Reverend Philip Stringer
Luke 3:1-6
LET US PRAY: Come, Lord Jesus -- and fill us with expectant waiting. Give us ears that hear your coming and receiving hearts. Come and lead us into the world to serve you, as we watch and pray for your coming in Glory. AMEN
You don’t often hear sports analogies from me, but today I have two — both of them from my hometown of Fort Wayne, IN.
In the 1980’s there was a short-lived attempt to establish a new sport — Indoor Soccer. It was just like outdoor soccer except that it was played in venues that typically hosted basketball and hockey. That’s a pretty small arena for soccer! With players kicking hard, it wasn’t uncommon for the ball to shoot like a rocket into the stands.
The Fort Wayne Flames was the team of my hometown. I remember attending a game and seeing a woman — about ⅔ of the way up in the stands — get drilled with a soccer ball. She was busy talking to the person next to her and not watching the game. Terrible mistake! She was there physically, but not, at least, in spirit. Her attention was elsewhere, and it caught her unprepared.
TODAY — the Word of the Lord comes to us through John the Baptist, who calls out to us to be prepared — not merely present — for the Lord is coming and is already here — and his coming means a change in who we are and how we live.
Most people are familiar with Little League Baseball — it can be quite competitive. What is likely unknown to you is another league in Fort Wayne, IN, where I grew up.
In 1961, a local businessman saw the disappointment on the faces of boys who tried out — but failed to make the cut — for Little League Baseball, and it was more than he could take. So, he formed a new league called Wildcat League. The motto for the league is, “Everyone Makes the Team.”
My mom knew right away that this was the league for me. From an early age it was pretty clear — I wasn’t going to make the cut, if there was one. The goal in Wildcat League was for everyone to play, have fun and learn. Even with that low bar, I will acknowledge that I was probably one of the worst kids ever to play Wildcat baseball.
Apart from the fact that I had no innate athletic ability, the biggest problem was the fact that I just wasn’t that interested.
My suspicion that I may have been one of the worst players is supported by the fact that they put me in right field — which statistically sees the least amount of action. It was probably the right move from a coaching standpoint — but it did nothing to improve my skill or interest.
Standing in right field, it wouldn’t be long before my mind would wander from the game to other, more interesting things — like a cabbage butterfly flitting by over the grass, or some kids playing beyond the sidelines. It was a peaceful place.
But every now and then, the peace and tranquility would be shattered by the harsh screams of the coaches (and sometimes other players), “Heads up! PHILIP!!! HEADS UP!!!!!!
OK. So, I’ll admit I’m no baseball genius — but even I know that that’s one of the dumbest expressions ever! “Heads up?” There is a hard, round mass that can smash a window and even dent wood, hurtling down toward me from the sky, and people are telling me to look up? The one thing you shouldn’t do is turn your face toward it! So, I did what any rational person would do — I ducked!
When we hear the words of John the Baptist, our reaction might likewise be to duck and run. “Repent,” and “prepare” sound like warnings of approaching trouble. But the truth is that the coming of the Lord is not for our harm. Rather, his words are a call for us to be part of his coming.
We pray for the coming of God’s kingdom in the Lord’s prayer. When Luther wrote about the meaning of that prayer in the Small Catechism, he wrote, “God’s kingdom comes with or without our prayers; but in this petition we pray that it may come among US.”
John calls out to us today — “Prepare. Heads up. Get ready — because his coming is unexpected and I don’t want you to miss it.
I got a phone call from a college friend I hadn’t spoken with since the late 1990’s — since then I’ve had 5 or 6 different addresses, including being out of the country. He said, “you’re a hard man to find.” And I answered, “I’m not hard to find if you know where to look.”
The coming of the Lord into our lives can be hard to see if we don’t know where to look.
