2nd Sunday of Advent
December 5, 2010
Peter sings,
“Joyful day
A star to guide you, a song to remind you
The Joy will stay
Long past the turn of the page
In the story of Christmas”
This morning congregations all over the world will hear a gospel lesson (Matthew 3:1-12) featuring the advent antics of a character called John the Baptist. Now, I know that some people wish his name was John the Methodist or John the Lutheran, but that’s just the way the story goes. Anyway, John the Baptist would do well in today’s world of sound bytes and Sunday morning talk shows. His message was full of conflict, warnings, and doom with a little bit of gloom sprinkled in for flavor. He was a combination of the following: Glenn Beck; Keith Olbermann; Jon Stewart; and Ann Coulter (in other words, he always had something to offend just about everyone!)
He didn’t have a church building or auditorium. Rather, he spoke on the banks of the river. His message was clear, concise and demanding,
"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 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.”
One of the gifts that I believe the Lutheran lens of theology brings to reading Scripture is the distinction between Law and Gospel. Some folks define the “Law” as what God declares we need to do. At the same time, some folks define “Gospel” as the Good News of what has been done for us in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. (Now, I know this is kinda heavy stuff for a Sunday morning, with coffee, bagels and your ipad in front of you).
So, we do well to hear the Law and pay attention to it. But, what is very key and important to remember is that neither John the Baptist nor the Law is God’s final word to us. Fortunately, Jesus and the Gospel is what we focus our hearts, souls and minds on as we go through the story of Christmas.
Peter sings, “A song to remind you.” God has always been in the business of love songs.
There is a “chain of love” in this story of Christmas. You and I are connected, in fact linked to each other because of what has been done for us.
As we begin our 2nd week of this journey give thanks for the song that reminds us of what it is all about. As St. Paul and the Beatles sang, “all you need is love.”
Joyfully,
Rtg
A Text Message from St. Paul to the Corinthians:
If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
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