Sermon 12-7-25

Sermon 12-7-25 Matthew 3: 1-12 2 Advent

Elizabeth and I go to Springfield quite often. Not only for church functions. One of my college roommates, and a dear friend, is from there. We've been making that trip for close to fifty years for church functions, parties, weddings, funerals and many pheasant hunts.

We've taken every route possible. We figured out long ago the shortest and best route from here is through Vandalia, Coffeen, Hillsborough, Raymond then over to Interstate 55. I could drive it blindfolded.

A couple of years ago, as we were making the trip, between Coffeen and Hillsborough, in the middle of nowhere, or as they say, in the wilderness, the highway was blocked with barricades and a simple sign that said “Road Closed”.

To our left was a small, narrow township road, we took it. We turned away and changed direction. Cell service was non-existent. We wandered south and west until we came to a main road I recognized and finally got back to our intended route. We found out later there was some mine subsidence that had closed the road.

In our Gospel reading today Matthew introduces John the Baptist, just like the rest of the Gospels. All four of the Gospels start Jesus' ministry with John the Baptist.

Matthew tells us he appeared in the wilderness of Judea. I'm pretty certain the cell service was non-existent there too. And he leaped into the arena fully grown and fully armed. He was the son of Zechariah. Zechariah was a small town priest, and so according to Jewish law, his son, John, was a priest as well.

But John was a little more than a small town priest. The kind that the big city priests look down on. He was a prophet. The first one that the Jewish people had seen in 400 hundred years, and he was a showman, first class.

Here he was, hanging out and living in a van down by the river. The Jordan river, several miles east and north of Jerusalem and Jericho, the two biggest cities in the area, and people were flocking to see him.

He doesn't dress like any of the people in the crowds. His clothes are made of camel hair and he wears a leather belt. He eats locusts and wild honey.

Camel hair cloth is rough and was usually used for making rugs. Picture someone walking down the street in a dress that says “Martha White Flour” across the back. It was cheap. You just picked camel hair up off the ground under where the camels were tied in the Springtime.

The same with locusts and wild honey. The locusts of that area look like our grasshoppers. You just picked them up.

Locusts were, and are, not an uncommon food item in large parts of the world. Go ahead, google it. They sell them in Middle Eastern markets today. You buy them in those plastic mesh bags like potatoes come in at the IGA or Walmart.

Wild honey was free for the taking as well. Honey bees had been cultivated from the beginning of time. Here's your trivia tip for the day. Honey bees are not native to America. They were brought here by those terrible Europeans. And just like here today, some of them escape to build hives in hollow trees or the attic of your house. That's wild honey, free for the taking.

John the Baptist was a priest without a church and without a means of gainful employment. He had to live a frugal life. But he was a prophet beyond compare. The Old Testament prophets only had to tell the Jewish people to change their ways or God would get angry. John had the distinct pleasure of telling the Jewish people to change their ways because God was coming to see them, in person.

John did not mince his words. He dressed rough, he looked rough, he lived rough and he talked rough.

But, like I said earlier, the people flocked to see him. And he baptized them in the Jordan River. And they confessed their sins. He told them to “repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near”.

Repent means to “turn away and change direction”. Repentance is the center of Jewish and Christian faith. All the old prophets preached “repent” from far away, John was standing on repent's front porch.

He started out with the ordinary people. Rebuking them for the way they lived. Telling them to change their ways.

Then the crowds started getting bigger and bigger. And more diverse, day by day. The ordinary folk crowds were being supplemented with some religious leaders.

They all wanted to be baptized by John.

When he saw Pharisees and Sadducees standing in line, he came un-spooled. He called them a “brood of vipers”. That means “sons of snakes”. Ouch!

He tells them to “bear fruit worthy of repentance. Do not say to yourselves, 'we have Abraham as our ancestor', God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham”. The Jews believed Abraham had built up such a large store of merit, all of his descendants would have a supply.

Simply being a Jew meant everyone was safe in the world to come.

John must have had a death wish. He even rebuked King Herod for marrying his sister-in-law. If he did, the wish was granted.

The last verse of the Old Testament is from the prophet Malachi. It says, “behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes”.

Malachi was the last of the Old Testament prophets. Like I said, 400 years before John the Baptist. John dressed like Elijah. Whether that was accidental or on purpose we don't know, but he played the part of Elijah.

John was a sign post. A sign post that reads “Turn away, change direction”. A man who is useless to God and his fellow man is in grave peril. His was a voice calling men to higher standards.

But, it was not himself he wanted people to see, he wanted to prepare people for the one to come.

This is the second Sunday of Advent. Advent means “coming”. It is the season of preparation for Christ's coming. The first coming, and the second.

Amen.