Zephaniah 3:14-20
Isaiah 12:2-6
Philippians 4:4-7
Luke 3:7-18
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
Something happened to the sermon. The sermon this was turning into on Thursday took a radical turn on Friday. On Friday everything changed. Well, everything didn’t change, but tragedy crossed the national conscience. I’m not going to expand on the events. The last thing anyone should do is ever mention the name of the shooter ever again. I’m not saying ignore the issue, I’m saying let’s stop cloaking mass-murders in notoriety and infamy. I am not saying to ignore the victims either; I’m saying that easy platitudes aren’t enough for what happened.
On Friday a friend of mine wrote “today I saw the devil at work… what kind of person could walk into a school and take 20 5+ year olds life [sic]… words cant [sic] describe my thoughts right now.” He wasn’t pussy-footing around, was he? The problem with what he said is it shows a short memory.
The massacre at Columbine High School happened on April 20, 1999 in Jefferson County , Colorado , outside of Denver . That shooting ended the lives of fifteen innocent victims along with the gunmen.
On October 2, 2006, a shooting occurred at the West Nickel Mines School , an Amish one-room schoolhouse in the Old Order community of Nickel Mines, a village in Lancaster County , Pennsylvania
These shootings pale beside the Bath School Massacre. Since Bath was a bombing and not a shooting and took place in 1927 it doesn’t get the press. At Bath Consolidated Schools, a man who lost his farm to school taxes took it out on the school. He killed 38 children ages 7-11, two teachers, four other adults and himself. At least 58 others were injured.
The Bath School massacre is the deadliest mass murder in a school in U.S. history and the third-deadliest non-military massacre in U.S. history, behind 9/11 and the Oklahoma City bombing.
To complete our walk down memory lane I give you the Pontiac ’s Rebellion school massacre, where four shooters entered the schoolhouse near Greencastle , Pennsylvania
That’s what I mean saying everything didn’t change. There have been school shootings in America longer than there has been an America . Some folks talk about this as a second amendment issue when the first shooting predated the second amendment. It’s a matter of sin which predates the second amendment too. As for my friend who “saw the devil at work” on Friday, has he missed other atrocities people have inflicted upon one another? Is it that he hasn’t been paying attention? I’m willing to go with hyperbole, exaggeration to make a point. Then again, I just made an error I warned us about last week.
Last week I said that I can only confess my sins. Well, I just confessed my friend’s sins instead of my own. Let’s be honest, that’s not a good thing.
Last week’s gospel reading was John the Baptist’s ministerial introduction where “He went into all the country around the Jordan , preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” We meet him again today in the last part of this introduction where Luke tells us of John meeting the crowds.[1]
Then John unloads on them! “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?” There’s no pussy-footing around with John, is there? People love pastors who share a message and do it with aplomb, a certain composure, style, and tact that puts people at ease and ready to listen. Well, John the Baptist was never known for tact that puts people at ease. Starting a conversation by yelling, “You brood of vipers!” puts a bow on that.
John’s tells the crowd they have sinned and it is up to them to repent because only in repentance is there forgiveness. There’s a lot of baggage on that word repentance but there’s an easy way to look at it, the Hebrew and Greek words for “repentance” can be translated “turn around.” John is telling us we must all turn our lives around to produce the fruit of repentance. Period. End of sentence. No pussy-footing around.
Friends, it is time I share with you that I have sinned. My sin has touched all of you. I have been pussy-footing around. When we came to Marshall I knew that we would need to do work in stewardship and evangelism. The path I take to begin this work is by teaching.
You have heard me say we have to know our stories. This is right out of ancient Celtic evangelism. St. Patrick was successful in Ireland because he knew his own story as a slave on the Emerald Isle and the history of the people. When he returned as a priest, knowing the gospel, the people, and the place, he was able to share the Good News in the land where he was once a prisoner and slave. I told that story once, once.
Knowing our stories and knowing them here in this place is the most wonderful way we can share the gospel in the way people will be able to hear it and respond to it. But I pussy-footed around, hoping the pieces would fall together. I don’t blame anyone for not getting my stories, I can be obtuse. Let’s face it, I just used the word obtuse! I must confess that I didn’t make the point I intended.
During our recent “Committed to Christ” evening study, one of the nights was about sharing our faith. I tried to cajole the class into trying what the study was teaching about faith sharing. Well, my “cajoling” wasn’t effective.
Another lesson in “Committed to Christ” was about giving. It brought out that Christ expects us to give our time, talent, and treasure. I’ve mentioned this triad every October during stewardship season too. Often people think giving one or two of three is enough.
This “Committed to Christ” lesson used an example of a divorced man who is not meeting all of his commitments (admittedly a gender stereotype but that is how it was taught). It asks what’s better, a man who pays his money but never spends any time with the kids or the man who is Weekend-Super-Dad but fails to pay for basic essentials. According to the lesson the correct answer is “none of the above.”
