Sermon on John 1.6-8, 19-28

The Rev. Joseph Peters-Mathews

St. Joseph-St. John Episcopal Church, Lakewood

December 20, 2017

Advent 3, B

John 1.6-8,19-28

Y’all.

The church knows what it’s doing.

At least in the northern hemisphere.

The sun is setting earlier and earlier

            and rising later and later

                        and we have a man in the wilderness

                        testifying about the light.

If this text sounds

            ridiculously familiar, that’s okay.

We heard Mark’s version last week.

The introduction of John the Baptizer,

            coming to testify about the light.

While Mark’s text is likely a transcription

            of a one-person performance,

                        writing down the script

                        storytellers would recite

            John’s text has no accidents.

Every word in John,

            every theme,

every story arc

            was carefully chosen to tell the story

            John the Evangelist wanted to communicate.

In today’s passage

            the themes of light and dark —

                        the themes of John —

                        make their first appearance.

Jesus is the light

            that the darkness does not defeat.

John is preparing the occupied Israelites

            for the arrival of Jesus in his public ministry.

The church is preparing us

            for both Jesus’ birth

            and the end of the world,

                        when all things are made right.

John comes to testify to the Light,

            and Jewish leaders come from Jerusalem

to ask him who he is.

First he’s full of negatives:

“I’m not the Messiah.

I’m not Elijah.

I’m not the prophet.”

The frustration of those sent to question John

            is no accident in this passage either.

“Let us have an answer for those who sent us.

What do you say about yourself?”

John is in the first chapter

            setting up a tension, a friction,

                        between Jewish leaders

                                    and those following Jesus as the Christ.

“I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness,

‘Make straight the way of the Lord.’”

“Make straight the way of the Lord.”

Last week I preached about

            how no matter how much we do

            no matter how hard we try

to make straight the way of the Lord

                                    we can’t do enough.

Rather than that being frustrating,

            it should be a relief.

It doesn’t mean we shirk our responsibilities,

            it means we embrace the gift of grace that God has given us.

No matter how hard we try

            we can’t make God love us.

Because God loves us anyway.

There is nothing we can do,

            to make God like us more

                        or to set ourselves up to be better in God’s eyes

            because God loves us.

Full stop.

It’s not to attempt to earn that love

            but rather in response to that love

                        that we should heed John the Baptizer’s cry

            Prepare the way of the Lord!

Get ready for Jesus —

            for his birth and his reign.

The passage we have from John today

            about John the Baptizer

                        says nothing of repentance.

This text is about John

            calling for preparation

                        and John himself

testifying about the light.

Shortly after I was called to be your vicar,

            but before I had started,

                        I received a very, very long text —

                        longer than most of my sermons.

This acquaintance of mine wrote,

“I don’t mind that you see things differently than me,

but I just don’t understand why

 you have to bring all that to the pulpit.

That’s the part that confuses, discourages,

and ultimately hurts me so much.

I will never understand why you or [my local priest]

or any countless numbers of SBC preachers

waste such an awesome opportunity

on trying to advance a political and social agenda.”

Over the course of years,

            this friend has failed to understand

                        that when I preach on contemporary social issues

                        as they relate to the Gospel

                                    I’m doing my best to testify to the Light.

When I spoke about the tax bill last week

            (which is out of reconciliation

and will still be devastating for the poor)

            it was because my faith in Jesus

                        moves me to speak.

What my friend saw as using the pulpit

            to push a political agenda

                        I see as using our political system

                        to push a Gospel agenda.

Today in the beginning of John’s gospel

            we have a witness and model for how to live

                        as we prepare the way of the Lord.

John the Baptizer comes to testify to the light

            to tell people that Jesus is coming

                        and then that Jesus has begun his ministry.

In our baptisms we promise

            to do the same thing.

We promise to proclaim by word and example

            the Good News of God in Christ.

John was not the Messiah,

            and neither are we.

We can never make the paths straight enough

            for God to love us

                        but we have to make them

as straight as we can

            because of how much God does love us.

How are you,

            how are we

                        preparing the way of the Lord

                                    so that all people know the salvation of our God?

Sermon on Mark 1.1-8

The Rev. Joseph Peters-Mathews

St. Joseph-St. John Episcopal Church, Lakewood

December 10, 2017

Advent 2, B

Mark 1.1-8

When I was in seminary,

            my friend Ben did and impersonation

                        of southern fundamentalists.

