Daughter of Zion, shout aloud, oh Israel. Be glad and rejoice with all your heart. Oh daughter, Jerusalem. For the Lord Ruler real move his hand of judgment and will disperse the armies of your enemy and the Lord Himself, the king of Israel will live among you. At last, your troubles will be over, and you will never again fear disaster. On that day, the announcement of Jerusalem will be cheer up Zion. Don't be afraid. For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With His love, He will call them all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs. I will gather you who mourn for the appointed festivals. You will be disgraced no more, and I will deal severely with all who have oppressed you. I will save the weak and helpless ones I will bring together those who are chased away. I will give glory and fame to my former exiles, wherever they have been mocked and shamed. On that day, I will gather you together and bring you home again. I'll give you a good name, a name of distinction among all the nations of the earth as I restore your fortunes before their very eyes, I the LORD have spoken.
It's at this time I probably should walk out of the building. I've been absent for the past two times that Greg has preached but he's been absent when I've preached. No, I am so blessed to know that our brother is here to bring us a word. Father, we just thank you for Greg and his preparedness, his love for you. We ask right now that you bless him with an understanding of what you want to be said. And we ask that we will be given the courage to obey it. Thank you Father Jesus Christ name Amen.
Amen. Good morning Okay, let's see if I can make it through without kicking that cup of coffee over
Yes, and there it is but the table the table
that is a my bad like we should have lit lit that with the reading right
so I'm going to relight.
And I believe he said pink is this week right
and this week justice is our theme got it? No fire hazards here
so yeah, Justice Justice is our topic this morning. I don't know how many of you think of justice when you think of Christmas but that's what we're gonna think about. Okay, let's go to the first slide. It's Christmas time people who's excited. We have any Christmas fans people love Christmas. You're gonna feel like I set you up with that question. But no, I love Christmas too. I love Christmas too. But But we got to have real talk this morning. There's there's there's a real challenge here. There's a difficulty for us in sorting out what in the world. We're doing. I love Christmas time. My family were they here Cohen's here he is in class, but he could give testimony. They would tell you that it's not strictly true that I love Christmas. I play the parts every season of a bit of a Grinch. We all enjoy it, I think I refer to our Christmas tree is that pagan fertility symbol. And I groan, vociferously every time Christmas music is played in our home not hymns, just the the pagan stuff, the, the, the stuff that has nothing to do with Jesus. But I don't mean it. I kind of mean it, my, my, my, my, my mom, my mom is all in on Christmas, all in. So it's been my role throughout my life to balance that just a little bit. And try not to overdo it. But I'm gonna be I'm gonna, I'm gonna stay in that spirit this morning, I'm gonna be a little cheeky. I could take the tone of our text this morning. Zephaniah is not our text. It's part of the Advent readings from the Book of Common Prayer this morning. I think it's good to hear that one echoing in the background as we reengage with the story of Luke. But but the text that we're in this morning is actually the one that John got us into, got to start it on last week, he got a little excited and kept going on into this week's texts. If you're following along in the in the Advent reader, you'll see there how they're divided up. I don't begrudge him getting excited. Don't you want a preacher who gets so excited that he keeps going? That's, that's great. We're just gonna camp out for a little while longer on the message of John the Baptist. And as I say, I could take his tone. And that would be completely appropriate. I might add, it'd be very appropriate to preach from this text in the way that John preaches. Right? But I'm gonna I'm gonna try to be a little more lighthearted and ease us into the truth that I think God wants to speak to us this morning. Okay, there. There are no young children in here, right? I'm going to talk about, oh, young children. If I talk about Top Secret Santa information. Is that a problem? For anybody back there? We all know, are we all on the same page? Mom, okay. If you're listening to the podcast, later on in the car, you may want to skip ahead a little bit at this point. So part of the struggle, I think, with Christmas, is that we do a lot of stuff. And we love a lot of stuff. During Christmas, that really has nothing at all to do with the story. We're here to remind ourselves of this morning. When we were in Peru, it was necessary for us to debunk that particular myth about the chimney and whatnot. Not because we didn't have a chimney. I mean, lots of houses here don't have chimneys, and dude still finds a way into the house but
