Christmas at the Beach

"BEHOLD" given 12/20

            “Behold!” said Mary. “Here I am.” “I am God’s servant.”  How many of us have ever wondered what to do in a difficult situation?  How often have we wished that God would help us through the tough situations of life by making the Divine Will just a bit clearer? Haven’t we all from time to time, wished for a sign?  Not necessarily a giant hand coming down out of the sky pointing out a road we should take. Just a hint—something a bit definite, something sure and clear.

            We all know what it is to struggle with moral dilemmas, conflicting claims on us, difficult decisions, life crises. We’ve all wished at times for a bit of precognition—If I choose this path, this is what will happen. If I choose this other path, then that will happen.

            Our late Bishop Duecker used to tell of having just graduated from college, driving his car to grad school. He had been accepted at both Law School and Seminary. He was torn. What did God want him to do with his life? And as he traveled, he came to a place where the expressway literally split. On the Left was the road to Law School in Columbus. On the right, was the route to the Methodist Theological School in Ohio. Going 65 or 70 miles an hour, he had literally a second and a half to choose—not just a road, but the whole direction for the rest of his life. Right or Left? Lawyer or Preacher? It was an ultimate Kairos moment.

            Wouldn’t it be nice if God would just come right out and tell us which road we should take at such moments? Wouldn’t it be terrific if God would just come right out and tell us what we’re supposed to do? And not just in our lives. Sometimes this world we live in seems to literally chafe and whine for a solid, indisputable word from God.

            That’s in part the appeal of simply taking the Bible and everything in it absolutely literally—the whole kit and caboodle, every jot and tittle. What a great appeal in having a book that will guide your every decision, explain every question, solve every problem. All you have to do is deal with the internal contradictions and conflicting information, ignore what you don’t like, or understand, or can’t accept.

            The problem is that sort of simplistic use of scripture reduces God’s word to the level of the I Ching, or Tarot cards, or a crystal ball. The problem is that even when we say we’re taking the Bible literally, we still inevitably, end up interpreting it.

            You’ve heard of the guy who was faced with a problem and decided to find out what God wanted him to do by opening the Bible to any page at random and pointing at random to a particular verse. The first time he tried, he go “And Judas went out and hanged himself.” The second try he got “Go thou and do likewise.”

            No, better not take any chances of misinterpretation. What we need is something tangible—a physical presence, an audible, indisputable, instantaneous word from God. A pope, a council of bishops, a guru, maybe just a philosophy. Then we could be sure. Then we’d be secure in our choices.

            But is absolute clarity what we really want? The truth is, most of us rebel at God’s word when it comes into our lives—subtly, indirectly, gently. How would you or I truly react to a direct announcement from God? We’d most likely be terrified. We’d most likely not care for the instructions from on high. Then we’d have to choose directly—yea or nay--for or against God.

            If God, after all, is truly God, then what God announces, God will do. What God says, God accomplishes. And what God calls us to do , we must do. No buts; no excuses, no hesitations, no deals, no second chances, no pretending to misunderstand. Put your faith on the line. Put your life on the line. And do it now.

            That’s the dilemma Mary found herself in when Gabriel came to call. That moment of encounter is the very embodiment of what you and I both dread and desire with all our hearts.

            “Hail favored one. God is with you.”  Gulp. Luke’s description of Mary’s reaction is one of the great understatements in the entire Bible.  “But she was greatly troubled by this and wondered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be.”

            Mary had good reason to be troubled.  She was a faithful Jew. Mary would have known that being favored by the God of Israel wasn’t necessarily a bed of roses. Those favored by God were a pretty tried and tested and ragged crew—beguiled Eve, barren Sarah,  betrayed and enslaved Joseph, exiled and swindled and crippled Jacob, leprous Miriam, runaway Jonah, beleaguered Moses, abandoned Hagar, devastated Job, imprisoned Jeremiah, deserted Hosea, and clinically depressed Elijah. To be favored by God was in and is in many ways, to walk a knife edge of obedience, tottering between blessing and curse, wisdom and folly, even life and death.

