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Dec. 13t. Advent 3- C.
MLC, H. Fege, D. Min., Ocean View, NJ Zephaniah 3. 14020, Phil. 4. 4-7, Lk. 3. 7-18 Enough already! This is the third week or maybe second, that
John the Baptist has messed up our cozy Christmas music with caution cones of “road work ahead!” The voice of one crying in the wilderness.
I couldn’t help but look ahead to see what next Sunday will
bring… "Thank God" we
leave John and come to the story of Elizabeth and Mary. Both women are
along in their pregnancy. But for today we again hear about the wild man in the
wilderness - maybe it is exactly what we need as an antidote to all the
commercialism, jingle bells and I’m dreaming of a white Christmas that
crowds out the truth about this world… People don’t come to Church two weeks before Xmas to be
called children of snakes. We come for the soft glow of candle light,
decorations, and Christmas pageants, with daddy's little
angel and grandma’s little shepherd doing their thing. But we are Lutheran – of good German and Scandinavian stock.
As Garrison Keillor of Lake Woebegone and Prairie Home
Companion will tell you, we are a people accustomed to the stiff upper lip,
long dark winters, and not prone to complain.
So we endure the Penitential posture of Advent. I am one of those persons who has a difficult time taking
anything at face value, be that an advertisement for a trip to Disney World
with free nights and round-trip air fare or another subscription to Better
Home and Gardens for only $10.00 I don’t know if that is because I am a product of 21st
century empiricism or because I had a father who believed everything he read
including the ads for Miracle Ear. I don’t know how many times I helped him re-pack a hearing
aid that did not work as promised or a carrot peeler that cost $20.00 and did
no better than the kitchen knife. Read the fine print
dad – read the fine print. The fine print in today’s Gospel, tells me that repentance
is more than a verb meaning to have remorse. Fred Beuchner, the Presbyterian
writer tells us it means to come to your senses. It is not so much something you do as something that happens. True repentance spends less time looking at
the past and saying “I’m sorry" than to the future and saying “Wow!” The crowds that come to hear John asked what does repentance
look like? “What shall we do?” John said this is what repentance looks
like. That you learn to share your material goods with those who
have less, that you are fair to those with whom your conduct business, that you
not misuse the power of your office. How many shoes and coats and suits and dresses are in your
closet right now… and when you buy a new dress or suit, is it because the old
one is worn out or because the it no longer fashionable? “Let whoever has two coats share with those who have none.” When the Advent wreath was unpacked and I tried to assemble
it, the thread holding the bottom screw was stripped. We called the supplier who express-shipped,
not just the bolt that was stripped, but a whole new advent wreath… In the mean time John, at Now we had two wreaths for the price of one… “Collect no more
than is appointed you.” I returned the second one. Repentance means being right with God. This is very different from the way culture deals with those
who have “trespassed.” When it was discovered that Bernie Madoff had made off with
billions of other people’s money, it was suggested by someone that his
punishment should be a sort of repentance, which required him to work to pay off
his debt to society. The answer from the legal system was that justice is more
concerned with retribution than repentance. So, we really haven’t come very far from the “eye for an eye
and tooth for a tooth” philosophy of the OT. While The hell-raiser of the wilderness shows us a more excellent
way. Right deeds take us down the path of rightness… or
Righteousness. No wonder people thought John was the Messiah. It would take
a Messiah to do what is humanly impossible to do for us. Jesus would say that he came to fulfill rather than to
abolish righteousness. He did what we seem to be unable to do. Lutherans live by grace alone. But that doesn’t mean we need
to give up on right deeds. Repentance is doing the right thing... It is a daily walk with the wild man of the wilderness. In conclusion, I’ll give you some ways that I do that. I believe that it
will open me up to the real meaning of Advent all year long. But before I do that, I must tell you that the path will be
different for each of you. Just as the “tax collectors” were called to do something
different from the soldiers and the “multitudes who had two coats were told to
give one away-- each person was challenged to re-think the power structure
of their station in life which gave them the advantage. So it is with us. If repentance is moving from looking at
the past to looking to the future it means letting go of past hurt or past ways
of thinking and doing and moving into uncharted territory. For me it means leaving as small a carbon
footprint as possible. . e.g. recycling paper, plastic, tin... giving away
stuff that I don’t need. Notice I said giving away. I don’t like yard sales. All that yard sales do is a
recycling among neighbors... or worse selling your stuff so you can buy more
stuff. I give away books, and recently even a car. MJ and I are
still working on that one. Advent and Christmas is a great time for
repentance... if it means doing something different. Do kids and grown-ups really need all those presents? If you have to give a
present to the grandchildren, or husband or wife, give something that involves
spending time with them. Or if you can't be there, write a letter telling them how
much they mean to you and why. Repentance means taking care of myself better so I can take
better care of others… Repentance means becoming informed on current issues so you
can make informed decisions when it comes to casting a vote. Repentance means cutting up your BOA credit card so those
fat cats and CEO’s are denied their million dollar bonuses! Repentance means letting go
of prejudice when it comes to people who are different from you, either
because they have a different skin color or because they speak a different language or because
they have a different religion or no religion or because they just don’t get
it. Repentance may mean that instead of breaking the bank this
Christmas in trying to make everyone happy, that you look into the face of
those around you who will neither give nor receive gifts. It could mean a change in attitude from “We have never done
it that way before to “Wow, let's see how
this will work out!” Repentance may mean letting go of the King James and
learning the Lord’s Prayer
in our own language. As you can see, the list is endless. And that is the whole point.
Repentance is a paradigm shift from “I’m sorry,” to "Wow!” |
