Last week, we began our journey from Nazareth in Galilee and started to take the journey to Bethlehem because an emperor in a far-off city called Rome has ordered that we be counted. And so, we have to return to the town of our ancestors, a little village called Bethlehem. Walk with me this morning as we travel in our minds, in our imagination.
We’ve left our comfortable homes in Nazareth and are beginning the hundred-mile walk to Bethlehem. After walking for a day, about 15 miles, we reach the Jordan River where it spills out of the Sea of Galilee and begins the 500-foot downhill drop to the Dead Sea through fertile farmland. But the descent is slow and the river road meanders back and forth like the river it follows. And we begin to think, “this won’t be such a bad trip!”
The river makes pleasant water sounds, and there is humidity in the air; we can smell it, a welcome change from the dry highlands near Nazareth. And so our journey to Bethlehem begins like our life, a journey that is mostly pleasant and comfortable in the time of our childhood and youth, not understanding what we are missing because we have been mostly comfortable in our lives. We don’t understand that being comfortable means we are missing joys as well as missing hardships. When we are comfortable, we miss joys as well as hardships.
We grow thirsty and take cool water from the river. There are fish in the River that have drifted down from the Galilean lake. Wide farms line the banks of the River – trees are plentiful, unlike anywhere else in our land.
The River in ancient times was much larger than today, with a flow of about 50 times greater than that of the early 21st Century, for much of the water has been diverted for agriculture and the water needs of the modern State of Israel. The ancient flow averaged 25-30,000 cubic feet per second, twice the size of the Big Kanawha River, but now runs between 500 and 600 cubic feet per second, the size of the Little Kanawha on a strong day. Floods were plentiful in ancient times, the River growing tremendously in the late spring with the snowmelt and the rains, but shrinking in the late summer and the fall.
But our journey today is beside the smaller river, for it is very early spring. And so we take our time, enjoying the trip, talking to old friends, making new friends, laughing, for we are teenagers and our life’s journey is ahead of us. We meet young men and women, and begin to chat with them, eventually settling with the most interesting one. And we walk together down life’s valley beside the River, the early spring flowers growing beside us, the birds singing, the water bubbling over some rocks. The leaves are green, the sky is blue, and the sun is bright. This is the beginning of the Jordan Valley; this is the beginning of our lives.
The first days are joy-filled and carefree, for we have left the farm, we have left the workshop, we have left the daily grinding of flour and baking of bread, we have left the fights with our neighbor over the land, we have left far behind the thorns of our field, the dryness of Nazareth hill. Our parents talk to their friends and leave us alone, if our parents are still able to come with us, making the journey on older feet and legs. Life seems like a big, strolling party!
We have even left behind the constant presence of the Enemy, seen in the Romans who walk or ride into Nazareth almost daily. We have forgotten that the enemy would take our lives in a heartbeat if we stood tall to his soldiers. We have forgotten that the Enemy would burn our homes, take our livestock, destroy our crops. For we are on holiday, even though this trip was commanded by the Roman leader himself. We have chosen to make this a holiday, and the beautiful river beside us helps us to forget that we will have to come back to Nazareth and our daily toil someday. Someday soon.
And so we don’t see that the walls of the valley are rising slowly as we walk south, down toward the Sea of Death. We don’t realize that the valley is slowly becoming a prison, the beautiful river of life which is leading us downhill is flowing toward Death. We don’t realize that at the end of the River is a salt sea where even worms die painfully. And so we ignore and forget what is ahead because we are enjoying life, the walk, our friends, the pretty girl or handsome man who walks beside us, the flowers, the green leaves, the River.
Over the centuries, thousands, even millions of people have made this trip. The only thing that makes the trip different this year is that the Emperor far away in Rome has commanded it. Even the man leading his donkey and his very pregnant young lady on the donkey are common sights every time we travel the journey. There is nothing special about him and his beard, his strong muscles, his calloused hands. There is nothing special about her, the weary eyes still smiling after a day and a half on donkey back. There isn’t even anything special about the donkey, walking easily down the road. Even their names are common. Yosef and Miriam. Joseph and Mary.
Where are they headed to? Bethlehem, The House of Bread, it means in the language of the day. The village was the hometown of King David and had a great history. It was there Jacob’s favorite wife Rachel was buried, where Ruth and Naomi moved to after the famine killed their husbands in Moab, where Ruth married Boaz and had a son Obed, who had a son Jesse, who was the father of King David. The village is over 2500 feet above sea level, and there are many limestone & sandstone caves in the area. David hid out in one of those caves when he was on the run from King Saul, his former friend who wanted to kill him.