            As a faithful Jew, Mary knew that to give yourself in servant-hood to God is to give all. God’s logic is rarely humanity’s logic. And while God’s Will for each of us is always in our long term best interest, it rarely is the smoothest or easiest path to walk in the meantime. No wonder that the second thing Gabriel said to Mary was “Don’t be afraid.”

            Mary was right to be afraid. Much less greatly troubled. Confronted by an archangel of the Most High, on an errand of unknown purpose and clothed in Divine glory, Mary’s heart must have stopped for a minute or two. Who knows in advance what the short term cost of such an irrevocable announcement from God Almighty might be?

            Maybe on second thought, we ought not to envy Mary such a clear-cut, direct address from God. Maybe, like ancient Ahaz, we might prefer to pray not to see a sign.

            But just as it was too late for Mary, it’s too late for us as well. We have made a commitment to follow.  We have heard the Heavenly greeting.

            “Hail faithful ones. Hail favored ones. Our God is with you.”

            You and I are here in this sanctuary, in this world, on a pilgrimage between birth and death, sin and salvation, struggling to find our own way between human wisdom and divine folly, curse and blessing, joy and despair. God has already spoken the Divine will to us in the person of Mary’s son, the only Begotten One, Jesus our Emmanuel, God-with-us.

            “Hail favored ones.” He says to us. “If you love me, feed my sheep.” “tell the Good News.” “Love one another.” The Heavenly messenger calling us is not necessarily an angel with golden wings. No you and I hear our call everyday in the faces and voices of Christ’s sheep—calling out to us to be fed. Fed in body, fed in spirit, fed in mind and heart.

            “The Spirit of God is upon me, and has anointed me.” Jesus would say in Nazareth. God has sent me to announce Good News to the poor, to proclaim liberty for the prisoners, and sight to the sight to the sightless, to let the broken ones go free, to proclaim that God’s time has come now.”

            “Hail favored ones,” You and I have heard that proclamation of God’s favor to us. If we’re honest, we admit that we didn’t really need an angel. God’s Will for us is clear enough—all too clear in the face of the spouse, or a parent, or an adult child we are alienated from; in the needs of the homeless stranger, the hungry child, the battered wife, the lost newcomer, the friend in need, the unemployed neighbor, the brother or sister enslaved to addiction, the oppressed believer in another land, the fellow church member in thrall to out-of-control emotions, or illness, or infirmity. We know the need. It’s those darned details we

have to figure out.

            “Behold!” said Mary after she’d heard what the Holy One wanted of her. “Here I am. I am God’s servant. Let it be as you have said for me.” With those words, Mary becomes the ultimate paradigm of faithful obedience to God’s Will.

            It can be a tad risky for Protestant preachers to say anything too awfully nice about Mary from the pulpit. So listen instead to what Martin Luther, the first successful Protestant, said about the Mother of our Lord.

            “The virgin birth is a mere trifle for God. That God should become human is a greater miracle. But most amazing of all is that this maiden should credit the announcement that she, rather than some other virgin, had been chosen to be the mother of God….had she not believed, she could not have conceived. She held fast to the word of the angel because she had become a new creature. Even so must we be transformed and renewed in heart from day to day. Otherwise Christ is born in vain. This is the word of the prophet,

          ‘ Unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given.’  This is for us the hardest point, not so much to believe that he is the son of the virgin and of God, as to believe this Son of God is ours. Truly it is marvelous in our eyes that God should place a little child in the lap of a virgin and that all our blessings should lie in him.”

          “Behold!” said Mary. “Here I am. I am God’s servant. Let it be as you have said for me.” The growth of God within the womb of this young girl was what theologians call “a mystery”. Why her? Why in that place, that time? So too though, the Christ grows within us. Why us? Why here? Why now? That growth too, is a mystery, but just as sure.

