Peace - Sermon for week ending December 5, 2020

Gospel Reading: 

from Luke, chapter 3.  John the Baptizer
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, the word of God came to John, son of Zechariah, in the wilderness. He 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 God,
   make God’s 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.’”

The crowds asked him, “What should we do?” He said to them, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.” Tax collectors asked him, “Teacher, what should we do?” He said to them, “Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.” Soldiers also asked him, “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.”

Sermon: 

On the second Sunday of Advent,  the lectionary gospel text is always about one of my favorite biblical characters, the camel hair-wearing, bug- eating, John the Baptizer. As we heard in the reading, his description comes directly from the prophet Isaiah: “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way of God and make God’s paths straight. Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The crooked shall be made straight and the rough ways made smooth.  And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’” In the gospels of Matthew and Luke, John the Baptizer is seen as continuing the vision and voice of the Old Testament prophets. The all decried empire, as their people had been occupied and oppressed for 500 years. Empire was Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar, and now, Caesar. Israel only had one good king, David, and the prophets continually expressed hope for a new king who was like David. In these 2 gospels, Jesus is seen as the fulfillment of God’s promise for this new king,  who would bring peace and justice. In their book The First Christmas, Marcus Borg and Dom Crossan describe the kind of peace and justice this new king would bring, saying that the words of the prophet Micah that “Everyone will sit under their own vine and fig tree and no one will make them afraid,” mean that everyone will have their own land. Everyone will have enough of everything, and there will be no fear that anyone will take it away from them. John the Baptizer tells his followers how they can participate in this radical change from the way things are now: If you have two coats, share with someone who has none; the same with food. If you are a tax collector, don’t cheat people.  Just collect the amount you are supposed to.  If you are a soldier, don’t use your position to extort money from people. Priorities must be reordered so that the world is fair and just for everybody. It’s the same message we heard in Mary’s song. It’s the same message Jesus preached and lived.  In his book Prophetic Imagination, Old Testament Scholar Walter Brueggemann, says that the role of the prophet was to “energize the community with the promise of a New Vision, to offer an alternative narrative while critiquing and dismantling the dominant one.” That’s what John did. But that put the prophetic preacher in an exposed position. So it took courage. During John’s time, for example, Caesar was the only son of God and he alone was licensed to give news to his people, but John publicly contradicted that, which was dangerous. We have prophetic preachers in our midst,   who critique the dominant narrative of empire and lift up an alternative one of justice and equality, who call America back to faithfulness as the biblical prophets called Israel back to faithfulness, and, like the biblical prophets, they are often misunderstood. Dr. King was one, of course. Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who was pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago for 36 years, was vilified in 2008 by white Americans who took out of context phrases from his sermon message that ‘God cannot be expected to bless America, as the anthem requests, unless it changes for the better.’ Rev. Otis Moss, who is the current pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ, said,  “American policy disrupts the moral compass in favor of profit and political benefit over principled ethics and a moral center.” Which is true. And Rev. William Barber, chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, said just a few weeks ago, “Stealing a seat on the supreme court but refusing to pass a stimulus to save lives is a sin before God and the values of our constitution,” which sounds a lot like what the biblical prophet Jeremiah said about Israel’s leadership: “They have treated the wounds of my people like they were not serious, saying Peace, Peace, when there is no peace.” Prophetic preaching is not a scolding, as it might seem to people who aren’t familiar with it. It is, rather, a plain-spoken proclamation of the biblical mandate to love our neighbors and stand with the poor. And a reminder to turn away from any behavior that does not reflect that mandate, which is what John did here. And as verse 18 says, his proclamation was good news to the people. He was telling them that God was about to do a new thing, to create a way out of no way, to bring peace and justice to their world. When Carole was reading, she mentioned that the words from Isaiah were lyrics in Handel’s Messiah. They are also in the hymns “Comfort, Comfort O my People” And O Come, O come Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel, which we heard Jane play. There’s a contemporary song we are about to hear that I love, “Turn Back” from the musical Godspell. It’s a burlesque number in the show. The lyrics aren’t exactly the same, but the message is: “Turn back O man, forswear thy foolish ways. Old now is earth, and none can count her days. Yet thou, her child, still will not hear what thou inner God proclaims. Age after age, your tragic empires rise. When earth shall be fair and all her people one, not until that hour shall God’s whole will be done.” The message is clear:  we humans tend to mess things up because we are selfish and ego-driven. But we don’t have to be. There is hope for us, and hope for a different kind of world from the one we are living in. God is about to do a new thing. And that is good news.