“Therefore, bear fruit worthy of repentance…” (Matthew 3:8)
Back
in my grad school days at the University of Wisconsin we had this thing called
the Free Speech Platform. On a sunny day—or even on a chilly December day—it
wasn’t uncommon to be crossing the main quad and hear a strident voice
emanating from the Platform, the voice of one crying in the wilderness,
attempting to sway the mass of scurrying students to one position or another.
Notorious
among the more frequent speakers was a rotund, matronly woman with a bombastic
sousaphonic voice who called herself Sister Pat. Sister Pat bellowed from the Platform
dire warnings that the souls of UW students were most certainly on a collision
course for Hell should we fail to hear her stirring words and come to
repentance. She called the female students “whores” and the male students “whore
mongers.” As you might imagine, UW scholars took this somewhat amiss and failed
to come weeping to her feet like the altar call at a Billy Graham crusade. They
were much more prone to hollering back some rather impolite observance of their
own before walking away and ignoring the evangelist entirely. I once attempted to talk to Pat, but she
shouted at me (shouting being, it would seem, her only form of communication)
that my lord was Satan and I was doomed to perdition for being a Lutheran and accepting
the abomination of infant baptism.
Nobody
likes being called out or being accused. That’s the real bummer we face every
year on the Second Sunday in Advent when the Revised Common Lectionary
confronts us with this freaky mass of zeal and passion, John the Baptist. John
comes as Jesus’ advance man. He’s a bizarre figure outside the mainstream,
dressed in animal skins and eating bugs and looking for all the world like the
prophet Elijah. Like Elijah before him, John, in our Gospel lesson (Matthew 3:
1-11) is calling out society for turning away from God and warning folks to
come to repentance. I guess he had to be more persuasive than old Sister Pat
was, because tons of people came out to hear him and let him give them a dunk
in the Jordan when they confessed their sins.
Our
lesson tells us even Pharisees and Sadducees were curious about John. I’ll bet
they only came out to hear this guy because they thought he was a novelty or
because they were afraid he might be telling people something which would
impugn the power structure the Pharisees and Sadducees so enjoyed. When John
sees these bigwigs, he really gives them an earful. He calls them snakes and
goes totally Sister Pat on them—telling them their vaunted pedigrees don’t
amount to spit and, unless they actually started doing something worthwhile
with their faith, there was going to be a lot of chopping and burning in their
future.
I
think both John the Baptist and Elijah before him saw a nation which had
skidded off the rails. Given the borderline psychotic times we live in here in
America, we could certainly use a prophetic voice calling us all to repentance.
I could, of course, launch into my own screed about the ills of society, but
nobody in my pews serves in congress and it’s a long time until the next
election. Maybe it’s better if I just stick to churchy things.
I
saw this video a few weeks ago on Youtube about why the ELCA is losing
members like feathers off a molting chicken[i]. The narrator opined that
the communion to which I belong and in which I have been ordained to Word and
Sacrament ministry has lost its way. It has embraced cultural relevance and
progressivism and alienated more conservative, traditional Christians. Since
the controversial 2009 Churchwide Assembly in which the ELCA embraced the
ordination of LGBTQ+ clergy and recognition of same gender marriages, a huge
chunk of our membership fled to the more conservative Missouri Synod or the new
North American Lutheran Church or just stopped going to church altogether. The narrator
noted that, even though Missouri Synod membership is dropping like a rock, it
hasn’t picked up quite the velocity as has the desertion from the ELCA.
The
Youtube pundit went on to suggest that the ELCA’s progressivism has
failed to attract newer, younger Christians. He believes that young families
feel more comfortable in conservative churches which preach Biblical inerrancy.
It seems some people just don’t want to wrestle with the scriptures (or the
more controversial sayings of Jesus) and just want to be told what to believe.
They like that bumper sticker feeling of “The Bible says it. I believe it. That
settles it.” Being judgmental is so much more enjoyable when you can
comfortably say, “We’re right and all the rest of you are wrong.” The Sister
Pats of this world must love feeling righteously self-assured.
The
guy on Youtube also made the very interesting point that liberal ideas
and values are everywhere in the media. You don’t need to go to church to hear
them. So why, he asked, would anyone feel the need to attend an ELCA
congregation? My answer? For the same reason people came to hear John the
Baptist on the banks of the Jordan. Maybe the folks came for the entertainment
value of hearing this wacky guy preach, but that wasn’t what drew them into the
water. They came because they knew in their hearts they needed to
confess and be forgiven and be transformed. Progressive ideas alone don’t bring
people to repentance. The hunger for God does.
As
Lutherans we begin every mass at the baptismal font to confess our sins and claim
the renewing power of Christ. We ask forgiveness for what we’ve done and for
what we’ve left undone—for the sin of not producing the fruits worthy of
repentance. I find I have to ask myself every day, “Have I really served
the Lord today?” In the swirling chaos of this present hour—when compassion,
mercy, and generosity are so needed—have I born the fruit Jesus expects of me? Could
I be doing more? The Baptist calls to each of us during this sacred time to
examine our conscience and wrestle with our faith. And that’s a good thing.
Even
better is the gift of our baptism, the blessing that through our repentance we receive,
as Isaiah has said, “the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of
counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.[ii]”
Yup.
When the Sister Pats of this world try to call us out, we’ll get defensive. But
when we hear John the Baptist calling, we’ll hear the truth about ourselves and
gladly come with both contrition and joy to the river.
Thanks
for joining me this week. Have a blessed Advent and keep being the bearer of good fruit.
[i] This
video is calls “Lutheran Collapse,” and you can view it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3N57C1clEE
[ii]
Isaiah 11:2.