            We are washed clean from sin by the waters of baptism and fed with the bread and wine of his Body and Spirit. We fill out and change, according to the demands life and our call  places upon us. We are nurtured and grow to meet those demands according to the love and power the Spirit generates within us. Like Mary, we wonder what the face of this new life is, and what it will be like at full term. Like Mary, we wonder if we’re strong enough to labor for God’s Realm in this world. We’re not exactly sure.

            But the gestating new life within us demands our commitment to growth. It will change our habits, perhaps even disturb or frighten us. It will stretch us, challenge us, transform our very beings. Yet it is the life God has announced to us. Like Mary, we are favored. Aware of the mystery and the possible scandal, may we too, offer our whole selves in worship and praise, saying with full hearts and total commitment.

            “Behold. We are your servants Lord. Let it be for us as you have said.”

            

"Living in Joy" given Dec. 13th

            Suddenly there was this strange character John. Nobody knew where he came from. They said he came from out of the desert. The desert? What was he? One of those crazy hermits? Or maybe part of those Essenes--that group of religious fanatics who had formed a co-ed monastery in the bottom of the Dead Sea?

            Who knew? Who could tell you anything about this John? What were his credentials? Where had he gone to seminary? Who had ordained him? What was his social security number? Did he in fact even have a social security number? A VISA card? A Master Charge?

            Where did this guy come from? You couldn't place him. You couldn't even get a handle on him by the clothes he wore. He had no designer labels in his jackets. He didn’t have a jacket! He clothing wasn't bought--it was found.  John wore worse than Salvation Army rejects--a ratty old camel skin loin cloth with a leather belt--designer clothes hand tailored by God.

            He seemed to be from nowhere. Totally independent, untouchable and untouched. No home, no mortgage, no job, no family. John was nothing more or less than a mouthpiece if you will--a voice, a message in the wilderness of his broken, occupied nation. "Repent!" He cried.

            And they flocked to hear him. He must have been filling some deep spiritual needs. The people came in droves from up and down the Jordan valley. They came to the riverbank to be baptized and to listen to the Baptizer speak of the One who would come after Him, whose sandals John claimed he was not worthy to untie.

            No wonder people began to ask him. Who are you? Are you the Messiah? Are you the reincarnation of Elijah? Are you a prophet? Do you come from God to save us? Are you.... who... what... when...????

            And to all of these things John answered simply, directly, almost gently--for him.

            "No. I am none of these things--none of these people. I am not Elijah. I am not the Messiah. I am no more or less than a voice crying in the wilderness of your lives. I am a voice that cries in the deserts of this tortured world. I am a voice that cries out Repent! The Realm of God is at hand! Make straight the way of the Lord's coming. Repent! Turn your life around! The long awaited One is coming and coming soon!"

            Sisters and brothers, for a such a straight-forward statement, this carries an incredible amount of meaning and significance for the world. And just as significant, just as meaningful is the message of Paul, written a generation later:.

            “Rejoice in the Lord!  Again I say, Rejoice!”

            The two messages don't seem to go together too well, do they? How can repentance be joyful? The rejoicing--that we can handle. But repenting is a different story. We modern day believers have gotten a misleading perception of what it means to repent.  And that preconception, that image of repentance in our minds has little to do with rejoicing.

            When we think of repentance, most of us think of somebody like John the Baptizer or some mediaeval saint crouched out in the desert fasting, or eating locusts and honey, praying day and night until the calluses on their knees get calluses. We think of a monastery, or even a prison cell, a scratchy bundle of hay to sleep on, a rough homespun garment, a cross on the wall--and that's it.

            Repentance for us means giving up something --sacrificing money or comfort or pleasures.  We get then word "penitentiary" from the same root word as "repent".  And that's the image I'm afraid, that sticks in most of our heads.

            Sure, we recognize that we all could stand to be better people. But it doesn't sound like much fun! Another word that comes from the same root as repent is “penance”. And that's what our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters have to do after they confess their sins in the little black box where the priest can't see you but probably recognizes your voice. That certainly doesn't cut much ice in our Protestant eyes!

