Rebel - A Sermon for the Second Sunday of Advent, December 4, 2022

Gospel: Matthew 3:1–12

The holy gospel according to Matthew.

Glory to you, O Lord.

In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming,  2"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near."  3This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said,

"The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:

'Prepare the way of the Lord,

make his paths straight.'"

  4Now John wore clothing of camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.  5Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan,  6and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

7But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?  8Bear fruit worthy of repentance.  9Do not presume 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.  10Even 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.

11I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.  12His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, O Christ.

Isaiah proclaims God’s reversal:

the wolf shall live with the lamb,

carnivorous animals become vegetarian.

Paul declares unity in Christ between all peoples;

Jews and non Jews alike

And John the baptist,

in charismatic fashion,

declares that all people are in need of Jesus,

that no one is worthy,

not even the religious elite.

These scriptures paint a picture of Gods’ reality,

that the kingdom of heaven is a peaceful reality,

a hopeful reality,

one that is fully dependant upon God,

a reality that is near,

in and amongst God’s people.

We look around us,

not just in the world around us,

but in our own lives,

in our own hearts

and this doesn’t seem like the reality

in which we live.

The Cow and the Bear do not graze together.

The Lion does not eat straw like the Ox.

We see this in the big scale:

Russians and Ukrainians at war,

Canada and China at odds.

In our nation,

in our province,

in our city,

the gap between political left and political right

seems too great a chasm to cross.

We see this in the small scale.

We see this in our broken relationships.

We even see this in our congregations.

Who is that person that you are avoiding?

Who can’t you talk to?

Who don’t you want to talk to?

We all have our enemies,

some, more than others.

We all have someone with whom we do not have peace.

Isaiah and Paul both declare that in God,

in Christ,

there is peace -

yet we don’t always chose to live in peace

This is one reason we do Advent.

We do Advent because

we admit that we need a Saviour

We do advent because God’s reality is peace,

a deep shalom peace with justice and equity,

that we often forsake.

That’s why John the Baptist did his thing.

John saw a big difference between

what is happening in the world,

happening in the religious system,

compared with what God is doing

in the Kingdom of Heaven

John’s word is God’s Word:

a rebellious Word.

A revolutionary Word,

a politically charged Word.   

John preached in the wilderness

in a time of brutal and violent leadership in Judea.

We know how seriously Rome took

rebellion and revolution -

they would crucify rebels and traitors -

like Jesus

Rebellion was taken seriously,

handled with violent power.

It is in this time –

a time of violence and distain for Rome,

and a time when prophecy

had been basically silent for 4 centuries,

that John cries out of the wilderness,

not in the epicentre of Jerusalem,

but in the middle of no where,

out in the sticks,

A reminder of God forming Israel

and providing for them

as they wandered the wilderness after Egypt.

Preaching in the wilderness

and not in Jerusalem,

is in itself a critique of the big city,

its politics,

and its religious system.

God is our salvation.

Salvation is not found in the empire,

so John proclaims a true rebellion,

a true revolution:

not based on violence

but on something completely counter-cultural:

pointing to salvation in the coming Messiah.

John the Baptist essentially preached Lutheran Theology!

And all kinds of people flocked to him!

John preached justification by grace through faith.

John preached that good works cannot not earn you

a spot in the Kingdom of God,

but rather utter reliance and hope

in our merciful God’s forgiveness

and cleansing from sin.

John’s preaching proposed three kinds of rebellion:

John proposed baptism,

repentance,

and the forgiveness of sins.

John’s message was and is so revolutionary,

that people thought he was the messiah.

But John was merely

preparing the way of the Lord,

for the One coming after him.

John is a true rebel,

he looked weird,

he ate weird,

he dressed weird

All he did was preach

and baptize

and eat bugs and honey.

John’s clothes and diet are a message in itself:

displaying complete reliance

upon God to provide.

John was ultimately killed for what he said and did.

John knew the Kingdom of God was at hand,

and so he lived his life by God’s call,

not for himself,

not for the kingdoms of this world,

but for God,

for Christ,

for others,

for forgiveness,

for wholeness.

In our own time of unrest,

amidst polarization,

war,

climate concern

and general uncertainty,

when we see little to no peace,

I believe God is calling us to be like John the baptist.

To be a rebellious people of God’s word,

to think a little outside the box;

to be modern day rebels

against the kingdoms of this world,

and rebels for God’s cause.

