Year C
Zephaniah 3:14-20
Canticle 9
Philippians 4:4-7
Luke 3:7-18<\/p>\n\n\n\n
May the words of my mouth O God\u2026 speak your truth\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Have you ever had the experience\u2026 of learning about something\u2026 of being confident that you were right\u2026 and acting on that knowledge\u2026 of making decisions perhaps even critical decisions based on what you knew\u2026 only to find out later on\u2026 that what you knew wasn’t the whole picture\u2026 that you weren’t just a little bit off-base\u2026 but you were way off base\u2026 and that what you did\u2026 based on what you thought you knew\u2026 or what you thought you understood\u2026 had unwarranted consequences for someone else or for yourself\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example\u2026 when I was in the Air Force\u2026 I worked as a medical laboratory technician\u2026 and one day\u2026 I measured the potassium level on blood that had been drawn from a patient who was in hospital\u2026 and it was low\u2026 not terribly low\u2026 but low enough to warrant an injection of potassium\u2026 something equal perhaps to eating six bananas at once\u2026 only to find out that I reported the correct result\u2026 but for the wrong patient\u2026 it wasn’t life-threatening\u2026 but it did delay the right person getting the supplement\u2026 and I sure got a talking to by the officer in charge of the lab\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another time\u2026 I was cleaning up and deleting some files on an old PC I had\u2026 and I deleted a file that I didn’t recognize and never used and couldn’t imagine needing\u2026 but the next time I went to start my computer\u2026 it wouldn’t start\u2026 turns out I had deleted a critical system file that was\u2026 well critical\u2026 and what I had done comes under the heading of knowing just enough to be dangerous\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These errors are the kind that some of us make\u2026 thinking we know something about something\u2026 or mis-understanding something that someone said\u2026 or drawing conclusions and making decisions that cause some difficulty\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But today is supposed to be easy\u2026 like Jesus’ easy yoke and light burden\u2026 the day we shift more of our gaze from the eschatological and penitential nature of Advent\u2026 to the joyful anticipation of Jesus’ birth\u2026 today is supposed to be easy\u2026 and we call today Gaudete Sunday\u2026 gaudete<\/em> is the Latin version\u2026 of the Greek word\u2026 in today’s Epistle\u2026 when the apostle Paul\u2026 exhorts the Philippians to rejoice\u2026 even though Herod has put Paul in prison\u2026 for upsetting the status quo<\/em> just a little bit too much\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n But there is no getting to Bethlehem\u2026 without first hearing the rough prophet in the wilderness call us to repentance\u2026 trying to avoid or sugarcoat John’s words is just not possible\u2026 because arriving at the manger in faith\u2026 and bearing fruit\u2026 requires the careful self-examination and recommitment called for by John\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Rev. Marcea Paul of the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in Austin, Texas reminds us\u2026 that we have been experiencing tough times these last few years\u2026 and with the suffering\u2026 loss\u2026 uncertainty\u2026 and state of our beautiful and broken world\u2026 how can we hear John’s words and rejoice? In our minds\u2026 joy tends is associated with happiness\u2026 and happiness is often connected with what is happen-ing to us and around us\u2026 but happiness usually lasts for just a season\u2026 when we are discouraged and afraid\u2026 rejoicing in God can be a hard sell\u2026 but the truth is\u2026 that joy is not usually inspired by happy circumstances\u2026 poet and author David Whyte writes\u2026 “to feel a full and untrammeled joy\u2026 is to have become fully generous\u2026 to allow ourselves to be joyful\u2026 is to have walked through the doorway of fear\u2026” <\/em> and joy\u2026 unlike happiness\u2026 lasts\u2026 no matter what the challenges are\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And so when John anticipates\u2026 that the gathered crowds might exempt themselves from bearing fruit worthy of repentance by pointing to Abraham as their ancestor\u2026 he says\u2026 big deal\u2026 God can take those stones over there and raise up children to Abraham\u2026 so don’t think that your family name\u2026 or your genetic inheritance is enough to excuse you from doing what needs to be done in the here and now\u2026 because there’s still much to be done<\/em>\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n The crowds came out to listen to John\u2026 tramped out into the wilderness\u2026 so they had some idea what they were getting in to\u2026 even tax collectors and Roman soldiers came too\u2026 and so when John exhorts them to bear fruits worthy of repentance\u2026 that’s really helpful\u2026 because another way of saying it is\u2026 if you truly repent\u2026 then you won’t just say I’m sorry\u2026 and continue the same behavior as before\u2026 if you repent\u2026 if you truly turn back to God\u2026 then what