A HOPEFUL PREPARATION
SERMON #2 OF THE ADVENT SERIES “HOPE IS ON THE WAY”
MATTHEW 3:1-12 & ISAIAH 11:1-10
Big Idea: If we restrict or restrain the entry of God into our lives, we cannot help but limit the power of God’s grace.
ADVENT INTRO
Advent is the season of waiting leading up to Christmas. It begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas, and it ends on Christmas Eve.
It is a time of happiness, celebration, and hopeful anticipation of the arrival of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
We look for His arrival in three ways:
• We look back – We reflect on that first Christmas
• We look within – For a fresh visit from God’s Spirit
• We look forward – We await Christ’s second coming.
Waiting can be hard. Most people don’t like to wait. Advent requires “active waiting” … it encourages us to prepare and anticipate.
Today Advent’s theme is preparation … specifically today is about removing all the barriers to His presence … repentance.
Our theme today is from Matthew 3:1-12. It’s not a great “Christmas text” but it is a perfect “Advent” text.
MATTHEW 3:1-12
1 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea 2 and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." 3 This is he 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.' " 4 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. 5 People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. 6 Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. 7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not think you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 10 The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. 11 "I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire."
ISAIAH 11:1-10
1 A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. 2 The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him-- the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD-- 3 and he will delight in the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; 4 but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. 5 Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist. 6 The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. 7 The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. 8 The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper's nest. 9 They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. 10 In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorious.
The story is told of a king from days of old who had a boulder placed on a roadway leading into his great city. Then he hid himself and watched to see if anyone would remove the huge rock. Some of the king's wealthiest merchants came by and simply walked around it. Some of his most loyal subjects passed by and loudly blamed the king for not keeping the roads clear, but none did anything about getting the stone out of the way.
Then a peasant came along carrying a load of vegetables. Upon approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the stone to the side of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded. After the peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note from the King indicating that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway.
The peasant understood what many of us never discovered. Roadblocks and hindrances, once addressed can lead to great blessings.
How do you handle roadblocks in your way? We all have friends who allow the roadblocks, whatever they may look like, to stop their progress.
Do you ever put roadblocks put in your way? We all know of people who sabotage and undermine their own success.
I think there is something in this regarding faith too. When roadblocks or hindrances get in your path spiritually, how do you respond?
Have you ever placed roadblocks (hindrances) in your own path and thwarted the blessings of God?
When it comes to living the full life that Jesus offers us, I am convinced that major roadblocks are our own resistance and the limits we place on God.
Maybe the roadblock we place comes in the form a small view of God and His will for us.
Maybe the roadblock we place comes in the form of a resistance to obedience.
Maybe the roadblock we place comes in the form of fear and worry.
Whatever the case, these types of roadblocks hinder us from receiving all the Father has in store.
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It reminds me of a meditation in St. Ignatius of Loyola’s book “The Spiritual Exercises.” It’s about the incarnation … God taking on flesh as a human named Jesus. Ignatius has us imagine the Trinity gazing upon the world, desiring to save the human race. He paints a vast mural of persons, various in dress, actions, and color. Some were located in the city, some in remote deserts. Some of the people lived near the sea; others lived in the mountains. Some dwelled in peace and others in war; some weeping and others laughing; some well, others ill; some poor, others rich; some being born and others dying.
But there is great blindness in humanity. The people have not only lost their way; they have lost their souls as well. So Ignatius writes of the great entry. God, in the second person of the Trinity, chooses to be one of us. As a baby in an earthly village he enters our world.
Ignatius rightly pictures the entry of God not only portrayed as a religious experience by individual persons, but as an invasion of history itself, a breaching of the geopolitical and social worlds of all humankind.
This global emphasis did not originate with Ignatius did it? It is clear from Isaiah 11 that the Messiah, upon whom the Spirit of the Lord would rest, was to be of vast importance, not only to Israel but also to the Gentile world, and the world itself.
Isaiah tells us that the Promised One, with the wisdom and understanding of God’s Spirit, will judge injustice and strike the ruthless and wicked. He will carry a peace to the world that transforms even the animal kingdom.
Wolves will eat with lambs, leopards with kids. Lions will browse with calves, cows, and bears. Babies will play near cobras as if they were kindly neighbors. A little child will lead the entire earth, where “They will neither harm nor destroy.”
Matthew’s words remind us that the advent of Christ will require a personal reform that includes our personal relationships. The reforming power of God’s advent, must penetrate our interior lives. This was the message of John the Baptist.
Now we may, like the Pharisees, go through the motions of baptism, but we are commanded to “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.” (Mt 3:8) It is not enough to proclaim that we are saved. We must yield our entire being for purification by “the Holy Spirit and fire.”
Hear me now, many Christians seem to have a problem with the total message of the Incarnation and Christ’s Advent. They tend to select some safe portion of their lives which they open to God while they slam shut all the others areas.
• Some of us think we can get by with allowing God to enter our “prayer lives.” We try to hold the reform to that.
• Some resist the possibility that our relation to our families or friends could be transformed.
• Others can’t imagine that we would have to change our attitudes toward our enemies.
• And we certainly would not tolerate any challenge to our pet political suppositions or economic practices.
This attitude refuses to acknowledge that personal faith and social justice are essential in our relationship to God.
Some of us ardently believe in a global gospel. We want the world to be changed by the power of the Christ. We like Ignatius’ vision of Christ invading history itself, and breaching the geopolitical and social worlds of all humankind.
• We insist that the political parties be reformed.
• We pray that the church be revived
• We long for violent nations to be disarmed.
• We see the injustice in the greedy amassing more and more even at the expense of the poor.
• But it rarely strikes us that we may be as unjust in our own relationships as the principalities and powers are in theirs.
• We can’t imagine that we, in our own way, could be as narcissistic and self-centered as preening politicians, avaricious misers, or the violent.
If we restrict or restrain the entry of God into our lives, we cannot help but limit the power of God’s grace.
When we wonder why our path of discipleship seems to lead nowhere, it may be because we have set up too many roadblocks.
The stories of the gospels, like Ignatius’s meditation on the Incarnation, reach beyond nations out to the cosmos and down into the individual heart.
The coming of Christ is an event for the universe. It is an event for history and an event for each of us in our personal struggles and interpersonal relationships.
We Christians must indeed be about the reform of our nations as well as of our church.
Lord, have mercy.
We must be about reconciliation with our families, our friends, our enemies.
Lord, have mercy.
And we must be about the acknowledgment of our own failure.
Lord, have mercy.
What does such repentance lead to? Not sadness, but “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests” (Luke 2:14).
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** This sermon is not original with me; I have simply adapted it to my congregation. Much of content comes from Father John Kavanaugh, professor of Philosophy at St. Louis University.
This sermon is provided by Dr. Kenneth Pell
Potsdam Church of the Nazarene
Potsdam, New York
www.potsdam-naz.org
