This sermon is available in audio form through Mixcloud below. For a transcript (not word perfect, I never read direct from my notes) see below. It based on: Luke 3:7-18 and Philippians 4.4-7.
Our Gospel reading this morning feels like a bit of a jolt to the system, having spent our first 3 passages being told to rejoice suddenly we are hit with John the Baptist’s criticism of the people of his day ‘you brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?’ But just as in the pas the Church gave this Sunday as an opportunity to relax our fasting to better continue fasting for the rest of Advent, so too the Church today gives us a bit of a kick to make sure we are on the right path.
I don’t know if you have seen the film ‘Johnny English’? In it Rowan Atkinson plays an inept British spy trying to stop the bad guy from having himself crowned King. As part of the bad guys plan he recruits an actor to don a mask to play the Archbishop of Canterbury, you can’t be made King without him. And this actor has tattooed on him the words ‘Jesus is coming, look busy’. It becomes a minor plot point later on but I was reminded of those words as I read todays Gospel. A few years ago when I was a member of the CU in the University of Reading I was a member of the sound team. And one week I came to our main meeting to discover that they had planned a line dancing evening. Now I don’t dance so it already wasn’t going well for me. But then I discover that the dancing is non-optional. It’s just got worse. And then I remembered, there is a minor flaw with one bit of the sound equipment. The port on the side of one of the speakers is a little loose and so I really should fix it before it gets any worse. The dance instructor has brought his own stuff so our sound kit is just sat there unused, an ideal time to take a look. And as I give my apologies that I won’t be able to join in right away as I have to check this speaker a few others join me, keen to escape. And you know what? That little fault on the side of the speaker somehow took the three of us the full hour to fix. What a shame. We certainly looked busy for the whole hour, in reality though it only took us about 10 minutes to fix, we spent a lot of time faffing to fill the time. Jesus is coming, look busy. The people John the Baptist is addressing were very good at looking busy with all of their religious observations and festivals but their hearts weren’t in it, they were just going through the motions. And so when they hear that something is happening, that God might be on His way, they rush to the Jordan to get another bit of going through the motions under their belts, another bit of looking busy, to try to ensure they are safe when God shows up. And John see’s right through this ‘you brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?’. Their hearts aren’t in it. But John doesn’t pacify them and tell them what they want to hear, he doesn’t say ‘it’s ok, you’re doing fine, just relax, all will be well’. It’s what they want to hear but it’s not what they need. And when he tells them straight that going through the motions won’t cut it, now they’re scared and honestly ask what they need to do. If all this religious observance isn’t going to cut it, what will? So he tells them, don’t just get baptised as a sign of repentance and not change, actually change, actually turn around and start living the way God is calling you to. Actually start putting your heart back into this stuff, stop going through the motions and actually mean it. There is no escaping or fooling God. You can’t somehow weasel your way around Him and get away with not living out His commands, the only way is to come before God and change. For us today, as we go through Advent where we prepare to celebrate Christ’s birth and also His return do we have that same attitude? Jesus is coming, look busy. It’s so easy to look busy and devout during Advent. There aren’t just Sunday’s to attend in this season. There are Carol services and Crib services and Midnight Mass and Christingles, there’s plenty to do. But if all we’re doing is showing up to get another bit of Church under our belts, an attempt to pacify God so that if He does turn up we look like we’re doing the right things, it’s all pointless. Is that us today? Are we just sort of coasting along in our faith, relying on turning up on a Sunday to get on the right side with God and then when we leave through that door carrying on with life like everyone else who doesn’t find themselves in Church on a Sunday? Have we been really going for it in our faith in the past but now we’re just going through the motions like the people of John’s day, not really sure why we still turn up but feeling we probably should, either out of a sense of duty, or for the sake of appearance or because we’re not ready to let go yet. If that’s you, whether it’s been a week and you’re just not feeling it today or it’s been years, I’m not here to knock you down over it, to berate or shame you. Like John I’m here to say, there’s so much more than this. Going through the motions doesn’t just do God a disservice, it does us a disservice because God has so much more on offer for us. Going through the motions is like wading through deep mud, it’s tiring, it saps our energy, we wonder what the point is. And no matter how good the destination may seem the journey is miserable and quite frankly it’s tempting to give up. But our God walks on water, I can only imagine that He glides over mud. This faith is meant to be life giving, a spring of water welling up inside of us changing us from the inside out, washing the mud off our tired legs and refreshing our souls. Is that what we need this morning? Our readings this morning call us to Rejoice! The name of this Sunday ‘Gaudete Sunday’ after the traditional opening canticle literally means ‘Rejoice’ in Latin. Do we feel today that we have a faith to rejoice in? That’s not to say it’s easy or plain sailing, by no means. It demands a lot of us, yes, indeed it demands our whole selves. We can hold nothing back from God, but He gives it all back to us with interest added on. It doesn’t mean that we won’t go through hard and difficult times, it doesn’t mean we are protected from the worst life can throw at us. But it does mean that we have a God who goes into the mess with us. Christmas, the very thing we are preparing for, is a huge reminder of that. Our reading from Philippians today is a reminder of that, cast all Your cares upon God and He will give you peace. Our faith gives us hope, that God has something better for us, that God has a plan and a purpose for each one of us. It tells us that we aren’t an accident but that we are loved deeply by the creator of the universe. And that the creator wants to know us and wants us to get to know Him. That He cares for us and about us. Our faith gives us hope that in the end all will be well, that good wins, that death isn’t the end. But it also gives us hope that we can have life now, before death, that God has much more in store for us than all we can ask or imagine if only we would step out. If only we would stop going through the motions and open our hearts to something more. As we prepare in this season of Advent, I pray that we would take stock, and truly examine ourselves as to whether we have simply slipped into going through the motions. And that as we take stock that God would open our eyes to see all that He has in store for us that we would open our hearts to Him. That when we come to Christmas we may truly be able to Rejoice in Him, the God who has come and who will come. Amen
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorAn Anglican Curate in my 20's I was raised in an Anglican Church, went to a Youth Club run by an Evangelical Church, attended a Baptist Church while at Uni and was a member of a New Monastic Community after graduating. As such my faith has been influenced by these experiences and traditions into what I hope is a more rounded viewpoint. Archives
September 2022
|