Multi-Coated

Advent II. Reflections on
Zeph. 3:14-20, Phil. 4:4-7, Luke 3: 7-18 18:33-37
Holy Trinity/La Santisima Trinidad
12/13/2009

John the Baptist is one of the most fascinating and fearsome creatures of the New Testament. In the gospels of Matthew and Mark, he was said to be dressed in clothes made from camel's hair, he wore a leather belt around his waist, he ate locusts and wild honey and lived in the wilderness. In the Old Testament it was Elijah the great wild prophet who was described as wearing a hairy coat, with a leather belt. In the Book of Malachi, the Lord God is quoted as promising his people that he will send the prophet Elijah before the Day of Judgment comes. So the appearance of a hairy coated, leather-belted prophet would really get people’s attention, and may have been the reason they were flocking to be baptized!

The sermon we hear John preach this morning seems to be the quintessential “Fire and Brimstone sermon.” John first castigates the hordes coming for baptism as a “brood of vipers” implying that they have been warned to slither to baptism to escape judgment, then he warns that “the ax is ready.” He then exhorts the crowd to live a strictly ethical life- whether they are regular citizens, despised tax collectors or soldiers. He disappoints those among the crowd who think that HE might be the Messiah, and lastly he again threatens them the coming of Jesus who will burn them with unquenchable fire. This apparently is the good news he is proclaiming to the people!

Well, or not we see it as good news, it was historically noted that John’s preaching and baptism ministry was extremely popular. Shortly before our passage of today, we read,” from Jerusalem and all Judea and from the Jordan River valley, crowds of people went to John.” Josephus, the first century Jewish historian writes a detailed paragraph about John, which includes the fact that Herod became alarmed by the crowds that congregated around John, “aroused to the hightest degree by his sermons.” Herod felt that this might lead to sedition, so John was put to death. This all the more poignant because, as it is written in the Gospel of Mark, Herod used to like to hear John preach…

But, John was preaching sermons that were not altogether unlike those of Jesus, with some important differences. The sermons of both John and Jesus reflected the prophetic sermons of the many Old Testament prophets. - the prophet Amos, for instance, who castigated people for paying too much attention to their liturgy (especially music), rather than concentrating on social justice-we might all take note. Here is the word of the Lord according to Amos:
I hate, I despise your festivals. Away with the noise of your songs!
I will not listen to the music of your harps.
But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!
Or the word of the Lord according to Malachi:
See, the day is coming…when all the arrogant and evil doers will be stubble.- the day that comes will burn them up- leaving neither root nor branch…
When Jesus asked his disciples, “who do people think I am?” The top choices were “John the Baptist come back from the dead and the prophet Elijah. This makes me wonder what Jesus was really like- perhaps a lot wilder than we imagine. But one thing is for sure. Jesus may have preached wild prophetic sermons, but unlike John, he preached about love and forgiveness.
I found myself in need of that love and forgiveness once when I ran afoul of one of John the Baptist’s milder dictates in a very public way.
I was at my old parish with my daughter, who was then four years old, She was listening to a children’s homily on the words of John the Baptist. She suddenly stood up and said, “My mom has a whole BUNCH of coats!” Although I knew I was not alone in the congregation in my multicoated state, I nevertheless felt the call to repentance went that very day to the Goodwill and gave away all of my coats. All, I confess, but the essential six, with which I confess, I could not part with. There was my polar Tec jacket for those cruel Berkeley nights, my short parka in case of rain, my long black raincoat in case it rained and someone died, my down jacket with the hood in case of blizzards, the yellow coat that looked like the one my late mother used to wear, and the red hoody for Christmas caroling.

When Jesus saw that that rich young had gone away sad rather than give away all his possessions, he first said the famous one-liner about the rich man, the eye of a needle and the Kingdom of Heaven, but then he said, with God nothing is impossible.

John was preaching a coming Day of Judgment, But Jesus preached something different. Jesus preached the coming of the Kingdom of God, a phrase never heard in the Old Testament. The Kingdom of God was only described in parables, and Jesus variously said that it was here now, among us or within us, or would soon come.

The Kingdom of God is so precious that when one finally finds it, like the pearl without price, they will sell everything they have to own it. The Kingdom of God was what the little children could understand but their puzzled parents could not. There is a great feeling of equality- of justice in the Kingdom of God parables- the woman puts yeast into three batches of flour and all the dough rises up. The tiny mustard seed grows to be a great tree, such that all the birds may find a home there.

Jesus did teach radical social justice but he also taught radical love and radical forgiveness- you were to forgive your brother 7 times seventy times. I had trouble forgiving my brother once.

But with God, all things are possible. With God, even unforgiving, ungiving stones can be raised up as children of Abraham. We might even be so brave that we will, as our second reading suggests, “let our gentleness be known to everyone.” And even if we start out as cold as stones, God can enliven us, inspire us and even warm us infinitely more than even 6 coats. Amen.