you’ll bear will be worthwhile fruits\u2026 what you’ll do will be in line with\u2026 or at least more in line with\u2026 God’s will<\/em>\u2026 and John is specific\u2026 he told the crowd who asked\u2026 if you have two coats\u2026 give one to someone who has none<\/em>\u2026 but maybe the ones who asked suffered from scarcity thinking and wondered if they’d have enough\u2026 after all\u2026 didn’t they work harder for what they have than others had\u2026 and the tax collectors who have done well with their thumbs on the scale\u2026 may have wondered\u2026 can we take a cutback in revenue\u2026 and maintain our standard of living<\/em>\u2026 and the soldiers\u2026 who during that time pushed people around\u2026 may have wondered who would know they were soldiers\u2026 if they stopped bullying people\u2026 stopped threatening to denounce them falsely\u2026 and stopped making a little on the side\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n This change in behavior is given expression in a line from The General Thanksgiving at Morning Prayer\u2026 and we pray\u2026 give us such an awareness of your mercies\u2026 that with truly thankful hearts we may show forth your praise\u2026 not only with our lips\u2026 but in our lives<\/em>\u2026 and we can make these difficult changes not one our own\u2026 but because of the one who was to come after John\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n John’s advice to all of them\u2026 is practical and pointed\u2026 his answers reflect his knowledge of the vocations and values of those who ask the questions… and his answers all involve acts of mercy and justice\u2026 and center on money\u2026 on the economics of grace… and on the redistribution of wealth and property\u2026 and we can resist when we think\u2026 well\u2026 if I have two coats\u2026 and give one away\u2026 then maybe the stores that sell coats would sell one less coat\u2026 and if everyone in Grand Rapids\u2026 who had two or more coats\u2026 gave one to someone who had none\u2026 then maybe some of the stores which sell coats would have to close\u2026 and some employees would be laid off\u2026 so for pity sakes\u2026 don’t give any coats away\u2026 buy one or two more\u2026 keep the economy going\u2026 and it does go\u2026 except for those who can’t buy their own coats\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n During Advent\u2026 we are the crowd along the river\u2026 John’s words crash through our lives\u2026 his pronouncements batter us like waves of judgment and hope\u2026 one after the other\u2026 because so many of us point to what we think we know\u2026 or are confident that we’re right\u2026 and perhaps make critical decisions\u2026 and we too are left baffled about what this Messiah will mean for our lives\u2026 and so in the company of soldiers and tax collectors we too ask\u2026 And we\u2026 what then should we do?<\/em>\u2026 it’s the question at the heart of Advent\u2026 how will we answer it\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n And for us Christians\u2026 the arrival of Jesus on planet earth\u2026 is the reason we can find joy in a troubled world\u2026 Jesus entered the world not only to share our messy existence\u2026 but to rejoice over us\u2026 Jesus renews us in God’s love\u2026 and comes as God’s presence to give us hope beyond sorrow\u2026 and the mystery of incarnation\u2026 the mystery of death and resurrection\u2026 the mystery of the Christ’s presence with us still\u2026 it is all reason for joy\u2026 and perhaps this is the mystery of our salvation\u2026 that God becomes most divine… when God becomes most human\u2026 and when we live in the image of God\u2026 then we too are fully human\u2026 and this is true because we don’t think ourselves into a new ways of living\u2026 as much as we live ourselves into new ways of thinking\u2026 Holy God\u2026 make it so\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Year C Zephaniah 3:14-20 Canticle 9 Philippians 4:4-7 Luke 3:7-18 May the words of my mouth O God\u2026 speak your truth\u2026 Have you ever had the experience\u2026 of learning about something\u2026 of being confident that you were right\u2026 and acting on that knowledge\u2026 of making decisions perhaps even critical decisions based on what you knew\u2026 only to find out later on\u2026 that what you knew wasn’t the whole picture\u2026 that you weren’t just a little bit off-base\u2026 but you were way off base\u2026 and that what you did\u2026 based on what you thought you knew\u2026 or what you thought you understood\u2026 had unwarranted consequences for someone else or for yourself\u2026 For example\u2026 when I was in the Air Force\u2026 I worked as a medical laboratory technician\u2026 and one day\u2026 I measured the potassium level on blood that had been drawn from a patient who was in hospital\u2026 and it was low\u2026 not terribly low\u2026 but low enough to warrant an injection of potassium\u2026 something equal perhaps to eating six bananas at once\u2026 only to find out that I reported the correct result\u2026 but for the wrong patient\u2026 it wasn’t life-threatening\u2026 but it did delay the right person getting the supplement\u2026 and I sure got a talking to by the officer in charge of the lab\u2026 Another time\u2026 I was cleaning up and deleting some files