but because it would have been at least a little bit awkward for our kids to show up to school after Christmas break. And realize that the big white dude that breaks into people's houses only brings presents to gringos right would have been just a little bit awkward for them to realize that Santa is a racist. And so we just went ahead and told our kids we're like, look, here's the situation. Don't tell your cousins and I think I as far as I know, they may have I don't know they may have told their cousins but but that was how we played it. And that's just a simple example of of a Christmas tradition that is beloved right? I mean, who doesn't? Who doesn't love the magic and the mystery and the surprise waking up as a child I'm not look young Bruce. Are you telling me you didn't you didn't love waking up and getting there not give you presence on Christmas morning. Okay, there we go. There we go. Yes, that's the level of excitement I'm talking about. Right? That's what I'm talking about. Here's another example. This one's from a missiologists named Paul Hiebert that is a scholar of mission This is the first paragraph of a book called Transforming worldview. That's what this is about. Okay? Transforming worldview. Because there's the stuff we love most the stuff we get most excited about the stuff we have the strongest feelings about that we, that we, that we love that makes us nostalgic that that gives us joy. And maybe at the end of the year that has otherwise been joyless the things that really mean something to us. That's what we're getting down to the level of what scholars call worldview, the way we see reality, and what we truly value, what actually drives our lives. So he says the Christmas pageant was over or so I thought in the South Indian village church, young boys dressed as Shepherd staggered on to stage acting dead drunk to the delight of the audience. In that region, shepherds and drunkards are synonymous. So that's a bit of contextualization happening there. When the angels appeared from behind a curtain, however, they were shocked, sober, and the momentary. The moment of hilarity passed. The wise men came to the court of Herod seeking directions, and a star led them to the manger where Mary Joseph and shepherds and wise men and the angels gathered around the crib of baby Jesus. The message had gotten through, I thought, then from behind the curtain came, Santa Claus, the biggest boy in class, giving birthday gifts to all. I was stunned. what had gone wrong. My first thought was syncretism. Now if you don't know what that word means, that's when you mix two religions together and get a third new thing. My first thought was syncretism, the village Christians had mixed Christianity and Hinduism. They don't realize that was not the case. The missionaries had brought both Christ and Santa. So why was I disturbed? Clearly the message of Christ's birth had gotten through. So to the message of Santa the bearer of gifts. The problem was that the villagers had mixed what in my mind were two different Christmases. Do you have two different Christmases in your mind? One centered on Christ in the climate was warm, the trees palm, the animals, donkeys, cows and sheep. And the participants were Mary and Joseph shepherds and Wiseman, the other centered on Santa, and at the climate was cold, the trees evergreen the animals, rabbits, bears, and above all, reindeer. And the participants were Mrs. Claus and the elves. So what had gone wrong? Somehow the message the missionaries had brought was garbled. The pieces were all there. But they were put together wrong. To understand this mix up, we must ask what is the gospel? And what changes must take place when one becomes a Christian? And I want to suggest to you this morning as we pay attention to John the Baptizer
that that same question is forcing itself upon us. In this Christmas season, what is the gospel? And how do we have to change because of it? Because you see, it's not just that over there and those strange places where they have other customs and they're bound to mix up the two Christmases that we all harbor in our hearts is the problem No, no, it's that hear? Hear it's already all mixed up in our hearts. And that is maybe Okay. Sometimes in some ways. We still put a Christmas tree up in my head. I'm not I don't come from that background. Right. We do Halloween and we do Christmas and we do. I'm not trying to make anybody feel bad. I'm trying to say what do we love? And what's getting in the way of what we love? What's clouding our vision of what we love? What didn't should we do? That's from our text. Okay, so It's Christmas. But go to the next slide. It's also Advent. It's also Advent church. When Hebrews says two Christmases, I think he actually means there's Christmas and there's Advent in our culture these days. You can have Christmas without Advent. I think that's obvious. Just drive around town. Now, how many of you did not grow up? lighting candles and using Advent readings? And okay, me neither, right? This is relatively new in our family that we've we've sort of come alongside the great tradition of Christianity and said, No, you know what? That calendar helps us think about this problem. It