In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’”
Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance. Do not presume 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.
“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. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
Sermon by the Rev. Carole Horton-Howe
Just for a moment, I’d like you to imagine with me a scene from the busy streets of Manhattan. Just an average summer afternoon: lots of people coming and going, rushing around, doing all the things that people do in the course of a normal day -- going to work, to school, just running errands. I’d like you to image that typical busy day in New York City. And then I’d like you to imagine for a moment that from somewhere a voice is heard that sounds something like this:
(singing) “Prepare ye the way of the Lord. Prepare ye the way of the Lord.”
It's just a singular voice but a clear one with a distinct message, one that the people cannot ignore. Imagine that you start to see people beginning to respond to the voice. They stop what they're doing. Office workers drop briefcases, students toss backpacks aside, a waitress takes off her apron, a messenger leaves his bicycle. And walk purposely… but towards what…?
They begin to follow that voice until they arrive at a fountain in Central Park. And there they see the singer – an odd-looking fellow in very bizarre clothes singing those words of invitation in the middle of a huge fountain. And they’re all drawn there – the office worker, the student, the waitress, the messenger and many more to jump into the fountain to be immersed and to be cleansed.
Their joy is clear -- with all kinds of hope and expectation and celebration they jump out of the fountain they shed themselves of all of the remaining stuff that they had, all the burdens that they had before they came to that fountain. And they head out now preparing the way of the Lord.
If you recognize that little tune you might know that it comes from the musical Godspell which is based on the Gospel of Matthew. And it is John the Baptizer, who is always wearing odd clothing, always going to look a little unusual, he’s the one who's standing in the middle of the Bethesda Fountain in Central Park singing his heart out, singing the invitation to get ready. And these disciple kind of folks arrived so filled with hope and expectation to prepare the way of the Lord. At the end of the scene, off they go – cleansed and filled with joy to do just that.
So I hope you’ll keep these images in your mind as we begin to unpack our lesson from Matthew's Gospel today. Because as I was praying about it and studying it, that scene just kept coming back to me. I kept seeing these joyful people prepare the way of the Lord. Not frightened, not anxious, not worried, not stodgy and judgmental - but joyfully preparing the way of the Lord.
And it made me wonder about all those folks who were coming to meet John the Baptist out in the wilderness by the Jordan River. I wonder if they were joy filled. I wonder if they were being filled with hope and expectation.
This introduction that we're given to John the Baptist in Matthew's Gospel is very different than the one we’re given in Luke's Gospel. This is not the John the Baptist who was leaping for joy in his mother’s womb when Mary came to visit. This is not the John the Baptist that Zechariah, his father, dedicates to God. No -- this is the John the Baptist who just kind of appears in the wilderness and begins preaching repentance. He is preaching repentance because the Messiah is coming. And people need to hear what he has to say – hard as it is, strange as it may seem.
They need to be reminded that the Messiah is indeed coming, to be ready because you don't want judgment to come if you know you should. Turn it around now. This is the hour, this is the time.
And I wonder about all those folks who have come out into the wilderness to an uninhabited place, to the quiet place, to the place where they can actually stop and be reflective. They come to that place away from the noise and the hustle and the bustle to where they can actually hear God and be reflective enough to ask, “what does my God require of me?” The prophet Micah probably said it better than any of the prophets: “do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with our God.”
So here is John the Baptizer out in the wilderness. And so many people go out to see him there. But what were they looking for? What were they hoping for? What were their hearts hoping to find? Were they hoping for reassurance? Were they hoping that someone would tell them one more time what they needed to do and be? For what were they hoping?
But I guess more than anything, the question is how they left him. Because John doesn't mince words with them. “Oh by the way – being descendants of Abraham doesn’t give you a free pass. Don't rest on that one because what’s required of you, is what has always been required of God's people.”
So did the people leave their encounter with John with the same kind of hope filled joy we was portrayed in that one scene in Godspell “I'm ready to go do it God!” Or did they leave more somber, less secure, less certain? Were they asking questions: have we lived faithfully? We're here, we're repenting -- but have we really done what God would have us do?”
Matthew probably more than any of our Gospel writers, links the world of the prophets of the Old Testament prophets and the world that is to come. Matthew shows us the tie back for the people called Israel, shows us that the promises then of God with us are still God’s promises. And that the Messiah will come, that the world will be made right when the Messiah comes. And also that the Messiah will be our judge and so will have questions. The Messiah is coming to ask questions about who we are as God’s people. And have we lived faithfully according to what God requires of us. Did you love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and strength? And did you love your neighbor as yourself?
And even today as we sit in this space, we ask ourselves those same questions: have we lived faithfully into what God requires of us? How have we as individuals, how have we as the church, lived faithfully into what God requires of us? There have been some times in the history of the church that it did not live as faithfully as it could have lived. That there have been some times that the church was less than faithful in its work.
That doesn't mean that we can't live better every day. That doesn't mean that we can't redress our own wrongs and admit our faults. The great Maya Angelou said, “when you know better do better.” We can say “we are preparing the way of the Lord in the way that we walk, in the way that we talk, in the way that we engage with God's people every single day.”
John the Baptist's knew hearts needed to be changed. There's still some preparing to do in our hearts. There are things that we know that we can stand against. We can stand against notions of hatred and bigotry and recognize that we are all God's people made in the image and likeness of God. We can stand against separatism that would break us apart and recognize the fact that together we do more. And we can stop and look at the one who has fallen next to us and but I can support you. We can stand against anything that does not foster a sense of loving God and loving neighbor. Those great Commandments. And we can truly begin to look at one another in ways that we may never have looked at one another before and to commit again that nothing - nothing - will separate us. Because the love of Christ is what makes us one.
Let’s go back to that scene from the beginning to Godspell and remember all of those joyful people rushing out of that fountain. And I think they're on to something. Because it's that joy, that exuberance, that kind of hopefulness that helps us understand what it means to prepare the way, to shed the baggage that we don't need and recommit ourselves to our relationship with God. Advent is the time to do that, to be on the path to God. We prepare so others can prepare.
And for everyone who does not know our God, who does not know what it means to believe in the coming of the Messiah, we are part of their story. We are part of the ever unfolding story of God's mercy and God's love and God's grace reflected in and through us to a world there needs to see God's light. Amen.