on an old PC I had\u2026 and I deleted a file that I didn’t recognize and never used and couldn’t imagine needing\u2026 but the next time I went to start my computer\u2026 it wouldn’t start\u2026 turns out I had deleted a critical system file that was\u2026 well critical\u2026 and what I had done comes under the heading of knowing just enough to be dangerous\u2026 These errors are the kind that some of us make\u2026 thinking we know something about something\u2026 or mis-understanding something that someone said\u2026 or drawing conclusions and making decisions that cause some difficulty\u2026 But today is supposed to be easy\u2026 like Jesus’ easy yoke and light burden\u2026 the day we shift more of our gaze from the eschatological and penitential nature of Advent\u2026 to the joyful anticipation of Jesus’ birth\u2026 today is supposed to be easy\u2026 and we call today Gaudete Sunday\u2026 gaudete is the Latin version\u2026 of the Greek word\u2026 in today’s Epistle\u2026 when the apostle Paul\u2026 exhorts the Philippians to rejoice\u2026 even though Herod has put Paul in prison\u2026 for upsetting the status quo just a little bit too much\u2026 But there is no getting to Bethlehem\u2026 without first hearing the rough prophet in the wilderness call us to repentance\u2026 trying to avoid or sugarcoat John’s words is just not possible\u2026 because arriving at the manger in faith\u2026 and bearing fruit\u2026 requires the careful self-examination and recommitment called for by John\u2026 The Rev. Marcea Paul of the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in Austin, Texas reminds us\u2026 that we have been experiencing tough times these last few years\u2026 and with the suffering\u2026 loss\u2026 uncertainty\u2026 and state of our beautiful and broken world\u2026 how can we hear John’s words and rejoice? In our minds\u2026 joy tends is associated with happiness\u2026 and happiness is often connected with what is happen-ing to us and around us\u2026 but happiness usually lasts for just a season\u2026 when we are discouraged and afraid\u2026 rejoicing in God can be a hard sell\u2026 but the truth is\u2026 that joy is not usually inspired by happy circumstances\u2026 poet and author David Whyte writes\u2026 “to feel a full and untrammeled joy\u2026 is to have become fully generous\u2026 to allow ourselves to be joyful\u2026 is to have walked through the doorway of fear\u2026” and joy\u2026 unlike happiness\u2026 lasts\u2026 no matter what the challenges are\u2026 And so when John anticipates\u2026 that the gathered crowds might exempt themselves from bearing fruit worthy of repentance by pointing to Abraham as their ancestor\u2026 he says\u2026 big deal\u2026 God can take those stones over there and raise up children to Abraham\u2026 so don’t think that your family name\u2026 or your genetic inheritance is enough to excuse you from doing what needs to be done in the here and now\u2026 because there’s still much to be done\u2026 The crowds came out to listen to John\u2026 tramped out into the wilderness\u2026 so they had some idea what they were getting in to\u2026 even tax collectors and Roman soldiers came too\u2026 and so when John exhorts them to bear fruits worthy of repentance\u2026 that’s really helpful\u2026 because another way of saying it is\u2026 if you truly repent\u2026 then you won’t just say I’m sorry\u2026 and continue the same behavior as before\u2026 if you repent\u2026 if you truly turn back to God\u2026 then what you’ll bear will be worthwhile fruits\u2026 what you’ll do will be in line with\u2026 or at least more in line with\u2026 God’s will\u2026 and John is specific\u2026 he told the crowd who asked\u2026 if you have two coats\u2026 give one to someone who has none\u2026 but maybe the ones who asked suffered from scarcity thinking and wondered if they’d have enough\u2026 after all\u2026 didn’t they work harder for what they have than others had\u2026 and the tax collectors who have done well with their thumbs on the scale\u2026 may have wondered\u2026 can we take a cutback in revenue\u2026 and maintain our standard of living\u2026 and the soldiers\u2026 who during that time pushed people around\u2026 may have wondered who would know they were soldiers\u2026 if they stopped bullying people\u2026 stopped threatening to denounce them falsely\u2026 and stopped making a little on the side\u2026 This change in behavior is given expression in a line from The General Thanksgiving at Morning Prayer\u2026 and we pray\u2026 give us such an awareness of your mercies\u2026 that with truly thankful hearts we may show forth your praise\u2026 not only with our lips\u2026 but in our lives\u2026 and we can make these difficult changes not one our own\u2026 but because of the one who was to come after John\u2026 John’s advice to all of them\u2026 is practical and pointed\u2026 his answers reflect his knowledge of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[25,41,39,40],"class_list":["post-1450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons","tag-advent","tag-hope","tag-repent","tag-repentance"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1450"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1451,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1450\/revisions\/1451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}