            You can't fool us. Repentance would be a pain in the neck. Why, in order to repent, we might have to give up some of our favorite things-- like overeating, or gambling, or smoking, or drinking, or kissing our spouse, or kissing someone else's spouse. We might even, horror of horrors have to give up chocolate!

            I'm afraid that we just don't get the point about Repentance. The truth is that repentance and rejoicing are two sides of the same coin.  To repent means nothing more nor less than to turn in another direction--to turn your life around.  The truth is that real and lasting joy in the faith must always grow out of repentance.

             At age eleven, another young man named John went to sea. His life in his younger years reads an adventure story. He was drafted into the British Navy, deserted, was  captured and flogged, deserted again, was recaptured, enslavd, escaped and went back to sea. Eventually he became the master of his own ship. John was sailing on what was known as "The Middle Passage". That was, from North America to the coast of Africa and back again. John was the captain of a slave ship. He traded in the lives of human beings.

            Slavers never enjoyed a very good reputation among the sailors of the world. The conditions in their ships were horrendous. The slaves were packed into the holds--literally like sardines. As many as a third might die en route to America.

            I won't ruin your morning by saying anything more. Let me only add that to be a slaver was about as low as a sailing man could sink. It was certainly less than respectable in the eyes of polite society--at least in the North. That's the life that John was leading when he had the experience that changed him.

            You might say that he was born again, or saved, or got religion, or found God, whichever phrase means the most to you. The point is that suddenly John became a believer in Jesus Christ. In mid-ocean. In the middle of a storm so violent he thought he was going to drown.

            I wish I could tell you that John immediately gave up the slave trade, turned his ship around, sailed back to Africa and set the slaves on board free. That’s what the legends say. But what really happened is a lot closer to your and my everyday lives.

            Because the truth is that John remained in the slave trade for a few more years wrestling with his conscience, until eventually, the Holy Spirit got the better of him and he repented, finally left the sea, and took up a new profession. That took him a while---possibly because of his previous occupation, but eventually John found a bishop willing to ordain him, and he became a pastor in rural England. I suppose we might say he was trying to make amends for what he’d done.

            But John continued to wrestle with his conscience during those years, had a second spiritual awakening, and finally came to understand with crystal clarity that what he had been doing was not enough. That slavery was a sin. That his hands were still red with blood. That he was a wretched sinner for having followed that vocation. That he’d not truly repented, but had been hiding from his past sins, and by not speaking out he was still complicit in the slave trade. That he needed to do all in his power to make some REAL amends. That he could no longer in good conscience not speak out.

            And so once again John repented. This time, he went all the way. He turned his life around. He changed his mind. He changed his life.  He took up a totally new and different stage of ministry.

            He became, among other things, a passionate public activist against slavery. He wrote a scathing book describing the horrors that occurred on slave ships.  He mentored a young, rising political star named William Wilberforce, convincing him that God was calling him to remain in Parliament and lead the fight against slavery in England. 

            The other thing that John became was a song- writer, a hymn writer. He wrote of his saving, life-transforming meeting with Jesus Christ and of the pure, unadulterated joy that his act of repentance brought into his life. John Henry Newton wrote:

Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me!

I once was lost, but now am found. Was blind but now I see.

Through many dangers, toils and snares I have already come.

‘Tis grace has brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.

Yea when this flesh and blood shall fail and mortal life shall cease

I shall possess within the veil, a life of joy and peace.

When we've been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun

We've no less days to sing God's praise, than when we first begun.

            It's not exactly an Advent Hymn. But maybe it ought to be. The hymn speaks directly to the effects of Jesus Christ's entrance into human life. No wonder that Hymn has remained so popular for so many years!  No wonder it's witness is so powerful!  Besides being a terrific expression of faith, it arises from an inspiring act of repentance. What an expression of the joy of believing, of salvation, of Christ's Advent and power!

