Advent 3
A new beginning with God
Zephaniah 3.14–20; Philippians 4.4–7; Luke 3.7–18
The season of Advent is about endings and new beginnings. We know a lot about endings in New Zealand. The month of December is full of them: it’s the end of the school year, we all have end of year work parties and get ready for the big summer break. Some of our strongest collective memories will be of finally getting home from school on our last day, throwing the school bag into the back of the wardrobe, complete with the half eaten packed lunch inside, left where it will no longer be seen for at least six weeks. Then it’s on with the swimming togs and jandals and off to the beach to play with friends. We know all about the endings part of this season of Advent.
But Advent is also about new beginnings with God, and this is what John the Baptist is signalling in the text before us. The people who came to listen to him were a cross section of the community. They included religious leaders and the pious; those who expected their position gave them special credentials in the community of the redeemed. They also included people who were generally despised; tax collectors, and soldiers (presumably either Herod’s henchmen or Roman soldiers, or both). The crowd also included ordinary locals, who came out in great numbers to make their assessment of this strange character from the wilderness.
One of the reasons people give for sending their children to church schools is that parents expect a Christian school to give their children a moral compass. Morality, they think, is about education, teaching children the difference between right and wrong. Once children know what’s right, they will do it, is the way the thinking goes. The downside of this is that if our children do something wrong, it must be because the parent has done something wrong, or has failed to bring their children up properly.
The truth is far more complex. We all know from our own experience that we are aware of what the right thing is, but we don’t always do it. Remember those lines from the confession in our liturgy: “We have sinned in weakness: we have sinned through our own deliberate fault.” In other words, we know we are not always doing what is right. We have a kind of moral amnesia. We push to the back of our minds any inconvenient truth about what we are up to, and are quick to focus on any excuse that provides a satisfying reason for doing the wrong thing.
The people in today’s gospel came out in great numbers to see John the Baptist. They thought he must be the Messiah, but all he was doing was telling them things that they already knew. I am sure that the tax collectors knew that they shouldn’t be cheating their own people. The soldiers knew that they shouldn’t misuse their power for extortion and bullying. The religious leaders were probably aware that they shouldn’t presume the best seats in the kingdom and that they ought to practice humility before God and God’s people. John’s preaching was not actually calling them to a radical change of life. Soldiers were to carry on soldiering. Tax collectors were to carry on being tax collectors. Yet John’s message was challenging to hear. He was simply telling the people to do what they knew to be right and true, but had conveniently forgotten. The people were coming out to hear someone who could see their situation more clearly, and who was saying things they already knew to be true. They were responding to someone who is recalling them to themselves, and reminding them of what they already know. Perhaps this is why they regarded John the Baptist with a certain kind of awe.
John, however, knows that this will not be enough on its own. “I baptise you with water, but one who is more powerful than I is coming… He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” John’s message of repentance is very important. It is part of what we need. Self examination and repentance is an important aspect of a healthy, rounded Christian spirituality. The Anglican Church still has a form of private confession or “Reconciliation of a Penitent” which you can find on page 750 of the NZPB. John the Baptist was aware that his baptism of repentance was only part of what we need. When we are forgetful of what is true and right, when we know we have “stuffed up” and done something we know is not right, when we need saving from ourselves and the silly things we do to hurt those nearest and dearest to us, repentance is helpful. But we need more, and John the Baptist was very aware that we need more.
And so we wait with John the Baptist, in eager anticipation for the coming of Jesus Christ. God is offering us so much more in Christ. Jesus comes, not just to set us back on our feet, not just to be more faithful, not just to be better at doing what is right. He is offering more.
The tax collectors might well have gone away from John’s baptism determined to be better tax collectors. Soldiers might well have gone away telling themselves that they would indeed be satisfied with their wages. As we know from our own experience, the world is inevitably so full of injustice, temptation and the pressure of living, that it wouldn’t be long before they slid back into their old habits. It wouldn’t be long before they would need another call to repentance all over again.
The coming of Christ does much more than call us to repent and to get back to doing what is right. It does all that, but it also does so much more. Christ baptises with the Holy Spirit and with fire. That baptism is much more than a sign of repentance, much more than the forgiveness of sins, which in itself is so important. When Jesus comes, we are not just put back on our feet again. The love of God is poured into our hearts. God relates to us on our level and speaks to our hearts in language we understand. Jesus comes so that we can be in a relationship of intimacy with God. The coming of Christ reminds us that the Christian faith is much more than a package of beliefs or moral guidelines that tell us right from wrong. The Christian faith is primarily a relationship, a relationship of love and intimacy with God, made available to us by the coming of Jesus. That is why we hear words of the prophet every Advent: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.” Make straight a highway for God to enter directly into our hearts and into our world.
The coming of a child signals so much hope. It takes us back to the hope of our childhood, the hope we had as the school year ended and the long summer holidays began. In the bible the coming of a child signals a transformation as stark as the turning of a desert into an oasis. Jesus coming signals hope, new possibilities, the dawning of a new kingdom and a new start. Where we have squandered the hope of our births, where we have needed repentance and to find forgiveness, Christ comes. He comes not just to give us a second chance. It is the return to the hope of our childhood and more. It is a new and certain hope of life in God, of being a child of God, of being God’s in this life and forever more.
