There are few things as classic as a church play. Whether at Christmas, Easter, or any
other time, the church play is a spiritual rite of passage. I was in my share of church plays when
I was a kid, especially at Christmas, but I was not, unfortunately, much of an
actor, so I didn’t get the good parts.
I have long believed there is one character always left out of church
plays that should be included, and that is John the Baptist. I think it’s very difficult to really capture
the essence of John the Baptist, however.
Even in my favorite Biblical movie – Jesus
of Nazareth – the filmmakers didn’t quite capture him (admittedly, there
are some obvious problems with that movie, such as casting Robert Powell, a
blue-eyed British actor, to play Jesus.
Powell was great in the movie, but it takes a bit to overlook a Jesus
with blue eyes and a British accent).
Michael York (another British actor, and a very fine one) was cast to
play John the Baptist in Jesus of
Nazareth, and he did fine, but I never thought he was quite wild enough. From what we know of John from the
gospels he was quite a fascinating character.
John the Baptist is, in my opinion,
one of the most colorful and interesting characters in the Bible. Here is how Matthew describes him – John’s clothes were made of camel’s
hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey
(Matthew 3:4). If I wore clothes
of camel’s hair and had a diet of locusts and wild honey I would probably be
quite a character as well. I have
actually seen someone eat a locust before, and I’m telling you, that is not
something you want to make a staple of your diet, and anyone who does must be
quite the colorful character.
Today we complete the series of messages
The Journey to Advent, with a message
based upon a portion of the story of John the Baptist. Now I am aware that, technically, John
the Baptist comes after the first
Advent by about 30 years, but I chose this story because it makes a logical
conclusion to last week’s message about the silence of God. The arrival of John the Baptist breaks
the 400-year silence of God, which had begun at the end of the prophet
Malachi’s ministry. John, as the
gospels tell us, was the messenger who prepared the way for Jesus. After the long silence from God, with
John’s arrival, God was no longer silent.
And with John the Baptist, God certainly spoke very loud and very clear.
So follow along with my, please as
I read today’s Scripture text.
Luke 3:2-18 –
2 the word of God came to John son of
Zechariah in the wilderness.
3 He went into all the country around the
Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
4 As it is written in the book of the
words of Isaiah the prophet: “A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare
the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.
5 Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low.
The
crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth.
6 And all people will see God’s salvation.’”
7 John said to the crowds coming out to be
baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming
wrath?
8 Produce fruit in keeping with
repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our
father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for
Abraham.
9 The
ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce
good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”
10 “What should we do then?” the crowd asked.
11 John answered, “Anyone who has two
shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should
do the same.”
12 Even tax collectors came to be baptized.
“Teacher,” they asked, “what should we do?”
13 “Don’t collect any more than you are
required to,” he told them.
14 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.”
15 The people were waiting expectantly and
were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Messiah.
16 John answered them all, “I baptize you
with water. But
one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not
worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
17 His winnowing fork is in his hand to
clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will
burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
18 And with many other words John exhorted
the people and proclaimed the good news to them.
John the Baptist is mentioned in
all four of the gospels, which is a bit unusual for the gospel stories. Sometimes, only one gospel will feature
a story; sometimes two. With other
stories it is what we call the synoptic
gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) that will share a story. It is somewhat rare when all four
gospels include a story, and when this happens it is a sign of that story’s
great importance. What was
important about John? Besides
being the one who came to prepare the way for Jesus, John was a prophet – a
very important prophet – and as a prophet he did several things –
1. He told the truth.
John was a prophet in the classic
sense, in that he was someone who told the truth even when it was very
difficult to hear and even when it caused him great difficulty to do so. Prophets are often viewed as those who
foretell the future, which was not the primary function of a prophet’s
ministry. Prophets, when speaking of the future, warned about the consequences
of what would happen if a present course of action continued. In the Old Testament, for instance, the
prophets often warned of the consequences of ill-informed political alliances
or poor decisions regarding military campaigns. Their “future telling” was a warning to discontinue a present
course of harmful action, but even in speaking about the future a prophet’s
words were couched in honesty.
