The Shepherd’s Voice
Archive for December 13th, 2009
Readings for Sunday, December 13th
Zep 3:14-20
Is 12:2-6
Phil 4:4-7
Lk 3:7-18
Integrity For Life – The Shepherd’s Voice from Good Shepherd Lutheran Church on Vimeo.
“You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” I thought we’d start out this morning with a little usher or greeter training.
Last week we spoke about how John had received some good home schooling, well perhaps they missed the part about social development.
Also last week we spoke about preparation for life and how parents, in this case Elizabeth and Zechariah, prepared John for life by teaching him about God, about the coming Messiah, and about repentance and forgiveness.
Luke seems to continue along the lines of preparation by saying, “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.”
How many of us here would say we have Godly parents? Perhaps many of us have been brought up learning God’s Word, brought up in the church, brought up in an environment that has been conducive to the Christian faith.
John, in his message here to the people of Israel is saying that preparation for God’s reign is not a matter of blood lines, not a matter of ancestry, not a matter of going to church. Keith Green, singer of sixties fame, used to say, “Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian anymore than going to McDonalds makes you a hamburger.”
John was wary of people who wanted cheap grace. He wanted them to know that as people of God they must “Bear fruits worthy of repentance” before they could call themselves people of God. The bold, hard facts are that if you call yourself a Christian then there must be integrity between the name you use to describe yourself, Christian, and the life you are living.
John adds this. “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.”
Perhaps that doesn’t matter to you. C.S. Lewis for much of his early life was what one would call an intellectual, some would say an agnostic. He had friends at Oxford were hard core atheistic. They would argue how can God exist, we can’t see him, we can’t touch him, but Lewis was never a real antagonistic, he questioner. One of his favorite quotes from Roland was, “Christian are wrong, but all the rest are bores.”
Lewis was not brought up in a religious home. He called his parents bookish or “clever” people. He had good parents, but they were in no way puritanical. He thought “the Christian myth” conveyed to the unphilosophic mind as much truth as they were capable of grasping. Maybe as an intellectual you feel the same way.
A few Sunday’s back we contemplated the question ‘What is truth?’ Lewis came to that place in his life when he was surprised by logic that had not previously made sense. He said it started when he listened to people quarreling.
He heard some folks say “That’s my seat, I was there first.” – “Leave him alone, he isn’t doing you any harm.” – “Why should you shove in first?” – “Give me a bit of your orange, I gave you a bit of mine.” — “How’d you like it if anyone did the same to you?” — “Come on you promised.”
What interested Lewis was that people weren’t just talking about behavior that didn’t happen to please the other party, but they were appealing to some sort of standard of behavior, some expectation that the other person knows or should know about.
In the world of engineering or physics we talk about the law of gravity governing which direction a stone falls if we drop it. Chemistry has laws that govern most chemical reactions, why should the world of human behavior be any different?
Lewis said, if you cut in line, “people don’t say to hell with your standard.” It seems like both parties know the standard as if it were some kind of human law of behavior or fair play. Decent behavior is something people know and practice. Now at this stage Lewis is saying nothing about God or who has caused this law to be in effect, he’s just saying it (laws of nature or behavior) exist.
John the Baptist when talking about trees that don’t bear fruit is answering a similar question. But the crowd doesn’t understand so they say. “What then should we do?”
John says, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.” This is an expectation of behavior in God’s kingdom. This is not something we can contextualize away. God expects us to be generous with what God has given us. When we give time, talent and treasure we give it to God.
So when talking about integrity for life we have to ask ourselves do our behaviors reflect what is expected in God’s kingdom? John did not mince words when asked that question. He didn’t equivocate, that’s part of the beauty of John’s preaching.
Our text today says even the tax collectors came to be baptized and they asked John, “Teacher, what should we do?” He said to them, “Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.”
Who are the tax collectors of our day? Maybe the IRS, but more broadly we could say it’s perhaps anyone in business or government or anyone who handles money. Do we treat our customers fairly? Do we treat our employees fair? Are the laws that we pass fair?
Obviously God has given us wisdom, discernment, a conscience, a sense of fair play and we when we don’t behave accordingly we sin. When we don’t operate our business, our government, and yes our church as God intended we lack integrity for life.
Our gospel text says even (v14) soldiers came to be baptized and 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.”
Once again, John is right there, bold, straight forward, tells folks who could put him in jail, don’t extort money, be satisfied with your wages.
John’s points are well taken by the folks asking the question, but what is underlying the questions, John’s comments, and also the story of C.S. Lewis? In each of these situations we have people who are looking for something. Notice the questions: what should we do?
Lewis was also asking, but in a broader sense what should we do with the life we find ourselves in. John also gives us an answer here, not so much in the form of law, but in the form of gospel. John said he came just to baptize with water, (using the basics) but the Messiah, the one coming after him will baptize with the Holy Spirit and as a result of this everything in life, as we know it changes. It becomes different, renewed, re-vitalized.
Lewis in his personal search for ‘what we should do’ was reading G.K. Chesterton’s book, The Everlasting Man and through discussion, through prayer, through discernment and contemplation about life was he surprised by joy, was surprised by how the Holy Spirit was calling him, nagging him to come out of a life of “intellectual snobbery,” as he called it into a new outlook on life. Lewis makes a strong case for Mere Christianity.
In our second reading today from Philippians, Paul is doing somewhat the same thing as our gospel text. Remember, Paul in this Philippian letter alternates between telling his hearers the how they should live and why they should live that way, but at the same time he continuously pushes or spurs them along by reminding them that ‘the Lord is at hand.’ He boldly proclaims, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.”
Paul’s message, John’s message, is God’s message to us today. The law does not have the last word for us – whether you are an intellectual, a teacher, a business person, a tax collector, a soldier, a student, a parent, or someone working in government if you want integrity in your life you must recognize ‘the Lord is at hand.’ The season of Advent is all about that recognition, the anticipation, the preparation.
Listen to the good news today. Jesus has come and is coming once again to bring light into the darkness. When we sang Joy to the World we proclaimed the Lord’s coming, and this was the theme for the day, so let’s ‘let heav’n and nature sing.’
God who has power over life and death, God who shows us what we should do, God who wants us to rejoice in the good news assures us once again that Christ, our Messiah, our Redeemer has come and is coming in the form of a baby. Rejoice and believe the good news.
Amen
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