord. We can't rely on the faith of our ancestors, no matter how faithful they were just as the Hebrew people couldn't rely on the faith of Abraham. Each new generation must find its own faith. That presents a challenge because the things that are meaningful to one generation may not be meaningful to the next. We must trust that the Lord will bring new and vibrant faith. I have noticed that the Lord brings faith through vehicles that I never thought would work. One of the most interesting phenomena that I have experienced is the way people send stories of faith over the internet. It is amazing the amount of time and space that is devoted to inspiring stories. There is a hunger out there for the authentic, the real thing. Faith in Jesus Christ is the real thing, and he knows how to work in any technology that comes along. We need to remember that Jesus' message is good in all times. The reason we are working together on ReVisioning our future is that we know that we need to find where the Lord is calling us into mission and evangelism today. He calls us to new work each new day. That can be rather scary, but if we do our part, God will do the rest. There is a Middle Easter legend about a spindly little sparrow who was lying on her back in the middle of the road. A horseman came by, dismounted, and asked the sparrow what on earth she was doing lying there in the middle of the road with her feet up in the air. "I heard that the heavens were going to fall today," said the sparrow. "Oh," said the horseman, "I suppose you think that your puny legs can hold up the heavens?" "One does what one can," said the sparrow. "One does what one can." And so with the help of the Lord, we will revision our future and do what we can in his service as we follow the way of the Lord. [Rebecca Edmistom-Lange, "Hemerocallus: Eternity in a Day," in The Book of Women's Sermons edited by E. Lee Hancock (Riverhead Books: New York, 1999), p.94.] John makes one more point: he tells the people to live faithfully, to repent of their sins and past behavior. Among the crowds who came out to be baptized were wealthy and poor, tax collectors and peasants, soldiers and revolutionaries. Many asked specifically what they should do, and John gave them very practical answers. He said that if you have more than enough, share it. He told the tax collectors to collect only what they were supposed to collect, nothing more. He told the soldiers not to extort money with threats and false accusations. John wasn't giving any watered-down version of the gospel. I think that very simply put, John the Baptist was telling us to be good, kind, and generous people. And when we are good, kind, and generous, we may take the world by surprise. There was a boy once living in Cincinnati in the early nineteen hundreds. On Christmas Eve, he and his father were out doing some last minute shopping. The boy was thinking about the fun they would have celebrating Christmas at home, when a rough hand reached out to touch his. He looked up to see a bleary-eyed, dirty man clutching a filthy cap in which lay a few pennies. The boy recoiled and turned a cold shoulder to the man. His father had seen what had happened and he said, "You shouldn't treat a man that way, Norman." The boy said, "Aw, Dad, he's nothing but a bum." "A bum? There is no such thing as a bum. He is a child of God. Maybe he hasn't made the most of himself, but he is God's beloved child just the same. Now I want you to go and give him this." The father pulled out his wallet and handed his son a dollar. That was a lot of money in those days. Most of the presents that the family were exchanging didn't cost that much. The father said, "Now do exactly as I tell you. Go up to him, hand him this dollar, speak to him respectfully, and tell him you are giving him this dollar in the name of Christ," Reluctantly, the boy went back to the old man and said, "Excuse me, Sir, I give you this dollar in the name of Christ." The man was startled. Then a curious change came over his whole bearing. There was a new dignity in his manner. Graciously, with a sort of joy, he said, "And I thank you, young Sir, in the name of Christ." The boy was Norman Vincent Peale. Clearly he learned from his father that faith not lived out on the street was no faith at all. [Normal Vincent Peale, My Christmas Treasury (Giniger Book, Harper: San Francisco, 1991) p. 127-128] As we prepare for the coming of the Lord, for Advent, let us take heed of John the Baptist's words: Prepare the way for the Lord, have faith in the way of the Lord, and live out the way of the Lord in your life. Amen.