Zephaniah 3:14-20

Psalm 85:7-13

Philippians 4:4-9

LUKE 3:7-18

Sermon – 12/14/03

Judgement and Joy

“So, with many other exhortations, John proclaimed the good news to the people.” Good news? Today’s Gospel reading starts with John the Baptist calling the crowds who came out to be baptized by him “a brood of vipers” and finishes by warning that while the Messiah will “gather the wheat into his granary,” “the chaff” (the condemned) “he will burn with unquenchable fire.” How are warnings about Hell good news?

And how does today’s Gospel, with its themes of warning and judgment, mesh with the other readings, which speak of rejoicing? Can tidings of judgment and joy be received together?

Yes, indeed—in fact, the depth of joy we are offered makes no sense unless we understand the judgment we are under. God in Christ offers us not merely “a plate of Christmas cookies,” so to speak, but food for eternal life, without which we would die. We spend Advent preparing to celebrate the birthday of our Savior at Christmas. We call him our Savior because he offers to save us. Those who are not saved are lost. The kind of joy today’s Scriptures talk about is the joy of someone who was lost in the woods with night coming and a winter storm beginning who is rescued and brought home safe and sound. At least that analogy begins to describe our need and God’s passionate desire to save us.

John the Baptist’s mission was to point out to people that they were “lost in the woods” and that “night and a winter storm”—also known as Judgment Day—are coming, and only those who get right with God will see the dawn and the eternal spring which will follow the storm.

Some people John preached to were in denial, and thought their salvation was already assured due to a genealogical connection to the Chosen People of God. These were those who boasted to John, “We have Abraham as our ancestor.” They thought there was a special lane for them at the Gate of Heaven and that they had “E-Z Pass.”

Not so, John says. Anyone trying to tell John the Baptist today, “My grandfather was religious, so that clinches it for me” or “I got baptized, that’s enough” is going to get the same response from John.

John the Baptist’s role, to use a rock ‘n’ roll term, was to “open” for the main attraction, the Messiah, Jesus Christ. An opening act at a rock ‘n’ roll concert gets the crowd pumped up so that it’s really ready for the headlining main act. John’s role was to “prepare the way of the Lord” by opening the people up to their need for God. No one should be complacent—and no one should despair. That’s where the Good News comes in.

John was preaching both to the “over-confident” and the “unconfident,” and there are both over-confident and under-confident people today. Today’s over-confident may say “I haven’t done anything spectacularly wrong,” or “what I did wasn’t my fault,” or “being a nice person is enough,” or “God saves everybody—right?” or “imagine there’s no heaven—or hell,” or “maybe there’s no God either.” The under-confident either worry or doubt that God would or would want to offer them forgiveness, a transformed life and hope of eternal life and joy, because of what they have done.

John offers a reality check to the over-confident—then and now: “Suppose there is a God, Heaven and Hell do exist, there will be an ultimate ‘final exam,’ and the two questions on it will be, ‘Did you love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind?’ and ‘Did you love your neighbor as yourself?’” So, how do we really think we each would do on this “final”? Really? Well, let’s each of us look at some videotape God has of our own lives. Yeah, including those things. Now are we interested in changing our lives?

As the 18^th century English author Samuel Johnson wrote, “Depend upon it, Sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.” John the Baptist’s premise was that if people knew they would go to Hell if they didn’t change, but could be saved if they did change, it might also concentrate their minds wonderfully.

To the under-confident, who have gotten the message that they must change, John offers specific suggestions, including sharing resources with the poor and not abusing whatever power one has over others—an issue not only for the tax collectors and occupying soldiers of John’s time and place but for us as individuals, as groups and as a society today.

When people realize their desperate need for God—right here and now as well as for the hereafter—and realize how profoundly God wants to save and transform them, then the joy that overflows from today’s other readings can be experienced in depth.

The Old Testament reading is a message of hope to a people who have suffered catastrophes which are far beyond their power to overcome. It is likely to be the words of a prophet to the Jews who were in exile in Babylon hundreds of miles from home after they witnessed the utter destruction of Jerusalem and conquest of their homeland. To those in the grip of despair, God promises protection from their enemies, the end of disasters, a return home and help for those who need healing or restoration to the community.

Those who heard those words in the 6^th century B. C.—and later experienced deliverance from oppression thanks to God—knew profound joy, and knew it was far beyond their doing. Individuals and communities can continue to experience extraordinary transformation by God’s intervention in their lives today. While still far short of the joy and transformation which will come in the Kingdom of God, addicts who are experiencing sobriety and growth in sobriety and the people of post-apartheid South Africa, for example, both know transformation and joy.

St. Paul wrote his Letter to the Philippians while in prison for the crime of preaching Christianity. Paul knew a joy which did not wilt in such adverse circumstances, a joy which was tough and strong, a joy which would be with him no matter what, because it was joy in what God had done and could do which no life circumstances could erase.

I suspect many of us have been through life circumstances which were, or are, very challenging, and when joy, perhaps, seemed as remote as the planet Mars. We may not always find much to rejoice about in certain life circumstances, but we can, as Paul says, “Rejoice in the Lord.” God can and will be with us as a companion, guide, strengthener, healer and Savior in any and all life circumstances, and nothing and no one can stop him. That in itself is a cause for joy. And God has promised forgiveness and transformation to all who truly turn to God, and the ultimate extent of that transformation will be far more wonderful than we can possibly imagine. That is a cause for joy. And God has also promised to transform the whole creation. No one and nothing can stop God from implementing God’s ultimate purposes. That, too, is a cause for joy, joy that endures.

Judgment and Joy? Yes, the two can go together; when we realize how much we need God, and how much God wants us, we can experience the beginning of a joy which no amount of darkness or winter storms in our lives can snuff out.

(The Rev.) Francis A. Hubbard

St. Barnabas Episcopal Church