"The Light at Noon!"

Text: Matthew 3:1-12
Theme: “The Light at Noon!”
The 2nd Sunday of Advent
December 5, 2010
First Presbyterian Church
Denton, Texas
The Rev. Paul R. Dunklau

+In the Name of Jesus+

In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, 2‘Repent,for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’* 3This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said,
‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.” ’
4Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. 5Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, 6and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
7 But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8Bear fruit worthy of repentance. 9Do not presume to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our ancestor”; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. 10Even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
11 ‘I baptize you with* water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with* the Holy Spirit and fire. 12His winnowing-fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing-floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.’

Lucius Annaeus Seneca is his full name, but we can just call him Seneca. He is a Roman philosopher who lived at the time of Jesus. Good-humored and always ready with a quotable quote, he once said: “There is no genius without an admixture of madness.” To state it differently: if you’re really, really, really smart then you’re probably crazy too. But craziness does sound much better than insanity. A modern lyricist, something of a poet in his own right, said: “If we weren’t all crazy, we’d all go insane.”

Today is the Second Sunday of Advent, and the Gospel reading takes us to the Judean desert. On the Second Sunday of Advent, Christian churches throughout the world have a date with John the Baptist – the man and the message. He’s featured prominently in reading that you’ve just heard. He is the son of a priest named Zechariah. His mother’s name is Elizabeth. He is a cousin to Jesus. Maybe Seneca had heard about John.

“There is no genius without an admixture of madness.” With Seneca’s dictum in mind, is John the Baptist a genius? Is he crazy? Is he insane? Based on what he wore, it might be somewhere between crazy and insane. Our reading says: “John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey.” What about the leather belt? I suppose most of us have one of those – nothing really out of the ordinary there. A wardrobe of camel hair, however, is a rather odd fashion statement given our current sensibilities. But who knows? Maybe he was just being trendy or “fashion-forward” as they say. There there’s his diet of locusts and wild honey. It doesn’t sound – how do I put this politely? – “balanced.”

In addition to all of this, our text relates that John came to the desert of Judea to preach. Uh oh, a preacher! We best sit back and listen up. But there were no pews or pulpit. He didn’t stand with a bullhorn on the courthouse or public square as someone might do today, and neither did he go to the temple in Jerusalem back then. He seems to be more than comfortable with his nomadic, vagabond-like existence in the desert. Symptoms of crazy are there.

But is it good crazy or bad crazy? If good crazy, then what can we take from John the Baptist – the man and the message – for our own crazy, busy, dizzy trip to Christmas this year and for our lives in general? We best take a closer look!

To begin with, I would say that John the Baptist – despite the questionable diet and fashion faux pas -- is a delightfully refreshing character. He’s not like some ambassador, in a Brooks Brothers suit, firing off diplomatic cables to only a select group of uppity-ups. There was nothing secret, covert, or for someone else’s eyes only. There were no Wikileaks with John the Baptist – and no need for them. What you saw and heard is what you got!

John the Baptist emerges off the pages of Holy Scriptures as one who could care less about proper civil discourse, or polite propriety in general, or puffery of any kind. John does not fit the profile of polished political correctness.

In our environment of ideological posturing run amok, let us to to the chase: Was John a liberal? He does come off a bit hippy-ish, and He certainly challenges the status quo. Was John a conservative? He did call sinners to repent – an age-old conservative message if there ever was one. Oh, so he must be a wishy-washy, middle-of-the-road, moderate or “independent voter.”

No. Here’s another wonderful thing about John: Thanks be to God! He doesn’t fit the labels we use. He bursts them! He is not liberal. He is not a conservative. He is not a moderate. He is a voice! “This is he,” Matthew’s gospel tells us, “who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: ‘A voice of one calling in the desert, “Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’”

We need the Lord today – more than ever. It behooves us to prepare the way.

The person and mission of John the Baptist apparently struck a nerve. We are told that the entire city of Jerusalem went out to the desert to see him and hear him. The people of Judea came out along with the folks who lived along the Jordan River. We are told that they confessed their sins and were baptized by John.

Our reading specifically mentions the Sadducees and the Pharisees coming out to John. They were the religious elite, the educated class among most of the folks that came out to John. Perhaps they were curious about his popularity, his dress, or his diet. Who knows? But John didn’t greet them diplomatically. He took verbal aim and fired away. He said: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance. Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

It was all very dramatic and all very simple. What makes the cut with God? Is it race or class or income level? Is it educational attainment or street smarts? Is it patriotism toward the country? Is it political ideology? Does it involve shooting straight and playing by the rules? Is it because of what you eat or how you dress? Is it because of sexual orientation? Is it because you pass a background check? Is it because you’ve been a child of the covenant for nearly seventy five years and an ordained elder for twenty of them?

All of the stuff I’ve just listed amounts to a sack of leaves from a tree– no more, no less. But John said that the “…axe is already at the foot of the tree.” It’s as if he’s saying, “Don’t show me your leaves. The tree is about to come down.”
“Bear fruit that is worthy of repentance,” he says.

God is not an afterthought. God is either everything or nothing at all. John baptized the people. Baptism, throughout its varied history, has always been a sign of belonging. Even though people want and need solitude from time to time, they so desperately desire to belong, to know that they are not alone and trust that someone has their back.

These folks poured their hearts out to John; they confessed their sins. It was a baptism of repentance. Repentance is about a mind that is changed. They wanted that to bear that fruit. They had long since become weary of the constant thinking and endless fretting about the military, political, and religious forces that were sapping their spirits, forces inside of them and outside of them that plunged them into despair and darkness. Can you relate?

For them, John the Baptist was like the sun at high noon on a cloudless day. There was confusion. There was no cloak and dagger maneuvering,or shady backroom deals, or secret, covert, or classified activity. It was all out in the open and in the light. People responded. They wanted to respond. They ached for something different, something better, something real.

“He’s coming,” said John. “I’m not worthy to even untie His sandals. I baptize you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”
John the Baptist has been described as the great preacher of Advent. In and of himself, he was not great. The greatness came with the message: the good news that Christ, the light of the world, is coming! Baptized in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, you and I are in on that. The light shines on! We belong. Amen.