Preached December 6, 1992, evening service Second Sunday of Advent First Baptist Church, Garrett, Indiana
One cold December Saturday, Professor Thomas Long's teenage children asked to go Christmas shopping in New York City. "The best bargains," they said, "are in New York City." Dr. Long agreed to take them and their friends, 6 teenagers in all, on a shopping trip to that great metropolitan center. "There they were," Dr. Long reflected, "6 kids marching thru the sleaze of 42nd Street, wide-eyed with curiosity and wonder, yet trying their best to appear cool and nonchalant." Dr. Long was beginning to wonder if it was a good idea to allow teenagers on their own in New York City.
"Just as I was anguishing about the risk I had taken, I heard the voice of a preacher," Dr. Long recalled. "There behind me on a Times Square street corner was a preacher trying to proclaim the Gospel. His appearance was about what one might have anticipated. His eyes were searching wildly, his urgent voice screeching thru a distorted 5-watt amplifier, his hands beckoning to the crowds which passed his asphalt pulpit. His message was not entirely lucid, but even in its disconnections you could feel him trying to get his words around a text: `And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth...'
Most people were, of course, passing him by. Some stopped for a brief and curious stare. Even the hired Santa Claus positioned several feet down the pavement paused to listen every now and then. A good many people smiled benevolently as they walked by, a few laughed out loud and one person asked him what he was on... The preacher just kept saying, `And the Word become flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth...'"
People might have looked at John the Baptist in the same way the people in Times Square looked at the street preacher. He wore a camel's hair coat with a leather belt around his waist and he ate locusts and honey. His hair was long and unkempt. When the religious officials came to see him and be baptized by him, he insulted them by calling them names. Apparently John the Baptist had not read any church growth material that says first impressions are important.
John the Baptist seems out of place in our celebration of Advent. "'Tis the season to be jolly" as the popular carol goes. John isn't someone you would want to invite to your home for a holiday get-together. You wouldn't invite him to an office party to liven things up. And yet each year on the second Sunday in Advent we meet up with John the Baptist. John's task is to help us get ready to meet the Messiah.
We can not find our way to Bethlehem without the help of this man. John points the way for us. The people were waiting for John the Baptist or someone like him for over 200 years. Centuries before, the prophet Isaiah spoke about the one who was to come. "The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: `Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.'"
John was that man. His task was to lead people to Jesus the Messiah. Matthew reports that people from all over Jerusalem and Judea "were going out to him." They responded to John's ministry. They were touched by his message.
JOHN THE BAPTIST TOLD THE PEOPLE TO PREPARE FOR THE MESSIAH BY STRAIGHTENING OUT THEIR LIVES.
There was a sense of urgency in John's message. There wasn't much time left. The Christ was coming soon. They needed to be ready.
Pastor James Harnish tells about buying a home near a lake in northern Florida. The house had been vacant for over a year and nature had taken control. "Down at the lakefront right beside the dock, a massive bramblebush had grown. Its long twisting vines totally engulfed the earthbound end of the dock. It was not possible to get past the bush and onto the dock without being snagged by its thorns."
On their first trip the Harnishes cut the brambles back just enough to get onto the dock. Finally however, they could no longer postpone the inevitable task of cutting it back. So they took the clippers and hatchet, and began to cut the huge bramblebush down to the ground. When they reached the ground, they discovered an imposing root system.
They hacked, chopped, and dug it out until they had cleared away as much as they could. It was then that they realized that they could not get all of the roots out. Harnish reflected several years after removing the bramblebush and wrote, "I know that some of those roots are still there. If I don't take the ax back to it now and then, it will return, trying to regain control of the shoreline."
John the Baptist comes each year during Advent telling us to clear the overgrown clutter that overtakes our lives, preventing us from being the people Jesus wants us to be. Clearing our lives is not a once and done task but is something we must do continually to prepare for Christ's coming. John's call is to cut back that which is ensnaring, to straighten that which is crooked, to smooth out that which is rough--to prepare the way for His coming.
MORE THAN THAT, JOHN THE BAPTIST'S CALL IS FOR DRASTIC CHANGE.
John's message was simple and to the point: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." To repent means to change the direction of our lives. Instead of only thinking of ourselves and our own needs we begin to see other people around us. To repent means to experience a change of heart or attitude. Repent means to turn our lives around. It means to turn back to God. The type of repentance John spoke about requires a radical transformation.
It was 11 days before Christmas. Peace and good will were far from the thoughts of 200,000 Union and Confederate soldiers facing each other across the broad, blood-spattered arena of Fredericksburg, Virginia, on December 14, 1862. The past few days had been gruesome with more than 12,000 soldiers killed. 19-year-old Sergeant Richard Kirkland, Company E of Kershaw's Second South Carolina Brigade, had seen enough. Kirkland went to see Confederate General Joseph Kershaw. "General," he said, "I can't stand this!" He startled his commanding officer. "All night and all day I hear those poor Federal people calling for water," he said, "and I can't stand it any longer. I ask permission to go and give them water."
