I remember as a child looking forward to Christmas more than any other day of the year, perhaps even more than my birthday. Of course, like every family, my family of origin had a number of rituals in which we engaged as we looked forward to Christmas. First, there were the Christmas decorations that did not come out of the attic until December 1. Then there was the opening of doors on an Advent calendar. Next came the Christmas tree. And, of course, woven throughout this time, there was attendance at church during the four Sundays of Advent.
As I have mentioned a number of times, Advent means “coming”. It is the season of the church year when we look back and remember the first coming of Christ. But it is also the time when we look forward to his second coming. The big question is: how does God want us to live as we look forward to Jesus’ second coming? The life and words of John the Baptist give us some direction. Listen to what Luke has to say about him from Luke 3:7-18. Listen for God’s word to you…
John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. 9 Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
10 And the crowds asked him, “What then should we do?” 11 In reply he said to them, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.” 12 Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, “Teacher, what should we do?” 13 He said to them, “Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.” 14 Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what should we do?” He said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.”
15 As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah,[a] 16 John answered all of them by saying, “I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with[b] the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
18 So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people.
Luke tells us that John proclaimed the good news to the people. But before John proclaimed the good news, he told them the bad news. John’s fellow Jews thought they would be exempt from God’s judgment, simply by virtue of being descendants of Abraham. John told them fair and square: “No way!”
It is not enough to be born into a Jewish family, John said. And we can say the same today: it is not enough to be born into a Christian family. Lineage is not what matters. The way you live your life is what really counts. Character, not pedigree, is the name of the game. John says: “Bear fruits worthy of repentance.”
So, the crowds naturally asked John, “What does that fruit look like? What then should we do?” In response, John told the crowds basically two things.
First, John the Baptist said: share much. If you have two coats, share your second one with the person who doesn’t have any coat. And do the same with your food. In other words, make sure that others have the basics before you try to live in luxury.
That’s the first requirement as we look forward to the coming Messiah: share. It is no accident that the birth of Christ has become associated with the idea of giving. The wise men brought gifts to the Christ child. St. Nicholas gave gifts to the poor. So too, Christmas ought to be a time when we give—not just to our families and loved ones, but to those in need.
Jeff Foxworthy has made his mark as the most recorded comedian in history. Several years ago, Jeff agreed to lead a group of homeless men in a weekly study at the Atlanta Mission. As Foxworthy tells it, he felt led to teach these men about giving even though they had next to nothing. He proposed giving a $50 bill to the 250 homeless men and then withdrew $12,500 from his bank and distributed the cash.
Jeff then told the assembled group of a dire need in a local elementary school at which the teachers were short on supplies and money. Jeff suggested they take up a collection and was shocked as every single man gave up his $50 bill and then dug in their collective pockets searching for more change to give.
Jeff reported that he had to dismiss himself to the hallway and cry. The men who had nothing gave all they had and did so with great joy.[1]
Can you imagine giving like that? Most of us here probably have more than $50 in our bank accounts. We have more than two coats. We have enough food to spare. What should we do with the abundance with which God has blessed us? Paul says,
Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.
So, the first thing John says we should do as we look forward to the coming of the Messiah is that we should share much. But secondly, John tells us to: work well. John doesn’t tell the tax collectors, or the soldiers, or us that we have to do something else for a living. No, he tells us to do the jobs we already have in the right way.
John’s comments to the tax collectors and the soldiers reveal two things that often tempt us most in our work: power and money. Rather than give in to the temptation to wield power in the wrong way or acquire money in a false way we should learn to be content in life.
I imagine that some of you were moved, as I was, in watching the recent funeral of our former president George H. W. Bush. What struck me as commentators and eulogists talked about Bush’s accomplishments was simply that he did his job well without calling attention to himself. Even his children did not know that he had been a war hero until others called attention to that fact.
I think one reason why no one in the media talked much of Bush’s accomplishments as President in recent years was because he was so humble; he seldom, if ever, tooted his own horn. Former Senator Alan Simpson said, in eulogizing his friend, “The high road of humility never has heavy traffic.”
