“Fire, Brimstone and Jingle Bells”
Matthew 3:1-12
Rev. Tom Harris
December 6, 2009
Jingle bells, Jingle bells, Jingle all the way.
John the Baptist comes to warn of a terrible coming day.
Jingle bells, Jingle bells, Jingle all the way.
You brood of vipers who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Do not presume to say, Abraham’s just for you
God is able from these stone to make some brand new Jews
Even now the ax is lying at the root
To burn in a firey hell anyone that does not bear good fruit.
Jingle bells, jingle bells, Jingle all the way.
John the Baptist comes to warn of a terrible coming day.
Jingle bells, Jingle bells, Jingle all the way.
You brood of vipers who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Every year around Christmas time if we follow the church’s calendar of bible readings, or if we sing Advent hymns from the Presbyterian hymnal we come upon John the Baptist, with his camel’s hair clothes, leather belt and diet of bugs and honey. He seems out of place in the Christmas season. If the clothes and diet are not out of place then what he says is really out of place. Instead of lowing cattle in the manger we have a “Brood of vipers.” Instead of “Peace and good will to all” we have “Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come.” Instead of Silent night, holy night, we have “if you don’t repent you will be burned in the fire,” Sounds like John the Baptist needs a Christmas hug. He kind of reminds of the Grinch from Dr Suess.
The Grinch hated Christmas! The whole Christmas season!
Now, please don't ask why. No one quite knows the reason.
It could be that his head wasn't screwed on quite right.
It could be, perhaps, that his shoes were too tight.
But I think that the most likely reason of all
May have been that his heart was two sizes too small.
Maybe that’s what’s wrong with John. It would be easy to write off John the Baptist as a Grinch when we hear his words of judgment, wrath and warning each year leading up to Christmas. We might want to just get all that negativity out of Christmas entirely. Send him to Lent where his judgment and grumpiness are more appropriate. However, John the Baptist is offering a much larger message than just saying that we are all sinners in the hands of an angry God.
The advent hymn we will sing today puts a positive spin on John’s message. Hymn number 10, “On Jordan’s Bank the Baptist Cry” written in 1736 says,
On Jordan's bank the Baptist's cry
Announces that the Lord is nigh;
Awake and hearken, for he brings
Glad tidings of the King of kings!
Then cleansed be every life from sin;
Make straight the way for God within,
And let us all our hearts prepare
For Christ to come and enter there.
We hail You as our Savior, Lord,
Our refuge, and our great reward;
O let Your face upon us shine
And fill the world with love divine.
All praise to You, eternal Son,
Whose advent has our freedom won,
Whom with the Father we adore,
And Holy Spirit, evermore.
You know, every year we put hours of preparation and hundreds of dollars into Christmas. We hang lights, put up a tree, decorate, cook, shop, plan, travel all to help us experience the joy of the Christmas season more fully. In the same way, John the Baptist reminds us to prepare morally and spiritually for Christmas. Sure Christ is present with us always, no matter what, just like Christmas day will come whether we decorate or not. But, if we prepare the way of the Lord to come into our hearts with the same time, effort and money we use to prepare for Christmas morning we will have a deeper more profound spiritual experience of Christ. John the Baptist reminds us every advent to prepare ourselves spiritually and morally for the presence of Christ in our hearts.
Today we will receive communion, a symbol of opening of ourselves to the divine. In the early days of the Reformation elders of the church would visit every church member before communion and discuss whether that person was morally prepared to receive the sacrament on Sunday. If they were deemed prepared they were given a communion token which they could then present on Sunday morning for a piece of the bread and a sip of the wine. We don’t do that today, but we might be better for it. On the one hand it sounds very judgmental to have the elders deciding whether we deserve communion. On the other hand, we are a spiritual community and in theory we are holding each other accountable for a certain way of life. Most Protestant churches today have traded accountability for grace. We love each other but don’t challenge each other. I wonder how successful a football would be if they just supported each other but never challenged each other. Its too bad we can’t find a way to practice both.
Keeping that in mind, I want to briefly suggest three spiritual practices that are helpful for preparing the way of the Lord in our hearts. No one will come knocking on your door asking if we are doing them, but take what you like and leave the rest.
The first practice is confession. That’s what the people were doing when they came out to John the Baptist. It says they were confessing their sins. We do that every Sunday as a group in the Prayer of Confession. We can also do it in our own prayer with God: take time to review our how we are living and acknowledge our shortcomings. We can also talk to a trusted friend and share a wrong we have done or thought that have been troubling us. We can also confess by going directly to the person we have harmed and asking their forgiveness. We don’t need them to acknowledge their wrong, that is between them and God. But, we prepare the way for God in our hearts by getting honest with ourselves and others about our shortcomings.
Second, we can repent. That was the core of John’s message. The Greek word translated as repent literally means to turn around. We have gone in the wrong direction in some areas of our lives and we need to turn around and act differently. This is not the same as confession where we just acknowledge our faults. In other words, confession is to say, “I have gone in the wrong direction,” repentance is to actually turn around. Repentance means we change our behavior so we don’t do the same thing again. We cannot be perfect. But, we can at least be conscious of our worst behaviors and try to improve them.
And third, John says, bear fruit worthy of repentance. Preparing the way of the Lord means not just the absence of negative behaviors in our lives but the presence of positive qualities and behaviors. The fruit worthy of repentance is also called the fruit of the Spirit. In the letter to the Galatians Paul list the fruit of the Spirit as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. If our lives are a demonstration of these qualities we are well on our way to preparing a place for God in our hearts.
Again, of course, God is in every heart right now regardless of how well prepared we are. Just like Christmas, God will come whether we are ready or not. Or as Dr. Suess puts it,
And the Grinch, with his grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow,
Stood puzzling and puzzling: "How could it be so?
It came without ribbons! It came without tags!
"It came without packages, boxes or bags!"
And he puzzled three hours, `till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before!
"Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store.
"Maybe Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!"
As surely as Christmas came to the Who’s in Whoville even without their preparations in place so will Christ come to us in Baltimore. But, if we are prepared for it with practices like regular confession, repentance and bearing good fruit, then the celebration of his presence within us will be that much more joyful.
And what happened then...?
Well...in Who-ville they say
That the Grinch's small heart
Grew three sizes that day!
And the minute his heart didn't feel quite so tight,
He whizzed with his load through the bright morning light
And he brought back the toys! And the food for the feast!
And he...
...HE HIMSELF...!
The Grinch carved the roast beast!
Or as the hymn says,
On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry announces that the Lord is nigh; Awake and hearken, for he brings Glad tidings for the King of Kings.
Then cleansed by every life from sin; make straight the way of God within,
And let us all our hearts prepare for Christ to come and enter there. Amen.
