“Truth
be told, all that we have belongs to God anyway.”
O God be in my mouth as I speak
for you and fill this place with your great grace, that we may leave this place
less of what we use to be and more of what we ought to be, through Jesus Christ
our Lord. Amen
In those days John the Baptist
appeared in the wilderness of Judea proclaiming, “Repent for the kingdom of
heaven has come near.”
One of my favorite stories
concerns a young man who walked into a Hallmark Store looking for just the
right card to send his girlfriend.
He asked the clerk to help him
pick out something that would express his deepest and most intimate feelings
for the love of his life.
The clerk handed him the store’s
best selling card. It said on the front, “To the only girl I ever loved.”
The young man smiled, nodded his
head, and said, “Perfect, this is just the card I have been looking for. I’ll
take six.”
Yes my friends, sometimes the
concept of commitment eludes certain people.
Of course commitment is what
stewardship is all about as we observe the second Sunday of Advent.
As I was thinking about what it
means to dedicate our time, our talents and our money to the ministry of this
church, I found myself confronted by one of the most committed men in the
Bible.
John the Baptist standing by the
river Jordan, clothed in rough camel hair, and eating wild locusts and honey.
This old style prophet comes to
us traditionally on the second Sunday of Advent.
He is placed there, in the words
of our collect, so that we may heed the prophet’s warnings and forsake our sins
and greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ.
Of course having a prophet-like
commitment to God like John is not always easy.
One of the Old Testaments
greatest prophets Elijah lived most of his life on the run from an imperial
death sentence.
Legend has it that Jeremiah was
sawed in half in Egypt.
And of course, we all know that
John the Baptist eventually lost his head over Salome. Sorry I couldn’t resist
that one.
Let’s face it prophets are just
the sorts of people that you do not want to hear about on a stewardship Sunday.
They speak uncomfortable truths
about the choices we make in our lives. They zero in on our hypocrisy and the
way we fail to live out the faith that dwells within us.
John the Baptist told the
religious folk, the Pharisees and Sadducees, who came to the river, “You brood
of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of
repentance.”
The Old Testament is full of
great examples for all of us, Men and women who placed their allegiance to God
above their to the current political,
religious, or economic establishment.
It will not surprise you to know
that Elijah, Jeremiah, and John the Baptist were not popular during their
lives. And they certainly would not have been asked to speak on a Stewardship
Sunday.
But most prophets were
eventually acclaimed for their willingness to do the right thing, even when the
political and religious forces of their society were stacked against them.
Now I am aware that most of us
will go through life, not having to worry about being sawed in half.
However, the relative safety we
have to observe our faith does not mean that our commitment to Christ and the
church should be lukewarm.
John’s life and witness tells us
that it doesn’t matter how much you think you may be doing for God.
Maybe you have already made a
generous pledge to our annual stewardship campaign, maybe you worked long hours
for the bazaar, lead children’s chapel or give your time for the emergency
assistance ministry on Tuesday morning.
Looking around St. Martin’s this
morning, I see lots of people who live exemplary lives of dedication to Christ
and this church.
However our busyness matters
little, unless we are committed body, mind and soul to Christ. This exactly is
the kind of commitment that John had to the Lord.
It is the quality of what we
give to God not the quantity of what we do. This is something the Scribes and
Pharisees never quite grasped.
Thomas Merton put the notion of personal commitment another way when he described the true meaning of the Advent season:
Merton wrote, “The Advent
mystery is the beginning of the end of all in us that is not yet Christ.”
“The Advent mystery is the
beginning of the end of all in us that is not yet Christ.” This is the primary
reason that the church chooses the figure of St. John the Baptist for the
second Sunday of Advent.
He stands on the banks of the
river of Jordan completely unafraid of the political and religious winds
swirling around him that will eventually cost him his life.
He is totally and absolutely
focused upon God and his call to preach a baptism of repentance for the
forgiveness of sins.
Like other prophets that came
before him, John is not worried about the number of cards he needs to buy.
For John the Baptist there is
only one card that ultimately matters.
There is perhaps no better time
than Advent to admit our spiritual priorities are wrong and to start over, to
get our lives in order and to throw away our extra cards.
To return again to the
commitments (we made) or (will make in Baptism), to abandon our desire to be
acclaimed by this world and acknowledge that God has a claim on all our lives.
Truth be told, all that we have
belongs to God anyway.
Our soul’s salvation depends on
the willingness we have to commit our time, talent and money to the ministry of
this church.
Are you ready to buy just one
card?