Where Hearts Are Remanufactured

Where Hearts Are Remanufactured 

Old Testament: Isaiah 11:1-10  

Gospel: Matthew 3:1-12 

Last week we lit the candle of Hope. The virtue of Hope is confessing to believe in an outcome that cannot be predicted by the current status - or the events of the past. 

This week we light the candle of Faith or Peace. It would not be hard to construct an argument that says there is no evidence that this world is capable of peace. The armed forces of the USA have been engaged in continual conflict for 15 years, with no end in sight. 

Casting a critical eye on a nation in a state of war presents the opportunity to see some harsh realities. War increases taxes. Heads of government love increased cash flow. War permits an exalted view in the authority of the administration. Presidents and the congress love to have greater power. War diminishes the priority of correcting domestic social ills. Paying for ammunition and weapons feed the rich owners of the military-industrial complex. It is easy for the federal government to become addicted to the exercise of war powers. 

The prophet Isiah preaches a peaceable Kingdom, lions with lambs, children with their hands in a pit of snakes, and a part of our brain dismisses this from the practical reality of the world as we know it. Sometimes the poetic utterances of the prophets are too fanciful for the real world. Frankly, too much of this talk, and a lot of men stop attending Sunday Services. 

Part of the message of John the Baptist comes from his counter-cultural dress, diet and attitude. He is his own man and not to be confused with the scribes and the teachers of the law. In fact, John would be the first to tell you that the law has no useful guidance for encountering the living God. 

So Houston, we have a problem. The Advent Season is all about the spirit of the invisible God making a bodily appearance in the real world. The arrival of the one we call the Prince of Peace, is anticipated by those of us who know the world as a place of war. We know that lions gladly and willingly will eat little lambs, whether they are actual lions in the wilderness, or they are multi-national corporations. We have come to believe that conflict is a natural state of existence. 

So let us be as clear as we can. Isaiah was preaching as the nation of Israel was preparing for war; a war that they were going to lose. The prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah were quite clear that things were not going to go well for the people of Zion. God was not pleased with the state of their relationship with God, and the way they were treating each other and their neighbors. 

John the Baptist was also calling for a radical change in behavior of the people in an occupied nation. The baptizer wanted folks to commit to bearing the fruit of repentance. He also suggested that those who failed to change would be chopped down and thrown into the fire. Oddly, we do not have shiny little axes to hang on our Christmas trees. 

To repent is not to wallow in guilt and self-pity for all of the things we have done wrong. Actually to repent means to change your life. Do things differently. Make a commitment to doing good wherever you go, helping and honoring your neighbors, being a peacemaker. 

The theme that reverberates through this time of waiting is that this is the time to repent. The church is a place for sinners. But the church should not be a warehouse for sorry souls waiting to be delivered by a prince on a white horse. 

The church should be a place where our hearts are remanufactured to be full of God’s love. When we live full of love, we laugh easily, we take the love of God seriously, and our own sense of pride not too seriously at all. We are waiting to have our hearts remade to be a larger size, to hold more of God’s love. Each year, like the Grinch of Dr. Seuss, we are encouraged to grow a little bit more than we were able to grow last year. 

To repent in our political lives, would be to require our government officials to reimagine the world, where we reserve armed conflict for only the worst and most desperate of situations. We need to divorce ourselves from requiring every sense of moral outrage be accompanied by violent intervention. 

This would be a radical change. This would take persistent, articulate, and willful pressure from a mature electorate. This is what it would look like if our spiritual awareness would be evident in the way we engage the world. We would have to bear the fruit of repentance. 

The Jews have trouble accepting Jesus of Nazareth as the Jewish Messiah, because their hearts were set on a warrior-king, in the model of King David, the first generation shoot from the sump of Jesse. They dreamed of a time when they were not in Exile or under occupation. 

John the Baptist declared that the one coming after him would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. These are the images we associate with Pentecost. The presence of God - resting among us as the Holy Spirit - and enflaming our attitudes to carry that presence of God into the world. The embodiment of the invisible God, changes the world, through contact with the remanufactured souls of repentant church members, grown to a new size and enflamed anew.  

The problem is that a lot of our church language is devoted to honoring the coming Jesus on a pedestal. Waiting for Jesus to save us, and save the day. Old Isaiah and John the Baptist have a word for you, the time has come to live in a new way. 

“Even now, the axe is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” We wait for the appearance the savior, but we need not wait to change ourselves. Our time is now. Amen.