A Strange Christmas Passage
I wasn’t sure whether I should come here today, after all, how could I come and preach at a Church in a denomination that seems to have got their lectionary passage wrong. Here we are in the second Sunday of advent, only two more Sundays before Christmas day, and the lectionary tells me that I am supposed to be preaching from the only gospel in the Bible that has nothing at all to say about the birth of Christ. Not just that, but from a passage in that gospel where the only mention of Jesus’ name is in the title. Don’t you find that strange?
At least until you remember what advent is, it is a time of preparation for both the celebration of the birth of Christ and for the future coming of Christ in judgement and in glory. And when you hear John’s voice preaching that baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, isn’t that the only response we can make at this time of year. This was a birth that changed the world, as you have probably heard many times, time itself is measured by it, a birth that can change our lives if we allow it too. The only choice we can make is to either ignore it - as many around us do at this time of year, or allow it to change our lives and to do that we must first repent. And just as the first coming can change our lives, the second one will definitely do so. The Bible tells us that when Jesus returns to this earth, he will be coming in judgement and the ones who will fail this judgement will be those who do not repent.
I want us to look first at the people whom this message of repentance was for. It seems that John was no respecter of persons or position for Luke tells us in his gospel that “John rebuked Herod the tetrarch because of Herodias, his brother’s wife, and all the other evil things he had done, Herod added this to them all: He locked John up in prison.” This message of repentance was given to the most important and powerful man in the land at the time. Herod had been appointed by the Romans to govern Judea. His word was law, the only person who could give this man orders was the Roman Emperor himself.
What is the equivalent of Herod today in our country? Who would John have given this message of repentance to if he were here right now? Monarchists would probably say the Queen; she is head of our country as Herod was head of Judea. But of course, we all know that the Queen has little power in our land. And the power she does have is given to her by the government. This means that if John were giving his message today in England, it would be shouted out on the steps of the Houses of Parliament. Instead of stopping Herod’s chariot from driving along the road, it would be Tony Blair’s car he would get in the way of; and all the other leaders in our Government.
But would he need to give this message today in our country. When Bob Geldorf was speaking on the news the other day about the famine in Ethiopia, he said that the British government was one of the best in helping resolve famine in Africa. And if his recommendation isn’t enough, for many years, we have been a Christian country. We have a health service and an education system that in spite of its problems still works reasonably well. There would be no need for John to call for our government to repent, would there?
Until you realise that God would almost certainly open John’s eyes to situations like Afghanistan. A country where only a year ago, were supposedly fighting to release people from pain and bondage, as well as to defeat terrorism. Do you remember how one of the ways the war was justified was by comments about women there being imprisoned for not wearing a veil? This Christmas in that country there are just as many women in prison, and for reasons that to us seem just as stupid. The country that we helped free from the oppression of the Taliban is now under the oppression of many warlords. Yet, our government stays silent, and leaves these people in their pain. They have now turned their back on the pain and oppression going on there.
And even though we may be one of the best in what we do in Africa, there is still much more that we could do. On the day after the famine made the news in our country, the defence minister announces our countries plans to increase our capacity to make war. One years defence funds could go a long way to ending famine in many third world countries. The money spent on armaments in America and Britain in one year, could provide permanent solutions to these problems in every country. But spending money on missiles and bombs has a higher priority than solving the causes of famine.
So yes, the call to our government to repent and follow God’s laws is just as valid today as that call was that John made to Herod.
Who else was John giving this call to repentance to? Matthew says in his gospel: “But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, ’We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.” The Pharisees and Sadducees were the leaders and teachers of God’s people. And here John calls them not just to go through the act of repentance, but also to let that act show in their lives.
When we look through the gospels, it appears as though the Pharisees were completely bad. That nothing they did was right. This wasn’t actually the case. Some Pharisees were there for the position and power it gave them. But others were there because they wanted to serve and help God’s people. A Pharisee saved the disciples lives in Acts. We are told that: “a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, who was honoured by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a little while. Then he addressed them: "Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men. Some time ago, Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing. After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered. Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God." Nicodemus was another Pharisee and at Jesus’ death, he was one of the few people to have the courage to be near him and identified with him.
Who are the Pharisee’s and Sadducees of today? I don’t think it is unreasonable to suggest that these representatives of God’s people in the past should be symbols of God’s people, the Church, today. Fortunately, we may not have quite as much to repent for, but we still need to repent. You only need to see how many empty seats there are in our Churches today to realise that. Or speak to people outside the Church who see God’s body as being irrelevant, I know there are quite a lot of people living near my Church who do not even know it is there. God’s people are called to be light and salt to those around us, yet in many cases, the light is so dim, and the salt so tasteless that we do little to affect those around us. So, if John the Baptist were here today, I am fairly certain that as well as standing outside or inside parliament, he would also be speaking the same words from our pulpits, or if we would not let him do it from there, he would be speaking them from our pews.
