2024-12-19
Brooke Strong
Sermon Text...
Pastor Vicki McGaw
December 15, 2024
The church where we raised our children made a commitment one winter that, on nights when it was very cold out, we would distribute blankets, socks, food and tarps to people who lived on the street. On one particularly frigid evening, we'd been out making our distributions when we came upon a man in downtown Cleveland who was sleeping on a sewer grate. We noticed that he had nothing on his feet but a pair of socks. Observing this, our friend Tom looked down, assessed that this man's feet were about the same size as his, and without a moment's hesitation, took off his shoes and handed them to the man.
We were all shocked. Even the man who'd received the shoes couldn't believe what was happening. But Tom's response was casual. “I have more shoes at home,” he said nonchalantly. He didn't want the man to get frostbite and so he shared what he had.
On this Sunday when we light the candle of joy, the pink candle, we hear the harsh words of John the Baptist referring to his followers as a brood of vipers. It's hard to imagine feeling joy when someone addresses you in that way! And yet people streamed out into the wilderness to be baptized and yelled at by this curmudgeonly wild man who was dressed in camel's hair and eating locusts. Why?
We find a little bit of an answer to that question in the question that the people asked John. “What should we do?” This is not the kind of question that we ask when things are going well. “What should we do?” calls us to a deep self-reflection that then leads to action. John gives his answer and we get even more insight about why people came streaming out to follow him. He says, “Don't wait for some holy someday. You have gifts to share, so do so now. Stop hoarding now. Stop procrastinating and making excuses. Wake up! Joy comes when we love our neighbors as ourselves.”
John’s message is that simple and that hard. We tend to think we need to wait for some holy moment so that we can make a difference for others, but that moment may never come. So, John tells us to stop fleeing. Our acts of care and repentance happen in the ordinariness of our daily lives. The holy ground that matters most is the ground beneath our feet.
We’ve just been blessed to hear about the work of Re:Source Cleveland, and knowing how the needs of the immigrant and refugee communities are likely to grow exponentially in the months ahead, I don’t know about you, but I’ve already decided to increase the amount of my donation to the Christmas Eve offering. And to pray about what else I can do. Don’t flee; do what you can right here, right now. If you have two coats, share one.
So many people have come to me in the few weeks I have been here to share their anxiety about the state of the country and the world. I understand and share many of your concerns. However, we can continue to fret and feel powerless, or we can decide to do something. We can’t fix everything, but we can choose an area about which we are passionate: immigration, economic justice, homelessness or women’s health, and then we can do what we can to make a difference. Wake up! Joy comes when we love our neighbors as ourselves.
In the next month, we will begin our work of preparing for the arrival of a new pastor. We’ll consider the history of the congregation – its greatest strengths and the gifts of the members. And then we’ll ask, “What should be do?” as we look for the best way to share those gifts. We’ll experiment and try new things. Some will work . . . and some will not. But all the things we try will be guided by John’s simple answer about what we are to do. Share our extra coats. Feed someone else with our excess food. And no matter what we decide will be the best way forward, we will act with integrity.
In all that we do in the months ahead, my prayer is that we will commit to bearing the fruit of repentance so that all might know the joy of building the realm of God – here and now! I look forward to boldly experimenting with you as we follow John’s direction and trust the Spirit to guide us in the year to come so that next Advent, your joy will be even deeper as you begin a new phase of ministry with a gifted, amazing new pastor. May it be so. Amen.