            Sisters and brothers, John Newton was a friend of mine. I never met him, of course. But I like to think that anyone brave enough to stand up for their beliefs, anyone brave enough to change their mind and begin living their life in a new direction (however long it takes) is a friend of mine-- and of Christ's-- and of the world for that matter.          

            Sisters and brothers you and I ought to never be afraid to change our minds, to try something new, to repent, to begin listening to God for direction, to make amends for our sins, and to begin living our lives in a new direction. It might well take the Spirit a while to get through to us—as it did for John Newton. But we ought to never be afraid that living the new life that our God calls us to live will be too hard for us, or too drab, or too cheerless. The life of faith is a life that is in fact, rich, and deep, and challenging, and joyous.

            Perhaps we need to begin listening more carefully for the call of the Spirit in our own lives. Where is God calling you to turn your life around? How long has the Holy Spirit been trying to get through to you? Who do you need to forgive? From whom do you need forgiveness? Where in your life, are you being called to be a friend of Christ, and a friend of the world?

            Maybe its completing your education, or volunteering at a food pantry, or  teaching ESL, or tutoring, or working at a Mission. Maybe you need to reexamine the relationships and practices you are engaged in. Perhaps God wants to use you as a Scout leader, or singing in the choir, or as a volunteer here at church. Maybe you could consider giving up smoking, or becoming a foster parent. Or just visiting that friend in a nursing home. That new direction in your life might mean making peace with that brother or sister that you're estranged from, or reaching out to that neighbor in need.

            Acknowledging our sins and the harm we’ve done can be painful, yes. Truly making amends can be terrifying and even humiliating, yes. The life of faith is a life of commitment, yes.  But more than that, it is a life of unexpected joy! The satisfaction that comes from knowing that you are at last trying to live out God's will for your life as you perceive it, is deep and abiding. The improved quality of your relationships will astound you. The opportunities that open up will flabbergast you. The people around you will surprise you.The grace is indeed amazing at times!

            Sisters and brothers, true repentance, becoming a friend of Jesus our Christ and of the world, living the new life of faith will not keep us from enjoying life. The honest pleasures of this life are not denied believers-- including chocolate-- thank you Jesus!

            And as for the illegitimate pleasures-- the cheating, the lying, the anger, the bullying, the back-biting, the greed, the sneaking around, the same old sinful ruts-- we will find ourselves giving them up. We’ll lose our taste for them. But we will find, miraculously, that we won't miss them. It will be no sacrifice. Indeed, it'll be a pleasure to get them off our backs and out of our lives.

            One thing is clear. You and I will never change this world until we ourselves begin to change our own selves. We'll never see that Joyous final Advent yet to come, until it has first taken root in our own hearts. "You can't do it for the world, until you do it for yourself." Until we're no longer afraid to listen for the Spirit, to admit our wrongs, to repent, to make amends, to change ourselves—however long it does or doesn’t take, we'll never be able to stand up for what we believe, much less  change the wrongs we see all around us.

            One thing is clear. This world we're living in could desperately use some friends right now-- people and families and companies and churches and nations and leaders and institutions who aren't afraid to change their direction and begin to live in a new way.

            This world of ours is going through some exciting and frankly rather frightening changes. Our own nation is being challenged to live up to its noble ideals in ways we never imagined.  In countries you and I may have never heard of, as well as in our own towns and cities, men and women and even children and young people  are striving, working, praying, dying, hoping to better their lives, their lands, their world.

            The Holy Spirit is at work in the world around us, using believers and non-believers alike, empowering them, inviting them to turn their lives around and join with their Maker in the task of remaking, and reforming and reviving this tired old world, becoming joy-filled friends of God's Creation.

            You and I are invited as well. Let us listen for the ways in which we can begin to lead new and joyous lives. Let us pray that more and more people around the world will become friends-- of Creation, of Christ, of one another, of the world. And when enough of them do-- then at last, the Advent of Christ, the Second Coming, the Kingdom, the Realm of Shalom, the long-awaited Day of the Lord will finally begin to dawn. Come soon, Lord Jesus! Amen.

