Experience God's Touch - Advent 3

7 John said to the crowds 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 worthy of repentance. Do not begin 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. 9 Even now the ax 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.”

10 And the crowds asked him, “What then should we do?” 11 In reply he said to them, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.” 12 Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, “Teacher, what should we do?” 13 He said to them, “Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.” 14 Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what should we do?” He said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.”

15 As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, 16 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. 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 proclaimed the good news to the people.

Touch

Welcome to the Third week of Advent. Today we have a continuation of the words of warning and repentance from John the Baptist. Just the cheery, “voice crying out in the wilderness”, warning us of impending doom and calling out the snake-like ways of those who’ve come to be baptized that we all love to hear this time of year.

Have they made a Hallmark movie with John the Baptist in it yet? Because he sure would be a fitting oddball character in some mountain town where a young single person comes home for the holidays. Yikes — this guy is intense!

But, ok, before we write John the Baptist off or ignore his words, what if there is something good to hear in this text? What if we can explore his words of “end of the world” apocalypse as people who expect that God is up to something good and we can participate in it, through the act of repentance? What if there is good news?

We, the brood of vipers who have come to be transformed ask, repeatedly: “What should we do?” Place yourself in their shoes, hear his words, feel the touch of the river water around your ankles with these people and ask — “what should we do?”

We’ve been moving through the 5 senses as we’ve worked out way through the first weeks of Advent. Sight, hearing, and now touch. With each progressive week, the senses draw us closer in, into more intimate, sometimes more uncomfortable places, where we are confronted with our own need to change, to be molded anew in the way of Christ — to, as the carol sings, let Christ “be born in us today.” With sight, we can stay at a distance from this disruptive story — viewing it from far off. Even with sound, we don’t have to get too close, just enough to hear what is being said from a safe distance. But now, today, we’re invited into the scene with John the Baptist who calls us to get into the water, to touch God’s presence, to let the tactile relationship with God’s call begin to make us new. We hear of fire and water and cutting down trees — all images that are deeply physical, touch-related, tactile and close to us. We are being invited deeper and deeper into this story of Jesus.

As we explore this passage and look for good news, the anticipation of joy, the hope for all people, I am reminded of another classic Christmas story character with whom I imagine many of us our familiar: Ebenezer Scrooge.

Ebenezer Scrooge

How many people have already seen a version of the classic Charles Dickens “Christmas Carol” this year? Perhaps a stage production or the classic George C. Scott movie? Me, I’m partial to the Disney animated version, which features Scrooge McDuck as Ebenezer, Mickey Mouse as Bob Cratchit, and Goofy as Jacob Marley. I’m guessing we’ve watched this version in our house about 10 times since December began…and what…it’s the 16th? Yeah, that’s a lot.

You probably know the classic story — the miserly Scrooge is haunted by the ghosts of his past, present, and future and, in the end, given an opportunity to change his ways and live out of his abundant riches with generosity instead of selfishness. A classic English tale of personal transformation.

The Disney version is bookended by two scenes where Scrooge interacts with Bob Cratchit in starkly different manners. The first scene, he is reminded by Cratchit that he had given his assistant a raise to a wage of “two shillings and a hay penny, sir, when I started doing your laundry.” Scrooge grumbles at this recollection. But at the end, it is Scrooge who proudly proclaims to Cratchit, “I’m giving you a raise…and I’m making you my partner.” Scrooge has had a change of heart.

Of Ghosts, Axes, and Apocalypses

Scrooge is warned by ghosts to change or face the doom of his choices.

John the Baptist is warning of the Truth-Bringing, the Water and Fire Baptizer, the Messiah who is ushering in a new way of being human.

These stories are filled with ghosts who tell us the truth, axes that cut off all our privilege, warnings of the end of the world and the ways of life we have held dear.

These are the stories of Advent — they invite us to anticipate and reorient our lives in preparation for the coming King. Christ is coming, God’s son in human form is arriving. Prepare, rearrange your life, repent and hear the good news!

Good News to the people

I want to come back to a question I am confronted with every time I read the Scriptures: “Is this Good News?”

Is this good news, to hear that we must repent? That the tree is getting cut down, that our ancestry in the line of Abraham (or for us, as American Christians) is not going to get us access much longer? That those who don’t bear good fruit are going to be thrown in the fire?

And is this good news as we anticipate Christmas?