I’m not even sure that’s the right impression,

            but the way he would widen his eye,

                        fry his voice,

                                    and say “REPENT!”

was basically the call of a prophet.

Three years ago I was in a really bad mood

and posted on Facebook,

            “I'm totally in the Advent spirit.

The same Advent spirit as Isaiah

in today's Office reading: WOE TO EVERYONE!”

Last week I said,

“In Advent the Church tells us

to get ready for the Son of Man coming in clouds

                        and the angels collecting Jesus’ followers.

In Advent the Church tells us

to get ready for the beginning of Christ’s reign.

In Advent, it’s the end of the world as we know it.”

I reminded us that we don’t come to church

            just to feel good

                        and that it’s hard to feel good when Jesus is talking about

                                    a dark sun and moon.

I also said that following Jesus,

            breaking bread and pouring wine,

                        changes the world.

Today’s gospel text

            is about getting ready

for the beginning of Christ’s Reign.

Isaiah says that someone will be sent

            Saying, “Prepare the way of the Lord!”

Mark says that the beginning of Jesus’ Good News

            is John the Baptizer appearing in the wilderness,

                        and proclaiming a baptism of repentance

for the forgiveness of sins.

If we needed anything clearer that

            church isn’t just about feeling good,

                        it’s that John preaches a baptism of repentance

                                    to make the paths straight

                                    before the coming of the Christ.

Proclaiming a baptism of repentance

for the forgiveness of sins

            is the beginning of the Good News.

Let’s wrap our brains around that.

People wanting to be told they’re bad

            is what brings crowds?

No, I don’t think that’s it at all.

People don’t want to be told they’re bad.

They look around —

            at global poverty,

            at climate change,

            at persistent unchecked police brutality —

                        and they know that we’re not good enough.

John preaches a baptism of repentance

            and that’s good news

                        because we can’t be good enough.

It’s good news to know that we aren’t doing enough

            because we can’t do enough.

However,

            that doesn’t mean we don’t try.

We don’t try to do enough,

            but we do keep trying to make God’s reign

                        here around us.

A read through of Mark’s Gospel

            shows how many times Jesus says,

                        “The kingdom of God is at hand!”

In Advent we prepare

for Christ’s coming in final glory

            for the end of the world as we know it

                        by repenting of the ways we fail.

After we repent

            we ask for a greater awareness of how we’ve failed

                        and a better resolve to not fail in the future.

Our failures are sometimes personal,

            and sometimes communal.

Despite the myth of American rugged individualism

            we rely on one another in one way or another

                        for so many things we do.

We get here on road we paid for collectively.

Our funding is aided by ways everyone

            contributes to the diocese through the assessment.

Inside and outside this place

            we're represented by elected officials

                        and often know people represented by different officials.

As the tax reform bill comes out of reconciliation

            we are called to be voices for the poor

                        who will be utterly devastated by this plan

                                    and to talk not only to our elected officials

                                    but those in other parts of the state and country as well.

During the general confession today

            I’ll be repenting

of not yet talking to anyone I know in Alabama

            about their senate special election on Tuesday

                        and all that is at stake in it.

John preaches a baptism of repentance

            for the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.

Crowds come to him

            to hear that they have failed

                        and more importantly, that they are forgiven.

When we take the Bread and Wine,

            we are forgiven of all our sins.

Gathering together

            to hear John proclaim the need of repentance

            and then taking time to repent,

                        to acknowledge simply that we aren’t perfect

                                    that from time to time — or a lot of times —

                                    we fail

                                                changes the world.

In a world of fake news and alternative facts

            simply saying, “I was wrong” or “We were wrong”

                        is revolutionary.

Following Jesus is revolutionary

            when we actually do it.

Coming to church can’t be a disconnection

            from the world outside

                        because we’ve made promises

to change the world outside.

Coming to church can’t just be about feeling good

            when we’ve got John the Baptizer telling us

                        that although he baptized with water

                                    Jesus will baptize us with fire.

Mark says this is the beginning of the Good News.

It starts with saying, “I’ve failed. I’m sorry.”

It only gets better from there!

It gets better when we break bread and pour wine,

            when we are forgiven our sins and offenses

                        and empowered to go change the world.

 In Advent we wait for Christs’ coming back,

            and we change the world so that it’s ready.