Advent is about preparation.
Advent is about staying awake and
alert.
Advent is about the in-breaking of God
into this realm.
Advent is about change.
All of these themes are evident in
today's gospel reading.
After the genealogy, the annunciation
to Joseph, the Holy Family's flight to Egypt and their safe return to
Nazareth, chapter 3 of Matthew opens with John the Baptist out in the
wilderness being . . . well . . . John the Baptist. Christians
believe he is whom Isaiah spoke of as the one who would prepare the
way of the Lord. John is telling those around him, and us today,
that the kingdom of heaven has come near and we must prepare for its
imminent arrival. Advent is about preparation.
Part of our preparation is to stay
awake and alert. When we prepare for anything, we do it with an
alertness beyond the normalcy of everyday life. When we prepare for
a trip, we make sure the proper bags are packed, weather reports
checked, reservations made, etc. Before the first football game of
every season, I examine my bag much more thoroughly and alertly than
later games. The kingdom of heaven is at hand and John is asking us
to be awake and alert because this is something out of the ordinary
for us. Advent is about staying awake and alert.
When we live like the kingdom of heaven
is near, and when we prepare for that reality, then we are more
likely to see the advent of Jesus as the in-breaking of God into this
realm. Jesus becomes not just another spiritual guide with a lot of
good ideas, but the incarnation of God himself in human form. The
kingdom of heaven becomes not some far off pie in the sky bye and bye
place we ascend to upon our death, but it becomes present in the here
and now as a fulfillment of the goodness of creation. And the
miraculous events recorded in the bible and in the life of Christ are
not supernatural suspensions of physical laws, but the natural
completion of God's laws which originally made all this good. Advent
is about the in-breaking of God into our realm.
Advent is also about change. Advent is
more than chocolate-filled calendars counting down to Christmas.
Advent is more than knowing how many shopping days are left. Advent
is a call for us to change, sometimes deeply, how we live our lives
in preparation for the in-breaking of God into this realm. And
nowhere is that call to change more explicit than in today's gospel.
“You brood of vipers! Who warned you
to flee? Bear fruit worthy of repentance.” In other words,
change.
This is about staying awake and alert
and seeing what's coming. This is about preparing for the coming of
the Lord. This is about seeing the in-breaking of God into the here
and now. This is about change.
When we hear these words of John and
what follows – the ax is lying at the root of the tree, his
winnowing fork is in his hand, the wheat will be gathered in and the
chaff burned with unquenchable fire – we might become afraid. This
isn't the preparation for the beautiful creche set and the cute baby
Jesus I had in mind.
One way to read this passage is through
a very simplistic lens – get right with God or be forever burned.
That is not a very appealing image to present to people; nor is it a
very effective form of evangelism. As someone once said, “We are
not in the business of scaring the hell out of people.”
To be honest, I used to worry about
this passage with all kinds of self-doubt and fear that I might be
the chaff that was forever burned. But then I made an interesting
discovery: wheat and chaff are not two different things, but two
parts of a whole.
That which God calls us to be, that
which God created us to be, our true selves that bear the image of
God and the marks of Christ, is the wheat. It will be this which God
gathers into his granary.
Chaff, on the other hand, is the outer
husk that protects the wheat, and it is what we have created. The
chaff is the barrier we have put up to protect our inner selves. The
chaff is what we use to keep God from getting too close. The chaff
is what we show to the world to protect us from getting hurt, from
loving too much, for caring more than we think we should. The chaff
is how we want the world to see us.
But God doesn't want the shell of
ourselves that we have created. God wants the goodness of his
creation. God wants to break through our barriers. God wants us to
be open, honest, and exposed. God doesn't want a blustery caricature
used to shield us, God wants our true selves given over to him. This
is the chaff, our self-made outer coat, which God will burn with
unquenchable fire.
For some of us that will be traumatic
and maybe a bit painful. I think it depends on how thick our chaff
has become and how hard we want to hold onto it. But this passage
shouldn't be seen as a condemnation as much as a promise that God
will ultimately change us into that for which we have been created in
the first place.
On this second Sunday of Advent, may
you spend time preparing for the coming of the Lord.
May you stay awake and alert.
May you see God breaking into our realm
in new and unexpected ways.
May you be open to change, removing
more of your chaff to expose more of the wheat God has created in
you.
Amen.
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