Luke prepares us to see the power of God’s mighty acts by pointing out that they would be easily missed if we look in the wrong places. Luke begins by listing all the great ruling powers of the day. But while the great rulers of the earth were busy doing their “ruling things,” the Word of God came to none of them, but to an eccentric Jew far out in right field — in the remote, barren wilderness of Palestine.
And while these supposed great rulers have left little for time and history to remember, John the Baptist announced to the world the most important event in all of history — and he called us to be part of it.
John wasn’t like me in right field; He was actually paying attention — and he was the one calling out, “heads up” to others —- but even with that warning, I think that his proclamation hit the people like that soccer ball in the indoor stadium.
The Jewish people thought — they had been taught — that being prepared was all about taking care of oneself.
John said, “Bear fruits worthy of repentance . . . Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.” He told them, “Do what is right and honorable in our dealing with others, and don’t be jealous of others but be satisfied with what you have.” It was shocking to the people — a soccer ball to the head. They expected the coming of the Lord to mean something else.
We might expect something different, too. When we hear John’s words, “Prepare the way of the Lord,” we might think that this means that we must do the groundwork that enables the Lord to come. Like getting all prettied-up before a party, people sometimes think they need to make themselves look good in preparation for Jesus’ coming.
A bumper sticker I saw pokes fun at this. It states, “Jesus is coming. Look busy!”
Those are the sentiments of a spectator; of someone not engaged. But John — and even more so, Jesus — wants something more than this FOR us. Not merely from us, but FOR us.
Luke saw a parallel between John’s call for people to live lives of meaning, and Isaiah’s proclamation to the people generations earlier.
Isaiah had actually been speaking to the people about the arrival in Jerusalem of Cyrus the Great — the founder of the great Persian empire. The Jewish people were a broken and conquered people. Crushed by the Babylonians, they had been scattered into exile and had no power to shape their own futures. But then Cyrus conquered the Babylonians and allowed the Jewish people to gather again and resurrect their religious observances in Jerusalem. In Cyrus, they saw an anointed deliverer from God.
In those days, the entourage that came with Cyrus was massive. It was a display of power with military equipment, huge numbers of soldiers and subjects and materials. It was literally necessary to create a level highway and to widen the streets so this massive parade could pass. But the Jewish people were incapable of accomplishing such a feat. It was through Cyrus’ own military, economic and political power that the road was paved for him to enter Jerusalem.
The fact that Luke sees a parallel between that event and the proclamation of John tells us something about the nature of that proclamation.
It is the same for you and me in terms of preparing the way of the Lord. We are helpless to do it. We cannot live lives worthy of repentance. We cannot make ourselves presentable to the Lord. We cannot prepare the way for his coming. But we can celebrate his coming. And that is the invitation. See his coming as good news.
Celebrate his coming as a change of all things.
Jesus — the anointed one of God — is the one filling the valleys and smoothing the mountains of our broken relationships.
He is the one straightening out the way and making it simple.
That is true — not only long ago but today, too.
Emperor Tiberius, Pontius Pilate, Herod and Philip and Lysanias and all of the others couldn’t straighten out their lives or this world and neither can we.
Without the Holy Spirit guiding, directing, and PLOWING the way, we can’t even make the CHURCH a decent place to be.
Nothing changes without the Holy Spirit.
Nothing gets straightened out.
Nothing gets made smooth.
Nothing gets ready. Not even our own, tiny, insignificant hearts. But the Holy Spirit DOES COME. The way of the Lord IS being prepared within us and among us. The Lord is coming and is already here.
“Thy kingdom come.” The kingdom comes, with or without our prayers, but in this prayer we pray that it will come among us.
John didn’t figure this stuff out himself. “The Word of God came to John, son of Zechariah in the wilderness.” And the Word comes to us, too.
John calls out to us today, and what he says to us is, “stop trying to shape and set the terms of your life, relationships and even salvation.”
Turn – look -- and see. The Lord is coming to you.
The Lord is coming. The Lord is coming.
AMEN
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