3rd Sunday of Advent
Luke 3:7-18
"The Signs of God in Our World"
7 He said therefore to the multitudes that came out to be baptized by him, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
8 Bear fruits that befit repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ’We have Abraham as our father’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.
9 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire."
10 And the multitudes asked him, "What then shall we do?"
11 And he answered them, "He who has two coats, let him share with him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise."
12 Tax collectors also came to be baptized, and said to him, "Teacher, what shall we do?"
13 And he said to them, "Collect no more than is appointed you."
14 Soldiers also asked him, "And we, what shall we do?" And he said to them, "Rob no one by violence or by false accusation, and be content with your wages."
15 ¶ As the people were in expectation, and all men questioned in their hearts concerning John, whether perhaps he were the Christ,
16 John answered them all, "I baptize you with water; but he who is mightier than I is coming, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
17 His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor, and to gather the wheat into his granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."
18 So, with many other exhortations, he preached good news to the people.RSV
Grace and Peace to you from our Lord and Saviour, Jesus who is the Christ. Amen
Last week we heard from John the Baptist about repentance. He called us to repentance so that we may greet the Babe born in the manger.
But this week, John takes that message one step further. He says we are to love one another as we await the Babe born in the manger.
He says: 10 And the multitudes asked him, "What then shall we do?"
11 And he answered them, "He who has two coats, let him share with him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise."
12 Tax collectors also came to be baptized, and said to him, "Teacher, what shall we do?"
13 And he said to them, "Collect no more than is appointed you."
14 Soldiers also asked him, "And we, what shall we do?" And he said to them, "Rob no one by violence or by false accusation, and be content with your wages."
We are to be the sings of God’s love in this world as we await the ultimate sign of God’s love, the Babe born in the manger.
Let me demonstrate with the following: "The mall was shoppers. They were it seemed racing every which way in the halls and stores. Cashiers struggled to stay ahead of the growing lines of impatient customers. Amid the havoc, nobody noticed that an elderly woman had dropped her packages near an exit door and was having a rough time getting then together. Nobody, that is except a plain looking teenage boy who came over, wordlessly reassembled her purchases, and then lifted the packages in his lanky arms saying, "I can get them to your car."
"Thanks" she answered in a loud voice and winked. The boy smiled. Nobody saw them as they headed out the exit, but in a crowded shopping mall something very good had happened."
That teenage boy was a "Christ-figure" to that elderly woman. That teenage boy was a sign of God’s love for that elderly woman amid all the rush of shopping. That teenage boy was salvation for that woman in that circumstance of dropped packages. That teenage boy was for that woman a very dramatic sign of God’s love for her as the Christmas event is a very dramatic sign of God’s love for the entire world. That is what I mean by God’s love present in signs today. Only we don’t see those events as signs of God’s love, but we should.
This morning we are going to look at God’s signs of love in our world, how God keeps repeating the Christmas event even today with his signs of love.
One of my favorite television programs is Any Day Now. It is a story about two girls growing up in the deep south. One is white the other black. They met in a grocery story as Mary Elizabeth, or ME, as her friend calls her, is stealing a pack of cigarettes. Renae makes the shop keeper turn away as ME takes the pack of cigarettes and runs out of the store. They run to an old railroad caboose car, Port Dixie, and from then on their friendship grows.
They are there for each other in sickness, health, and all kinds of other situations two girls growing up in the south can get into.
ME and Renae were Christ figures for each other growing up and also into adult life. I know it was only a TV program, but the way they genuinely cared for each other, the way they knew how the other was feeling was a special treat to watch. We should all have such "Christ" figures in our lives.
That is what John was saying to the people then and to us now. We are the Christ figure in other peoples lives .
Vince Lombardi was asked what made his teams so special, how did they win so many games. He answered: First you need to learn the fundamentals, then you have to have disciple and a third ingredient.
He says further:
"There are a lot of coaches with good ball clubs who know the fundamentals and have plenty of discipline but still don’t win the game. Then you come to the third ingredient: if you’re going to play together as a team, you’ve got to care for one another. You’ve got to love each other. Each player has to be thinking about the next guy and saying to himself: "If I don’t block that man, Paul is going to get his legs broken. I have to do my job well in order that he can do his." "The difference between mediocrity and greatness," Lombardi said, "is the feeling these guys have for each other."
This is what John is talking about. We need to be "little Christs" to one another. You and i need to be the Christ figure in the lives of those around us. We need to care for the other person next to us.
