What Are You Waiting For? Kindness? Joy? Peace?

Philippians 4:4-7; Luke 3:7-18 - 3rd Sunday of Advent, December 12, 2021

Pastor Ritva H Williams

Did you notice that we sang our opening song, “Build Up” by Dakota Road at the end of last Sunday’s worship service? This song connects Episodes 1 and 2 of John the Baptist’s story. 

In Episode 1, as a prequel to John the Baptist we met the prophet Malachi proclaiming that God intends to change God’s people by purifying them with refiners’ fire and scrubbing them with fullers’ soap. John the Baptist preaches about God’s desire to change the world like a bulldozer filling in ditches, leveling hills, and realigning crooked pathways. 

The lyrics of the song “Build Up” summarize that message and give us a preview of Episode 2. 

Build up, prepare the way. Remove the obstructions from my people’s way. 

Break the chains of injustice. Let the oppressed go free. 

Share our homes with the homeless and our bread with the hungry.

As Episode 2 begins, we hear John the Baptist preaching about broods of vipers, wrath to come, axes chopping down trees for burning, a Messiah baptizing with Holy Spirit and fire, a Savior wielding a winnowing fork to separate out the chaff for burning. John’s message is standard prophetic fare: warning and promise with ethical teaching sandwiched in between. 

Who is John warning about what? The crowds he speaks to include people of every status and rank in Judean society. He warns them not to rely on their status as children of Abraham to spare them from God’s wrath. John uses harsh language to shock and scare his audience. It seems to work. They respond by asking, “what should we do?” 

In our highly polarized society John’s confrontational language probably wouldn’t get that response. I would preach John’s message differently. We are saved by God’s grace and mercy. Faith is our response to that grace and mercy. God will always evaluate our faith by what we think and feel, the words we speak, and how we behave. Ancestry, ethnicity, race, place of origin, language, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other marker of status — including being a Christian of any stripe — will not get us off the hook when it comes to accountability before God. Because .. what we think, speak, and do has consequences for our neighbor. So our question is more like how do we know, live and share Christ’s love?

John’s answer is still valid. He preaches an ethics of share, be fair, don’t bully. To the poor ones he says, if you have 2 coats share with someone who has none; if you have food, share with those who have none. To the tax collectors, “collect no more than the amount prescribed.” To the soldiers, “do not defraud people with threats or falsely accusations, be satisfied with your wages.” 

Notice that John does not condemn the poor for being poor. He doesn’t tell the tax collectors to end their relationship with Rome. He doesn’t urge the soldiers to turn in their weapons and become pacifists. Instead he calls all of these people to serve God where they are — to do good in the midst of often very complicated and challenging circumstances. 

Share; be fair; don’t bully. If this teaching seems almost too simple, that may be the whole point. Faith does not have to be heroic. Opportunities to do God’s will are all around us in our homes, schools, workplaces, churches and communities. Share, be fair, and don’t bully are things that everyone can and should do in everyday life.

Pastor John van de Laar lifts up kindness as the foundation of John the Baptist’s ethical instructions. Kindness is about intentionally committing ourselves to view and treat others with respect, dignity, and compassion. Kindness shows up in daily life as civility, consideration and care. Kindness does not insist that I am entitled us to special power, privilege or exemptions from what serves the common good. Kindness, he says, embodies God’s values and priorities. That is most certainly true. 

John the Baptist’s conversation partner this morning is the Apostle Paul. He lists kindness as one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22). I would even say that the seeds of kindness are embedded in us. They are part of the image-of-God at the core of our being. Abilene Clark, the black nanny in the book/movie The Help was absolutely right in teaching her charge, “You is kind. You is smart. You is important.”

In his letter to the Philippians, Paul encourages us to "rejoice in the Lord always.” My reading of this passage is informed by a commentary by Professor Holly Hearon, who defines rejoicing in the Lord as a habitual attitude that informs our behavior. Joy is not a feeling of happiness or celebration that emerges from and depends on our circumstances. Joy is rooted in our relationship with God, a fruit of the Spirit that is nurtured through communities of mutual support. Rejoicing in the Lord together sustains us even when we are worn down by life challenges. 

Paul goes on and says, “Let your gentleness be known to everyone.” In English ‘gentleness’ is often associated with being meek and mild, but in Greek it is about the exercise of power. Gentleness shows itself as tolerance, and is expressed when we set aside our rights and freedoms for the sake of others. Gentleness means choosing not to exercise one’s power when it interferes with the common good, or to exercise it differently to support the common good. 

Fear and anxiety most often motivate us to to exercise our power, rights, and freedoms without regard for the consequences to others. Paul addresses this tendency by urging us not to worry about anything, but in everything turn our needs over to God through prayer. In this way we are invited to make ourselves known to God, and to ourselves, at our greatest points of vulnerability. And to do so with thanksgiving before we know the results. Prayer with thanksgiving expresses our confidence that God will support and sustain us (usually through community), and signals our  openness to change.

Paul concludes with the promise of God’s peace. Professor Hearon reminds us that God’s peace is not an act of divine intervention that suddenly makes everything right for us. It is a peace that pushes the limits of our imaginations, challenging us to constantly reconsider what makes for peace, for whom, and how. Because God’s imagination and understanding are larger than ours. 

God’s peace guards, protects, and keeps our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Our hearts and minds are powerful forces that shape our attitudes and behaviors. They are susceptible not only to outside influences like peer pressure and social media, but also to our own fears, anxieties and delusions. God’s peace draws us deeper into relationship with Christ. 

So what are we waiting for in this season of Advent? For kindness? Joy? Gentleness? God’s peace? All these are available to you and accessible by you. Open your heart and mind to the God who is coming, and receive this blessing called “Prepare” by Jan Richardson.

Strange how one word will so hollow you out. 

But this word has been in the wilderness for months. For years.

This word is what remained after everything else was worn away by sand and stone.

It is what withstood the glaring of sun by day, the weeping loneliness of the moon at night.

Now it comes to you racing out of the wild, eyes blazing and waving its arms,

its voice ragged with desert but piercing and loud as it speaks itself again and again:

Prepare, prepare.

It may feel like the word is leveling you, emptying you as it asks you to give up what you have known.

It is impolite and hardly tame, but when it falls upon your lips you will wonder at the sweetness,

like honey that finds its way  into the hunger that you had not known was there. 

Amen.