PAST SERMON 2009 #13
by Reverend Judith Alltree, delivered on Sunday December 6, 2009,
at the Church of the Holy Spirit. (Advent II)
Signs and Portents
See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight — indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. (MALACHI 3:1)
“The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. (LUKE 3:4)
A man listening to the radio one day heard a report of a flood heading in the direction of his home. The reporter urged all the listeners to head for higher ground. The man thought to himself, “I am a good person. The Lord loves me. He’ll make sure I’m safe.” And so he stayed in his home.
The water rose alarmingly, so high it broke over the banks of the river beside his home, and crept up towards his front porch. A couple in a rowboat came to his home and offered to take him to higher ground. “No thanks!” he told them, “I am a good person. The Lord loves me. He’ll make sure I’m safe.” The rowers left the man behind.
The water continued to rise. The man was forced to take refuge on the roof of his house. A helicopter flew overhead, and dropped a ladder down to him. “We’ll take you to safety” the crew told him. “No thanks!” the man replied, “I am a good person. The Lord loves me. He’ll make sure I’m safe.”
The man died. When he reached heaven, was furious with the Lord. “I’m a good man, and you love me” he complained, “why didn’t you try to help me?” “What do you think a radio program, a rowboat and a helicopter were?” was the Lord’s response.
This story only serves to illustrate how we spend a lot of time looking for the answers to our questions, when the answer is often staring us in the face, coming from an unlikely person, place or direction.
I live in downtown Toronto, at the corner of opulence and poverty. The Cathedral grounds are often where the homeless congregate, living as many do, particularly throughout the nicer weather, in the gazebo in St. James’ Park. I wonder what would happen if one of these folk suddenly began to proclaim “Prepare the Way of the Lord!” to all the people who walk through the park? Try to imagine the response! If they didn’t all run for cover, some bright light would probably call the police, claiming political incorrectness, if nothing else.
Well, leap back twenty centuries in your mind and that is the effect this same sentence had on the local population, coming as it did from John the Baptist. Essentially homeless, dressing in whatever happened to be available — as I often see homeless folk wearing a hodgepodge of clothing — eating whatever is available to him, such as wild locusts and honey — John the Baptist, son of Zechariah, cousin of Jesus of Nazareth, was to say the very least an unlikely messenger of God.
We often have this preconceived notion of exactly what a heavenly messenger will look like, or what a heavenly message will sound like, and for the most part we are wrong, which is actually the best part. Why should we think that divine messages of salvation and glory are going to come through someone who has the right job, right income, right education, address or appearance? How often is our hope placed in the wrong place — in those whom we believe will help but only end up disappointing us for one reason or another, or worse, who have no intentions of helping but only of taking advantage of us, or worse, because they look “right”. Who would believe that God could use a semi-wild homeless person as a messenger? The same person that couldn’t believe God would send a rowboat, a radio program or a helicopter to save him.
But lets take this concept one step further: who would have believed God would send the most important message in the history of the world through a newborn baby? In the words of Andrew Lloyd Webber, “You'd have managed better if you'd had it planned.
Why'd you choose such a backward time in such a strange land?” (“Jesus Christ Superstar”, AL Webber) But God doesn’t care about how we view things, or who we think should bring His divine messages. “God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.” And it was certain, as time went on, that John the Baptist, and eventually Jesus, brought shame to the self-righteous but new life to those without hope.
Where do we see signs of God’s presence in the world today? Perhaps the single most important sign of God’s presence, as living and active in the world today, is about to take place right here: it is the sacrament of baptism. Two small children, called by God through their parents to be baptized in this church today, are the messengers that we seek; two small children, one infant, one toddler, weak by human standards, mighty by God’s. And it is God who will use these two children to spread his own message of hope in this world, through their very lives as Christians.
But here comes the difficult part: we have a job to do. Malachi spoke of the “refiner’s fire”. It’s the fire that, when applied to gold and silver, burns away all the impurities, cleans the metal and gives it its mirror-like shine. It’s cleansing fire, and brings all the brilliance and light to the metals. When each of these children is baptized with water, we say they have died and been reborn with Christ. Then they will each be anointed with oil, as a sign of Christ’s love for them. It is with the fire of the Holy Spirit through their baptism that they will be cleansed of all that is impure in them, now and in the future. And this is where our part comes in: we as a congregation will promise to do our part to enable these children to live as disciples of Christ, free from the impurities of our hearts, minds and actions that get in the way of our relationship with God. So we act as ‘refiners’ ourselves: living our lives as examples for these children to follow; renouncing all that separates us from God (which is what repentance is all about) and living together as a community of God’s people in a place and way that these children will always be able to know they are safe and they are loved.
And at the same time, we can look to these children to be our messengers of hope and promise from God. As I said earlier, who would have thought God would use a wild homeless man to deliver a message of the coming of the Kingdom of God? Who would have thought the Kingdom of God would come to us through a tiny child?
Shall we try and lose some of our ageist prejudices? Why do we always look to the so-called high and mighty when we think we need help or direction? Let’s look into the faces of these beautiful children, and see what God is trying to tell us today.
AMEN.