helps us remember what's going on here? And ask ourselves what ought not be going on here? So what's the difference between Advent and Christmas? I was randomly given this week. And I'm really glad I was because the Justice week is the week where it's easiest to answer this question, hope and peace. These are Christmas themes. We're familiar with. Everyone gathered around feeling warmly about, you know, Christmas cookies, and the smell of a Christmas tree and happy expectation and family being together and all that good stuff. And listen, I love that stuff. In fact, in our culture, given how prone to workaholism we are and how bad we are at taking breaks and how terrible we are at spending time with our families, especially our extended families. It's no surprise to me, that our fondest memories in life are all tangled up with these moments when we're free of all the nonsense and spending time with each other and giving gifts to each other, reminding each other that we actually do love each other. And that we want to be together. Of course, that's that is wonderful. And if you want lights, while that's happening, that's fine. If you want ornaments, that's fine. That stuff is really important. And I and I want us all to keep doing that. I want us to do that more in other ways, was to do as a church family more time together. Brothers and sisters is very important. We got to make space for it. And that's what Christmas is in our culture. It's finally a little bit of space, a tiny bit of space for each other. That's really good. But the Justice thing pushes us a little bit. It, it isn't a typical theme. And John the Baptist isn't the typical figure for Christmas. I love the fact that this Advent week assigns us the task of listening to John the Baptist and I love how metal John the Baptist is. Okay. I was I was telling, I was telling Matt, I really wish this week for our Christmas music. We could have used one of my favorite Christmas albums, which is
a phenomenal blank on the name. Yeah, it's Trans Siberian Orchestra. Right? With some wicked electric guitar riffs on there. I mean, it's very It feels John the Baptist listening to to this album right. I love this. I think I think Bruce could have done it justice. I think he could have What's that? I know I should have asked I should have asked but it's really is an orchestra piece. So it'd be a little tight. You could have done the guitar and then we would have just imagined the rest of the orchestra. That's what John John the Baptist is. Is is the metal lick in our Christmas music. John the Baptist is the one that says Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, do you do you mean what I think you mean when you start talking about joy and peace? Do you mean because of justice? Or because of something else? So what's the difference? Let me just highlight here. This is not a keeping Christ and Christmas sermon. I think that nonsense is paltry bumper sticker. Theology does Nothing for us. It doesn't get us to justice. It engages us with one side of a debate that I don't even care about. I know John the Baptist doesn't care about that much I know. So what is it? Well, I want to walk through three ideas this morning. I think, tell us what the difference is. If we're paying attention to John the Baptist, first of all, John the Baptist was a wild man. And this is the Christmas question I have for you what happens when God tells you, the Advent of Christ is near? And you believe it? What happens when you believe it? I want you to take a look at that icon of John the Baptist. Take a look at that text in Luke three, and get a sense of what happens when you believe it. You go all in you go crazy. What happens is fruits worthy of repentance. John talked about that last week. Repentance. That churchy word I'm 100%, behind the suggestion that we reappropriate that word, and start getting really serious about it. Repentance, turning in a different direction, going another way, a different way that has effects in the world, that is fruit effects in the world. It makes a difference. It's not just I think different thoughts. I feel different feelings. I have different loyalties. No, it is turning your life toward the kingdom of God. That's repentance. It's saying if the King is here, game over. It's saying what Then should we do? effects in the world is about doing something, it's about living a certain way. It's about be a lifestyle. That says, I actually believe in the Advent. In the coming of the Messiah of God, I actually buy it. I'm in, it's gonna make me look like a fool. But I'm in. It's gonna make me a little out of sync with the rest of the culture that's interested in other things, at this moment, interested in other Christmas things? Not Advent things. Here's an example of what that looks like. When you when you start thinking about justice in the Christmas context, and not the Advent context. What that looks like, is sending boxes full of dollar store stuff to kids and other countries who don't celebrate Christmas. I'm sorry, if you've done that, if you participate in that if you felt very strongly about doing that, again. We can agree to disagree. But I'm telling you that ain't justice.
