Yes, Even You
(Luke 3: 1-6)
It’s not that I was naïve growing up or ignorant to issues like racism and exclusion. I grew up in the 1960s and got to see these struggles play out on the evening news and listening in on conversations around the table when the whole family would gather for dinner on Sundays at my grandmother’s house. Adult discussions would revolve around questions like: Why are those people moving up here from the South? Why are they moving into our neighborhoods? Why are they trying to take our jobs? Why do they want to go to our schools? Why don’t they go back to where they came from? Apparently, the fact that they were also Americans, born here, and theoretically entitled to all the rights that came with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness really didn’t mean those people or, at the very least, they were entitled to a different level of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that didn’t infringe upon ours God-given rights. What did I know? I had long bushy hair, a beard, wore bell-bottom pants and platform shoes, and listened to undanceable music. My thoughts on the subject wouldn’t matter until I got a real job and had to support my own family. They were afraid of loss, but I didn’t really get it until I moved to Texas to go to college and saw some of the tell-tale signs of segregation, what used to be the separate water fountains and bathrooms in public buildings. I remember going to the doctor and seeing two waiting rooms, one filled with old black faces. It was 1973. Apparently having a president from Texas sign the Civil Rights Act didn’t make much of an impression on the good folks of the Lone Star State, or the rest of the country for that matter. Yes, technically we are all created equal but don’t let it go to your head. To believe otherwise would upset the status quo and we wouldn’t want that would we? Best to just leave well enough alone.
And it’s that all being created equal in God’s sight that John the Baptist is talking about in our scripture reading for this morning. John, Jesus’ cousin, was out in the wilderness traveling throughout the Jordan River region calling for people to be baptized to show that they were changing their hearts and lives and wanted God to forgive their sins. John had been called by God, received God’s word, and started preaching a forceful message of repentance, a repentance that would change their lives in a way that the annual burnt offerings couldn’t. This repentance would radically change their hearts and lives. The Baptist says that this is just as it was written in the scroll of the words of Isaiah the prophet saying: A voice crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way for the Lord; make his paths straight. Every valley will be filled, and every mountain and hill will be leveled. The crooked will be made straight and the rough places made smooth. All humanity will see God’s salvation. Did you get that? “All humanity will see God’s salvation”. Not just the Jews, but all humanity, and yes, even me and you, even those people. Now that’s a pretty bold statement and for the ruling authorities, the Pharisees, that posed a threat to their status quo. Afterall, it’s one thing to announce the coming of the Jewish Messiah, but it is quite another thing to announce that this Messiah is coming for all humanity. I mean, why do they need our Messiah? Why do they need to know our God? Don’t they have their own God and their own way of worshipping? God forbid that they know our God and worship with us!
Yeah, that had to have been pretty unsettling for many to hear. This prophet out in the wilderness dressed in camel hair and living off bugs and wild honey reminding them of what God spoke through the highly revered and respected prophet Isaiah which is emphasizing the revolutionary character of Jesus’ ministry on behalf of all people, as in all humanity, who will see God’s salvation. Son, you’re about to cross the line into blasphemy. I’d be careful if I was you. Don’t lose your head over this. And he was calling on people to be baptized as an outward means of showing that they were committing to changing their hearts and lives, wanting God to forgive their sins not just for a year, but forever. Now that’s a pretty bold statement and it kind of sounds like some of us might be out of a job. Jewish law provided for only one high priest who was appointed from Aaron’s line, and the high priest held this exalted position for life. But by this time in Jewish history the religious system had been corrupted, and the Roman government was appointing its own religious leaders to maintain greater control over the Jews. So much for religious freedom. A state sanction religion. Imagine that. But now, this one-time repentance the Baptist is preaching means no more annual trips to the temple with no more purchasing of officially sanctioned sacrifices, not to mention losing our job as gatekeepers over who gets to access the temple and God. This can’t be good.
But it is good. However, this one-time repentance has consequences for the truly repentant. If a genuine change of mind and direction in life occurs as a result of repentance, then one should expect the fruits of repentance. John Wesley, the founder of our Methodist denomination, anticipated that truly repentant believers will, for example, cease from doing evil and learn to do well, a life-changer for the better. As you know, Wesley was really big on good works, but he also understood that good works do not merit salvation. He understood that the only condition for salvation is the provision of God’s gracious gift through Jesus Christ, which people receive by faith. It was his hope and belief that these spiritual changes would result in other changes in how people thought, spoke and acted. He was hopeful about the degree to which God wants to change people through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. He believed that ongoing repentance and the fruit of repentance contribute to a believer’s growth in holiness. But that means “preparing the way” which means getting rid of all our baggage of the past and the doubts of the present in order to let the King come into our lives and let Him take it from there.
This repentance has two sides. It means turning away from sins and turning toward God. To be truly repentant, we must do both. We just can’t say we believe and then live any way we choose. And neither can we simply live a morally correct life without a personal relationship with God because that cannot bring forgiveness from sins. We must determine to rid our lives of any sins God points out, and then make up our minds to live in a way that pleases him.
In closing, it’s important to know that the Gospel of Luke was written by Luke-a doctor, a Greek, and a Gentile Christian who was a close friend and companion of the Apostle Paul. Luke was writing to a non-Jewish audience but quoted from Isaiah to show that God’s salvation is for all people, not just the Jews. John the Baptist was calling for “all mankind” to prepare to meet Jesus and that includes you, yes you, no matter what your nationality, social standing, religious affiliation, or political position. God is calling all people. All mankind. We have been called because God deems us worthy, and we must not let feelings of being an outsider or inadequate cause us to hold back. No one who wants to follow Jesus is an outsider or inadequate in God’s kingdom and yes, that means even you, especially you.
Let us pray.
Yes, O come, thou Wisdom from on high, and order all things far and nigh; to us the path of knowledge show and cause us in her ways to go. Yes, gracious and loving God, how anxiously we await the triumphant return of your Son, our Savior, our Messiah, born to set us free from sin and guilt, born to redeem us by his blood. In your wisdom, O Lord, show us by your Spirit how we can do all we can to bring others to you so that they too may rejoice in the glory and warmth of your love, full in the knowledge that they too have been pardoned and saved for all eternity. This we pray, in Jesus’ name, Amen.