Advent 3 C
Transcribed from a
Sermon Given on
December 13, 2009
By Rev. Valerie A.
Hart
St Barnabas Episcopal
Church, Arroyo Grande CA
Now I don’t know what John’s training was, but he obviously
didn’t take a class on how to make friends and influence people. Here he was, out in the middle of the
desert, and people traveled not just for miles, but for days, because it was
all on foot, out into the wilderness to hear him. They’ve come to hear him and what does he say to them? “You brood of vipers. Who told you to come?” That sure would make me feel good. How would it feel if it took you two
days to walk here to church today and I got up and said, “Who told you to
come?”
I don’t know, but it worked for John.
Then, at the end of all this about unquenchable fire and
judgment and all of that, at the end of it, the Gospel reading says, “And in
this way, he proclaimed the good news.”
So, all that’s supposed to be good news. Where’s the good news in all of that? What’s the good news? Well, it wasn’t good news for the rich
because they were being told they had to share what they had. If you owned two coats in that time,
you were pretty rich, and you were being told give half of it away. It wasn’t good news for them.
And for those who were of the Tribe of Israel, sons and
daughters of Abraham, the ones who had the right upbringing, it wasn’t good
news for them because they were people who believed that because of their
ancestry, they were in the right relationship with God. All they had to do was be born into a
family that had its ancestry go back to the beginning of the Jewish tradition
and they were set. And John said,
“God can make the stones into children Abraham. That’s no big deal, your ancestry, who your parents
were. That’s not going to get you
right with God.” So it wasn’t good
news for them.
But it was good news for the poor. It was good news for the outcast. It was good news for the stranger. It was good news for the ones who were born to the wrong
parents. Because John was saying it’s not about wealth. It’s not about ancestry. It’s about repentance. It’s about being in the right
relationship with God. Because you
see, John’s good news was that no matter who you were, where you came from,
what your profession was, what you’ve done, you could repent and start over
knowing that God loves you and is with you. And that’s pretty good news.
And there’s good news in the other readings. In the very first reading Zephaniah is
speaking to the people of Israel who are having a really tough time. In the Old Testament time period,
people felt if a country was having a hard time that meant that God wasn’t with
them. The writer of Zephaniah is
saying, “Don’t worry. Your tough
times are almost over. It’s going
to get better. God is with you.” And in the Canticle here today (Canticle
means song. This one comes from Isaiah; it’s a song within the Book of
Isaiah. These Canticles are used
in our morning and evening prayers, our daily prayer in the prayer book, so, if
you’re not familiar with morning and evening prayer, that’s where that comes
from.) In the Canticle Isaiah is rejoicing because God is present. He’s with us.
And then we have Paul.
A wonderful reading from Paul where he says, “Rejoice in the Lord
always. Again, I say rejoice.” Rejoice always. And this is from Paul who was
imprisoned, shipwrecked, stoned, kicked out of many different towns, had an
ongoing chronic illness, and yet, he could say, “Rejoice. Rejoice always.” That’s some pretty good news. That’s some pretty good news.
What is your good news? What is the good news that you might share with someone
else? My good news comes from my
story, my life experience. It
comes from a time when I had brain surgery and I couldn’t think and I couldn’t
work and I couldn’t take care of my children, you know, all those things you do
to make yourself loveable? I went
to school and got a PhD so my parents would be proud of me. I had long hair down to my waist so I
would be attractive. I wanted to
be a good parent so I would be loveable.
We spend much of our lives, especially our young adult lives, trying to
do something to make ourselves loveable.
After my surgery, it was all taken away. My long hair was gone and I was half
shaved because of my brain surgery.
I had just had a baby and so my body, well, I wasn’t feeling real good
about my body image. All the women
who’ve ever had children know that you don’t feel real good about how your body
looks after you’ve had a child. I
was having difficulties in my marriage.
I couldn’t think clearly. I
couldn’t do my work as a therapist.
I couldn’t even be home alone with my children because I was having
seizures. It was like everything,
everything I had done to make myself loveable was gone.
