Meg Peery McLaughlin
A Weary World Rejoices: His Law is Love and His Gospel is Peace
December 15, 2024
Luke 3: 1-14, 18
Prayer of Illumination
Speak to us, Lord. Speak to us in the waiting, the watching, the hoping, the longing.
Speak to us by your Word in these Advent days,
and walk with us until the day of your coming. Amen.
Scripture
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, ‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth;
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” ’
7 John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Therefore, bear fruits worthy of repentance, and 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. 9 Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”
10 And the crowds asked him, “What, then, should we do?” 11 In reply he said to them, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none, and whoever has food must do likewise.” 12 Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, “Teacher, what should we do?” 13 He said to them, “Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.” 14 Soldiers also 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.”
18 So with many other exhortations he proclaimed the good news to the people.
Sermon
Screaming. Loud screaming coming from upstairs.
I might have called it singing, but not quite.
I was downstairs making dinner.
I wondered if they had the karaoke mic, but no, it was just their raw voices.
The twins had seen Wicked the night before
and they were upstairs with their friend Keke
scream-singing the song Defying Gravity.
Cynthia Ervio and Ariana Grande, Kristen Chenoweth and Idina Menzel
had nothing on these 10 year olds!
And the next morning, these little ones had nothing left but gravelly hoarse voices.
—
It’s the third Sunday of Advent,
the manger is coming into view.
Just nine more sleeps until the angels take their positions.
The pink candle glows on the wreath. The mood is set.
But there is screaming. Loud screaming from the Bible.
The theme is supposed to be joy –
it seems the lectionary did not understand the assignment.
Jesus’ cousin John, a wilderness weirdo, shows up near the Jordan,
scream preaching.
“You brood of vipers” is quite the opening line.
No mic needed, John carries on about swinging axes and wrath and fire.
He preaches repentance – and does it loudly.
John stays on brand in every one of the Gospels.
Before Mark’s Gospel even gets to his 5th sentence,
John proclaims a baptism of repentance.
Matthew records John’s one sentence sermon:
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
And in the 4th Gospel, John speaks of himself as the one crying out, straighten up!
There is no weaseling out of this message,
but I wonder how many of us, when we hear repent!, if we see the pit preacher.
Or conjure an image of people-with-no-love-in-their eyes holding signs painted in red that say Repent or Else! Repent or Die!
Yikes indeed.
But Church, out of our holy desire to not be like them,
let us not relinquish repentance forever. . .
For repentance is the belief that this weary world can go in a different direction;
it promises that tomorrow can be a new day.
Repentance says we are not bound to the brokenness of days gone by;
it means things can turn around.
And I see you out there—
in the pews, yes, but also in your jobs and families and schools–
praying for, working for, yearning for this—
the world to straighten up-
the rough places to be made smooth
mountainous obstacles to be brought low.
It seems to me, church, that you want repentance, it’s just that you don’t call it that.
In fact when we call it that you,
you literally cock your heads and turn up your noses. Let me explain:
Last year near Epiphany we passed out Star Words-
centering words to guide your year.
Hadley lovingly prepared them: ordered all the colorful paper,
printed out a list of words
and gave them to the office volunteers to scribe onto the stars.
There were a few words that she scratched off the list
as they weren’t in English or were just more obscure– but she missed a word,
she didn’t scratch the word metanoia off the list.
Metanoia is the Greek word for repentance.
When the time came you filed up to the front of the sanctuary to receive
courage, clarity, healing, discernment—and I could see your faces brighten
or you sigh contentedly in conjunction with the Spirit who had clearly gotten your attention.
But the few of you that got metanoia stars,
well, like I said, you cocked your heads and scrunched your noses,
confused and dejected.
So let me redeem your star for you: metanoia is a great word.
It is based on the word nous, which means ‘mind,’
and has an attached prefix meta, which means ‘after.’
Perhaps we might better render it as ‘second thought.’
To repent is to have a second thought.
And goodness doesn’t the world need second thoughts?
We can rush to fix a feeling or speak a platitude, but on second thought, why don’t we try just sitting down with our loved one in their pain.
We can zone in on the bottom line, on the benefit of growth, but on second thought, what if we consider the impact on real, ordinary people.
