Sermon Sample

O God of the weak, the lowly, the righteous, O shield of your people, SPEAK NOW THROUGH YOUR WORD.  Amen.

Sisters and brothers, the world is pulling us in one direction as the church year places us in the Biblical past, present and future.  We walk on the path of Advent waiting in wonder as we are once again called to attention by the profound and prophetic words of John the Baptist.  As usual, he doesn’t mess around.  He knows exactly who he is.  He is Jesus’ predecessor, the one called by God to prepare the way.  Prepare was our word last week.  Repent is the one we attach ourselves to today.  John is our compass to Christmas.  If we follow in the way he directs, we should make the connection of God’s plan of
salvation coming to full fruition in the person of Jesus Christ.

Last week the message went straight to our hearts.  It was meant to speak to our hearts.  PREPARE wasn’t the word for household cleaning.  It referred to making our lives ready.  Eliminate the clutter, take away all the stuff that clouds your vision and be focused to Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ is come.  John prepares the way for Jesus’ life, death, ministry and resurrection.  He clears the horizon and levels the plane so that nothing distracts.  John’s advent was essential to the advent of Jesus the Christ.  He knew his mission call.

John the Baptist was called to give witness to the coming of God’s Son and to prepare his way.  It now becomes our personal call to act our part of this salvation plan—to get rid of anything that is in the way.  He guides us along from “Prepare” to “Repent.”  Whenever I hear the word repent, I feel like a child who has just been scolded.  I feel like I have been called to task.  I feel like I have been examined and shown to be short of the mark.  I feel a bit humbled and ashamed.  I wonder how people of John’s time heard the word.  I expect that they too were
challenged.  I suspect that his words today were not at all confusing.  John got right to the business at hand.  I really like Eugene Peterson’s translation,

“Brood of snakes!  What do you think you’re doing slithering down here to the river?  Do you think a little water on your snakeskins is going to deflect God’s judgment?  Its your life that must change, not your skin.” 

Wow, guilty as charged.  He has me at the nape of the neck.  How about you?  John is clear what we need to do.  Let’s say it.  It is our Bible verse for today.  Repeat the memory verse with me,

“Bear fruits worthy of repentance.” 
                                                          Luke 3:8a

Then he goes on to let us know what we already sense.  You cannot stand on someone else’s reputation.  Why do we think we can?  We expect to be claimed on somebody else’s good deeds—yes we do.  “We’re the church that helps Benedict House for two weeks in November.”  Do you?  How do you support that?  I know of one couple who cooked four nights in the two-week period.
“We’re the ones who have supported Bremerton Foodline for many years.”  Is that so?  Do you promote the giving?  Do you provide from your abundance or your leftovers?  Do you give as you would like to receive?  Do you weigh the goods and deliver them?  Not too many of us can take all that credit.  Yet we make the claim.
Some have said, “We house Habitat for
Humanity in our basement.”  Yes, they do live here, but not completely on our good will.  We derive benefit from their ministry.  Do we actually contribute to their ministry?  Some of us do, but very few of us I suspect.
“We give to the Angel gifts through our women’s groups.”  Who does?  Who shops for those gifts?  Who gives sacrificially, generously and who gives just enough to get by?  Some people bear fruits in the gifts of their talents—like those who sing in the choir.  Some give generously on Wednesdays and others step in on Sunday without that regular faithfulness that singing in the choir demands.  They have the talent but not the discipline of time. 
Folks, look at all these things in the light of
repentance and it becomes abundantly clear that we all fall short.  We aren’t what we claim to be in all respects.  We have to be honest with ourselves.
 