Every Religion

"Prepare the Way" given 12/6/15

            It's Advent time once again. The paraments have been changed to Purple. The candles are in place and lit. The greens have been hung. We our in the midst of waiting liturgically now, for the coming of the Christ Child into our world. We are called, once more, to prepare our hearts for the His entrance into them.

            It's Advent. And as they do every year, during this opening season of the church’s liturgical year, the Gospel readings direct our attention to the figure of John the Baptizer.             "Prepare ye the Way of the Lord!" The Baptizer proclaims to us. "Open your hearts and change your lives, the Messiah is coming!" He demands of us all.

            After so many centuries of prayerful waiting, the long-awaited word of God finally came-- but not to a palace or royal court, or even to the High priest in the Temple.  The word came, not to the powerful, not to Herod, not even to Tiberius Caesar in Rome. The word came to a man who had chosen to live apart from all of this. The word came to a man who had turned his back on home and family and comfort and leisure as well as from power and influence.

            The word came to John, who had fled to the desert. Apparently, John had simply chucked it all in one day. He had up and walked out into the wilderness, to pray and to listen there for God's word. John had been living out in the desert for so long he'd almost become a part of it, a crazy, hairy hermit eating whatever food came to hand, dressing in untanned animal skins.  John must have literally looked like the desert-- and probably smelled like it too.

            We have no idea why John had headed out into the wilderness in the first place. But he was not alone. Since the Exodus, the desert had held a distinctive spiritual significance for the Jews. It was (and still is) a rocky, forbidding place where, like the Hebrew children, you might wander lost. But it was also a place of holy solitude, where you might find yourself-- a place where you might define who you were.  Above all though, it was a place where, like Moses and Elijah and so many others., you went if you really wanted to encounter God.

            The desert, the wilderness, was a place of retreat, a place of prayer and renewal, a place of sanctuary from the sophisticated wilderness of the so-called civilized world. Whole communities, single people and families as well, had at various times fled from society and established themselves out there in the wastelands, seeking simplicity of life and of worship. They had fled, seeking to escape what they saw as the corrupt and meaningless religion of the Temple in Jerusalem.

            It was from the ruins of one of such community that the Dead Sea Scrolls came. Some scholars think that John the Baptizer came out of that same community as well.  In any case, John sought, as those who came before him sought, and those who came after him sought, to escape the snares and demands of this unfinished, sin-sick, blood-soaked, tear-soaked, polluted wasteland that we call our world.

            They wanted to flee to some place pure, some place uncontaminated. They sought the real, natural wilderness, scrubbed clean by God's hand. They sought it so that they could become pure through prayer and solitude-- like those who have been through a refiner's fire.

            Once he had, in fact heard God's word though, John did something you might not expect. He came out of the wilderness. And, according to Luke's account, John the Baptizer began traveling up and down both sides of the whole Jordan valley. He preached, he beseeched, he threatened, he begged those who stopped to listen-- to repent.

            He called upon rich and poor, great and small, Jews and pagans and Roman occupiers to change their ways. He demanded that they turn their lives around and begin to live in a new direction—with integrity and justice and holiness. John warned them to prepare for the coming of God's earthly Realm. And he baptized people, forgiving the sins of men and women and children as a sign of their new life and their entrance into the Heavenly Realm that was a' comin'.

            And perhaps not so surprisingly, people came to listen to him. He picked up disciples. People talked about John after they went away from hearing him preach. They told their friends and family.  In time, word of this baptizing new prophet even reached the court of Herod. Disciples flocked to John. A minor cult even sprung up around him.

            But despite all this, John remained essentially alone. The day that Jesus stood in the crowd before him on the banks of the Jordan, waiting to be baptized, only John recognized Jesus for who and what He was.  Nobody else recognized Jesus that day.  

            Apparently nobody else that day saw Jesus as anybody but just another face in the crowd. Only John the Forerunner pointed to Jesus and proclaimed Him as the real live Messiah, as Lamb of God. John the Baptizer sums up in his own person the whole of God's salvation history with Israel, and with the world. He literally straddles the Testaments. The last of the great Hebrew prophets, John points as they did, to the coming of Christ.  At the same time, John opens the Gospels and begins the process of the salvation of all humankind.