Grades come in, or end of year work reviews, or college applications, and we tell ourselves all that determines our worth, but on second thought, how about we remember our baptismal belovedness.
The news story comes that seems so outrageous that we cannot help but belittle those fools on the other side, but on second thought, what if we acknowledge the complexity of stories, the nuances in values, and the truth that God doesn’t make any of us simple.
We’ll go to throw something away, but on second thought, realize we can compost it.
You know come to think of it, Hadley, maybe all the star words this year should be metanoia.
A second thought about that first choice,
A second thought about that particular assumption,
A second thought about that instinctive reaction,
A second thought about that well worn pattern,
Yes, repentance is the gift this weary world needs–
I know I do.
This has got to be why the crowds react the way they do to John. Did you notice?
He gets up there with his screamy sermon
talking about bearing fruit worthy of repentance
and they don’t get mad. They don’t take their pledges and make a scene leaving worship. They don’t ask him to lower his voice.
They just ask “What then should we do??”
We’re in on this kind of life— show us how to do it.
We have confidence in God’s promise—help us put our faith in action.
To the general public John says if you have two coats,
give one of them to someone who is cold.
If you have plenty of food, set the table for someone who is hungry.
That’s it, they say, share? John says, yes, share.
To the tax collectors John says collect tax that is owed, but don’t cheat anyone.
That’s it, they say, be fair? Yes, be fair.
To the soliders, John says don’t use your power for your own benefit.
That’s it? Don’t be a bully? Right, no bullying, especially against the vulnerable.
Share. Be Fair. Don’t Bully.
That’s the playbook for the turned-round-right-way of the Lord.
Share. Be Fair. Don’t Bully.
It’s All I Really Need to Know I learned in Kindergarten: Kingdom of God edition.
Church, his way is love and his gospel is peace—
and it’s all made up of small moves, that anyone, everyone can do,
all who believe that things can change, repentance is possible, a new day is coming.
—
This Thanksgiving weekend at RDU I had distinct pleasure of hearing my name called on the all-airport intercom. I think my children melted into the floor in embarrassment, but I was elated because it meant someone had found my iPhone which I had idiotically left in the bathroom by our gate.
As I walked the length of the terminal to get retrieve my phone, I remembered a poem about another airport intercom moment.
Naomi Nye speaks of wandering around the Albuquerque Airport hearing an announcement: “If anyone in the vicinity of Gate 4-A understands any Arabic, please come to the gate immediately.”
Well – Naomi writes, one pauses these days. I went there.
An older woman in full traditional Palestinian embroidered dress,
just like my grandma wore, was crumpled to the floor, wailing loudly.
I stooped to put my arm around the woman and spoke to her haltingly.
The minute she heard any words she knew, however poorly used, she stopped crying. She thought the flight had been cancelled entirely.
She needed to be in El Paso for major medical treatment the next day.
I said, “You’re fine, you’ll get there, who is picking you up? Let’s call him.”
She talked to him. Then we called her other sons just for fun.
Then we called my dad and he and she spoke for a while in Arabic and found out of course they had ten shared friends. She was laughing a lot by then.
Next, she pulled a sack of homemade mamool (ma- muhl) cookies
– little powdered sugar crumbly mounds stuffed with dates and nuts –
out of her bag and she shared– offered them to all the women at the gate.
To my amazement, not a single woman declined one. It was like a sacrament.
The traveler from Argentina, the mom from California, the lovely woman from Laredo – we were all covered with the same powdered sugar. And smiling.
There is no better cookie. The airline broke out the free beverages from huge coolers and two little girls from our flight ran around serving us all apple juice and they were covered with powdered sugar too. And I looked around that gate of late and weary ones and thought, this is the world I want to live in .
And you know what, church? We can.
It is possible.
This is why John was screaming.
And just like the ten year olds upstairs singing at the tip-top of their lungs,
John is not screaming in anger,
he is not screaming in despair,
he is screaming in joy—
that every valley shall be filled
every mountain made low
and every crooked path shall be straight
and every rough way smooth
screaming in joy that the salvation of God is coming
and he’s screaming for us-who-think-that is-impossible,
to take a second thought, repent,
and join in.