The Reading
The Gospel
Luke 3:1-6
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,
"The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
'Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.
Every valley shall be filled,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth;
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'"
The Sermon
Several years ago there
was a start up Ukrainian church that used St. Andrew's on Sunday
afternoon for it's service. They are very good people and now use
the old Garfield school as their church building. I got to know
several of their church leaders fairly well in a broken English kind
of way and I had some interesting discussions with them about
theology and faith.
One day we were standing
in the church nave next to the baptismal font and the Ukrainian
minister asked me, “do you talk about sin?”. I kind of puffed up
and said, “why, yes we do.” I got the feeling that he was a
little surprised and pleased. I think some main line, “modern
leaning” churches don't like to talk about such uncomfortable
subjects as sin. It might scare people away and we do not want that!
Scruffy, irascible John
the Baptist was not afraid to broach the subject of sin. In fact,
that was his focus. In the reading today Luke says that John went
into the region of Jordan proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the
forgiveness of sins. When we get into next weeks reading John
becomes even more graphic when he refers to his crowd of followers as
a brood of vipers.
Don't worry, I won't be
referring to any of you in that way. John was a kind of 'in your
face' guy. He told it like it is which is probably why he was beheaded.
I admire John. He knew his mission. He knew he was paving the way
for Jesus. We only have one record where the two actually met and
that meeting was so profound. But, we will get to that next week.
John the baptist was put
on this earth to spread the word about the messiah, this Jesus of
Nazareth. John had a follower named Andrew who, when he heard about
Jesus immediately made the decision to follow him. This is the same
Andrew whom our church is named after.
Like John, Andrew was an
evangelist. He spent his life spreading the news of salvation, the
importance of repentance and the forgiveness of sins. That tradition
and message of forgiveness is alive with us today. We in the
congregation of St. Andrew's in Chariton, Iowa have that same
mission. No, we don't wear hair shirts and eat locusts but we can
spread Christ's message in our own way.
We can invite people we
know and do not know to join us, to come and see. To share the joy
of the good new of salvation. The mission of Jesus began with Jesus
and his first disciple Andrew. Those followers of Jesus now number
in the billions. Jesus is the light of the world and every time we
bring in a new follower, that light becomes a little brighter.
I encourage to reach out
to the people you know and love. Share with them the good news of
salvation. Invite them to come and see.
Blessings to all of you
this season of Advent!
Fr. Fred
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