Second Sunday of Advent 2016

John the Baptist always seems so mad. What is he angry about? He has a particular ministry, and unlike many of us, he seems to have found some success. He doesn't seem satisfied. Even when the important people show up, it only seems to make him angrier. "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee the wrath that is to come?" Is he really taking the elite down a peg or two? I wonder if he might be directing his angry words at us. After all, we are the upright, spiritual people of our day. Maybe he is challenging our hypocrisy.

John challenges us to pay attention to our own blindness. The Sadducees were part of the temple religion, so they were tied up in the system of sacrifices and temple worship. The Pharisees were more local and close by. They taught and served in synagogues, helping people interpret the law and live correctly. Nothing is wrong with either of these paths of spiritual discipline. We follow similar ways of living out our faith. The blindness comes in when the religious leaders failed to see the burdens they were creating. In their zeal to live in full compliance with the law, they raised the bar so high, only the wealthy or those with empty schedules could hope to live up to it.

We are more reasonable, yet we create our lists of what it means to be good people - deserving people - wise people. When we are not aware, we judge the poor. We judge or avoid the sick. We look down on people who have problems - all the while assuming that people get what they deserve - and when we are doing OK it's because we deserve everything we have. We easily forget our parents, our teachers, and our partners, who have all helped us along. We take our health and property and good jobs for granted. If we are unaware, we act as if we deserve our blessings and other people deserve their suffering.

The divisions we create are not what God desires. God's plan is to have all people come together to worship and rejoice. Paul reminds the Christians in Rome that their faith is a gift from another people who hoped for what God is now doing. Paul writes to a somewhat divided church. It was originally run by Jewish Christians until the emperor drove all the Jews out of Rome. The remaining gentile Christians had to take on leadership roles. When the Jewish Christians were allowed to return, there was quite a bit of conflict around leadership and values. Paul reminds them that God's plan is to bring them all to a place of blessing. We get our hope from the Jews and we are called to glorify God together.

The prophet Isaiah shares a vision of a future messiah. The spirit of the Lord will rest on this messiah. There is a list of actions that this inspired messiah will do, and in all things this messiah will act with righteousness. Every act will restore or establish a new and ordered world where violence will not be needed. Even animals will live in peace. A toddler will be able to lead them.

Of course, when we hear these words, we think about Jesus. He is the perfect fulfillment of all these hopes. Of course, we have only seen the beginnings of this fulfillment. We still live with injustice and violence and war. Judaism does not recognize Jesus as their messiah. They read these words and imagine this messianic figure as not simply one man, but as a people (much as how Israel describes an historic figure and also the people descended from him.) The Jews hear these words and they see themselves. They hear this as an aspiration for what God imagines for them. They will not only be saved by God, God will inspire them to be a people who bring salvation to the world.

This is some of what Paul is sharing with the church in Rome. We are to glorify God together. The spirit of the Lord is upon us. We have wisdom and understanding and counsel and might. We have knowledge and we delight in the fear of the Lord. We do not judge by what we see or hear. We judge the poor with righteousness and decide with equity for the meek of the earth. Perhaps we lack the authority to strike the wicked, but we can fight for what is right. God calls us to be blessed and to be a blessing to the world.

Maybe this is why John is angry. He has no patience for us when we cross our arms and pass judgment on our neighbors. The world is full of frightened and angry people. Our neighbors bear burdens we have never seen. How can we bless them with good news? Unlike lent, when it is appropriate that we look into our hearts and consider our own sin, we are called to something more in advent. We are getting ready for the coming of our messiah. We are called to do more than clean up our act. We are called to be light to the world around us and bring our neighbors along. The judgment we are given is not to discern what is wrong - we are called to discern how we can glorify God together.

We are already filled with God’s Spirit. God has chosen us for new life. This gift means nothing if we do not share it. We are called to proclaim good news with all wisdom and knowledge and understanding and strength. This assumes that we have received this message deeply in our hearts. We can declare the renewal of the world because we ourselves have been renewed. This what John wishes for us. We need the courage to discard our good-enough selves and humbly accept the new life and different God is offering. Only then will we have good news to share.