Back to the road beside the river...
The next day, during the walk beside the river, we come to a place which is known through history as the place where John baptized people. Of course, this was thirty years after Joseph and Mary’s journey.
John the Baptizer
John was a real character, the original religious hermit. His father was Zechariah, the temple priest who gave us the lovely song from Luke 1:68, our first reading. Did you notice what Zechariah said about his son John?And child, you will be called
a prophet of the Most High,
for you will go before the Lord
to prepare His ways,
to give His people knowledge of salvation
through the forgiveness of their sins.
Sometimes people get confused, for there are at least two Johns in the New Testament. There is John the Baptizer, the son of Zechariah, who baptized people at the Jordan River – including Jesus at the beginning of His ministry. He was just a couple of months older than Jesus. And there is another younger man also named John, who was a student of the older John, and who became one of the chief disciples of Jesus. We call him the Apostle John. This younger man is celebrated as the author of the Gospel of John, and probably also wrote the three letters, I John, II John, and III John, and also likely wrote Revelation when he was a very old man, although some scholars think another man wrote those later documents…
But let’s go back to the older John, John the Baptist, or, more accurately, John the Baptizer, the son of Zechariah. This John was the cousin of Jesus.
Zechariah said his son would be called a prophet of the Most High, a prophet of God, for he would go before the Lord and prepare his ways. He would give people a knowledge of salvation, an idea that they needed to be saved and that they could be saved through the forgiveness of their sins. John would not save people, but would teach them that they needed salvation because of their sins.
So many people today who do not regularly attend church fall into one of two categories. First are the people who believe they are good. They don’t understand their need for salvation, for they believe that all people except those who are Hitler types or serial killers end up in Heaven. They believe that they themselves are basically good enough for Heaven, that God looks at people on balance and decides whether they are good enough for Heaven – They think about themselves: "Today, I cussed out a telemarketer, but I also held the door open for an old lady, so that probably balanced out. I smiled at my kids, so I’m ahead for the day."
So many people believe that when we get to the end of our lives, God adds up a ledger of good and bad deeds and decides if the good deeds outweigh the bad to decide who gets to go to Heaven. And most people believe that they are so much better than the murderers and Hitler that God will naturally let them into Heaven – assuming they “believe in God”. And they do. They believe in a god. They even pray occasionally to a god, usually a distant and kind grandfatherly figure who sits on a throne in the clouds. So they don’t worry – in their minds, they don’t need salvation, for they believe they already have it. You may have once thought this yourself. It is just like making money – with good deeds your earnings and bad deeds your expenses. At the end of your life, do you have money in God’s bank account? Isn’t this an ideal religion for Americans?
If you have money in your bank account in heaven – a balance of good deeds, these people think you can go to Heaven. In effect, you buy your way into Heaven with your good deeds – as long as you don’t have too many bad deeds to take away from your heavenly bank account. And so these people walk along the road of life, whistling and singing, secure and comfortable, because they aren’t Hitler.
The second common category is the set of people who look at their lives and are acutely aware of the sins they’ve committed. They realize that Hitler was worse than they are, but they also realize that they have some sins they commit over and over and over again. In their mind, they have done so much bad that God will never forgive them. Sometimes it’s because of a life full of different sins, committed daily…other times it is one BIG sin in their lives. And they believe that God will send them to Hell and there is nothing that can be done about it. You see, they also believe in God’s bank account, and they believe they are so far in debt they think they can’t ever get out from under their sin debt. They know they need salvation, but they don’t see how they can be saved. And they despair, because they know they aren’t good enough. So they avoid anything having to do with God, in a subconscious hope that God won’t notice, like an ostrich putting its head in the ground. "If I don’t talk to God, God won’t notice me." All because they realize they aren’t good enough for Heaven because of their sin.
Which are you? Too good to need salvation because you aren’t Hitler… or too bad for God to save you because of your sins?
John the Baptizer began to speak of the need for salvation. He spoke mainly to the “good people”, the people who believed they were good people, destined for Heaven, doing all the right things, for the "good people" were more difficult to convince. They were the leaders in society. At the top of their “good deeds” list was the fact they made a sacrifice every year. Every year they went to the Temple and did what was asked of them. Still other people simply looked around and concluded that since God had clearly blessed them – they had nice clothes, a nice home, good food, spoke well, were educated, had some money – then this was proof they were good people. They were comfortable and therefore they must be good. To them, God’s blessings meant they were good and going to Heaven.