Kershaw shook his head sympathetically. "Sergeant," he replied, "you'd get a bullet thru your head the moment you stepped over the stone wall onto the plain." "Yes, sir," answered Kirkland, "I know that, but if you let me, I'm willing to try it." The General responded, "The sentiment which prompts you is so noble that I will not refuse your request. God protect you. You may go."
Quickly the South Carolinian hurdled the wall and immediately exposed himself to the fire of every Yankee sharpshooter in that sector. Kirkland walked calmly toward the Union lines until he reached the nearest wounded soldier. Kneeling, he took off his canteen and gently lifted the enemy soldier's head to give him a long, deep drink of refreshing cold water.
Then he placed a knapsack under the head of his enemy and moved on to the next. Racing against the lengthening shadows of a short, somber December afternoon, he returned again and again to the lines where comrades handed him full canteens. "Troops on both sides who had watched this unselfish act paid young Kirkland the supreme tribute--not a standing ovation, but respectful awed silence."
To repent means to change our attitudes toward other people from one of suspicion or hatred to one of love. The message of John the Baptist is to repent, to change our ways because Jesus will soon be on the scene.
JOHN THE BAPTIST'S MESSAGE IS ALSO A CALL TO AWAKEN US FROM OUR OWN SMUGNESS.
It's easy to hear a Biblical message to repent or change our ways only to think that it somehow doesn't apply to us.
We think that the message to repent is meant for sinners--not good respectable folk who come to church every week. But John's message is for us. It is a call to examine ourselves, to awaken us from our sense of smugness.
Matthew reports that even the Pharisees and Sadducees, the religious officials of the day, traveled out to the wilderness to see John and be baptized by him. John wasn't too complimentary to them. He called them, a "brood of vipers!" These were the respectable folk--folks like you and me. John wanted them to understand that his message was for them, as well for sinners.
Joe Pennel describes the time he led a Sunday School class that was studying this passage on John the Baptist. Dr. Pennel writes, "After giving some background information and interpretation, I asked the class to give me some help in preparing a sermon on the theme of repentance." He said, "If you were in my place, what would you say to this church about repentance?"
He reported blank, sheepish stares on their faces. One person said, "We are like the people of John's day. We are so close to it that we cannot hear the message." Another person said, "It is like preaching to the choir. No one listens because we have been conditioned to hear something else." Yet another said, "Repentance is something we do in the corporate prayer, not something we do in our hearts."
William Sloan Coffin said recently, "The church is full of people who are seeking that which they have already found and only want to become that which they already are. And that's one of the greatest problems we have in the church."
Who wants some wilderness preacher dressed in a camel's hair jacket and eating insects to come along and tell us that we have to change our ways--and just 2 weeks before Christmas, besides? Wouldn't it be better to start off the new year making such changes? We could make New Year's resolutions. But John's message is for us today. John is standing before us, half-way to Christmas, telling us to prepare our lives for Jesus. To prepare our lives means to remove all those things that clutter our lives and prevent us from being the people Jesus intends us to be. It means making some drastic changes in our lives right here and now because there isn't much time left. But when we clear back that clutter, make those drastic changes and eliminate that smugness, then we discover the true meaning of Christmas.
A family including three boys were vacationing in France one Christmas. "For 5 wretched days everything had gone wrong," the father wrote. By the time Christmas Eve arrived there was "no Christmas spirit in our hearts." Besides, it was cold and raining as they went out to eat. They found a drab little restaurant shoddily decorated for the holiday. As they entered, they noticed that only 5 tables were occupied, "2 German couples, 2 French families, and an American sailor by himself. In the corner a piano player listlessly played Christmas music."
On that Christmas Eve no one in the restaurant seemed too happy. Customers were eating in stony silence. The young sailor was writing a letter while he was eating. The waiter brought the wrong meal; at another table children were acting up. It was one of those days you wished you had never gotten out of bed. Suddenly they were interrupted by an "unpleasant blast of cold air."
Thru the door came an old flower woman. She wore a dripping, tattered overcoat and shuffled in on wet, rundown shoes. She went from one table to another. "Flowers, monsieur? Only one franc." No one bought any. Wearily she sat down and ordered. "A bowl of soup," she said. "I haven't sold a flower all afternoon." The piano player replied that his "tipping plate" was empty. Not much of a Christmas feast, a bowl of soup.
A moment later the sailor got up and walked over to the old flower woman. "Happy Christmas," he said, smiling as he picked out 2 corsages. "How much are they?" "2 francs, Monsieur." He handed the woman a 20-franc note. "I don't have change, Monsieur," she said.
The sailor leaned over and gave the woman a kiss and said, "This is my Christmas present to you." One of the flowers he pressed flat and placed it in his letter. The other one he presented to the mother of the 3 boys and left.
"A few seconds later Christmas exploded throughout the restaurant like a bomb." The flower woman jumped up. The piano player began playing, "Good King Wenceslaus." The mother of 3 suddenly appeared 20 years younger. The Germans began singing in German; the French couples sang in French. A few moments before, "18 persons had been having a miserable evening. It ended up being the happiest, the very best Christmas Eve they ever had experienced."
Out in the desert there is the voice calling to us, "Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." If we do, we, too, can have our best Christmas ever.