That's not being all in for the poor and the oppressed for the exile. For the refugee, for the single moms, it's not being all in for the kids at Mitchell Nielsen who rely on the generosity of others to make it into young adulthood.
Justice Advent justice is not your conscience telling you you know what, Tiny Tim's not going to have a good Christmas and the end of that movie is very important. So I'm going to make sure that some kids get some stuff this year. That is a swaging our guilt, not changing the direction of our lives, which is what this story is about. It's what happens when John the Baptist says he's here he comes and you believe it. I want us to question in our hearts. I want us to question in our hearts. What are we doing here? Where's the fruit? Where's the effects? What does it mean to repent? That's a Christmas question. Brothers and sisters. I know it's heavy. I get it. It's not jolly, it's not cheer. I know it's a little out of step. But I'm saying that little out of step is the least I mean, the very least we can do here. If we're going to pay attention at all, to Advent the coming coming to Christ changes everything. Okay, go to go to the next one. Yeah, John, the baptizer was a wild man. Santa's not so much. We're still on the same point. I've got three of these this is actually three point sermon. You just can't tell. So you got you got Secret Santa over on the left. You got our our profit on the right. I just imagine the dialogue between the two of them. And I don't want to silence John the Baptist this morning. I don't, I don't want his voice to get overwhelmed by all the stuff that we'd love. For good reasons and for bad reasons. So what animates your imagination this month? This question isn't for kids. I'm not saying the kids imaginations shouldn't be filled with. Listen, I play Dungeons and Dragons. I read fantasy. I love imagining stuff. That's not real. So long as we're clear sitting here this morning. what's real and what's not real?
Why are you filled with expectation?
I think Santa is the wrong dude. To be paying attention to this month if you're a disciple of Jesus.
One more on this wild man. That's an icon of the original St. Nick. The Saint on whom Santa Claus is based. Loosely. Nicolas of Mira Mira on the southwestern coast of Asia Minor. What's Turkey today, right there on the Mediterranean? Yes, he was a dark skinned man just like John the Baptist and Jesus. And I think that he's a way more interesting, St. Nick, for Advent. So John the Baptist the baptizer I should say turn he says bear fruits worthy of repentance. And I think Old St. Nick does just that. Now what we have are legends. The most popular legend is that St. Nick punched a heretic at the Council of Nicea. Supposedly areas, okay. And now, just a little, just just a small aside here on theology and history right areas is the father of the original heresy, called Arianism. After him, that boils down to Jesus is not fully divine, not fully God. Which is a Christmas question, by the way, is that incarnation? truly God and truly man? Area says no, but he wasn't at the Council of Nicea personally, so he didn't get punched by St. Nick. There's got to be a kernel of truth here. The man had a reputation. He was confrontational. Much more like John the Baptist. And so they're you know, they're these memes that go around and say that say like, punch a heretic for Christmas. I can't get behind that. Because I believe in Jesus's nonviolent way. But I like the reminder that St. Nicholas is sainted for different reasons than being jolly and having a belly full of jelly or whatever the other legends we don't have you know, any historical documentation of any of these things, but the other legends are pretty interesting. One of those that may be related to it's hard to know in which direction, but maybe related to our Christmas practices of giving gifts is that he came to know of a family that was in poverty with three daughters, who, because of their extreme poverty, and because they didn't have any marriage prospects, and therefore no dowry coming. They had their father had no dowry, and therefore they had no marriage prospects. And if we're no livelihood coming, we're going to have to turn to prostitution. And so St. Nicholas, had inherited wealth from his father. And he took that money and secretly put it into their house, some legends say through it through a window. Some say he stuck them in their stockings while they were hanging to dry. That may be an embellishment later to make it line up with Christmas, who knows. But again, the kernel of truth is this is a man who understood what poverty does to young women, and said, It's not my money, it's your money. Another legend is that he intervened personally took the sword out of the heads men's hand, when condemned men were about to be executed. The church's battle with capital punishment is very ancient. That's a Christmas story. That's A Christmas Story stand between the executioner and the condemned. I think St. Nicholas says to John the Baptizer, I'm on board. Let's do this. That's why the church remembers him. So there's one difference between Christmas and Advent. Let's talk about another
