Christmas reveals that
there are basically two kinds of kids in the US: the Santa lovers, those who
adore the big guy and the Santa fearers, those who are horribly afraid of him
in person. My sister was one of the fearers – she was fine talking about Santa,
thrilled at the prospect of his coming, but in person, he might as well have
been the devil incarnate. Me? I couldn’t get enough of the big guy –to say that
I was a fan doesn’t do justice to the bond that we had – we were best buddies,
amigos, okay, I adored him. He wasn’t Jesus, I got that, but he embodied the
love and acceptance of God that I so longed for as a short, stuttering, nerdy,
picked on kid.
But this week I met the
original Santa who ushered in the first Christmas – John the Baptist. Now
that’s one scary Santa. John is that Christmas messenger who invites you to sit
on his lap, insults you, then demands to know why you’ve come and only to tell
you what you want and what you’re gonna get.
So this week I spent much
of time in a very different role – I was like my sister – a fearer. I realized
that I was content to talk about John, to laugh at this clothes and strange
diet but truly meet him? Listen to him? Love him? That’s been hard. And yet I
believe if we will do so we have a great opportunity to receive an incredible
gift – “joy.”
Because despite the
insults, the wrath, the threat of an ax, the moralizing, and even talk of fire,
Luke breezily tells us at the end that this was “good news to the people.” And
this morning I would like to say to you, “It is. It is good news. It’s all
about joy. And this is why.”
1.
For John, joy means welcoming Christmas wrath.
Wrath is one of the
more thorny, misunderstood biblical concepts. When you think of wrath, or even
the wrath of God, what comes to mind?
For many it invokes
images of an irrational God who rages around knocking over the furniture,
pulling off his belt with threats of a beating, or even worse. Such a view is not
Biblical and has done irreparable harm to many who leave the faith because they
rightly can’t live with such a God – a divine schizoid who longs to love us but
who is willing to torture or kill us in the end, if he has to. Equally
repugnant, of course, is the opposite alternative - God as some doting
grandfather – lovingly sweet but ever forgetful, unaware of the many injustices
in the world who spends his time muttering to himself, “Now don’t be naughty.”
So we should carefully
discern what John might mean by “wrath” – what it is and what it is not and why
it has anything to do with God. Simply
put, the wrath of God is God’s determined plan to love us no matter what.
The wrath of God is NOT a human emotion. The wrath of God portrayed in the Bible is somewhat
different from human anger. One writer describes this difference as the
difference between “passion” and “pathos.” “Passion” is understood as an
emotional convulsion . . . and a loss of self-control. “Pathos” on the other
hand is an act formed with care and intention, the result of determination and
decision. For example, God is never described by Paul, for example, as being
angry. Anger is a human emotion. Wrath then is not human anger writ large – God
flying off the handle - but God’s intentional and unwavering desire to love us,
even when we do wrong.
The wrath of God is NOT separate from God’s love. It’s not romantic love but the belief that God
loves both victim and perpetrator. And
because God loves all people God must fiercely oppose everything and all who
would seek to harm others. It’s interesting to note that John’s warning about
God’s wrath is connected to the fact that many Israelites were claiming they
were safe because of a certain kind of particularism, “We are children of
Abraham.” It was a claim of favoritism, of being above others. But if God loves
everyone – then watch out when you say or act in ways that harm others,
particularly if you think your status protects you. Watch out when you say that
God loves you because you’re somehow special. Or disparage others because of
their ethnicity or political views. God’s response to such sentiments or
actions will always be loving but because God loves those who you are trying to
harm – God’s love might hurt. God loves us too much to allow that to continue.
The wrath of God is NOT an attribute of God. Isaiah ch. 12 will speak of a day of wrath as
actually a day when wrath ends because reconciliation is achieved and Yahweh’s
people flourish. This is why wrath is not an attribute of God. The Bible never
says that “God is wrath” but it does say, “God is love.” Wrath is not eternal.
It is the experience of the love of God in response to sin. When there’s no
more sin; then God’s love will not be experienced as wrath anymore. E.g. innoculating
a child against disease – it hurts but it’s an act of love in a broken world.
The wrath of God is love and justice enacted. To put it another way, the wrath of God is God
getting what God wants. In fact, in the Ancient Near East, the very concept of
wrath was not a category for average human beings but only the prerogative of
the king. It was synonymous with “the exercise of sovereignty.” Wrath in other
words, referred to the intent of the sovereign to extend his domain into
hostile territory and therefore reflected royal policy and not private
sentiment. Wrath, in other words, was not meant to humanize God but refers to
his sovereignty to accomplish what he wills.
