Matthew 3:1-12
Advent 2 / Year A
How is your
Christmas decorating coming along? Mine,
I think, is finished. There was a time
when my outdoor decorating varied from year to year. Then, maybe seven or eight years ago, I took
two table runners, fixed to them letters spelling our “Peace” and “Goodwill”,
and hung them from my porch. It was a
time when our civic life as a nation seemed to be marked by anything but peace
and goodwill, so I saw this as doing my part (humble though it may be) to call
us back to a common life of charity and respect for one another. It worked so well (more accurately… had no detectable
effect whatsoever) that I have stayed with the banners ever since.
Peace and Goodwill
are words you hear a lot this time of year.
Nobody wishes you a “merry”
Labor Day weekend or says “Rejoice” on Groundhog’s Day, but these words are on
our lips at Christmas. I wonder what it
would be like to put out banners (one a week) featuring specific Advent words
and messages. Based on last week’s
reading, the first banner could read “Stay Awake.” That would leave my neighbors scratching
their heads. Today’s banner would have
to spell out “Repent.” I doubt it would
cause anyone to change their behavior, but most likely it would get me crossed
off the invitation list to a holiday party or two.
Repent! Folks today tend to think of the grime
prophets of old as being gloomy predictors of the future. They were not. They were folks willing to stick out their
necks by telling it like it is right here, right now. They point fingers and name names. Their messages tend to be either in the first
or second person imperative… “You need to get your act together” and “Ya’ll must
stop doing X right now.” Truth-tellers
like this rarely are welcomed with open arms.
And yet, because they speak God’s word, and because God’s dream for the
human family doesn’t change, the message of the prophets, uncomfortable though
it may be, still holds true. Repent! You, you, and you! Us, each and every one, without exception!
Jesus tells
stories which get you to think. They center
on Samaritans and prodigals; on loving your neighbor and forgiving with open arms.
Prophets like John the Baptist are more
pointed, more specific. He demands tax
collectors be honest. He commands
soldiers not to abuse their power. He
calls kings to account for their immorality.
He requires everyone who has abundance to share with those who
lack. Repentance is about good behavior, he says. It is like being a fruit-bearing tree. You can produce either good fruit or rotten. And then John tells it plain: “Every farmer
knows what happens to the tree which bears only bad fruit… it gets chopped down.”
The biblical word
for repentance is metania. It literally
means turning around, like when you are driving down a road, realize you are
heading in the wrong direction, and make a U-turn. In this sense, repentance is a positive,
hopeful word. To harken back to last
week’s Advent word, it is a waking up, accurately perceiving what is amiss in your
life, and then doing something about it.
John’s call to repentance affirms each of us has the ability to amend our
lives, turn around, and get right what we have been doing wrong, perhaps for a
long time.
John believes his
message is preparing the way for the One who is to come. He stands at the threshold of a New Covenant. Like the first testament, his ethic springs
forth from the Law… Do this… Don’t do that.
His focus is on behavior and actions.
He wants your life and mine to shining examples of goodness. He wants the world to be a better place. He invites those who respond to his message
into the river to be baptized as a sign of personal repentance, of turning your
life around. This, he says, is how you
prepare for what is to come.
And what is to
come? God’s Messiah who, he says, will baptize
with the Holy Spirit and with fire. It
is not at all clear how clearly John understands what this will look like, but
we are blessed because we experience it.
When the Holy Spirit is active in us, St. Paul says it produces the
fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, self-control. Gal. 5:22-23 Being baptized in Jesus is not merely about a
change in behavior (the fruit of repentance), it is about a change in heart
(the fruit of the Spirit). Our deeds are
no longer actions we know we are supposed to do, but grit our teeth while doing
them, they emanate from our hearts which have been changed by being filled with
the love of Christ.
So Repent
is a good word for Advent. It is a call
to lead a better life, to be a better person.
But perhaps we need to add another banner with another word – Open. Open your heart to Christ’s Spirit. Be filled with It. When this happens, no one has to tell you to
do the right thing because it flows through and from you. When you turn around, this is what you are
turning toward.