the prophetic word is more than prediction and fulfillment. i We struggle with this throughout the year when we deal with prophetic texts. But I think it Christmas time in particular, just the feeling of like, things being fulfilled like a virgin shall shall give birth and, and that, you know, God, God is coming to save us. And so all these these things, this, the sense of fulfillment, is part of what fuels are really positive feelings, right? The thing that makes us go like, Oh, this is all about good things happening for us. There's good things happening for us. It's fulfillment for us. And that's, of course, partly true. Yes, yes, of course. Of course, it's important to God keeps God's promises, and that some of the most important of those promises are actually coming to fulfillment in this moment in history in this way. There's a lot to unpack there. But I want to also point out to you that part of the difference between Christmas and Advent, is that Advent is also about that other part of the prophetic word that John embodies. In his preaching. Crisis and judgment. Crisis in in the deepest sense of the word, it comes from the word for decision. To it's a decisive moment when you come to a crisis, you must decide you must decide that we are kind of stuck in Bible language with words like admonition and exhortation and encouragement. We'd like that one, above all, because it's sweeter encouragement. John is not exhorting the people here. He's bringing the Word of God into their lives to provoke a crisis. To let them know that this is a moment of judgment, not just God's judgment on them, but that they must judge. When when the Messiah comes, you have to make a decision. That's Advent. The call once again, to recognize our crisis and recognize what Jesus is coming requires of us. We, we read last week, talked about when the people said what Then should we do? And Jesus gave examples Did you notice that all of those examples were economic? Every single one of them? Right? You have extra clothing, you give it to the people that need clothing, add extra food, you give it to the people who need food. If you have a job that handles other people's money, you don't rip them off. And then the soldiers also say, Well, what should we do? The soldiers. And to them also, he says, Don't extort money out of people. Because John the Baptist, just like Jesus, after him, realizes that the crisis is poverty, that the situation that we're living in, is one in which there are actually hungry, cold, abused, extorted poor people in our lives. And that you can't talk about God fulfilling God's promises. But the injustice of that continues. You cannot, you cannot say I believe that Christ has come. But we're not going to talk about the money. Justice is what Advent demands from us. And so John the Baptist preaches justice, and he says this. He says, God, when God shows up, brings purifying fire. Merry Christmas. I mean, I get it again, I get it like. Purifying fire is not precisely what we think about when we think about Christmas. But it's what John wants to talk about. So that's what we're going to talk about this morning.
So let's look at the text, specifically, Luke 315, to 18.
As the people were filled with expectation, Advent expectation, and all we're questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, because at least somebody is talking about justice, for once. John answered all of them by saying, I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I is coming, I am not worthy to untie the thong of His sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit, and fire. Now that passage has been conscripted into all kinds of arguments about baptism and baptism of the Spirit and, and spiritual gifts and all kinds of stuff. I just want to commend to you very simply this morning that the rest of the passage tells us what he's talking about. His winnowing fork is in his hands to clear his threshing floor and gather the wheat into his granary. Now, keep in mind, this is not a change of subject, we have very firm categories about what's fruits and vegetables because of the pyramid. You remember the pyramid. Okay, grain is fruit. That is, it's what the plant produces. bear fruits worthy of repentance because God is about to gather it all in and say what is worthy of the kingdom of God. And he's gonna burn the rest of it.