It is easy to either dismiss this text or turn it into a couple of our tradition’s easiest scapegoats — we think this is about finding a way to band together to make the world a better place, like there is not really any need to repent or anticipate any sort of apocalyptic change to occur; or it is just a wild man heralding the coming doom and we’ll be saved by God’s divine rapture.

I’m not buying the simple answers for this text. I can’t dismiss it. I can’t ignore it, and I can’t just let it save me from trials.

I want to see if there is good news of great joy for all people. And the only way I can do that is by getting up really close and experiencing God’s hand upon my life. What I mean is: I have to draw right up into the water and physically experience the reorienting power of repentance and baptism in order to truly find out if its good news. I can’t philosophically work this one out — this one needs sweat, blood, water and fire to prove the good news.

Think about Scrooge — he needed these lucid visions, these waking dreams, these ghosts who show him what is really going on, to make him see, hear, and feel the weight of his decisions, in order to call him to repentance. He was doing just fine ignoring the problems of poverty in English society, all the while counting his money and sitting comfortable. He needed to be exposed to a story that would wake him up and cause his world to be redefined, known in a different way.

So what is the other way, beyond ignoring, beyond escape? I believe it’s there. And I believe it comes through this third candle that we’ve lit today.

Found in Joy

The Good News of Great Joy To All People is found in joy! What, you say, where is the joy in this text, where is John the Baptist singing Joy to the World?

Bear with me: the joy is found through the winnowing fork, the ax, the fire, the water. The joy is found through the pain, the suffering, the fear, the purging, the remaking work that God does in us. The joy is found in the struggle, the reclaiming of identity, the standing up to injustice, the subverting of the political power that demands your total allegiance. The joy is found in discovering the truth amidst all the lies, the joy is found in telling the truth about God’s work in your life, the joy is found in the dying in waters of baptism to be reborn in Christ.

There is a rapture in this text, but not a rapture that calls us to leave this world behind or be simply saved from the need to care for others by a God who would whisk us away. The rapture is one of engrossing, enveloping, overwhelming joy — joy that we experience as we are purified by the fire and the water of the one who John the Baptist proclaims.

I Iove how John questions the ones who have come be baptized: “Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” — I hear him in the voice of the Ghost of Christmas Yet-To-Come: “Hahahaha, but of course this is your grave, Ebenezer!!” John scolds the ones who come to him, not because they cannot have the cleansing he proclaims, but because they think they are qualified by birthright or practice to receive it. He chuckles, “who warned you, who told you the world was changing?” And then he liberates them, sets them free from needing that birthright or privilege.

Joy, people. Repentance, in its truth, leads us to joy.

Question asked 3 times: What should we do?

The people ask John three times in this text: What should we do? They, like us, are looking for answers in a world where they clearly know things aren’t right. They want to change, they want to reorient their lives. They, like us, are looking for practical ways to experience God’s touch, to come in closer contact with the divine presence in this season and hopefully all seasons going forward. As Ebenezer Scrooge says, “Oh spirit, take them away, don’t show me anything more. What must I do?”

As we are liberated, as we experience joy, we find the answer to this question unfold. The purifying, unquenchable, radical, prophetic fire starts something in us. We begin…to hear a call, to feel a different orientation to the world. Tax collectors start collecting the honest amount of taxes. We stop extorting money from other people. We see people start living generously with what they have. We start stewarding the resources we have been blessed with in ways of joy and abundance. We give Bob Cratchit a raise, we help Tiny Tim through school and give them enough to eat and be healthy. We start giving ourselves away, in our money, our time, our gifts, our love.

Drawing close to God does not need to stifle us. It does not mean we must diminish, become less, lose the good that God has blessed us with. Rather, coming close to God, coming close to the manger and the Christ-child in this season, means that as we experience God’s touch, we become more ourselves, more free to live from the great gifts God gives us.

So to the answer of “What should we do?” — We hear this: live generously, live with integrity, live with joy. All the rest will follow and explode out from here.

When we draw close to God, we might not always like what we experience. It might feel like fire, it might feel like a splash of cold water. But at the heart of it, at the core, at the pinnacle of what we can encounter — it is goodness, hope, and joy — the promise of a new way of living in the world and participation in a kingdom greater than all the pain, all the fear, all the heartache that we know. Good news, of great joy, for all people.