Do we still do that today? Do we still assume that because we live in a nice house, we mostly pay our bills, we haven’t been convicted of any crime worse than traffic tickets, because we dress well, we speak well, we have a car that we can count upon – Do we assume we are good people? And do we assume that the man begging at the intersection or at the church is "bad" because he doesn't have these material things? Maybe we make that assumption and maybe we don’t, but I’m sure we each have friends who assume this. We all have friends who assume they have no need of salvation because they are already good enough for God. Or if they aren’t good enough for God, they believe that’s because God is mean, hateful, and wrathful, and not good enough for them, and so they choose not to believe in the Christian God, but prefer to believe in a god that behaves more nicely to them, a god they make up.
John spoke directly to these people. He let them have it! He called them out to repent, to re-think their relationship with God. (The Greek word metanoia means to rethink, but we have traditionally translated metanoia as repent.) Hear what John said:
He then said to the crowds who came out to be baptized by him, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Therefore produce fruit consistent with repentance. And don’t start saying to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones!”
Just like the Jewish crowds who thought they would be saved just because they were Jewish, God’s Chosen People, descended from Abraham, don’t we often say to ourselves, “But I am a Christian, descended from Christians. Of course I’m good and I will be saved.”
But John continued: “Even now the ax is ready to strike the root of the trees! Therefore, every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”
The trees John talks about are the “good” people John is talking to. What is the fruit he’s talking about? Could it be leading others to the love of God through our piety, our good deeds, our clear love for others? Could the fruit be results, actual results that come from helping others?
“What then should we do?” the crowds were asking him. The crowd understood the danger that their immortal souls were in, they understood that John was telling them that simply living comfortably wasn’t good enough, they understood that they needed to produce the fruit that God wanted. And so they asked John, “What then should we do?”
He replied to them, “The one who has two shirts must share with someone who has none, and the one who has food must do the same.”
And John spoke on and on about what it meant to be a good person, the daily sacrifices that had to be made, the need to stop being so comfortable and selfish and the need to personally help those who did not have those comforts.
John didn’t speak of merely giving away one old shirt out of the dozen or more you owned, John talked about giving away your next-to-last shirt, a real sacrifice, a real chance to depend upon God. John didn’t talk about giving a food pantry a couple of cans of food out of the 50 cans you had, but about giving away half of what you had in the cupboard. John told us that God wants us to look at the people around us as though they are part of our family, sharing as a family does, truly sacrificing food and clothing and every other good thing. John spoke of a radical change in our lives, He spoke of rethinking our lives so we weren’t so focused upon our selves, but on others. This was what God wanted.
And John offered to wash away our sins with the water of baptism. John offered to give people a chance for a clean start, a chance to start over doing what was right instead of living comfortably, a chance to stop assuming we were good because we were comfortable.
Are you comfortable? On the whole, are you comfortable with your life?
Eagles
When a pair of eagles is about to lay eggs, they build a nest. They start with big sticks and then gradually move to smaller and smaller sticks and then twigs. Then, they put in leaves. Finally, the mother eagle takes the soft down hair from her chest and she feathers the nest with it so it will be soft and cozy for the eaglets that will soon be hatched, so they will be comfortable, warm and cozy. Comfort is good for little ones.Is your nest soft and cozy? Have you ever thought about when your nest is feathered enough? How much feathering of your nest are you going to do? How much feathering is enough?
Then, after the eaglets are hatched, they grow and grow and finally, there comes the time when they need to fly from the nest. So mother eagle begins to pull those soft down feathers out of the nest so the nest bottom will become sharp and poky and uncomfortable for the eaglets. They move up to the edge of the nest and one day they fall over the edge and they must fly.
Perhaps your world has become sharp and poky. Teenagers know when home is uncomfortable Perhaps your world is becoming uncomfortable. Perhaps that’s because God knows that it is time for us to stop hiding in that soft, cozy, comfortable nest. Perhaps God knows that it is time for us to FLY! Perhaps it is time for us to go into the world and achieve the godly goals God has for us! Perhaps we have to share some of that comfort we have with those who are uncomfortable.
John made things uncomfortable that day for his listeners. And many of them chose to rethink their relationship with God. They began to understand that, despite the fact they were good and successful and comfortable by the standards of the world, they needed to change. They needed forgiveness. They needed to grow closer to God. They needed to worry more about others and less about themselves.
