Advent is the season about preparation for what is coming,
and there are three ways of Christ coming:
as the baby in Bethlehem,
as the Spirit of the Risen Christ with us,
and as the final coming in glory and for the judgment that sets all at right.
This week we get John the Baptist
and his message about preparing the way for the Lord.
We hear the quintessential Advent Gospel:
“Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!
Prepare the Way of the Lord!”
Advent just wouldn’t be Advent without John the Baptist.
His role in calling us to repentance is one very important element
in our preparation to celebrate Christmas.
Amid all the decorating and putting up the tree and musical presentations
and shopping and baking
and Christmas cards or email newsletters to send out,
here is John the Baptist poking his head into the fun
with a cold-water reality check.
It’s not all about the baby Jesus and shepherds and angels.
It is about a self-reflective preparation for a coming encounter with Jesus.
John the Baptist is keyed into the message of the prophets about the Messiah
a Messiah who is fearsome and powerful, violent even in his coming.
As we heard from the Isaiah reading, a Messiah who will
not judge by what his eyes see,
or decide by what his ears hear;
but with righteousness he shall judge the poor/
he shall vindicate the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
So John is preaching in the fiery style of the prophets of old,
and no one escapes his critical remarks.
“You brood of vipers,” he calls the Pharisees and the Sadducees;
now the Sadducees are the priests, the clergy,
and the Pharisees are those known for their upright living.
You bunch of vipers/poisoners, he calls them,
you poison the people with the way you practice your religion.
You are coming to me, John says, because you can feel the fire on your backsides.
Well then, bear fruit worthy of repentance.
Rather than poisoning those you come in contact with,
you are to be fruitful for them.
And the Baptist tells us how to prepare for the coming of the One
who will change everything for you.
“I baptize you with water for repentance,” John says,
“but HE will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
John is pointing to Jesus as a baptizer with fire
pictured with a winnowing fork and a threshing floor,
implements for purging wheat from its chaff, stalks, leaves
and other detritus
so that the only thing that is left is what is fruitful.
We are talking about a spiritual process
that Jesus wants to accomplish in us,
a process of purging, purifying, changing us.
We could look at Advent then as an exhortation to engage in a four week vigil,
a spiritual exercise in watching, waiting AND being willing to be changed,
being willing to get turned around, getting repentance.
This is where Advent can get serious if we are to pay attention
to the Bible verses we had read to us this morning.
So let me help us all to do a little self-reflection here
about what this might mean on a practical and personal level.
Jesus coming at us with a pitchfork or a flame thrower is a rather scary image,
but that’s the way John the Baptist got folks’ attention.
Let’s look at another version of this: from the Gospel of John, chapter 15.
Jesus said,
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower.
He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit.
Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. …
Abide in me as I abide in you.
Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.
I am the vine, you are the branches.
Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit,
because apart from me you can do nothing.
Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.
My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit
and become my disciples.
As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.”
I prefer Jesus’ description of purging over John the Baptist’s way of describing it.
Now I am no gardener,
but I do know the difference between trimming a hedge and pruning roses.
The idea with a hedge is that you trim off all of the branches and leaves
along the sides and the top so that they are even.
But you shouldn’t do that with rose bushes.
There you need to cut each bush individually,
checking each branch to see where to cut it,
so that it will produce more blossoms.
From my own limited experience I know that each rose bush
is its own unique self.
And if you prune it correctly, you can coax a whole lot more blossoms out of it.
In our case God is the one doing the pruning.
We don’t prune ourselves.
But we can cooperate.
That will make it easier on ourselves,
because, as the old saying goes, what you resist, persists.
And if you ask me how do I cooperate with this spiritual process of getting pruned/purged/purified,
well, you might guess what I would say.
One very good, and particularly advent-y way
is to meditate:
to sit and wait and be alert/awake, but do nothing
so as to allow for God to work without your interference.
That is one spiritual practice for cooperating with God’s grace and mercy
purifying us.
So what does this purging accomplish in us?
The chaff, the useless is removed.
What is fruitful, nourishing and life-giving is enhanced.
Think of what that means practically.
Think of it in terms of relationships.
Think about how that would impact the way we talk with each other,
- not just within these walls, but out there -
how we see each other,
what our attitudes and motivations are with each other.
We would see the judgments and assumptions and stereotyping
that have kept us separated and fearful of one another.
We would see how we use others, maneuver and manipulate
for our own ends.
We would see how we discount others, turn a blind eye,
how the heart is cold,
or how we just plain fail to see how interconnected and interdependent
we all really are with one another.
This is the kind of self-reflection work that we need to do,
because we are each a different rose bush
needing customized pruning.
This personal work is important right now,
not just as an Advent spiritual exercise
but because of what is happening currently in the world around us.
The word to describe it that has gotten a lot of use is “unprecedented.”
What can we do about the climate crisis?
the polarization that paralyzes effectiveness in government?
the increase in racism?
the fear of those different from us now becoming neighbors?
The important thing is to respond, and not react, especially out of fear.
This is our course of action for whatever happens:
respond instead of reacting.
And in order to do that, we first must understand and see clearly
that we do not have within ourselves
or in any resource derived from the world
the knowledge, insight and understanding
to do the work it will take for what we want to engage or change.
The sufficient knowledge we seek for an outcome that benefits all
will come only through spiritual awakening.
If we can be a faith community in which this awakening is born,
we will then know how to serve others in effective action.
It really is best to prepare spiritually for action
being willing to wait for spiritual awakening and knowledge
to come to birth in you.
This birthing is not impossible, nor is it even difficult.
Be awake, watchful,
willing to sit in the fire of the Holy Spirit baptism
until you can acknowledge what has been given you –
the inner spiritual healing,
the presence of Jesus which is the guiding and empowering factor
for what the world needs,
waiting for the coming Christ to be born in you
for the sake of the world.
This is important.
You have a role to play.
You can make a difference
if you let God work in you
for the sake of the world.
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