            By their very nature, confession and repentance-- preached by John-- must always precede forgiveness of sins and the new life-- brought into the world by Jesus. So by their very natures, John must always precede and proclaim and point to Jesus.

            There's always been in the Biblical faith, the temptation to flee from the world into the wilderness. The sheer raw beauty of the wilderness reflects the wondrous power of the Creator. In the wilderness, it's peaceful and quiet and you're sheltered from temptation. There are no distractions in the wilderness. There’s true holy solitude--just you and God.

            It's easy to be holy there. That wilderness/solitude tradition also carried over into Christianity. It was in the wilderness after all, that Our Lord Jesus struggled with His own identity and vocation at the time of His Temptation. Mystics, monks, nuns, and others still carry on that tradition of seeking God in solitude even in our day.  And holy solitude is indeed something that we all need on a regular basis in a mature, balanced spiritual life.

            But it can be hard to find the discipline, the time, and place where we can be alone with God in the midst of our busy lives. So there's always within us the temptation to take a once-a-week short cut, and flee from the world into the sanctuary. It's beautiful here. It's quiet and peaceful and we can listen for God's word without distraction. It's easy to be holy here.

            But our God will not let us stay in the sanctuary forever. Just as God's word called John out of the peaceful silence of his desert, so God's word calls us today. Just as the Divine command drove John from the serenity of the wilderness and into the cities and towns of the Jordan valley, so the Holy Spirit today is calling God's people out of the sanctuaries and chapels and into the hurley-burley of everyday life.

            That's after all, where you and I ultimately must live. John was rudely called from his chosen life of solitary prayer and meditation to a ministry of preaching and baptizing and prophecy. The church today-- you and I are rudely called forth from our Sunday morning prayers into Monday through Saturday witness and advocacy and sharing and ministry and intercessory prayer on behalf of the neighbor in need, on behalf of the exploited and hungry and homeless of our world.

            John came out of the wilderness, preaching in obedience to the word of God, pointing with his life and his words toward Jesus. I wonder, if John hadn't been there to announce that Jesus was coming, if John hadn't been there to proclaim and point out Jesus on the riverbank that day, would anyone have noticed? I wonder, how many times in your and my lives have you and I had the opportunity to point to Jesus? Far more than we're aware of, probably. I wonder how many have  not heard the Good News we bear? Far more than we're probably aware of, unfortunately.

            Theresa of Avila said that Christ has no hands to reach out and minister to the needy and suffering in this world—no hands except yours and mine.  Our Savior has no feet to carry the good news of salvation into this world—except ours. Our Redeemer has no one to point him out to the lost and broken ones of this world-except you and me.

How many times have we straightened a neighbor's crooked path through an act of kindness, or forgiveness? How many times have we filled in a friend's valley of depression by offering a sympathizing word, a shoulder to cry on, a friendly ear to listen without judging? How many times have we unselfishly celebrated with joy the unexpected blessing of another? How many times could you or could I have shown others by our lives, through our compassion, our caring, our giving, our sharing, the wondrous salvation of our God?

            If John hadn't proclaimed Jesus' coming and then pointed out Jesus that day, would anyone have noticed him? If you and I do not point directly at Jesus through the testimony of our lips, who will ever hear of Him?  If we do not proclaim the Messiah’s' coming by the witness of lives of faithful integrity and our loving ministries in His name, then who can ever be touched by Him? How we be touched? How can this church be revived? If Christians don't show others how the Savior’s Advent has transformed our hearts by the very way we live our lives, how can we transform our owm little corner of God's creation? How can we join with our Maker in the healing and transformation of the wasteland of this world?

And if we who call ourselves by His name, don't tell and show the world Him and His love, then how can Jesus Christ redeem and save the whole God’s Creation? Amen.