There is a third group of people that John the Baptist brought this message to. We heard this in our reading from Mark’s gospel: “And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.” It was to God’s people as individuals that he was speaking there, and if he were with us today, he would be doing the same. How do I know this, quite simply because I am one of those he is calling. Compare your faith, your belief, your witness to what the Bible says it should be like and you must see that we still fall far short of what God wants from us. We too need to heed John’s call to repent both for the Church as a body, and for ourselves as individuals within that body and we need to produce fruit in keeping with that repentance.
The final group that John was giving this call to were those who were outside of God’s people. Luke tells us that: “Tax collectors also came to be baptized. "Teacher," they asked, "what should we do?" "Don’t collect any more than you are required to," he told them. Then some soldiers asked him, "And what should we do?" He replied, "Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely - be content with your pay." Tax collectors, according to the belief of the time, had put themselves outside of God’s people by agreeing to collect tax for the Roman conquerors. And the soldiers would most likely have been Roman soldiers, maybe one was even the one who said at the cross “Surely, he was the Son of God”, or possibly Cornelius who is the centurion appearing in the book of Acts. As well as this message going to government, Church, and Christians, it must also go to all of those who do not yet know God.
Who is it that is supposed to be giving this call out today? One of the greatest experts in the Old Testament was the prophet Elijah, when he stood on Mount Carmel with 450 prophets of Baal around him he said to the Israelites “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him." The choice he gave would have involved repentance.
Jewish Christians today believe that John the Baptist could well have been Elijah returning to prepare the way for the Lord, and if he was, we can see that his message had not changed much. But there is no John the Baptist or Elijah who can do this today, the job has been passed on to you and to me just as Elijah passed his mantle on to Elisha. This doesn’t mean that we have to go out into the centre of Poole calling people to repentance, one of the best ways we can do this is by ensuring that our lives exhibit the love of Christ. When people see Christ’s love in our lives and our Churches they will want repent, or at least many will. It is much more difficult however to bring a government to repent. This is not something that can be done quietly and peacefully. To do this, the Church has to make its voice heard. It has to stand and shout out loud ‘this is wrong!”
For those of you who read papers like the Methodist Recorder, you may think that we have been doing this. For a number of weeks, the front-page articles in that paper have been about how the Methodist Church has been warning our government to go carefully over Iraq. The problem is that I have not seen one article in our National papers saying that the church is doing this, to me; this suggests that we are either not shouting loud enough, or not shouting in the right places. When John was calling people to repentance, all of Judea knew about it. At present, when we make this call, the only people who know are ourselves. Obviously, we still have a lot to learn.
We also have to realise that there is a price to be paid for obeying God’s call to bring others, the Church, the government and ourselves to repentance. And we will know when we are doing this job right simply because we will begin to pay this price. John the Baptist found himself imprisoned and finally lost his life because he made this call. Others throughout history have paid the same price. Richard Wurmbrand was imprisoned and then killed because he called the Nazis to repentance. Oscar Romero was killed by his government because he called them to stop what they were doing in El Salvador.
People do not want to be faced with this call. They would much rather be able to say ‘we did not know anything about it. For when they hear this call, it forces them to choose. They are no longer able to be ignorant. We will be forcing them to either choose the way of love and justice, or the way of self and greed. Throughout the Churches past, whenever we have chosen to make this call to repentance, the Church and Christians have suffered, as people would rather silence the call than listen to it. Herod couldn’t face hearing John shouting at him to repent every time he went to the river so he put him in prison. The same could well happen to any of us who obey today.
But the price that we pay is worth it, there are some wonderful words in the Old Testament that state what will happen when God’s people repent: “if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” The healing may not come straight away, it may even have to wait until our Lord does return, but it will come. There may be a price to be paid as we wait for that healing and continue to make this call to repent as we wait. But it will be worth it, for ourselves as we obey God, and for those who hear that call and follow it.
I said at the start that the people who wrote the lectionary got it wrong. Let me assure you now that they didn’t. This call to repent is one of the most important things we will hear amongst the sound of carols, and shouts of joy as presents are opened, and burps as the turkey is digested.
And it is one of the most important things we can pass on as well. So that others may know what Christmas is really about. Amen.
