John the Baptizer and a Terrible Wonder | Second Sunday of Advent | Luke 3:1-20
December 5, 2021 | 10:45 a.m.
Second Sunday of Advent
St. John the Baptist Preaching, Mattia Preti
In the season of Advent, John the Baptizer is a pivotal figure. He appears every Advent on the second and third Sundays. Through his cry to repent, the church is brought from waiting for the second coming (Advent 1) to waiting for the first coming of Jesus (Advent 4). As in the four gospels, so too in Advent, you only get to Jesus through the strange and wonderful figure of John.
The powerful force of John’s proclamation is captured in the collect for Advent 2: “Stir up our hearts, O Lord, to make ready the way of Your only-begotten Son.” Whereas Advent 1 called for God to stir up his power, Advent 2 calls for God to stir up our hearts and John does that through preaching repentance, awakening people to the terror and the wonder of God.
This second sermon focuses upon the strange figure of John the Baptizer, the voice from the edge in this sermon, and his vision of Jesus, so different from the Jesus our American Christian piety typically portrays. This voice and this vision strike our hearts with terror and wonder and call us to repent in preparation for our Lord’s coming.
Repentant Reorientation:
In each sermon of this series, a voice from the edge reorients our way of life in the world. In this particular sermon, that reorientation is a change from preparing for a day (the day of Christmas) to preparing for a person (the person of Jesus and eternal life in him).
This sermon addresses the following malady: the way in which we can prepare for Christmas as a momentary sentimental celebration, a seasonal holiday where peace and goodwill reign by our human effort rather than by the power of God. By now, God’s people are beginning to prepare for the celebration of Christmas. They are dragging out Christmas decorations, putting up lights, purchasing gifts, and sending out cards. The day of Christmas is approaching and plans are being made for how to celebrate that day. Our advertising culture helps people imagine a peaceful family celebration. It fuels the desire to hide any difficulties or family tensions and get along for the day. A mother once told her estranged son, “It’s just one day of the year. You mean to tell me that for one day, you can’t just get along?” This way of preparing for Christmas misses the mark of participating in the eternal reign of God through his Son. It’s like preparing for a date rather than preparing for a wedding. It tempts us to take Christmas out of the larger story of God’s reign. We prepare only for a day. We don’t make any fundamental changes. We put on smiles like we put up Christmas decorations and end up overlooking how the coming of Christ brings us into something much larger than just this one event.
The voice of the prophet John the Baptizer invites us to reconsider what it means to prepare for the coming of Jesus. How does John do this? He does it by challenging our conception of Jesus and the reign of God. We often have a very American Jesus, a sentimental vision of Jesus that emphasizes his gentleness and love. John reveals both the terror and the wonder of Jesus, by proclaiming him in relation to the larger reign of God. John invites us to see the terror of Jesus in reference to his power of judgment and John proclaims to us the wonder of Jesus, this one who will baptize with the Spirit. The gospel proclamation in this sermon works with John’s promise that Jesus will be “more powerful than I.” That promise came true in ways John never imagined. At the crucifixion, the power of God was made known in Jesus’s weakness: in his death, Jesus revealed himself strong enough to bear the punishment for our sin and, in his promise, Jesus leads us into a life of waiting, trusting, that he will return and we will spend eternity with him.
READINGS
Psalm 76:1–12
Malachi 3:1-5
1 Corinthians 1:18-31
Luke 3:1-20
Message presented by Rev. Frank C. Ruffatto
+Points to ponder
- John paints a different picture of Jesus compared to the ‘popular culture’ Jesus. How do you respond to his picture of Christ?
- What are you doing for Christmas? Will you remember John and the Christ to whom He points?
- How do we share with others the Jesus who is not wispy and tame?
+Sermon Transcript
Grace, mercy, and peace be unto each of you from God our Father and our Lord and King, Jesus the Christ. Amen.
Let us pray: God for whom we watch and wait, You sent John the Baptist to prepare the way of Your Son: give us courage to speak the truth, to hunger for justice, and to suffer for the cause of right, with Jesus Christ our Lord Amen.
This last Thanksgiving, Dave took his niece to the edge of the wilderness and left her there. He didn’t mean to take her to the wilderness. The wilderness was the furthest thing from his mind. He was in one of those Factory Card Outlet stores and there was this bin of coloring books. They were wrapped in cellophane, so he couldn’t look through them, but he saw the covers. One package said, “Bible Stories.” On the cover was Moses with his arms outstretched over a raging sea and on the back was a picture of King David. He thought this would be great. His niece is in kindergarten, and they could sit there together on Thanksgiving; she could color, and he could tell her the stories of God. I know it’s a sentimental moment, but he thought what a wonderful way to share in her growth in faith.