Generally speaking, we don’t like
to hear the truth, and we find it difficult to speak the truth. How many of us love to have someone
walk up to us and say, I need to be
honest with you about something?
Doesn’t that make your stomach start to turn? Or who wants to be in the position of having to confront
someone with a difficult truth?
Honesty, to be honest, is very difficult.
John
could be very blunt in his honesty, but even in his bluntness he still
attracted crowds of people. Verse
7 tells us that John said to the crowds
coming out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee
from the coming wrath?” John
was not directing his words at the usual suspects – the scribes, Pharisees, and
Sadducees – but to all the people coming to hear him. Does that seem to you like a good way to draw a crowd? It doesn’t to me. Over the years, I’ve had some people
ask me to be more harsh in my messages.
Step on our toes; get on us Dave,
they will say. I don’t understand
that, actually. I have long
wondered why it is that some people want that kind of preaching; the kind that
is condemning and harsh, and here is what I have come to think about those
requests. I believe people find
that to be a cathartic experience.
Some people feel if they are spoken to harshly and condemned as being
“bad” people they have received some kind of punishment they deserve and can
then go about their lives.
But
John wasn’t speaking truth just to step on people’s toes or to be harsh; John
was speaking truths that needed to be heard, and people respond to that kind of
honesty. Every historical moment
has truths that need to be heard, and John was certainly speaking truth to his
historical moment. As I was
thinking about John this week, I was wondering, do we have any prophets today?
Do we have any truth tellers? It was a struggle for
me to come up with names of people I would consider a modern day prophet. (After my message, I did have some
suggestions, some of whom I agreed had prophetic messages, but I’m still not
sure who I would say is a modern day prophet. I consider there to be prophetic voices in our culture, and
one of them is Wendell Berry. I
believe that Wendell is an important voice of truth today, but for two reasons
I did not mention him as a prophet of today. First, Wendell bristles at being considered a prophet, so I
did not want to place upon him a mantle that he resists. Second, though Wendell is widely known,
he is still unknown in many circles in our society, and I was trying to think
of people who meet two qualifications – they are known by almost all Americans
and they are also widely acknowledged as filling an important, prophetic
role. Upon further reflection, I
realized that such a person may not exist today because we are so fragmented as
a society that we could never come to any broad acknowledgement about a person
who would widely be considered as having a prophetic voice. But perhaps a true prophetic voice can
only come from the margins, which means they will never be fully acknowledged
by many people. In that respect,
Wendell Berry certainly does fulfill the role of prophet, as does Thomas
Merton, whose name was suggested to me.
It may also be that a prophetic voice does not always come from an
individual. The voice of the media
certainly offers, at times, a prophetic voice. It may also be movements that offer a prophetic voice, such
as the movement that is now sweeping through our country calling out sexual
harassment).
2. John reminded us that we must do what is right.
While most of us don’t claim to be the moral
equivalent of Mother Teresa, we will agree that we’re not bad people. We try to
be nice and treat other with decency.
That’s good. There is much
to commend for being nice to your family, friends, neighbors, and
coworkers. It’s a good thing to do
nice things to others.
But what John is talking about is something
much deeper, because he is not defining us by what we avoid. John says that it’s not enough to
simply avoid things such as being mean to someone or treating someone un-neighborly;
John is saying we are also to be people of action. Having just celebrated Thanksgiving, it is important to note
that we are very much influenced by the tradition of Puritanism, which was
defined by avoiding particular sins, such as drinking and dancing. The Puritans emphasized personal piety,
and to a point there is nothing wrong with that, but we cannot be defined
simply by what we avoid. The Pharisees,
for instance, were the classic examples of this, as they met all the
requirements of what to avoid, but Jesus often found them greatly deficient in
their spirituality. Jesus, in
fact, was often critical of the Pharisees and others who did all the right
things when it came to personal piety – they followed all the dietary laws, and
they avoided all the things they were supposed to avoid, but to Jesus, that
simply wasn’t enough. As much as
the Pharisees were examples of great piety, listen to a few of the things Jesus
had to say to them –
13 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and
Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in
people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who
are trying to.