The wrath of God IS a purifying fire. The real issue related to wrath in our passage, of
course, is this image of fire. Many have taken such an image to be punitive and
destructive of the whole person. But the Bible often reveals that the fire of
God is purifying and healing and not first and foremost destructive (Malachi 3;
Hebrews 12:29). The fire, John tells us, burns chaff. Chaff is the un-needed
part of the wheat NOT something in and of itself. Wheat may have chaff but
chaff is never wheat. So the fire that burns removes that which is unnecessary.
Do you believe that
goods should be shared rather than hoarded, that people should have to pay no
more than their fair share, that justice and equity and compassion should be
experienced by all people created in God’s image? Why do you think that? We
would say that’s true because God loves all people because God is a God of love
and God will enact that love for all. And that means that those who are harming
others when they experience that love will lose out, have to change, experience
an uncomfortable truth. The fierce love of God that will set the world right when
offered can’t help but be painful and scary for some. God’s wrath doesn’t aim
to kill us – it will, however, set us straight. And John wants us to take care
before God has to step in.
But John’s message is
joyful in other ways as well.
2.
For John, joy means accepting the challenge that
justice is simple.
3 times in our passage
we discover people asking John, “What should we do?” And thank God that they
didn’t ask me this question. I would have told them to read any number of
books, survey significant people to determine what to consider, formulate a ten
point plan, create a t-shirt to announce and brand the plan, and then, if
you’re not too tired, to enact the plan. John has a different way.
John’s message is
simple: deal justly with what you have with those who you interact with in your
daily life. He defines it so simply that I was a bit at a loss as to how to
talk about it. It’s not like it needs explaining – share, follow the rules,
don’t extort. It’s not complicated. But the challenge for us is that while many
of us have more than one coat, I don’t see any IRS agents or soldiers in our
midst. So the real challenge for us may not be how do we enact John’s advice is
as much about how we go about asking the question, “What should we do?”
The challenge is to ask
that question (not the question “what do you want?”) around the dinner table, in
our churches, or our places of business, before you go Christmas shopping, or
make vacation plans. The challenge is to have an honest conversation with
others that doesn’t involve you doing nothing either because you feel guilty
about problems that are too large somehow or because you believe that you
are being called to “save” the world. The challenge, in other words, according
to John, is to stay simple. And to continue to ask that great, joyful, biblical
question, “What should we do?”
What I also appreciate
about the question is that it is asked from a place a hope and joy not fear.
And while John’s answers might not fit our situation the question prompted by
his unwavering hope that the messiah is coming and will set things right means
that we should ask this question without fear ourselves. We can approach these
problems with confidence. Refugees need help. What should we do? Muslims are
being targeted and vilified. What should we do? Xenophobia and anti-immigrant
rants are becoming common place. What should we do? Because He is coming. One
simple act of justice this Christmas – Monday at the Sunken Gardens at the
court house, 5 pm, a march and prayer vigil to support Muslims in our
community, “Not in our Name.”
3.
For John, ‘joy” is understanding that there is
someone stronger than himself. And that someone will always be a surprise.
I don’t find many
Christians these days who are surprised. They, like John, speak of and for Jesus
with unwavering authority as if they were the scriptures themselves.
John shouts “flee from
the wrath to come.” And we remember that a baby was born lying in a feed trough
on the outskirts of town, to bewildered parents, and with scores of angels. I
love this image. Friends, bear witness – this is the wrath and justice of God.
“A stronger one is
coming,” John announces. Someone so superior that John would not be worthy even
to perform the humiliating service reserved for a non-Jewish slave: to loosen
the strap of the sandals of this stronger one. And yet this One will wash his
own disciples feet, talk to children and compare them to the kingdom, allow
women to touch him and call them to follow him.
"He will wield a
superior baptism of life and fire," John screams. He will be both the wrath and
justice of God. And Jesus eats with sinners, hangs out at parties, makes wine
for guests, and even talks about dancing in the streets.
John was the prize
student. Jesus said so. “There is no one greater,” he says. And yet, John
didn’t see it coming. Later in Luke 7, John will dispatch some disciples to ask
Jesus one simple question, “Are you the one who was to come or should we look
for another?” Because this one with the winnowing fork - who brings Holy Spirit and fire doesn’t
look like what John thought. And I find something terribly humbling, helpful
and healing about that. Friends, Jesus surprised us the first time. What makes
you think he won’t surprise us again?
May you take away this
hope, peace, the joy, that when he comes again to bring wrath, justice and fire
– you will simply be surprised.
