Matthew 3:1-12
“Judgment and Hope”

      In my study is a chair.  It is called a swivel chair.  It can turn completely around.  Perhaps you have one, too. Sometimes it is fun to turn around and around, but one has to be careful that one does not get dizzy and fall off of the chair.  For a period of years our grandchildren when they were younger and arrived at our home in Salem went straight to our office chairs.  They started spinning around and often requested that Yvonne or I spin them faster.

      When you turn around you can see where you have been.  But it is also important to know where you are going, and sometimes even when we think we know where we are going we make mistakes.  Have you ever been on a trip with your parents, spouse or someone else and gotten lost?  When I was a child our family went to Grandma’s home from Kansas to Arkansas and we found ourselves on a road which seemed to have only one corner and every road my father took from that corner brought us back to that same corner.  Finally, we found the proper turnoff.  Perhaps you have gone for miles along a road, all the time looking for the place to turn off, but keep missing it.  You had to stop, turn around, and go back to where you started to find the place you were looking for.

      Have we ever done things which we know we should not have done?  I know I have!  We know when we have done things which are wrong.  God has a way of telling us, and then we know that we have to turn around, ask for forgiveness, go back and do the right thing.  During this season of Advent, part of what we think about is this turning around and doing the right thing!

      Advent is a two-edged sword: judgment and hope.  The prophetic writings speak [of] the hope, which God holds out for his people, the promise of a time when a shoot from the stump of Jesse will rule as King over Israel.  The time to come will be one of peace when the righteous will prevail.  There will be wisdom and understanding in the reign of God, and the meek and poor of the earth will be taken care of.

      “On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious”  (Is. 11:10, NRSV).

      How appropriate as we prepare once more to receive the greatest gift of all that we should be encouraged to hope!  As we read these words, our spirits are lifted and our souls sing.  Especially today we need to hear such a word, a word which pierces the gloom and brings freshness in the midst of our often-stale existence.

      We need a voice of hope.  When Dante in his "Divine Comedy" inscribed over the entrance to hell, "Abandon hope all ye who enter here." he described many a life.  We cry out for a voice giving meaning to the human venture.  Despair comes not because the going is hard, but because we doubt that the going means anything.

      So Advent is a time of hope.  But now, a little like a skunk at a garden party, John the Baptist comes on the scene.  He is stern, uncompromising.  He utters harsh words of judgment and draws lines.  This does not seem to be particularly uplifting preparation for the light of the coming season.

      Still, there John is, and for ages, the church has had to deal with this strange fellow, shrouded in the mists of history -- we could call him the last of the Old Testament prophets -- bearing witness to the One who is to come.  John is indeed a voice "shouting in the desert;" a voice which speaks some very stern words of judgment; a voice which is eventually, like Jesus, silenced by those for whom his message hits too close to home.

      The message of John is one of judgment, of repentance; a turning around; a new beginning.  This was all to prepare for the One who was to come and baptize with the Spirit.  John the Baptist was a stern realist.  John saw that there was a great divide, and he insisted that people must live on the correct side of that divide.  John demanded moral integrity, both individual and corporate.  In short, John told those who came to listen to him that they must prepare for what was to come.

      John's message is the same for us today.  Are we ready to receive the Christ?  Are our lives in order?  To repent -- to turn around -- to turn away from our sins means to put ourselves into a new relationship with God and with one another, to open ourselves to the power of God; to the possibility that God has something for us, for you and me.

      I believe that to “prepare a road for the Lord” is a perpetual assignment for the Christian.  Did you ever like the assignments we had in school?  The reign of God is never the status quo.  In the coming of the Messiah, God opens a new chapter in human history.  These words of turning around - of repentance - (of hope) call us still, asking us if we are ready to receive the Christ.  Where do we stand as we look forward once more to the coming of the One who is Savior and Lord?  Have we properly prepared our pathways?  Have we made a “straight path for him to travel?”  Have we, for example, tried to bring down a mountain of injustice, here or there, or tried to fill a valley of hate?

      John's words are harsh, but their purpose is for salvation.  They are intended to open to each of us the gracious mercy of the One who brings light to our darkness and eternal life out of death - the Bethlehem baby in whose birth there is healing and wholeness for the whole world.   Amen.