Words have power. That is what our professors used to tell us in seminary. They wanted to impress on us the responsibility we would assume one day when we mounted the pulpit.
Perhaps the preacher’s words carry less freight with people than they once did, but the statement that words have power is no less true today. Consider the power of the words of Jerome Powell, chair of the Federal Reserve. His words alter global capital flows. His words have the power to decide the rise and fall, the prosperity and ruin of many. He ministers in behalf of what the world reveres as the ultimate power, which is not God but money. Gillian Tett, editor of the Financial Times, is right in calling Powell the high priest of the American economy. Just as the medieval church depended on the priest to intone the words that released the benefits of the Mass, so also do we depend on the words of Jay Powell to dispense blessings. In this connection, the anthropologist Douglas Holmes observes that we live in an economy of words. Monetary policy is determined less by the principles of economics than by the verbal interventions of the fed chair. His words charm the markets. If you detect religious overtones in his pronouncements, you are not mistaken.
In this regard, our world today is no different than the ancient world, described in the Bible. Consider how Luke introduces his account of John the Baptist. He tells us about the Jerome Powells of his own day. He is careful to list those authorities whose pronouncements decided the fate of hundreds of thousands. There is first Tiberias Caesar, known for his deportation of Jews from Rome. Next there is Pontius Pilate, governor of Judea, who claimed for himself the power either to release or crucify Jesus. Next there is Herod, tetrarch of Galilee, who had John beheaded and played a role in the trial and execution of Jesus. There is his brother Philip, ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene. Finally, there is Annas the high priest, and his son in law Caiaphas, who controlled the temple and its daily operations.
But the word that we most need to hear, the word that does not fade as a flower, that does not wither as the grass of the field, but rather endures forever—that word comes not to them, but to a man named John. We mean here the Word of God. That is a word that carries far more weight than any of the pronouncements of these rulers, who were to come to nothing. That is why they do not occupy center stage. Rather, they serve as mere background for a man far greater, a man to whom this Word of God came. Indeed, “among those born of women no one greater than John has arisen,” says Jesus. John is the last of a great series of men of God who prepared God’s kingdom. “For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John came; and if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who is to come. Let anyone with ears listen!”
We do well then to listen to John. For since the Word of God endures forever, it is no less relevant today than it was when John first proclaimed it. But what does it have to tell us? What is it that we have to hear? The answer is rather straightforward: “Prepare the way of the Lord.”
When we hear this message, our first response is to ask: who wouldn’t want to do this? Who wouldn’t want God to find a straight path into his or her life? Is this not after all what we expect during the Advent season? But the question is “how?”
The clue is found in the preceding verse, in which we read that John came proclaiming a baptism of “repentance” for the forgiveness of sins.
To “repent” is one of those church words we do not use in our everyday conversations. Its meaning, however, is clear enough. It means to change. Whatever those things you are doing that are displeasing to God, that contradict his will, that derail you from the purpose he has for your life—stop doing those things. Turn away from them and do what is right.
Notto Thelle, professor of theology at the University of Oslo, Norway, writes that most of us do not like repentance. We want things to get better—for ourselves, for our spouses, for our families. We dream of change and new life. We want a world that is more just. We want an end to injustice and oppression. We want to be made whole, and maybe even more honest. But we know that change and a new life are impossible without difficult, even painful choices. If we want a different life, we have to give up those things that are displeasing to God.
John’s message of repentance is combined with baptism. Some Bible students maintain that John’s baptism of people in the Jordan is a re-enactment of the entry of the Israelites into the promised land after forty years of wandering in the desert—moving east from the desert across the Jordan into the promised land. The move east to west was also made by Judah and Israel in their return home from exile in Assyria and Babylon.
Re-enacting entering the promised land is to re-orient one’s life around God’s purposes. It means to re-center one’s life on God. That is the second part of repentance. Remember that repentance is a twofold movement. We turn from what is displeasing to God, so that we can turn to what is pleasing to him.
This second part of repentance comes into view in our first lesson appointed for today. Repentance is the beginning of the good work that God does in us. God’s grace precedes and makes possible our repentance. Wait a minute. So which is it? Is repentance our work? Is it something that we do? Or is it rather God’s work? Is it something that God does in us?
The Bible is content to affirm that both are simultaneously true. This paradox is even expressed in John’s message in our gospel lesson. On the one hand, he calls us to “make his paths straight.” But, on the other, he tells us that the “crooked shall be made straight.” Students of the biblical languages refer to the latter as an instance of a divine passive. Grammatically, the one doing the action is not specified, but God is understood to be that one. Then it reads: “the crooked shall be made straight (by God).” Again, that means while we make the path straight and prepare the way of the Lord, God’s work precedes and enables and supports our own. Those of you who have been raised in the Presbyterian church will know that the priority of God’s grace is a distinctive theme in Reformed theology.
