Be Gentle: A Sermon for Advent 3, 2018

Sermon:

Text: Luke 3:7-18, Philippians 4:4-7, Isaiah 12:2-6, Zephaniah 3:14-20

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who comes in gentleness.

            It’s a rather strange thing this week, we’re in the midst of our theme of Hope and Delight, Christmas is just around the corner, a week and a day!!, Children’s Christmas Concert is tonight, today’s candle in our advent wreath is often referred to as the Candle of Joy. And our Gospel starts with, You brood of Vipers!

            You brood of vipers! By Joyful! Find Hope! Find Delight! IT’s CHRISTMAS!!! It’s well, a rather jarring start to talking to people.

            Today we’re focusing on the idea of restoration. Last week was all about how God rebuilds us, God takes us and puts us back together, God removes the ways that sin has ripped us apart, making us beautiful distinct people sent to share the good news of Jesus’ birth at Christmas. Today, we talk about the reconstruction not of ourselves, but of the world.

            I love the show This Old House on PBS. If somehow you’ve never seen it, they have project houses for each season, where they take an Old House, hence the name, and pretty much completely reconstruct it, often completely. It can be amazing to see the transformations that some of these houses go through. And when these professionals do it, well, they make it look easy. It’s just, bip bop boop, and there’s a whole wall redone. Oh, that beam supporting the whole roof is rotting, let me change the whole thing in seemingly 5 mins.

            That of course doesn’t always go how the real world works is it? How many of you have done a home improvement project and well, it spiraled into chaos? What are the reasons? Things just go wrong, of course. You open a wall up and find termites or Rodents of unusual size. But, often what you find is that it’s because people can’t agree on how they want it. I want Colonial, you want modern, shabby chic, industrial, I want blue, you want red. Fighting occurs, anger happens, names get called, etc. All because we can’t find compromise and agreement.

            There’s a reason that John calls everyone a Brood of Vipers in our Gospel for today. It’s because all they only think for themselves. They are all doing whatever they want, all with the excuse, well, I’m Abraham’s descendent, so I’m correct. The people ask, well what then should we do! John’s answer? If you have two coats share with someone who has none, if you have extra food, give to those who have none. Don’t take more money from people that needed, don’t be greedy, don’t think of profit over people! Don’t extort money from people, don’t use threats to get what you want, don’t use lies to get what you want.

            It’s not all that nice, but well, we are broods of vipers at times. We do care more for our way and our thoughts, over what God wants of us. From Micah 6:8: What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? From Luke 10, the words of Jesus, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” And finally from our reading from Philippians today, “⁴Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. ⁵Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry.”

            We are broods of vipers when we do not love how God wants us to love, when we do not do justice as God wants, when we do not care for others as God wants, when we do not live with gentleness. Instead of caring for each other, we attack and undermine each other.

            John’s message is one of change, get away from this idea that you are the correct one, get away from this idea that you are the important one, and well, care for each other! If you have more, give it! If you have power don’t abuse it! If you have authority use it for the good of all and not just yourself! And remember that God is the important one who comes in love. The image he uses of Jesus at the winnowing floor is simply another method of talking about refiner’s fire and fuller’s soap from last week. Winnowing is the process of removing the unwanted parts of the wheat, to make it useful and unified. To take away the sin that tells us to only care about ourselves, and says, you are part of this great united bin of grain that’s sent out to feed the world. Christ comes in forgiveness to show us the goal. Get rid of the things that separate us, get rid of the greed, pride, and need for power that keeps some up and others down. 

Why do the people on this Old House get everything done so well and easily? Because they’re gentle with each other. They know the goal, they know each other, and they know how to bask in each other’s presence.

We get so caught up in the idea of what do we have to do, what are we doing wrong, and especially what are THEY doing wrong, that we miss the point, we miss the goal. We are called to gentleness because God is gentle. We are called to love, because God is love. The way to finish the project is to realize the goal. And the goal is sharing with the world, through word, and action, that our God, a God of love and gentleness, is with them. To share with you, that your God, who is gentle with you, who loves you, is with you, right now.

            At the core of our texts today is God already in our midst. God is with us. From John, one more powerful is coming. From Zephaniah, The Lord is in your midst. From Isaiah, For great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel. From Philippians, The Lord is near, do not worry.

            People of God, Friends, Jesus doesn’t need you to finish your remodeling project to show up. Jesus doesn’t care if you have every decoration up, doesn’t care if your house is or is not spotless. All Jesus wants is to be with you, and to show you gentleness and love.

            The message we spread this time of year, and the one I share with you now, is this. Be gentle. Be gentle with each other, be gentle with your family, be gentle with your kids, be gentle with your parents, be gentle with your friends, be gentle with yourself. God is with you. Nothing can or will ever change that. No matter what anyone says, God is with you.

            In this season of being rebuilt and then restoring the world, let us always live with that in mind, God is already here in love and gentleness. We don’t bring God, God brings us.