Father
John McGinn, Rector
You
know you are getting old when people that you have enjoyed as writers begin to
retire, and one man, who retired from his newspaper column a few years ago, a
humorist, was Dave Barry. A number of
years ago he made an interesting observation that I wrote down. “If there really is a God, who created the
entire universe in its glory, he will not use as his messenger, a man on cable
TV with a bad hairstyle.” I thought that
was good.
Dave
Barry is probably right. I certainly
would not look to a TV preacher, even one with a good hairstyle, to give me an
accurate picture of God. I have to ask, what
would Dave Barry do with John the Baptist?
Bad hair doesn’t even begin to describe John’s distinctive
appearance. As you go out today, look to
your left and there is a stained glass depiction of John the Baptist and all of
his regalia as described in Matthew. John’s
clothes were made of camels’ hair and he had a leather belt around his
waist. We know his food was locusts and
wild honey, and when he preached, he outright insulted his congregation. Even calling them a “Brood of vipers.”
Imagine
if I began my sermon by addressing you as a bunch of snakes; “Listen up you
lizards!” I don’t know if I would get your attention, but is not the way I
would want to begin my sermon.
Author
Walter Brugerman called John the Baptist “Check-point
John” He was referring to that famous
stop in
Each
advent season, this rough hewn preacher is standing at the entrance to the
Advent season. In order to get to
Christmas each year, we have to go through Check-point John, our patron
saint.
John’s
message was as stark as his appearance.
John was not Jesus. We know that
John was Jesus’ cousin and he was not the promised one sent from God. He said it himself, “Prepare the way for
Jesus, the messiah.” Thus his preaching
lacked the richness and subtlety of Jesus’ teaching, but his message was a
powerful one. Great crowds came out into
the wilderness to hear him deliver it.
Given his limitations, john gave the only advice he could give, but his
words have stood the test of time. They
are important words that I believe are helping us prepare for this season.
John’s
first word is “Repent.”
”You brood of vipers,” he said in today’s gospel reading, “who
warned you to flee from the coming wrath?
Produce food in keeping with repentance and do not begin to say to
yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these
stones, God can raise up children for Abraham.
The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does
not produce good food will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” Harsh words, but important words.
Someone has said that a sign of insanity is to keep doing
as you have always done, but expect different results. If you want to improve your life, then you
will have to change your ways. In other words:
repent. That is common sense.
Repent. That is
John’s first lesson to us and his second message is to get in a right
relationship with others. John was a
persuasive preacher, and every time he told the people to repent and be
baptized, the always asked “What should we do?” John answered with “The man who has two
coats, share with him who has none and the one who has food should do the
same.” As tax collectors came to be
baptized they also wondered what to do, “Don’t collect any more than you are
told” and to the soldiers he said “Don’t extort money or accuse people falsely.
Be content with your pay.” In other
words the repentance that John preached was not limited to our personal indiscretions;
John was concerned with our relationships with others.
Our prayers this Christmas are with the young people in
Afghanistan, Iraq and other battle fields of this world, and war is so
dehumanizing, yet there is no place on this earth where God is not at
work. During the Korean War, Communist
forces invaded the city of
Over the next few days, the crew and the passengers
endured freezing temperatures and there was only enough food and water to keep
them all from starving, but not enough to satisfy their hunger, and they were
in constant danger of enemy fire. As they
sailed for a safe port, Captain LaRue took comfort that Mary, Joseph and Jesus
had also known hunger, cold and danger.
In the midst of the hardship, Captain LaRue noticed a change in his
men. They gave away their own food and
clothing to the refugees. Seven babies
were born on the ship, each delivered by teams of skilled sailors.
On Christmas Day, 1950, the ship landed in a safe harbor,
and not a single life had been lost on the voyage. Captain LaRue received high military awards
from the South Korean and American Governments for his part in the refugee
rescue. Four years later, Leonard LaRue left the military to join a Benedictine
monastery where he spent the rest of his life.
In his journals he once wrote, “The clear, unmistakable
message comes to me, that on Christmas in the bleak waters off the
John’s first word in the gospel for today is:
repent. And the second is to get into a
right relationship with others. His
third and most important is “Look to Jesus.”
John’s impact was extraordinary. And the people all wondered in their hearts
if John was the messiah. But John had
these words, “I baptize you with water, but one who is more powerful will come,
one whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” And he was speaking of Jesus, his
cousin.
Repentance is good and necessary. But we can carry it only so far. We can never correct all the imperfections
that make up our character. Right
relationships are important, but just because your heart is right with your
neighbor, does not mean that you have a meaning and purpose to your life. Look to Jesus. Jesus is the only one who can fill the God
shaped void at the center of our souls.
In preparation for this sermon, I came across a wonderful
story. It made me giddy and made me
cry. It is the story of James Pierpont.
And he died in 1866, after a life of seeming failures. A graduate of Yale, a school his grandfather
had helped to found, James chose to be an educator. He did not last; they say he was too easy on
his students. So he turned to law, but
couldn’t make a go of it. He was too
generous with his clients. He published
a book of poems, but didn’t make enough royalties to make a living. James Pierpont decided to become a minister,
but his position on prohibition and against slavery got him into trouble with
the influential members of his congregation.
So James tried politics, and
he ran for governor, congress, but lost.
The civil war came and he volunteered as a chaplain, but two weeks later
he quit. The task was too much of a
strain on his health, because he was 76.
Finally he got an obscure job at the Treasury Department in
James Pierpont accomplished
nothing he sent out to do. And there is
a small memorial stone at
My grandchildren are learning
it for the preschool program put on here in the parish hall. My grandson has been singing it at home. Such a wonderful song. Now what is it about James Pierpont’s life that speaks to me about Jesus? Just this: James spent all his life working
to make his life count, and all he experienced was failure. And in a bit of whimsy, he wrote a chorus
that will be sung by millions of people generation after generation. To me, this is a glimpse of God’s grace.
You and I strive so hard to
please God, but all of our strivings are nothing in God’s eyes. Then we say yes to Jesus, we open our hearts
to Jesus’ love and peace and joy. And suddenly with no effort of our own, we
move from the losing side of life to the winning side. We move from the hopeless to the abundant and
from the shadows to eternal sunlight. It
is enough to make a parson absolutely giddy.
This is the message on this third Sunday of Advent, from check-point John. Repent, get into right relationships with others and look to Jesus. Jesus is our hope, our joy and our peace in Advent, Christmas and throughout the year. AMEN