Advent 3 2009 Sermon

Advent 3 2009 Sermon
Published by Rev. Carole Hughes in Sermons • 16/12/2009 7:59:45 p.m.

Sermon at St Johns Campbells Bay, 13 December 2009 by Carole Hughes
Zephaniah 3:14-20; Psalm 85 or 85:7-13 or Canticle 9; Philippians 4:4-7 (8-9); Luke 3:7-18
May my words offer inspiration, hope and joy. Amen

Remember when you were expecting your first child? Or for those of you who haven’t been there, image what it would be like to be told that you were going to have a gorgeous baby in your household.
Most of us can get in touch with that feeling – what it was or would be like. That feeling is relevant for today, the third Sunday of Advent. This day is traditionally called "rejoicing Sunday".

Now, there is something tricky about great gifts -- especially when the gift is a child. Our biblical readings today do a marvelous job of pointing to this insight. The first two are all about rejoicing. The prophet Zephaniah sings to the people, "the King of Israel, God, is in your midst, you shall fear disaster no more." God is going to do great things for God’s people. All is well; God is at hand.
"Rejoice" is also the first word we hear from Philippians. Again, we are assured that God is at hand, and this is a wonderful thought.

That is part of what it means to prepare for a gift. That is almost always the very first thing we say when we discover someone is expecting a child; we say, "congratulations," - wow, this is wonderful news. What a joy!

Rejoicing is also a big part of what it means to prepare for Christmas. The good news of Advent is that God is coming to God's people -- to you and to me. God's promises are being fulfilled. And we are to await that, to believe that, to realize that, and open ourselves fully to it. That is cause for celebration and for rejoicing.

Then we hear the Gospel reading today, and the image shifts. God is no longer pictured as the one who cares for God’s people, but as a wrathful judge, an executioner who loves his work. We are standing at the River Jordan, face to face with John the Baptist at his most intense.

John doesn't say to rejoice; John says to repent. Paul told the Philippians not to be anxious about anything; John tells his hearers to flee from the wrath to come.
Mixed messages! Isn’t the church so good at this, some may say!

Everyone in the Gospel is asking, "What shall we do? What has to change if we are to survive the great and terrible events that lie ahead?" This is a very different message from "rejoice!"

And if you think about it, that makes sense, too. That fear, that anxiety, too, is part of our preparation and of our waiting. And it should be heard, and felt, at exactly the same moment we hear, and feel, the call to rejoice. For the God we await in Advent is a God who makes a difference, who changes things, who disrupts our lives and challenges us.

A God who offers both new life and new responsibilities, and who offers them together -- simultaneously. Part of what new life means is that the old life just doesn't work anymore -- because everything is different. If we receive the gift of the Christ child, things will change, and the direction and the focus of our lives will shift. It just works that way.

Remember the second thing everybody (or at least everybody who has been a parent longer than 20 minutes) says when they learn that you are expecting a child? The first thing said is always, "congratulations, we're happy for you; it's wonderful news." The second thing is always one form or another of, "boy are you in for it! Things will never be the same again!"

In our every day lives we are told often, and in a variety of ways, that things are going to change, that everything will be different. Nobody uses the word, but everybody tells us we have to repent, indeed that we are going to repent, to change our way of looking and living and ‘being’. We are told it by our children when they try to encourage us to use the internet, which opens up a whole new world for us; the good and the bad. We are told it by environmentalists who tell us we need to change our habits with regard to caring for the planet. We are told it by the politicians as we come to terms with living in a global economy and what that means for us in Aotearoa New Zealand. Change happens and all of us, at some stage or another, have had to come to terms with what that means for us – sometimes it means rejoicing in the changes and sometimes it means questioning the changes. Sometimes we need to re-evaluate what we value and hold on to, and what we let go. And of course it is no different in our faith journey. Change is part of it. If we grow we have to be prepared to change. If we are open to the gifts of God anything can happen. Great gifts require a response.

"Rejoice/repent!" Mixed messages – but may be it is not a bad thing! Those are the words that go with all great gifts. Something wonderful is going to happen; and if, after you receive that gift, you try to live the way you are living now, your life just won't work anymore. Life after such a gift requires change – a turning around and reviewing how we live and what our priorities are.

"Rejoice/repent!" This dual demand – mixed message - in the face of the coming of God is addressed to all of us -- it is part of Advent. We await and try to prepare for the coming of a child -- a child who changes everything. So Zephaniah is right, we are to rejoice, and give thanks to God, and sing. And John the Baptist is right; this wonderful gift will also come as change and a turning around, and with a power beyond our understanding. If we are going to take seriously the good news of Christmas, then things are going to be very different.

Think about how much a first child changes peoples lives. Think of what it would look like to live with the child from Bethlehem -- as a baby, and as an adult. For both the joy Jesus offers and the demands Jesus makes cannot be truly ours if we remain exactly the same. And think about what repentance, the redirection of our attention, looks like - it is not something weird or mysterious. Repentance generally looks pretty much like our lives now, but with a difference.

So, you may ask – What does this mean for me?
When the crowd at the Jordan River felt this crunch of anticipation and judgment, their cry of "what then shall we do?" was met with responses designed to force them into practical decisions. "Look at who you are," John the Baptist said; "begin there." When it comes to sharing, share from what you have. Don't wait until you have more, or until your offering can be of a higher quality -start now, start with what is already there.

Practice justice where you work, build fairness into your present dealings, your current life. Don't wait until you have a job where justice is easier -- or more noticeable.

Don't wait to be somewhere else, or to be doing something else, or to be someone else -- begin with the road in front of you, walk that road, and so allow God to transform the real life you live right now. John did not tell even the despised tax collectors or the hated and feared soldiers that they had to go somewhere else to begin. So being a tax collector or a soldier was no barrier to repentance, to change. The business of repenting because of the gift of the Christ child is much the same as rejoicing. It has to do with transforming the life we are already living.

Repent and rejoice -- in all things, with the ‘real’ life we live in the ‘real’ world.
This strong message of repentance and social justice by John the Baptist this morning may seem shocking to some who are wrapped up in the joy of gift giving, and parties, and rejoicing of the seasons. But it reminds us that part of our preparation is to recognise the imbalance of power and wealth in our world, and ask, ‘What should we do?’ - a challenge for us as church.

But when the theme is one of justice, it can be easy for the church, to speak in terms of “us” and “them” – we have and others do not, we are blessed and others are less fortunate, we have the truth and others do not, we can offer ‘just’ ways and others cannot. But it is actually not about “us” and “them”, it is about all of us no matter who we are and what we do. We all have the need to rejoice and the need to repent. It is about being honest with one another and sharing our resources and our experiences whoever we are and whatever we do. It is about working in partnership with the powerful and powerless and not assuming we know what repentance is needed. It is working out how we can do things differently so the injustices are addressed by all people. It is actually about building relationships and giving each other time. Advent is a time to give time, and to prepare for doing things differently. It is a time of rejoicing and a time for repenting. Mixed messages that transform us all for the good!

So, Rejoice, for what is happening is wonderful.

Repent, because from now on, things will be different.

Which leaves us all with the question…
What are we going to do to ‘rejoice’, and to ‘repent’, this Advent?
We cannot have one without the other.