St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Owings Mills MD
December 12, 2021
Year C: The Third Sunday of Advent
Zephaniah 3:14-20
Canticle 9
Philippians 4:4-7
Luke 3:7-18
Rejoice! Repentance is Good News
So, after nearly five months together – a wonderful time of us getting to know each other and of me beginning to learn my way around this beautiful place – after nearly five months together, I’ve begun to introduce a few changes, small things, kind of around the edges.
There have been some adjustments to our service, mostly to emphasize the change of liturgical seasons.
We have added a third service to our Sunday schedule – the “Last Chance Mass” at 5:00pm – which, so far, seems to be pretty popular.
But, in what is surely my boldest move yet, today, the Third Sunday of Advent, we have switched our liturgical color from blue to rose.
I’m told that this has not been the custom at St. Thomas’, but the beautiful rose-colored hangings you see were discovered deep in a sacristy drawer, so, although it’s been a while, this is clearly a restoration not an innovation! Unfortunately, I realized too late that we don’t have a matching rose stole for me to wear – something we’ll fix for next time.
So, why rose on the Third Sunday of Advent?
Well, in the past, Advent was a more penitential season than it is now. Advent was more like a little Lent.
And so the practice of switching to rose on the Third Sunday of Advent was a way to let everybody know that the time of sacrifice and preparation is almost over.
Soon we will be celebrating the birth of Jesus!
Soon it will be Christmas!
So, rejoice!
Rejoice!
For better or worse, Advent has lost much of its Lenten flavor, but the truth is that for the past couple of years – or maybe longer than that for some of us – it kind of feels like we’ve been living through a long Lent.
It’s been hard for many of us to follow Paul’s instruction to the Philippians to “rejoice in the Lord always.”
Rejoicing has been in short supply.
There’s been the fear and disruption and suffering and loss caused by the ongoing pandemic.
There have been the seemingly deep political divisions that have left some of our longstanding institutions looking shockingly shaky.
There have been unprecedented natural disasters, most recently the fiercely destructive tornadoes that tore through large parts of the Midwest and South.
And, as I mentioned last week, we live in a land stained by the disaster of violence – violence in our schools and on our streets – we live in a land where so many people are angry and frustrated and so very frightened.
But, at least some of us still cling to hope – trusting that God will visit us one again and lead us out of the mess that we have created, lead us back to the garden, back to the way God always intended things to be.
Things were not so different back in first century Roman-occupied Judea, a land also stained by violence, a land where many people were angry and frustrated and so very frightened – and a time when at least some people clung to hope – trusting that God would soon visit God’s people and once again lead them to freedom.
And so when John the Baptist began his work in and around the River Jordan, lots of people understandably thought that the moment of liberation – the day of rejoicing – had finally arrived.
And, although John was not the messiah, the people were not wrong to recognize that their hopes were being fulfilled, at last.
In today’s passage from the Gospel of Luke, surprisingly enough, we don’t hear much about John baptizing.
Instead, we hear some of the content of John’s preaching.
John’s message comes to us in three parts.
First, he uses some rather harsh language, calling his “congregation” “you brood of vipers” – a family of snakes - telling his fellow Jews that they should not assume that they are good with God just because they are children of Abraham.
More than a birthright, more than history, is required.
Second, when the people ask what they must do, John gives them very direct and practical instructions:
Those who have extra must share with those who have none.
Don’t steal or cheat.
And, finally, John dashes the hopes of those who thought he was the messiah. Instead, he points to the one who is about to come – painting a vivid picture of a savior who will separate the wheat from the chaff, burning the chaff with “unquenchable fire.”
Luke concludes his description of John’s preaching with words that at first seem discordant or almost funny:
“So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the Good News to the people.”
Unless we’re absolutely sure that we are wheat and not chaff, it might be hard to hear the Good News in John’s preaching.
But, here’s the thing: repentance is good news.
The Good News is that through John and most of all Jesus, God offers us the way out of our mess, showing us the way back to the garden, back to the way things were always meant to be.
Repentance is good news.
Now we tend to think of repentance as just saying we’re sorry for our misdeeds and trying to do better. That’s important, for sure, but for John and Jesus repentance means much more.
Repentance is admitting to ourselves and to others that we’ve been on the wrong road.
Repentance is admitting that we can’t save ourselves.
Repentance is seeking God’s help to finally change direction.
Repentance is, with God’s help, a dramatic and decisive change of direction.
Repentance is good news.
Whenever I reflect on John the Baptist, I’m always struck by the fact that he drew big crowds to the River Jordan – that lots of people came to hear his challenging message – that lots of people presented themselves for baptism.
There is a lesson for the church here – a reminder to not water down the gospel.
But more than that, John’s “popularity” signals that back in first century Judea, people – lots of people – they knew that they were on the wrong track – they knew that they needed to change direction – and they sensed that, through John, God offered the way back.
That’s why people will follow Jesus, too – Jesus who was not one to sugarcoat his message, either.
So, maybe during these difficult days, Advent again needs to be a little more like Lent – a time for each of us to look into our own hearts and to look at our own lives to see where we have taken wrong turns, how we have lost our way.
Maybe Advent again needs to be a little more like Lent – a time for us here in a community with a long history to shake off our complacency – a time for us who have many coats to be even more loving and more generous.
Just like the people back in the first century who got washed by John, and the people who followed Jesus, with God’s help, we can repent and change direction.
So, rejoice! Repentance is good news.
Amen.
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