14 Woe to you, teachers of the law and
Pharisees, you hypocrites! You
devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. Therefore you will be punished more severely.
15 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and
Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single
convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of
hell as you are.
16 “Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If
anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the
gold of the temple is bound by that oath.’
17 You blind fools! Which is greater: the
gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred?
18 You also say, ‘If anyone swears by the
altar, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gift on the altar is
bound by that oath.’
19 You blind men! Which is greater: the
gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred?
20 Therefore, anyone who swears by the
altar swears by it and by everything on it.
21 And anyone who swears by the temple
swears by it and by the one who dwells in it.
22 And anyone who swears by heaven swears
by God’s throne and by the one who sits on it.
23 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and
Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and
cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice,
mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without
neglecting the former.
24 You blind guides! You strain out a gnat
but swallow a camel.
25 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and
Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but
inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.
26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside
of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
27 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and
Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful
on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and
everything unclean.
28 In the same way, on the outside you
appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and
wickedness. Matthew
23:13-28.
Wow.
Now that’s some truth-telling!
Here is the lesson we are to learn – it’s great
to avoid certain things and to live a pious lifestyle, but at some point that
is simply not enough. At some
point, it’s not enough to define our righteousness by what we don’t do; our righteousness must be
defined by what we do. The Parable of the Good Samaritan is a
good example of this –
25 On one occasion an expert in the law
stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal
life?”
26 “What is written in the Law?” he
replied. “How do you read it?”
27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God
with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with
all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus
replied. “Do this and you will live.”
29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he
asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going
down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped
him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead.
31 A priest happened to be going down the
same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.
32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the
place and saw him, passed by on the other side.
33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came
where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him.
34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds,
pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to
an inn and took care of him.
35 The next day he took out two denarii and
gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I
will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
36 “Which of these three do you think was a
neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
37 The expert in the law replied, “The one
who had mercy on him.” Jesus told
him, “Go and do likewise.” Luke 10:25-37.
The priest and
Levite, pillars of righteousness, did nothing to help the man who was beaten,
robbed, and left by the roadside.
Their righteousness, measured by what they avoided, did nothing to help
the injured man. To Jesus, it was
more important that they did
something, rather than simply avoiding
certain things, in order to be righteous.
In the book of James we find a similar message
–
14 What good is it, my brothers and
sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save
them?
15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without
clothes and daily food.
16 If one of you says to them, “Go in
peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs,
what good is it?
17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it
is not accompanied by action, is dead.
18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I
have deeds.” Show me your faith
without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.
19 You believe that there is one God. Good!
Even the demons believe that—and shudder.
20 You foolish person, do you want evidence
that faith without deeds is useless?
21 Was not our father Abraham considered
righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?
22 You see that his faith and his actions
were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did.
23 And the scripture was fulfilled that
says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and
he was called God’s friend.
24 You see that a person is considered
righteous by what they do and not by faith alone. James 2:14-24
3.
John was not afraid to get political.
I was somewhat amazed by how many news articles
I read last week about how to avoid arguing about politics over Thanksgiving
dinner. It’s a sad commentary on
the state of our culture when we can’t discuss our ideas and beliefs with our
own families. My family had
Thanksgiving dinner at the home of one of my sisters, in West Virginia, and at
one point I brought up a political topic about West Virginia politics but it
died fairly quickly, and maybe that was a good thing. My mom says there were two subjects they weren’t allowed to
talk about at the dinner table when she was growing up – politics and
religion. Wherever you gathered
for Thanksgiving, I hope you didn’t argue, but I can’t help but feel sad that
we can’t talk about important subjects without so easily falling into
contentiousness and arguments.