Or to put it another way, we need to be good friends with those around us. We need to care for those around us with true friendship.
In his book The 50-Year Dash, syndicated columnist Bob Greene writes about friendship:
"I was on a trip, feeling a little down, and I called my best friend from back when I was a kid. Even though we live in different towns, we still can talk to each other with the unguardedness of when we were five. I called around 10 p.m. We have always known each other’s voices instantly, but this time he said, ’Who’s this? Surprised he had asked, I told him who it was.
"’I thought so,’ he said. ’But then I wasn’t sure, because you never call this late at night.’ That’s what counts--having a friend who knows you so well that he knows what you never do."
Isn’t that true.
John is asking us to be like that to those around us. To be true friends. For we believe today, you and I are signs of the Christ child in the lives of those we touch.
We are commanded by scripture to love one another just as we have experienced the great love of god through the Babe born in the manger.
William Willimon recalls an experience.
He was on his way out of church when he met up with a vagabond. He allows as to how this is what happens when the church is close to the highway, and that "drifters" are a daily reality. They always want money, about twenty-five dollars. It is not a meeting Willimon says he wants to have, but is also a meeting he cannot avoid.
"I sighed," he said, "as I watched the old man approach. It had been a long day. I had a meeting to return for that night and I was anxious to get home. I would meet him at the door, head him off, give him the only cash I had--a mere $15.00 as I recall--and then send him and me, on our way. ’What can I do for you,’ I asked with some annoyance in my voice.
’I wondered if you might be able to help a fella’ on the way South,’ he said. ’I was headed down to...
’ ’Yes, yes,’ I said. ’Well, I’m in a bit of a rush. So here is all I have. A five and ten. That’s all I’ve got.’
The man took the money as I offered it. Looked at it. And without a word, he turned, and headed out toward the street. Then he stopped, and turned toward me as I locked the church door. ’I guess you think I’m supposed to thank you, to be grateful,’ he said with a surprising tone of defiance.
’Well,’ I said, ’now that you mention it, a little gratitude wouldn’t hurt.’
’Well, I’m not going to thank you. You want to know why?’ he sneered. ’
Why?’ I asked.
’Because you are a Christian. You don’t help me because you want to. You have help me because he [now thrusting his finger up into the air] told you to help me!;’ And then he left.
I stood there, stunned, angry. The nerve of these people! On my drive home it finally hit me.
He was right." 1
Yes he was. We are commanded to help. We have been given a great example in how to help in the form of a Babe born in a manger. What the Christmas experience teaches us is to love, period. In this season of Advent, in this season of waiting for that great exapmple, we are to look at ourselves as see how we love.
God is coming, has come and will continue to come in our lives. In a few short weeks we will experience that great coming again in the Christmas event, what shall we do?? How shall we respond?
An old story which you might have heard tells us very clearly what our response to God’s coming shall be.
It is a poem by Edwin Markham , "How the Great Guest Came."
"A old cobbler named Conrad had a dream that the Lord was coming to visit him. So he washed the walls of his small shop and his shelves until they shined. He decorated his shop with holly and fir. He put milk and honey on his table to offer to his special guest. He sat down and waited.
As he was waiting, he saw a poor barefoot beggar walking in the rain outside his door. He felt sorry for the man and invited him and gave him a pair of shoes. His clean floor was now dirty from the rain and mud.
As he was about to clean it up, he noticed an old lady who was bent over carrying a heavy load of firewood. He invited her in to sit and rest, shared some of his food with her and walked with her, helping carry some of the wood.
When he returned to his shop, he thought of all that needed to be done. He began to clean again and hoped he had tome to find more food. Just then a knock at the door. He answered hurriedly and it was a small child crying lost and cold. He picked up the child, dried the tears, gave her something to drink, the cup of milk and walked her to her home down the street and around the corner.
He hurried back to the shop. He was too tired now to clean or find more food but he still waited. Evening came and he began to wonder if the Lord had forgot.
Then he heard a soft voice break the silence in that shop, Lift up your heart, for I kept my word. Three times I came to your friendly door, Three times my shadow was on your floor. I was the beggar with bruised feet; I was the woman you gave to eat, I was the lost child on that homeless street."
Conrad smiled to himself, put his feet up on the table and settled back in his chair to pray and talk with the Saviour so fair. "
Amen
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1) Gerald McCaskey, "Sermon reviews," Lectionary Homiletics 11 (6): 27-8 (Lectionary Homiletics, 13540 East Boundary Road, Bldg. 2 Suite 105, Midlothian VA 23112) May 2000.