Consider another ancient rebel;

St. Nicholas,

being that this Tuesday

is the feast day of St. Nicholas.

St. Nicholas was and is counter cultural,

an out-of-the-box thinker

for the good of the people;

a Godly rebel of his time.

He was born to wealthy Greek parents

in the 3rd century

in what is now Turkey.

St. Nicholas took Jesus’ words quite seriously:

“sell what you have and give the money to the poor”

St. Nicholas used his whole inheritance

from his wealthy parents

to assist the needy,

the sick and the suffering.

As his generosity to those in need

became known through the land,

he was made Bishop of Myra.

St. Nicholas was bishop

in a time when followers of Christ

were ruthlessly persecuted by the Romans;

not unlike John the Baptist’s time.

It is said that there were so many Christians in prisons,

In St. Nicholas’ time,

that there was little room

for the murders and thieves.

One legend about St. Nicholas

tells of a poor man with 3 daughters.

In those days, a young woman's father

had to offer prospective husbands a dowry.

The larger the dowry,

the better the chance that a young woman

would find a good husband.

Without a dowry,

a woman was unlikely to marry.

This poor man's daughters,

without dowries,

were thus destined to be sold into slavery.

Mysteriously, on three different occasions,

a bag of gold appeared in their home,

providing the needed dowries.

The bags of gold,

which were tossed through an open window,

are said to have landed in stockings

or shoes left before the fire to dry.

It is told that these bags of gold

were gifts from St. Nicholas.

This led to the custom of children

hanging stockings or putting out shoes,

eagerly awaiting gifts from Saint Nicholas.

I’d like to share with you another story about St. Nick.

One that he is infamous for.

St. Nicholas also stood up for good theology.

St. Nicholas is said to have disagreed with Arius

at the Council of Nicea back in the 4th century;

the council where we get the Nicene creed.

The church believes that Jesus is both

completely divine

and completely human.

Arius was saying that Jesus was 100% human,

but that Jesus was not God.

This was a problem.

So St. Nicholas got so fed up with Arius’ heresy

that he walked up to him

and either punched or slapped him

right in the face!

This is where we get the Christmas song:

“You better watch out, you better not cry….”

just jokes…

St. Nicholas had the courage to be a Christian

in a time when it was incredibly difficult

to be Christian.

St. Nick chose to give of himself and of his wealth

in order to provide for the needs of the poor,

the sick and the suffering.

Slap aside, St. Nick lived into God’s reality of peace:

caring for others,

providing for others out of his excess

so that the people might experience God’s peace,

in a time in which peace lacked.

I believe that in our baptism,

God calls us to be rebellious,

God calls us into peaceful revolution

Like St. Nick and John the Baptist

In baptism,

You are at peace with God

so we live our lives

striving for deep peace,

God’s shalom with others.

In baptism,

God says deny, rebel and revolt

against that which rebels against God.

That means standing up for those who are oppressed

to be peace for those who don’t know peace

to be justice for those who don’t know justice.

In baptism, we are called to be different,

not to be like everyone else,

but to be ourselves,

to be the people God created us to be,

not to follow the ways of empire

because it’s easy to see

the ways of empire aren’t really working.

So we can rebel today:

We can rebel against the systems we have created

that continue to oppress the weak,

poor and marginalized.

Not with condemnation,

but with hope.

Not with violence,

but with peace.

Not with gaining wealth,

but with giving.

Not with hate,

but with love.

Not with despair,

but with joy.

Not with the blatant consumerism, 

that we see this time of year,

but with the peace and hope that is Advent.

We rebel with worship:

to gather in shrinking communities

to praise the God at work in us

and in the world.   

We rebel with communion,

inviting all people to taste God’s love and forgiveness

to experience welcome and acceptance in Jesus.

We rebel by being the church

who looks past our needs

and stands against

what is wrong in our world

We rebel, not by settling for the kingdoms of this world,

but by living into this peaceful Kingdom of Heaven;

God’s hopeful future to come,

and God’s reality,

here, now,

in and among us.

Like John’s preaching 2000 years ago,

There is a voice calling to us

out of our own wildernesses,

calling us out of our comfort zones.

Calling us into the revolution

that is the Kingdom of heaven come near.

May God’s Word stir us out of our comfort

and into God’s Shalom.

May we hear the call of St. Nicholas

and John the Baptizer,

and be modern day rebels for Jesus.

May God’s Kingdom come

in and among us.

Thanks be to God!

Amen.