"Peace, But Not Yet"

Luke 3:1-14, 18

Second Sunday in Advent + December 9, 2012

Reverend Dr. David C. Brown

Pilgrim Congregational United Church of Christ

400 Glenwood Drive, Chattanooga, TN 37404

Oh, no, is he here again? Who invited him to our Christmas celebration? He’s like that nasty relative who comes to our Christmas dinner and talks too loud and makes unkind criticisms of everyone. Nobody likes him, but here he is, making his annual visit on the Second Sunday in Advent, and he has the audacity to claim that his rant is good news. It’s John the Baptist, come out of the desert with his weird clothes and diet. Matthew’s Gospel says he wore camel’s hair and ate locusts and wild honey. Don’t think soft, comfy camel’s hair coats we get from Joseph A. Bank’s. Think of clothes made from the scratchiest steel wool imaginable. To make it even more uncomfortable, John cinches it up around his waist with a tight leather belt. And his food? Bugs and bees, bugs and bees! No wonder he is in such a bad mood. And he is supposed to be giving good news to us? Listen, really listen, to what this trouble maker is actually saying

First, he calls us a bunch of snakes. “Brood of vipers” is his exact statement. Nice, friendly talk! Then he says it makes no difference that we are free-born citizens; our heritage is nothing, he claims. Then he says we are trees, and God’s forester is standing there with axe at the ready, just looking for a chance to give us the chop, just as soon as it can be seen that we are going to grow crab apples instead of jonathans or macs. Then, listen to what he says we have to do to escape that axe murderer: “If you have more clothes than you need, give the excess to someone who doesn’t have enough. If you are eating more than you really need, give the extra to those who are hungry.” The hatchet-man could probably take out every one of us with one swing on that one!

Then he says to all the bureaucrats, “Cut out waste and fraud or you’ll feel the blade.” He tells the soldiers and police, “Be honest. Don’t accept bribes.”

Had enough? That’s just the warm-up. Now he is ready to start cooking. “Christ is coming,” he says. That is nice, right? Wrong! “He is driving a well-oiled international harvester down the row, and you are going to be sucked right up into it. If you are good grain, sister, you have no problem. You will get stacked in the nice, dry barn. But if you have something wrong with you, brother, you go right out the exhaust pipe and on the scrap heap. Just wait until the field gets burned off!”

Now, here is the kicker – are you ready for this? – “With many other words John exhorted the people and he preached good news to them.” This is good news? What John is saying is about as welcome as petrified wood at a termites’ picnic. How can this be good news? It is terrifying news. Hardly anyone among us can claim she or he is living up to the demands the Baptizer is making.

Yet the thrust of this gospel story of John the Baptist is this: “Get ready, because the Lord is at hand. You can stop being afraid now. Stop being afraid? He is coming to throw me on the pile for burning, and I am not supposed to be afraid? That scares the living daylights out of anyone with any sense.

Have you ever wondered why so many people are afraid of God? They run to far countries to escape. They hide in dark corners. They sneak into brown bottles and silver needles and packets of white powder and little round pills. They cower behind piles of money or get into the wrong bed in the hope that God will not think to look for them there.

Christians preach that God is love. If that is so, why are people so afraid? Because the axeman has our sins engraved on the edge of his blade.  The Lord is coming, and we have not measured up. Be afraid, be very, very afraid.

How do you and I resolve this paradox? The biblical story seems to be telling us two contradictory things. “Fear not, because we are loved and forgiven by God.” On the other hand, “Prepare for the worst, because we can be sure our sins will find us out.” How can both of these be good news?

It is easy enough to understand that the coming of a Christ who reconciles us with the Source of Life is good. It is clearly good news that God loves us, forgives us, sticks with us through the tough times. It is awe-inspiring to think that Christ is willing to die for even the lowliest one among us and for even the most evil parts within us. But how can it be good news that Christ is coming to judge the quick and the dead? None of us is going to fare very well in that judgment. “All we, like sheep, have gone astray.”

Our usual resolution of the paradox is simply to choose one side or the other, isn’t it? There are churches that delight in detailing the awful plight of “sinners in the hands of an angry God.” Their theology is all judgment, especially for those outside their own walls. Then there are churches with a theology of “cheap grace.” “Don’t you worry, honey. Just wear this cross around your neck, keep a “What would Jesus do” card in your back pocket, and send in your dollars, because God is on your side – regardless of where your front and back may be.”

You know, though – if you consider it – that the good news really does come when we hear the gospel whole, when we hear love with one ear and judgment with the other, and let the words meet in the middle of our being. It is when they are together that they are good news – instead of the same, old daily rat race. Remember, even if we win that race, we’re still rats!

Judgment is a necessary part of good news because without the word of judgment we do not know what the rules are. Have you ever tried to play a game when you didn’t know the rules, or when your opponent kept changing the rules or making them up as the game went along? Step up to a video game sometime, slip some coins in the slot, and start playing without looking at the directions – see how far you get. Or start putting a three-piece toy kitchen set together on Christmas Eve – after discovering that the instruction sheet is not in the box – and see if you are done in time for Christmas morning.

There is no freedom without judgment, because we are not really free unless we can reject God. If anything we are and do is okay with God or if God forgives everything we do, whether we want to be forgiven or not, we are not free. We are not even taken seriously. We are not treated as adult persons, with minds of our own, but as little children who cannot be expected to behave because we are too ignorant to know the difference between right and wrong.

The word of love is good news because it says that, when we do rebel and use our freedom unwisely, if we confess and repent, God forgives us and restores us and makes us whole and free again. God does not do it against our will, but God listens to us just as seriously when we say, “Here I am again” as when we say, “Get off my back.”

The Lord is coming, with the sword of judgment in one hand and the caress of love in the other; that is the good news. We know the rules; that is the good news. We are free to choose; that is good news. If we choose the evil and recognize our separation from God and ask to be restored, we shall be forgiven – that is the good news. Do not be afraid. The Lord is coming.

Yes, there will be peace, but not yet; not until we seek it with all our heart and soul and mind and strength. When we love God and neighbor – really love them and start acting like we should. When do that there will be peace, within ourselves and with all people. Best of all, peace with God. If that’s not good news, I don’t know what is. “Thanks for coming, John, we needed that!”