Perhaps it is important to dwell on this theme for a few moments. Too many people misunderstand repentance and thereby get the message of the gospel wrong. They say that Christianity sets an impossibly high moral standard, which sets people up for failure and a resulting chronic sense of guilt. They then conclude that people who remain Christians do not admit to their own failure and are therefore “hypocrites” who ought to do what they have already done: walk away.
Author James Alison finds this modern, moralistic misunderstanding of the Christian faith in Hollywood movies. He points specifically to how the crucifix is depicted in several of them. It is used as a magical amulet either to protect the one wearing it from evil or to drive it out of people who are possessed by it. Or else it is placed before the eyes of someone who has done evil to elicit repentance from the sinner. However, in fact the whole point of placing a crucifix before the eyes of a person is much better understood from another perspective, one which is not represented in Hollywood movies. The crucifix says: “Relax, it’s okay. He’s been there before you. He’s already died to what’s bound you, so that it no longer has any power over you. You need not fear. You may go free.”
Christianity is not about what we have to do. It is about what Christ has already done for us. This is the message of grace. And it is at work in us in Christ. As God’s grace works itself out in our lives, it produces repentance. And Paul gives us a window through which we can see what that looks like in the lives of the Philippian believers. They overflow with love for one another, they grow in their depth of knowledge of God, they increase in insight into God’s will. All these are things that are pleasing to God. This is the consequence of the second part of repentance, the outcome of a life that has been re-centered on God.
Paul’s words to the Philippians suggest that this is a process that last lasts a life time. The work has in view the day of Christ, before whom the Philippians may stand pure and blameless.
Grace and repentance are an ongoing dynamic in us as God’s beloved people that does not end until that day of Christ. And that is good, because it is not always clear to us whether or not we will ever come out of our valleys, where life is cold and dark. But John’s message to us is that every valley shall be filled in. We may answer: “That may be true. Who are we after all to contradict the message of a prophet as powerful as John. But the mountains in our lives cannot be moved. Even if we were ever to leave our valleys, it would do us no good.” Granted. Those mountains in our lives do not always seem to respond to the promise that Jesus gave to his disciples: that “if we have faith as small as a mustard seed, we can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move” (Matt. 17:20). But John’s message to us is that every mountain and hill shall be made low. And if we object that our lives have become a complex, entangled mess because of the wrong choices or stupid things we have done in our past, and we cannot imagine how they will ever become disentangled, John’s message to us is that the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places smooth.
Remember your grammar lesson a few moments ago. These are all divine passive constructions. That means that all these things lie not in our power, but in God’s power. God will do these things.
Let us not be counted among those who hear John’s message in vain, as many of John’s contemporaries, who did not accept John. The message of salvation was proclaimed to them, just as it is to us today, but it was of no value to them, because they did not combine the word of God they heard in the region around the Jordan River with faith.
Let us not be like them. Let us rather accept the Word of God proclaimed today, allowing it to penetrate our hearts and enliven them with new hope. After all, it is Advent, and during this season we are expectantly waiting. Indeed, in a certain sense this characterizes our whole life—to hope that what is essential is coming, to hope that the event that will decide everything is going to happen.
We heard about hope last Sunday, but lately, if we are honest, some of us have known only frustration bordering on despair, either in our own lives or in those of our loved ones. Still others of us have been walking on a path that we once thought was leading to a meaningful goal, but it became crooked, and did not bring us to our desired destination.
But let us not be discouraged. This Sunday is about proclamation. And the word of the prophet John the Baptist is proclaimed to us if we can relate to any or all of these situations. For at one time or another we can all relate to any or all of them if we have lived long enough. All the more reason to allow the word of grace to work within us, to restore our hope, and to redirect our vision to that day of Christ, about which the Apostle Paul speaks. For our Lord is coming, and he will come. And all flesh shall see the salvation of our God. This is the promise of Advent. Amen
But let us not be discouraged. This Sunday is about proclamation. And the word of the prophet John the Baptist is proclaimed to us if we can identify with any or all of those with their objection. For at one time or another we have all identified with any or all of them if we have lived long enough. All the more reason to allow the word of grace to work within us, to restore our hope, and to redirect our vision to that day of Christ, about which the Apostle Paul speaks. For our Lord is coming, and he will come. And all flesh shall see the salvation of our God. This is the promise of Advent. Amen.the salvation of our God. This is the promise of Advent. Amen.r
t Presbyterian Church is a congregation of ordinary people grateful to God for the extraordinary love he has shown to us in Jesus Christ. We are a friendly and hospitable bunch, so don’t be surprised if one or more of us invites you to stay during the coffee hour after the service!
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