When his brother and sister-in-law arrived, Dave showed Carley the coloring books. He asked her if she wanted to color. Her eyes lit up and she ran to her mom and got her set of coloring pencils. He expected crayons but she uses pencils. The advantage I guess is that you can erase. She took the book of Moses and looked at the cover. Dave told her that this was Moses, and he was making the waters move apart. Her eyes opened wide, and she dived into the book. Now she didn’t start at the first page. She kind of just opened it near the beginning. There was a picture of a little baby in a basket in the water. Dave told her this was the baby Moses. They talked about coloring the water blue, the basket brown, and the grasses green. But then she turned back a page to see what she had missed.
There, she saw a big Egyptian guard with an angry face about to tear a baby out of his mother’s arms. There were tears coming out of the woman’s eyes. Dave looked at the bottom of the page and saw the word “slain.” Uh-oh. But he thought he was safe because Carley wouldn’t know what that means. Then Carley said, “That man looks mean.” Dave said yes, he was mean and suggested they go back to the baby Moses. Instead, she flipped a few pages forward and landed in the middle of the plagues. There, she saw a huge field, a hillside covered with cattle and sheep. Only they were dead. There were sheep lying on their backs with four legs in the air. It was pretty disgusting. Dave tried to get out of the plagues, but she turned the page only to find a man running out of a house with boils on his body. “What’s that?” she asked. “Those are sores,” Dave said. He thought, “I can’t believe we’re going to sit here and color these boils red.”
At this point, Dave’s mom said she needed help in the kitchen and much to his brother’s dismay he jumped at the chance. He didn’t mean to bring Carley into this wilderness, but he did mean to leave her there. He left her with his brother. She didn’t even seem to notice. She was engrossed in the coloring book. Her eyes were wide with terror and wonder and she was even trying to sound out the words and read. As Dave left, she must have turned the page because Dave heard her say to his brother, “Daddy, those fish look dead.” “Great,” Dave thought “well, at least she has erasers. She can erase the blue and color the Nile red. Blood red.”
Terror and wonder on the edge of the wilderness. These are the gifts Dave didn’t intend to give his niece on Thanksgiving. But these are the gifts that Luke intends for you. Terror and wonder as you prepare for the coming of Jesus.
Today, we celebrate the Second Sunday in Advent. Advent means coming and it is a season of preparation. We take time out in the church year to prepare for the coming of Christ. In the world, this is a very physical time. A time for dragging out the Christmas decorations, putting up the lights, purchasing gifts, sending out cards. So, the world is asking us to prepare for Christmas. But in the church, we do something different. In the church, we prepare to meet Jesus. And the way the church has done this for centuries is by having you meet John. John the Baptizer. A voice on the edge of the wilderness. Every gospel writer includes John, and every time John appears he points you to Jesus. He gathers Old Testament prophecies and visions of the future and holds them together in a way that leads you to your Lord. And the Jesus John brings you is not the Jesus we are familiar with. You know how we have the gentle Jesus, embracing the children, enfolding them in his soft flowing robes. And we have the sentimental Jesus, looking off into the distance, bathed in soft light, his face aglow. And then we have the laughing Jesus, with his head thrown back as if you had just told him a good joke. For John, it’s a different story.
John comes among us like an unwelcome guest at dinner. When he sits next to you, he smells, and it is the distinct smell of smoke. He smells like someone who has just escaped from a great fire. You don’t ask him about it because you don’t want to know. But his eyes tell the story. His eyes are wild. Filled with visions of destruction and flames. The fire he knows has not already happened. It is about to come. It is a raging of almighty wrath upon our world and our worship, refining the righteous, destroying the wicked. The axe is already laid to the root of the tree. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he’s going to clear the threshing floor and burn the chaff with unquenchable fire. No wonder you won’t find John in king’s palaces or dressed in fine clothes or at fancy dinners. What he has seen causes him to value everything differently and so he stands on the edge of the wilderness and calls for you to come.
While his eyes are wild with the future, his clothing is a memory of the past. Animal skins. Like Elijah. Dressed like a prophet fresh from the wilderness where he has seen God. John knows the God who can touch the top of a mountain and make it burst into holy flame. This God can sustain people for forty years feeding them with the bread of angels or He can annihilate them in a moment, sending fiery serpents that bite and whose stings burn to death. He is anything but tame, approachable, gentle, sentimental, enfolding children. And when He laughs, it is in derision over the destruction of His foes. And so, John comes.