But I discovered, not in one big moment, but over time, that
I was still loved by God and that Christ was walking with me. That even when all the things I did to
make myself loveable were gone, I was and am loved by God. That’s my good news. That’s changed my life. I have to tell people, “You’re loved by
God, unconditionally, totally, absolutely loved by God. And if you mess up and you do things
wrong, God’s going to be right there. All you have to do is turn around and say
‘I’m sorry’ and He’s going to give you a big hug and He’s going to keep loving
you.” That’s my good news.
What’s your good news?
What’s the story in your life?
What’s the good news that you could share with somebody else? Perhaps your good news is that you’ve
been lost in addiction and you found your way out of it and that God was there
helping you. Or, maybe your good
news is that when you were alone, you found a community of faith that welcomed
you in. Or, maybe your good news
is that when you went through a difficult time in your life, there were people
there with you and Christ was there with you. Maybe your good news is you had a time of deep guilt and
discovered that you’ve been forgiven.
Maybe your good news is that you’ve made friends in a community of
people who just like you for who you are and you don’t have to fit in with any
group. What’s your good news?
I went to a program about two weeks ago on PR. How do you present an organization or a
program or a nonprofit or a political agenda, whatever, how do you present it
to the world? One of the talks was
given by someone who had done a lot of work in politics. She said that first of all you need to
have short statements that are easy to remember and you have to have one
message and keep everything you say on message. One of the things that was said is you should be prepared
with an elevator talk. An elevator
talk is what you can say to somebody when you get on the elevator and you’re
going one floor. In other words,
you should be able to concisely state what’s most important about, say, your nonprofit. You should be able to get on the
elevator with someone and tell them what the issue is, what you are doing, why
it’s important and what you want them to do before the elevator door opens back
up again.
Can you develop an elevator story of your good news? Can you distill the good news that’s
happened to you in a way that you could share with somebody on the
elevator? Now some of you may not
have good news yet. Some of you
may be here because you’re searching.
Some of you may be here because you are hoping that there will be
something said or something will happen and you will feel the good news. But those of you who have good news,
can you distill it down into a couple sentences? And can you tell it to somebody else?
If you went to a movie last night or Friday night and you
really liked it, if it was one of those movies where you were moved, maybe you
cried during it, but you came out of it transformed would you go home and say,
“Under no condition am I ever going to tell anybody about that movie because
it’s private to me and I wouldn’t want to hurt them by telling them that I
liked that movie because that might be uncomfortable for them.” Or, would you go and call up your best
friend and say, “You got to see this movie. It’s really great!”
And then you’d go on Facebook and say, “I just went and saw the best
movie.” And you Tweet, “I was at
the movies” and you say the name and you get it down to 140 characters somehow.
You would want tell everybody what a great movie it was.
We’ve got some really good news. We’ve got some amazing good news. The good news is that God loves us. The good news that the angels
proclaimed centuries ago, we’ll proclaim again at Christmas - glad tidings of
great news - the Christ is born - Emanuel. The good news is God with us, that God loves us, that God is
with us, that God sent Christ to show us how much we’re loved, how completely
we’re forgiven and that we’re never alone. That's pretty good news.
And so, I’d like to invite each and every one of you to
think and pray about who you’re going to invite to come to church on
Christmas. Inviting somebody on
Christmas day is fairly safe. A
lot of people are looking for church on Christmas day and we’re going to make
it really easy for you. We made up
these little cards and on the one side is the advertisement that’s been in the
ticket about the Episcopal Church. It has a picture of Santa Claus with a
little girl on his lap and it says, “Jesus, on the other hand loves you
regardless of whether you’re naughty or nice. Unconditional love and forgiveness are the Christmas gifts
of Jesus Christ. Join us as we
celebrate the miracle of His birth.”
And on the backside is when our services are. Take some on your way out. They’re by the front door. Give them to someone.
Give somebody this year a Christmas gift that really will matter. Invite someone to open their hearts to
Christ. Give a Christmas gift that
will last for eternity, and that’s a relationship with God through Christ. You just might make a friend. You just might change a life. And if you’re really shy, you can just
slip this on somebody’s desk and they won’t even know it was you who left it
there.
Indeed, we are about to proclaim, and we are proclaiming,
good news of great joy. Let’s not
keep silent about it. Let’s share
what we’ve received and offer it as a gift to others. Amen.
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