Repentance is an act of right action—a turning to God.  It has to do with offering—
offering our best to God regularly and consistently.  Repentance expresses a change of mind.  It is deliberate, known to the person doing it, and intended to glorify God.  
Are you a person who shares things, or not?
Do you think it is enough to confess your shortcomings and then do nothing about them?
Be careful what you say—your words may convict you.  We need to be more like the Biblical writer James who said, “Be quick to listen, slow to speak.”  (James 1:9)
I need to take my own advice on that one.
We need to listen more and speak less.  We need to hear each other more, to really listen whether it is a four year old, a six year old or a ninety year old speaking to you.  We need to affirm people and get to the heart of what it means to be church. 
Make a commitment to affirm somebody.  Do that this coming week—affirm someone.  This kind of repentance is truly mentanoia—
complete turning from self to God.  It is open, and willing and humble and attentive.  It will likely take you to a place you haven’t been before.  Oh watch out—it can change you.  What counts in your life?  Is your life green and blossoming?  Is it fruitful?  Or are you still hanging onto last year’s harvest or the one many years ago?  Many of us do, because we avoid change that way.  But good old John is right in the middle of our
Christmas season saying, “Repent.” 
The first part of the word (re) implies over and over again—not just once for all time.  It means we have to continuously turn to God.  It is a conscious decision.  RE-PENT, turn to God, again and again and again.

 And the multitudes spoke to John asking,
“What then shall we do?”  I am reading a little Christmas book that Verda gave me.  It tells the story of a young man right out of college—a financial planner or some kind of business background.  The young man was looking for a job. The big city where he lived had nothing to offer.  His headhunter (someone you hire to recruit jobs) told him to sit tight until after Christmas until the New Year. 
Desperately he went to the small town where his grandparents owned a department store.  His grandfather was wise to what the young man needed.  He gave him specific instructions about how to interact with employees of the store—making sure he got to know everyone by name—from the janitor, to the truck driver and all the clerks in each area of the store to those in the office.  Then he required the young man to give some hours to a community day care for low
income kids.  It was there that the young man’s life began to change.  He saw the challenges of low income parents and the opportunity to give the kids a positive outlook to life.  He felt the change grip his heart—and it began to do something to him.  Something happened to this young man that happens to anyone who listens to that voice
inside of us—that prompts us to turn from self and turn to God.  It changes us from the inside out. 
“What then, shall we do?”  John gave them a
litany of stuff:  sharing coats and food, not taking or extorting money from others, not making threats or accusations.  I am fairly confident that we get that you don’t find yourselves extorting money from others.  But John does get under our skin a little—
pushing us to places of self examination—
places we might not want to go.  His words ask us to check our motives, to be sure that we do what we do from our relationship to God.  We have to turn to God to do this because believe it or not, we aren’t the experts.  We aren’t the teachers.  We are all learners.  We all have something to gain from each other.  We want to bear fruit—we want to give, after all, its Christmas and that’s what we’re supposed to do.  John tells us to make unselfish choices—to live within our means and to do what is just.  Oh dear, this is getting personal, isn’t it?
John comes to the river and pays for what he preaches with his own head.  Don’t tell me that we may come to the river singing, “Just As I Am, without participating in the painful, costly, deadly work of Jesus Christ.  Hungs Kung reminds us:
“The Church must be reformed again and again, converted again and again in each day in order that it may fulfill its task.”  There it is—REPENT— return to God remembering once again that God has come to save us, and also to change us.  This is difficult stuff!  It is also crucial to our well being as a church.  Our future hinges on our willingness to change—to be in the motion of turning, turning to God.

When we consider, “What can I do?” we are on the right tract.

Repentance is a sweet thing, especially when it opens us up to the possibilities of how God may be guiding our personal lives through change and transformation.  The prophet Isaiah suggests, “With joy you will draw from the wells of salvation.”  Advent is a time of joy and celebration.  Advent anticipates.  Advent directs.  When we listen to John’s call to repentance we can anticipate God’s response of grace.  We listen , we hear and hopefully we respond, “What can I do?  What can we do?”
Christmas is coming.  People are hurting.  People are out there freezing in the streets of our own neighborhood.  People are being denied health care and benefits.  Children are going to school to eat breakfast because parents are working.  No one is there to help them with their homework.  People are home trying to care of themselves because they don’t know who to ask.  When we ask, God gets specific.  REPENT—turn towards God and you will know—you will know what to do.  Amen!

David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, Editors, Feasting on the Word, Year Volume 4,Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009.

Edward F. Markquart, What Can I Do? www.sermonsfromseattle.com

Greg Pennoyer & Gregory Wolfe, GOD WITH US, Rediscovering the Meaning of Christmas, Brewster, Massachusetts: Paraclete Press, 2007.

Anthony B. Robinson, Weekly Reading, www.anthonybrobinson.com

William H. Willamon, “What Then Shall We Do?” www.religion-online.org