There were many people in that crowd that didn’t take long to make their decision. They walked down to the River and were baptized. They were the people who already understood their sin. They were the people who already knew they needed forgiveness, they needed salvation, they needed a new start. They were humble. They had been waiting for a chance to come back to God and John gave them that way. And they jumped at the chance. Will you jump at the chance to get right with God? Do you want to be baptized? If so, call me or see me at Cedar Grove United Methodist Church.
Others in the crowd made their choice, they walked away and went back to their comfortable homes, to their servants, to their pleasant lives where no one reminded them that God wasn’t looking at their ancestry, at their inheritance, but at their lives, where no one reminded them that God wasn’t looking at the sacrifices their parents and grandparents had made, but what they had given up, where no one reminded them that God was a jealous God who wanted to be worshiped far more than they worshiped their comforts, their homes, their money.
And those who went home to their comforts…they missed the main event, the big show, the most important part of what happened in that spot there beside the Jordan River in the Valley. For John was just the warm-up act. John was the carnival barker attracting the crowd to the Big Tent. John was the pre-game show, who said He wasn’t even worthy to untie the sandals of the One who would come after Him.
A Vision
Imagine being there that day. Imagine you can see what is happening...The vision forms...John has been speaking in the heat that morning…and you can smell the sweat from the crowd. The water looks cool and inviting before you. A gentle breeze is blowing from the East and it brings the mixed smell of flowers – and animals. It is the smell of life blowing in. Life always smells both good and bad, sweet and sour, beautiful and ugly.
The wind reminds you that the same word is used for wind, for breath, and for spirit. God’s Holy Spirit, God’s Holy Breath, God’s Holy Breeze.
A fly buzzes near your head, trying to distract you from what John is saying. A group of well-dressed young men from Jerusalem have been asking John what to do and finally, in disgust, they decide to leave. But several ordinary men and women go forward, down into the water for John to baptize them, and they all come up from the water filled with joy! Again, the breeze blows from the East.
And then, as if He came in on that breeze, a taller man walks down to John. They look similar – there is a family resemblance. But where John is roughly dressed, the new man is middle-class, wearing a robe. Where John’s skin looks like leather from many days in bright sunlight, the new man’s hands are rough and calloused from many days using tools. Where John seems like a wild man – the new man seems almost kingly in bearing.
They talk in the water. The man is asking to be baptized. John shakes his head no, almost bowing before the other man as if to say the man doesn’t need to be baptized. The other man insists. And John baptizes the man in the water. As the tall man comes up from the water, a dove descends on his shoulder, and the crowd says “OO!” And you realize something important has happened, you just don’t know what. But you hope you’ll find out. You’d like to talk with that man. Maybe someday. You hear a voice from the crowd say, “That’s John’s cousin Jesus!” And the vision fades away…
But all of this is years in the future. Is that what it is like to be a prophet, to see a vision? It’s something to consider later. For the people who love their comforts won’t see it. Instead, the people who chose to be personally uncomfortable by helping others, by talking to others about Jesus, who share their time and wealth and talents with others for God’s sake – they will begin to spend time and talk with the Man from the vision, for they will learn to walk with Him, for you cannot get close to Him if you leave the river bank, you can’t get close to the star coach if you remain in the stands, you can’t borrow money for a house if you won’t go into the bank to meet the bank manager. Jesus requires us to get uncomfortable if we are to meet Him.
For now, we have to follow Joseph and Mary and that donkey downstream, deeper into the valley, closer to the Sea of Death, having Faith that one day, that new man who seems so kingly will actually come to the River to meet with John. For we have days and many miles to travel until we get to Bethlehem. And the worst part of the road is still to come. We all have to walk into the wilderness in order to escape the Valley and reach Bethlehem.
This week, I ask you to come to prayer with the question of comfort on your mind and on your prayer lips. Come to God and ask what comforts in your life are keeping you from God. For instead of being comforted by STUFF, God wants to be your comfort. Ask God what comforts you need to give up so that you might fly before the Holy Wind of God, the Holy Breath of God, the Holy Spirit of God and work with Jesus at changing the world for the better. What comforts are holding you back, keeping you from being free?
Prayer
Let us pray:God of freedom, you rescue us from slavery to sin, but you also can free us from our slavery to comforts. Show us how our comforts have become our sin, remove our need for those comforts, break the chains of comfort that keep us from serving you. Set us free to speak of your love to our friends, neighbors, and family – as well as the strangers we meet along our life’s journey. This we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Song: Wild and Lone the Prophet's Voice
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