Sermon for the Third Sunday in Advent

• I started this sermon earlier this week, with the hope of coming to some wonderful insight to share with all of you. We're deep into Advent and the preparation for Christmas, both in church and in our homes and places of business and there's always something to preach upon whether it is Paul's exhortation to joy and gentleness or where we might find the Good News in John the Baptizer's rather direct “fire and brimstone” preaching to the people of his day.
• Then events caught up with me. First came a report of a man wounding 22 children and an adult at a kindergarten in China. Details were sketchy, but it was known that the man used a knife.
• Later Friday brought the news of the horrendous tragedy in Newtown, CT in the United States. I don't think I need to go over the details of this tragedy, so I'll just say that a large number of very young elementary school students as well as teachers and school administrators were shot and killed in a terrifying situation at the school.
• Then there was Saturday. News reports came of a man shooting and wounding 3 people at a hospital in Birmingham, Alabama before a police constable shot and killed him. My heart sank once again.
• I'm almost afraid to look at the news from now on. Yet, I need to. I need to know what is going on, as much as it tears me up. I've gotten to the point where I don't have any words to say. I couldn't possibly speak to the horror of either of the situations; there are no words that could make any difference. Prayer almost seems too simple and there are no words appear to come from God that would be enough to heal the hearts of those who suffer from such violence.
• Since then, the blaming has begun. The violence is laid at the door of the pervasive “gun culture” of the United States, the lack of prayer in schools, the absence of armed teachers in the school, or the use of psychiatric medications and their side effects. The fringe groups are calling this God's wrath and punishment over gay marriage. I'm waiting for in inevitable shriek that says the federal government planned and did this action as a provocation and an excuse to take away law-abiding citizens' guns.
• Frankly this stuff sickens me about as much as the incidents themselves. Families are grieving and small people want to make political hay from the tragedy.
• I hope we're thoughtful people and won't jump to such conclusions.
• We are still left with some echoing questions; Where is there meaning in such senseless violence? Where is grace in such grace-less moments?
• I don't have the answers. To say “It's God's will” would not help anyone and I think it would be a horrible lie. The killing of innocent children would NOT be the will of God, even though God would permit such a thing to happen. To cry out for vengeance would more likely play into our personal desires to play God than to offer some comfort to the grieving and broken people involved. To jump to conclusions about what caused it or who was behind the incident could be either hysteria or selfish opportunism.
• So where are we. The best place we might be is in mourning for shattered families and a shattered peace. Many of us – too many of us – know what it is suffer violence and to endure loss. This gathering of Christians knows and feels.
• Maybe John the Baptizer's preaching holds something for us today. Let's get beyond his calling names like “brood of vipers” and go to his answer to the people's question, “What then should we do?”
• John responds in his blunt, prophetic style: Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise... Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you... Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages."
• For us today (no tax collectors or Roman legionaries among us so far as I know), the preaching of John is very real, very powerful, and really very simple. Justice... Humility... Community... Concern for others...
• Justice - as the tax collectors were told to collect their proper amount, as the soldiers were told to be honest and not stoop to extortion, we are reminded that we are not to see others as means for us to get rich... or famous... or powerful.
• Humility and Community– Take your pay, John tells the soldiers, and be content. Two-coats should share with no-coats and food is the property of all. We're all in this together and we'll only get where we're going together.
• Concern for others – None of us are the center of the universe. As I said, we'll only get where we're going if we go together.

Before all this, John lays out a warning: “Who warned you...?” What he is saying is “Take this seriously!!” John's preaching is not just a novelty to be experienced. He's not out in the wilderness, dressed in a hair shirt and eating grasshoppers for fun and financial gain or for the people's entertainment. He's a prophet of the old mold. He is serious and he asks his listeners to be serious about it, too.

It terrible to say that the events of the past few days should make us think about how we treat each other and what we value. It might be more terrible to think that these events WON'T make us think.

John's preaching stands parallel to the events of the day. We still have to prepare for the One Who Is To Come... and not just by putting up lights and wrapping presents. As John would say “Bear fruits worthy of repentance. ”