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9 December 2007 Advent II Homily given by Michael Paterson Isaiah 11.1-10; Romans 15.4-13; Matthew 3.1-2 It’s a December night and you are walking along Princes Street with some of your work colleagues after the work’s annual Christmas Bash. Its cold but the Glühwein from the German Market (not to mention the wee refreshment or two you had earlier) provides an inner glow. The strains of ‘Rudolph the red nose reindeer’ from lads in Santa hats compete with ‘Jingle Bells’ from a group of office girls dressed as elves on the corner of Hanover Street. The city is awash with Christmas trees and it seems that the lights on the Mound and Princes Street Gardens have momentarily eclipsed the doom and gloom of mid December Edinburgh. As you make your way to Lothian Road to catch the bus home, you come to St John’s at the west end. You notice that the lights are on, the church is open and there seems to be some kind of service going on inside. Being a good Episcopalian you never miss the opportunity to go to church !!! but you can hardly believe your ears when the most ardent card carrying atheist in your group – the one who always ribs you about your faith – suggests you all go in for a heat and a sing. The service is in full swing and as you and your pals creep into the back of the church trying not to draw attention to yourselves, suddenly everything stops and a guy whose whole demeanour says ‘Care in the Community’, jumps up, grabs the microphone, points at you and your friends and screams: ‘You slippery, slimy, slithering snakes. Don’t think your lives will go unnoticed. Don’t think your sins won’t be found out. I don’t give a damn whether you went to Watsons or Heriots or Boroughmuir High. I don’t give two hoots which chambers or hospital or university you work in. I don’t care what clubs you belong to – nor how many standing orders you have to charities or how much pro bono work you do. The pedigrees you trot out on your CVs to impress others mean nothing to me. You brood of vipers, unless your lives are turned inside out, and your hearts do a double take, you will surely find yourselves cut down to size.’ Well! So much for Christmas cheer eh? Thanks John. Now we know why they call you the baptizer. You certainly know how to throw cold water on festivities and dampen fiery spirits. Don’t call us, we’ll call you! The story of walking down Princes Street is imaginary but the message of the preacher man is taken from today’s gospel. But why on earth are we offered the account of this man who surely meets all the criteria necessary for an ASBO, of this voice who could reduce the city of Edinburgh to a wilderness; why on earth does the church prescribe this gospel passage in the run up to Christmas and even more so on a day when we celebrate the baptism of a new child of God? Well if we run all three readings together - the vision of Isaiah, the inclusive policy of Romans and the unpalatable challenge of the gospel - the message I take from today is something much gentler and certainly far more appealing than the rants of John, the last of the Old Testament prophets. John foresaw the wrath that was to come but dare I say it, he was wrong. As they say, ‘he meant well’, but he was misguided. The real God who would come, on whom the spirit of the Lord would rest, would not be in the mould of John the Baptist nor in the business of scaremongering or handing out religious fatwas. The Baptist offered us ‘God against us’. Thank God, the gospel of Matthew offers us ‘God with us’: One who would stand up for the poor and see behind the camouflage of riches, who would love us into change rather than beat us into submission, who would seek out and search for the lost rather than write us off as natural wastage, who would fulfill rather than disappoint our every dream and expectation and who would unshackle us from legalistic religiosity rather than break our backs under unbearable burdens. John the Baptist dealt in water and repentance. But God with Us, Emmanuel deals in fire and life: a life that started as a shoot from the stock of Jesse – and yet look what came from such small beginnings. As we baptize Liam today and hear again the call to prepare the way for God in our lives, let us renew our commitment to stand up and be counted; to speak for those who have no voice and to find a place for everyone in our celebrations of Christmas and indeed of life itself. But above all, let us find our true pedigree not in external things or even in family trees but right here in our common baptism. Let us sign up on the side of God-with-us and pray that with God on our side and not against us, the waters of repentance will never be strong enough to quench the blaze of holy fire within us. Amen. |