It’s time and talent and treasure and two out of three is bad. Later in the evening, someone said, “Well, God knows I do all I can.” The lesson didn’t get across; God expects more, God expects it all. Trying to make a point in a delicate way didn’t make my point at all. Pussy-footing around again.
A couple of weeks ago I used the R.E.M. lyric “It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine” as my way of saying God is doing a new thing. God is doing something we may not even be able to see or recognize, but God is alive and God is not done with us yet. That point got lost. When I said “It’s the end of the world” that was all some folks heard. My style overwhelmed my substance. Pussy-footing again.
I have sinned against God and I have failed you. And now it is up to me to repent and seek forgiveness. Anyone who says that I have not sinned, thank you, but if I have not sinned I cannot be forgiven. For any who say “you sure have messed this up,” I ask you to remember the words of 1John, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” The words of sin, repentance, and forgiveness are good words for all of us. They are at the hub of John’s message.
By my pussy-footing, I have failed to express the depth of our financial situation. I knew something was going on. Neal shared that information during session meetings and congregational meetings too. The news was out there, but I never shared it with you in a way that caused the urgency that makes people do something.
Well thanks be to God! About ten weeks ago when the Session met, Lisa took the financial situation information home and told her family what was going on. Robbie, yes Robbie, took the time to ask people what we should do. Robbie isn’t a child of this congregation anymore, he’s a grown man, and he acted like a grown man—he saw something broken and he asked for help to get it fixed. God bless you Robbie.
Some were embarrassed that Robbie aired the dirty laundry. Robbie stood up and said “what can I do?” No pussy-footing there.
At the last stated Session meeting Lisa asked again what we can do. Neal laid out several options. (Don’t think he laid out only one, he laid out several.) Today during the congregational meeting the Session will bring one of these to you and it is up to you to decide what we will do next. Using John’s words we will be asked to decide whether the ax is lying at the root of the tree or not. During this meeting no pussy-footing will be allowed.
We won’t allow blaming either. We won’t confess anybody’s sins but our own. We won’t do those things because they won’t help.
There’s something I read on the internet Friday, and since it was on the internet it must be true right? It was attributed to a graduate of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, a PC(USA) seminary. I don’t know if he really said this or not, but regardless these words are worth sharing:
When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’ To this day, especially in times of ‘disaster,’ I remember my mother’s words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers - so many caring people in this world.
That Presbyterian Minister was a fellow named Fred Rogers, yes, that Fred Rogers, Mr. Rogers, and he’s in accord with what John told the crowd to do.
The crowd, knowing disaster was coming around the corner if they did not bear fruit in keeping with repentance, asked John what to do. Again in his very direct manner he had instructions for many different people in the crowd:
“What should we do then?” the crowd asked.
John answered, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.”
Even tax collectors came to be baptized. “Teacher,” they asked, “what should we do?”
“Don’t collect any more than you are required to,” he told them.
Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?”
He replied, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely—be content with your pay.”
John was telling people to be helpers, not hindrances. He told them to bear good fruit. He told them to turn from their ways that hurt one another. He told the people to take care of each other. He told them to behave like the brave teachers at Newtown and Nickel Mines and Columbine. He told them to be useful like the first responders—the police, fire, and medical workers who took care of the scene, taking care of innocent victims.
This afternoon we need to look for helpers. We need to be the people of the Philippian church who Paul calls gentle. He tells them to “Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
To this let me add while John said, “do not be anxious,” he did not say “don’t be concerned.” We need to be informed, concerned, and respond. There’s a line between “stress” and “distress” we can’t cross. Panic freezes action, the right amount of urgency can spur us onto great things. This is our call to confess and repent our sins, not anybody else’s. This is our chance to begin writing a new chapter today, a chapter baptized in the Holy Spirit with fire.
Today we light the Pink candle of joy. On a day like today, wedged horribly between a national tragedy and a local emergency, we are called to rejoice in the Lord always. Paul even repeats himself, “I will say it again: Rejoice!” But how? In the midst of horror and panic how can we rejoice? We say “Rejoice” in a world where we say Jesus is coming, and in the meantime we see evidence to the contrary. So how?
In situations like we have seen over this past week there is nothing else we can really do except listen to our Lord and Mr. Rogers. Mr. Rogers says find the helpers. Our Lord says I am your helper. John said this and more, exhorting the people and preaching the good news to them. Our helper is the Lord. It is up to us to seek the Lord’s help. Thanks be to God.
[1] This paragraph was cut from the final manuscript due to time restraints. I add it here because I love to think about the crowds of biblical times as well as our own:
I love when the crowds come out in scripture because of the wide variety of people. This crowd included at least some of John’s disciples. I’m just as sure it had some folks who were interested, but had yet to make a commitment. Judging from what John is about to say some of his opponents are among the crowd. There may even be some temple leaders, scribes, Pharisees, members of the Sanhedrin, folks who would become enemies of Jesus too. Then, there’s a category of people we often ignore—just plain folks. As sure as I am today during a demonstration, I’m just as sure that in the day there were some folks in the crowd who were there because it was a good crowd. Remember, nobody ever shows up for a bad crowd.
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