Bush’s pastor talked about a plaque the former president had given him with the words of St. Francis of Assisi: “Preach Christ at all times; if necessary, use words.” I think that is a good summation of the life of our former president who was indeed a devoted Christian.
His former pastor also talked about what Bush said at the dedication of the National Cathedral a number of years ago. Standing outside the cathedral he pointed up to the rose window and contrasted the dark look of it from the outside with the blazing colors seen from the inside of the cathedral when the light was shining through. Bush said, “Without faith, we too are but stained-glass windows in the dark.”
Bush’s former pastor lamented the fact that many people were saying a generation marked by service was passing with the death of people like George H. W. Bush. His pastor said, “No. We should look at President Bush’s passing as an invitation to fill the hole left behind.”
I love that! I think John the Baptist would agree. In this passage we see that John is sure that the true follower of God, the one preparing for the coming of the Messiah, must share much and must work well. But that is not all that John is sure of. He is also sure that he is not the Messiah.
I remember a poster on the wall of a fellow student in seminary many years ago. It said: “There are two principles of enlightenment: (1) there is a god. (2) you are not him.”
John the Baptist understood those two principles. So, the main thing he did with his life was not simply to tell other people how to live. No, he did much more than that. John the Baptist also pointed others to Jesus.
At the beginning of this year I showed you a painting: Grunewald’s painting of the crucifixion that is part of the Isenheim altarpiece in Europe. The great 20thcentury theologian Karl Barth had a copy of this painting hanging in his study to remind him of his purpose in life.
Here is how Barth himself described the effect that Grünewald’s painting had on him:
This condition under which alone Christology is possible takes visible form in the main picture on the altar at Isenheim by M. Grünewald. Its subject is the incarnation. There are three things to be seen in the picture, and it is difficult to say where the observer should begin. In the background upon the heights of heaven, beyond earth’s highest mountains, surrounded by innumerable angels, there is God the Father in His glory. In the foreground to the left there is the sanctuary of the old covenant. It also is filled with and surrounded by angels, but inexorably separated from the background by an immensely high, gloomy partition. But towards the right a curtain is drawn back, affording a view. And at this point, at the head of the whole world of Advent looking to see the Messiah, stands Mary as the recipient of grace, the representative of all the rest, in adoration before what she sees happening on the right side. Over there, but quite lonely, the child Jesus lies in His mother’s arms, surrounded with unmistakable signs reminding us that He is a child of earth like all the rest. Only the little child, not the mother, sees what is to be seen there, the Father. He alone, the Father, sees right into the eyes of this child. On the same side as the first Mary appears the Church, facing at a distance. It has open access on this side, it adores, it magnifies and praises, therefore it sees what is indeed the glory of the only-begotten of His Father, full of grace and truth. But it sees only indirectly. What it sees directly is only the little child in His humanity; it sees the Father only in the light that falls upon the Son, and the Son only in this light from the Father.
This is the way, in fact, that the Church believes in and recognises God in Christ. It cannot run over to the right side, where the glory of God can be seen directly. It can only look out of the darkness in the direction in which a human being is to be seen in a light, the source of which it cannot see itself. Because of this light streaming down from above, it worships before this human being as before God Himself, although to all visual appearance He is literally nothing but a human being. John the Baptist too, in Grünewald’s Crucifixion, can only point—and here everything is bolder and more abrupt, because here all indication of the revelation of the Godhead is lacking—point to a wretched, crucified, dead man. This is the place of Christology. It faces the mystery. It does not stand within the mystery. It can and must adore with Mary and point with the Baptist. It cannot and must not do more than this. But it can and must do this.[2]
Indeed, we cannot and must not do more than, like Mary, bow in humble submission and adoration and, like John the Baptist, point away from ourselves and to Christ through faithful witness. But we can and must do this, for it is Christ alone who as the Lamb of God takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29). As Barth also says, “witnessing means pointing in a specific direction beyond the self and on to another”.
Thus, by his life and words, John the Baptist teaches us to do these three things as we look forward to the coming of the Messiah: share much, work well, and point others to Jesus.
Let us pray and seek the help of our heavenly Father, through the Holy Spirit, to do just these things.
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