John was absolutely not afraid to talk about politics
or to inject himself into politics.
If anyone told him it was bad manners to talk about politics, he certainly
didn’t listen. If he had listened,
perhaps he wouldn’t have lost his head.
Literally. John’s meddling
in politics cost him his life. Herod famously had John decapitated
because of John’s criticism that Herod had taken his brother’s wife into his
house. Herod was not pleased with
this critique, but Herodias – his brother’s wife – was particularly offended,
and set a trap for Herod, forcing him into the execution by having her daughter
dance on the condition that Herod grant her anything she would ask. Her request was for the head of John,
an action that Herod had been reluctant to take because of John’s popularity,
and because he liked to listen to John, in spite of the fact that John was
critical of him (because
Herod feared John and protected him, knowing him to be a righteous and holy
man. When Herod heard John, he was greatly puzzled; yet he liked to listen to
him – Mark
6:20). Herod did, however, grant the request to have John beheaded
(1 At that time Herod the tetrarch heard
the reports about Jesus,
2 and
he said to his attendants, “This is John the Baptist; he has risen from the
dead! That is why miraculous powers are at work in him.”
3 Now
Herod had arrested John and bound him and put him in prison because of
Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife,
4 for
John had been saying to him: “It is not lawful for you to have her.”
5 Herod
wanted to kill John, but he was afraid of the people, because they considered
John a prophet.
6 On Herod’s birthday the daughter of
Herodias danced for the guests and pleased Herod so much
7 that he promised with an oath to give
her whatever she asked.
8 Prompted
by her mother, she said, “Give me here on a platter the head of John the
Baptist.”
9 The king was distressed, but because of
his oaths and his dinner guests, he ordered that her request be granted
10 and had John beheaded in the prison.
11 His head was brought in on a platter and
given to the girl, who carried it to her mother.
12 John’s disciples came and took his body
and buried it. Then they went and told Jesus. Matthew
14:1-12).
John says in verse 17 of this morning’s text
that His
winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the
wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. After 400 years of silence, God was again
speaking. After 400 years of what
seems to be absence, God is stepping into human history. And as God spoke and stepped into
history, God was not very happy about the state of things, and this is why John
was not afraid to step into politics – because politics controls so much of the
human condition, if we don’t speak to politics we will never do much to change
the human condition. Even today, it’s
the same pattern of injustice and status-quo sanctioned suffering that
continues to plague humanity, as it has from the beginning. Jesus was coming, John said, and he’s
going to do something about the mess that humanity has created.
God had something to say to those in power, as
God always has. God continues to
have something to say to those in power.
We live in a world where so many people continue to struggle under
oppression, where so many must struggle under inequality, and where so many
must struggle with injustice.
Freedom, equality, and justice are gifts of God to all people and it is
necessary that we step forward and use our voices to proclaim that all people
should be given these gifts from God.
We are in the midst of a very interesting and
powerful historical moment. Many
things are changing. Many things
need to change. Many things must
change. Will they change, or will
the moment pass? Only time will
tell, but it must be our hope and prayer that change does come. But it must also be our action as well,
because the freedom and the other gifts of God will not come to the people who
are lacking in them unless we speak up and become a prophetic voice for them.
John was the one who prepared the way for
Jesus. When Jesus came, God’s
kingdom came to this world. It
might seem as though we are still waiting for God’s kingdom to come to fruition
but it is here, it is taking root, and it is growing. We might not always see God’s kingdom, but rest assured that
it is present. God’s kingdom is
not just a future hope; it is a present reality. The world might not be what God wants, but one day it
will. One day there will be peace
for all. One day there will be
equality for all. One day there
will be justice for all. One day
love will rule. One day. It might not be today, but the day is
coming, and that is the truth!
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