His eyes see into the future. His clothing looks like the past. But his words, his words are all wrapped up in your present. He tells you to prepare for the coming of this God. Turn away from your sin and prepare for Jesus. Notice that John doesn’t say, “prepare for Christmas.” No, he says “prepare for Jesus.” And there’s a difference. The difference between preparing for a person and preparing for a day. I’ve known people who are great at preparing for Christmas. They can get the house cleaned and decorated and in order – for a day. They can get their busy schedule, their hectic life, quieted – for a day. They can even get their best game on, their relationship with their good-for-nothing son-in-law and his nothing-but-trouble-son-from-a-previous-marriage-who-better-not-go-to-the-fridge-and-get-another-beer, they can even get that in order, cordial, hospitable, possibly even Christian, yes, they can do that – for a day. Because when you prepare for a day, you are only getting ready for 24 hours. It will be here and then gone and then life can return to normal. But when you prepare for a person. Well, that’s different. Especially when that person is not here and then gone but coming to stay. Coming to invite you into His kingdom and use you, your words, your thoughts, your deeds, in his never-failing plan to save this whole fallen world. Getting ready for that person is different because when that person comes and comes to stay, your whole life changes. Your moral messiness; your blinded busyness; your broken relationships; these things need to change and change for good. Why? Well, consider the person who is coming.
Notice how John describes this one who is to come. This is not the gentle Jesus. This is not a God of quiet moments around a coloring book or a Christmas tree. And this is not the sentimental Jesus. This is not a God who says, “Aw, don’t worry about your sin. Everybody does it. I’m just glad that you’re here.” “No,” John says, “after me will come one more powerful than I.” Jesus will not be gentler, more understanding, more tolerant. He will be more powerful. Where John baptized with water, this one will baptize with the Spirit. And in the gospel of Luke, we see the terror and the wonder of the power of Jesus.
There is terror in His power. Think of how Jesus appears in Luke. When Jesus comes, He enters a synagogue and teaches. After His teaching suddenly you hear a voice crying. It is not a human voice but the voice of an evil spirit crying out and there, in the middle of worship, Jesus declares war on Satan. When people who are sick are brought to Him, instead of speaking of sickness, He speaks of the soul. Wherever He goes, life suddenly breaks open so that one sees sin instead of sickness, an assault on demonic powers in the midst of worship. There is terror in His power.
And there is wonder. Just as quickly as He appears with power over sin and the devil, so too, just as quickly, His power disappears in suffering. He is betrayed by one of His own. Brutalized by Roman soldiers and hung up to die on a tree. His disciples anticipate a display of His power and glory but what they get is a dead man hanging on a cross. And there, on the cross, abandoned by His people, abandoned by His God, this one stronger than John dies, and the terrible wonder is that He dies for what we have done. Our moral messiness. Our blinded busyness. Our broken relationships have broken the body of Jesus.
Here is the power of God made known in weakness. He is the only one strong enough to endure your eternal damnation for sin. He bears the wrath, the anger, the fury, of God and leaves you with a word of promise: “You are forgiven.” This one who suffered the punishment of sin rises and rules over all things for you. He brings you into His kingdom and uses you in the never-ending rule of His love until that day when He will come. He will return from the heavens and bring about a new creation. His kingdom shall never pass away.
So, what are you doing for Christmas? Are you going over to your friend’s? Beginning a new Christmas tradition with their family? Are your relatives coming into town? Perhaps you are planning a long trip home, looking forward to seeing your sister, the first time since she told you about the cancer. Whatever you are doing, when it comes to Christmas, don’t forget John. Because John brings us Jesus.
John tells you to prepare, not for a day but for a person. He stands here with wild eyes and strange clothing so that you prepare not for a sentimental moment holding candles in a dark church singing Silent Night, but so that you prepare for eternity. John prepares you to meet Jesus and this Jesus has prepared an eternity for you. Regardless of what you are doing for Christmas, John reminds you of what God is doing. He is tearing apart the heavens and coming into this world. He has washed you with water, baptized you in the Spirit, and He is coming for you. You’ve seen what He does. He can use the words of a hymn in the middle of worship to declare war on the devil. He can turn a concern about sickness into a concern about the soul. He is wild and strange and awesome and mighty and just when you need His power the most, He can disappear in weakness leaving you feeling terribly alone. Waiting. Hoping. Trusting in this crucified one. Trusting that in His weakness, there is power. Trusting that in His promise, there is fulfillment. Trusting that in His dying, there is love, a love that is stronger than death – even though everything around you tells you otherwise. If this vision fills you with fear and love; terror and wonder; then you have come to the edge of the wilderness. You are like Dave’s niece, just beginning to read the good news, your eyes wide open with terror and wonder at the rule of God in Jesus. And that is where I intend to leave you this Advent. As you prepare for Jesus. Amen.
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”
Background and Study notes from Rev. Dr. David R. Schmitt, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis: Voices from the Edge – Advent Encounters Preparing the Way
About the Series
Advent has long been a time of preparation, preparation for the celebration of Christmas. Yet the road to Christmas is anything but easy. It twists, it turns, and we meet many strange figures along the way. Prophets cry out in visions. John the Baptizer preaches in the desert. Angels appear whether you are asleep or awake. The voices are varied, the places are strange, but one thing is certain: in each encounter, God is preparing us for the celebration of the greatest encounter of all, the birth of Jesus, his Son, our Savior, the Redeemer of the world.