So this is not a message about watch out for hellfire. God's gonna be real mad if you don't do good enough or something like that. This is not about your personal eternal consequences. This is about fruit. This is about what Advent means. This is about what repentance bears. It's what it does in the world. It's why it matters that we remember Jesus every week. And in this special way, every year, because it requires of us to assess in the moment of crisis, what is our fruit worth? And what deserves to be burned. Which parts of our lives as a church family, which parts of our practices, what habits what loves are not worthy of the coming of Christ the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people you guys feel in the good news this morning? Are you feeling it? Listen, this is good news. If you've ever been poor before, isn't it if you've ever been subjected to injustice, if you've ever been extorted, if you've ever been cheated, if somebody more powerful than you, has ever ruined part of your life. If you've known injustice, then of course, this is good news. Because God keeps God's promises. And God promises not to let the world go on in injustice, it will be purified, it will be set right? And the Holy Spirit is a big part of that. John the Baptist, he baptizes any prepares but it's with water. And he says the difference is that when the Messiah comes, when the Advent happens, it will purify your lives. It will make a difference in a way that I can't, I don't have the power to do I can't make that difference. John, the baptizer says, I can't do that. But the Spirit will purify you. And there will be fruits worthy of repentance that come from that. And there will be fire otherwise.
Okay, last piece. Number three.
Christmas is not a rehearsal of Christ's coming. Advent is a rehearsal of Christ's coming. In this rehearsal is very important. I want to look at three dimensions of this past, the present and the future. First of all, we rehearse the coming of Justice, the arrival of Jesus, we celebrate the difference it made, that the Messiah came and proclaimed good news to the poor, and release for captives and recovery of sight for the blind, freedom for the oppressed, and on and on and on if you stay in Luke's gospel, and you just keep asking yourselves, what is Jesus doing for the poor? You will be constantly answered by the text. It's everywhere. We remember that Justice came in bodily form, that the justice of God was incarnate among us, and showed us what it looks like to live as a just human being showed us what it means to be just. He came and showed us we also rehearse the weighting of the just not just waiting. Right, but waiting justly. Our current moment. There's waiting, which I think a lot of the church does. I think a lot of us are waiting around. And there's waiting justly. There's exercising justice, as we wait for his return is coming.
We continue to ask ourselves this question. In order to wait justly, we wake up and we hear John the Baptist words and we say what Then should we do? Today? He has come and he will come. What then should we do? What is just just mean in my life
and then we rehearse, waiting for justice to come. Waiting for Jesus's Second Advent. Coming of a justice that we ourselves cannot do, much like John, the Baptizer, we recognize that there's something coming, that is not in our power. There's his faithfulness, and he does what he can. He says what he can, and he pays the price for it. He's all in. But there's plenty he can't do, that only the Spirit of God can. And there's plenty we can't do, that only the coming of Christ can do. And so we we rehearse every year, this story to teach us again, how to wait for justice to remember. Because when you practice the beginning of the story, you're practicing the end of the story. You see that right? What it means to be filled with this expectation and this longing and this need for Jesus to show up. That is our life, brothers and sisters. That's what we're practicing. Not just celebrating the past, not just bearing the burden ourselves in the present, but longing for the future that God promises because God keeps God's promises. And so we sing our Christmas hymns. With all who mourn in lonely exile here we sing. Oh, come, O come, Emmanuel. I pray God bless your Christmas with all of the warmth and joy and time together as family that he fill you with memories that he brings to you all of the joy that the season is supposed to hold. But I pray also, that God teach us justice. God teach us how to celebrate Christmas by practicing Advent. Amen, O Come O come, Emmanuel.
