« Self-important Scribe… | Home |

Sermon - 2nd Sunday in Advent December 13, 2009 Luke 3:7-18

31 12 2009 - 1:46 pm 2nd Sunday in Advent, December 13, 2009 Luke 3:7-18 My goodness! John is a little testy this morning, isn’t he? And those vipers! Pretty scary!

I hope, with all that drama and exhorting, you didn’t miss the ending of the gospel reading: "So with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people." That was good news? Well, yes, it was. "One is coming who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire." Don’t get so worried about the winnowing fork and the fire that you miss the point: farmers winnow the grain to get rid of the chaff, yes, but the most important reason is to save the wheat.

And this is the good news: if we repent, if we return to God, we will be saved even through the winnowing. We can be God’s good wheat, God’s good fruit.

Those people in the desert heard this and they implored: "What do we have to do?" John answers in different ways for different groups of people. For those who have much, he says, share with others. For those who work, be fair and honest in your dealings with people. For those in positions of power, seek justice and love mercy.

And you notice that John says nothing about ritual, tradition, even about religion. He is much more interested in justice, mercy, and generosity. He says that our repentance must bear fruit. In other words, as we said last week, "Sorry," isn’t enough; we must show by our actions that we are truly repentant.

So, John says, part of repentance is doing, not just saying. And that is exactly what is happening in our Sunday meetings. Last week, we took all our discussions and brainstormings and reflections and those people who stayed the whole session made commitments to action. This parish is rich with dedicated people who truly want to do God’s work; to bear fruit.

We are beginning to get a picture of what God may be asking of St. Peter’s. Certainly it is to be faithful to our Episcopal tradition, but also to find ways to entice others into our fold. We are exploring ways to do this and several people have signed on to find those ways that fit our congregation the best.

We have found that we are to be a mission and outreach church, serving not just our own parishioners, but our community and beyond. We have people who are willing to explore just how we do that. We do know we must reach out to young people and help them to be comfortable here in our midst, and there is a group who will take on this responsibility.

We want to expand our work with the clients of the Community Kitchen by offering some kind of weekend survival kits for those who have little. There are people willing to work on this local outreach.

We looked around our building and found that unless you are very familiar with St. Peter’s, you could have trouble finding the sanctuary itself when you come in the Elm Street doors. We have people who are taking on this challenge. Signage is one obvious answer, but what about greeters at the Elm Street door? We also suffer from not being on the main drag. How do people even know there is a St. Peter’s down here on Elm Street? Consequently, we are going to explore other kinds of signage, also.

Everyone agreed that communication is a key to letting our parishioners and the community know what is happening here. We have a committee that has already made plans to meet weekly to keep our communications up-to-date. And in that vein, a notebook will be put together that describes in detail what each committee and event does, fundraising or social, what the members are responsible for, how many people it takes to carry out the responsibilities and so forth. That is already underway.

We plan to take advantage of every means of electronic communication that is possible. Several people are working on various ways to do this. Certainly it will mean that the website will become even more important, and we are exploring ways to use e-mail to keep everyone up to date.

There has been a strong call for a variety of church services, not only to interest those who aren’t familiar with our tradition, but also for our congregation to explore. These services would not interfere with our major Sunday services, but be addendums. This is also underway.

There are other very good ideas; everything we have discussed is displayed in Bailey Hall. Now our plea is that more of you become willing to become part of this turning towards God and what we are discerning that God wants St. Peter’s to be. Look at the sheets posted during coffee hour and put your name on the one you are willing to be part of.

Those of us who have been meeting are taking all this very seriously. We have talented and committed people who will be working on these ideas. However, this new beginning will be only as effective as the number of people who are willing to be part of the efforts. Please sign up.

There is joy in this work; joy in the fellowship, in the sharing of ideas, in the excitement that this is truly a new beginning. Especially there is joy in our worship together, and our relationship with God. Zephania talked about this joy in today’s Old Testament reading. In the midst of the rather solemn readings about preparation for the Messiah, comes this joyful hymn: "Sing aloud, O daughter Zion; rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem." His message is, that even when judgment comes, if we have repented and turned towards God, we will have rejoicing. In the meantime, we should sing our praises with joyful, exuberant voices.

Another important message in today’s gospel is that about baptism. John makes it clear that he is baptizing for repentance; that one is coming who will baptize with the Holy Spirit. Baptism is a strong theme in all of John’s preaching in each of the gospels. It is through baptism that we make our promises to turn away from sin and to turn towards God.

It is imperative, if we are to be faithful to Jesus, that we never forget those vows we made. It is those vows that set us aside from being just good people to being Christians. It is those vows that we must be true to, if we are to be the church that God is wanting us to be. So on this joyful Sunday, in preparation for the coming of our Savior, we will remember our baptism vows. Turn to page 304 in the BCP, stand, and we will read again, together, what we have promised in our baptism. Then, we will continue to stand to repeat again our faith through the Nicene creed.