BARUCH 5:1-9

PSALM 126

PHILIPPIANS 1:1-11

LUKE 3:1-6

Sermon – December 10, 2006

“A Harvest of Righteousness”

Anybody here feel like there’s pressure in December to have everything “just right”? (I raise my hand.) More pressure than in other months? (I keep my hand raised.) And that the pressure extends to not only holiday preparations – and execution of preparations – but to our lives in general, and our attitudes as well? (My hand is still up.) And that, if everything isn’t just right (surprise), we’re supposed to fake it? (Hand still up supported by the other arm.) And then, perhaps, we may start resenting having to fake it, resenting the pressure – even resenting the season itself and wishing it was January in a hurry? (Slowly my arms go down.)

So we come to church to try to really get into the real spirit of the season and escape the malls and the ads on TV, and we get hit with the Ten Commandments and the confession right at the start of the service and a collect which urges us to “heed the prophets’ warnings and forsake our sins.” What’s up with that? Doesn’t Lent come at the end of winter? What happened to joyful preparations for Christ’s birthday?

These are valid questions, but neither the church in general nor your rector in particular is responding to a casting call for the lead in a re-make of “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.”

No, all this penitential emphasis last week and today can be traced in part to a powerful word which appears repeatedly in today’s lectionary readings: “righteousness”.

“Righteousness” is not to be confused with its evil twin, “self-righteousness”, which is used far more frequently in ordinary speech. (That’s interesting in itself.) Self-righteousness, Webster’s Dictionary tells us, means “convinced of one’s own righteousness especially in contrast with the actions and beliefs of others: narrow-mindedly moralistic.” “Righteous”, the same dictionary declares, means “acting in accord with divine or moral law: free from guilt or sin.”

Self-righteous people, then, may or may not be righteous in accordance with the dictionary definitions, but they think they are and they think other’s aren’t and regularly compare themselves favorably with others. Self-righteous people, in fact, regularly give righteousness a bad name: even when they do the right thing they leave a bad impression because they are so fond of self-promotion.

The greatest true saints on the other hand, were extremely aware of their shortcomings. According to Luke 5:8, Jesus’ call of Peter himself to be a disciple was preceded by Jesus helping Peter make a miraculously large catch of fish, to which Peter responded by getting down on his knees before Jesus and saying “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” Peter’s humility, however, clinched the deal: right after that Jesus told him, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.” St. Paul, who was not troubled by excessive humility generally, nevertheless referred to himself as “the least of the apostles” because he had persecuted Christians and was the last apostle to become a follower of Jesus. And the Blessed Virgin Mary herself referred to herself simply as “the servant of the Lord.”

The great saints were – and are - not self-righteous. They might, in fact, be embarrassed by the number of churches which are named after them, instead of “Christ Church.” They focused on righteousness in the biblical sense: carrying out the duties expected towards God and towards others because of the relationship believers in God have towards God and others because of their status as believers. Striving for righteousness with humility is in fact the perfect antidote to any tendencies to self-righteousness.

So we recall the Ten Commandments today not to douse holiday cheer but because we need to remember God’s will for us regularly and humbly in order to pursue righteousness, and to receive the opportunity to grow in right relationship with God and with others which is possible by the grace of God.

In our first reading this morning, Baruch personifies Jerusalem, bereft and devastated after its conquest by the Babylonian Empire, as someone about to receive great and wonderful blessings from God. “Put on the robe of righteousness that comes from God…God will lead Israel with joy, in the light of his glory, with the mercy and righteousness that come from him.”

Because of God’s gracious gift of God’s liberating and transforming love, God’s people are able to live in right relationship with God and with one another. And the only way to respond appropriately to God’s grace is to accept God’s gift, and live faithfully as God’s servants, not worshipping or bowing down to any other gods or treating as supreme any other powers or objects, and being part of a righteous community, in which God’s laws for how people should treat each other are spontaneously and willingly obeyed.

Does the focus on the Ten Commandments begin to make sense now?

Of course, God’s supreme gift to humanity is coming in person in Christ Jesus – not because we human beings deserved so great a blessing, but because God graciously gave us the gift of God-in-Christ in person, to take our sins upon him and break their power over us by his death on the cross, and give us a clean slate, a second chance to accept the spiritually abundant life that God offers to all who are willing to turn to God.

So this is where Christmas joy comes in. In order for us to fully experience Christmas joy, we need to repent of all the ways we have sought to put something else at the center of our lives instead of God – money, career, power, reputation, other relationships, whatever – because otherwise we will not have any hands free to accept the gifts God offers us!

In order for us to fully experience Christmas joy, we need to recall God’s plan for right relationship between humans as well as between humans and God – hence all those commandments which are detailed expositions of the commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves. Another one of God’s gifts is our ability to forgive each other and start fresh with each other, and build human relationships, even human communities, which are more righteous because they more closely reflect God’s will for humanity.

And when we focus on turning ourselves more fully towards God, forgiving others – and forgiving ourselves as well – we discover that living in grace means finding joy in simpler pleasures and small miracles. And when we do that, why, there’s a bigger miracle: the December pressure to have everything “just right” drops.

Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, from which today’s Epistle is taken, is Paul’s most joyous letter.

He wrote it while in prison, convicted on the charge of being a Christian.

His December wasn’t “just right” it seems, nor many months before or afterwards. Did it bother him? Not at all.

He joyfully gives thanks for the church in the northern Greek city of Philippi, and prays that their “love may grow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.”

Wow! So righteousness is not something that people arrive at and feel smug and superior when they get there – on the contrary it is a journey involving growth in love, in knowledge and in insight, and the “harvest” will only be revealed in its fullness when Christ returns at the second coming, when hopefully it will be a “harvest of righteousness” which was only possible through Jesus Christ, and only for the glory and praise of God. No one is doing things just to praise themselves or to get praise from others – that’s self-righteousness. Doing the right things just for the glory of God – that’s righteousness.

So, let’s relax. By lowering certain expectations of having a “just right” December and concentrating on God’s gifts to us, and our responsibility to live with justice and peace with other people and faithfulness to God, we can actually have a December to remember with less stress and more joy. Let’s accept the annoying relatives for who they are. When stuck in traffic or in line at the mall, let’s try to make the experiences of those around us better rather than obsessing about how our experience isn’t matching our expectations. Let’s take joy in whatever we might do to relieve suffering of any kind through our generosity and our kindness. Let’s always make time, each day, to thank God.

“Just right”? Who needs it! God came to us human beings as we are so that we might become closer to how God is. That’s not Martha Stewart “just right” or Norman Rockwell “just right”; that’s righteous.

(The Rev.) Francis A. Hubbard

St. Barnabas Episcopal Church