Rev. Tessie Mandeville
December 9, 2007
Christ Covenant MCC
Decatur, GA 30030

Let’s face it. John the Baptist is not exactly who we want at our holiday parties. Here we are minding our own business, looking forward to Christmas and the birth of the Christ, and in rushes this hippie dressed in camel’s hair and a leather belt, eating wild honey and locusts. In one breath he yells at people to repent; in the next breath he resorts to name calling. He’s a strange character indeed and cousin to Jesus who disturbed us last week with apocalyptic images of the second coming. I think someone in their family had the gay gene and passed on a flair for the dramatic!

Last week on our first Sunday in Advent, Jesus tried to jar us out of our complacency with apocalyptic images. He tried to get us to wake up and pay attention. To get us centered and aware rather than just going through the motions of our lives. To remind us that there is hope because God is coming.

This week John the Baptist jars us with an inconvenient truth: Peace and repentance go hand in hand. If we want peace in our own lives, we must repent. If we want peace in our relationships with one another, we must repent. If we want peace in our world, we must repent.

But before we go any further let’s say out loud that repentance is a difficult word for many of us depending on our religious heritage and how the concept was used. Often for LGBT people, it was a word used to describe turning from gay to straight. Or, if you were straight, it meant for you to turn away from your LGBT children, family and friends. But that’s not the repentance that John the Baptist is talking about and I invite you to stay with me the whole time, so that together we can reclaim the word repentance and discover its beauty.

On this second Sunday in Advent we hear the voice of John the Baptist crying out in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of God! Clear the paths!” I believe John, just like Jesus last week, is trying to shake us up. Trying to help us understand that something very important is happening. In the wilderness and in our darkest nights, John is crying out that hope is on the way and peace is possible. But I think this beautiful message gets lost in the images of the unquenchable fire, the axe that cuts down trees, and the brood of vipers, and once again we spend more time being afraid of the coming of God than in being excited and preparing the way.

Preparing the way for God is about making room in our hearts for Christ to be born anew. I believe we all want to make room in our hearts for God. If we didn’t we wouldn’t be here this morning. And in order to make room in our hearts, we have to examine the things that are already growing in our hearts and crowding out God. Maybe it’s busyness during this holiday season. Maybe it’s fear of what it will mean for us to let God completely in.

For some of us, maybe it’s resentment. As we get closer to the holidays and time with our families of origin, these resentments tend to rear their heads more because families have a way of pushing our buttons. But resentments abound in church families too. In this place where we try and practice the way of love with one another, we mess up and hurt each other sometimes. We allow room in our hearts for misunderstandings, and when we choose not to address them, they turn into full blown resentments. Those resentments crowd out God.

John gives us clear instructions for how to make room for God: he calls us to repent. The repentance that John is calling for in the middle of Advent is about changing our lives. It’s about turning around and dealing with our hearts. It’s being so serious about our relationships with God and each other that we take that axe and cut down the tree of resentment and bitterness growing in our hearts. We get down to the roots and cut the tree off at its source. And then we throw it in the fire of God’s transforming love.

When talking about repentance I’ve heard it said that God allows u-turns. So if you’re going one way and you realize it’s not the path you need to go down, you make a u-turn; you turn around and go the other way. How do we apply this in a literal way with one another? We turn around and face one another instead of running away. “Running away is rampant. Separation is stylish: separation from mates, from friends, from selves.”1 But we are called to repent and turn around, not to run away and avoid the problems and each other. How do we apply this in a literal way with ourselves? We turn around and face the darkness; we turn around and face the issues of our lives, whatever they are, instead of tranquilizing them with food, alcohol or other substances that numb the pain. Because for any of us who struggle with addictions, we know that the pain is still there after we come down off our high. In fact, we might have even made it worse. To repent is to break the cycle of running away from God, each other and ourselves.

That’s what I believe was happening along the banks of the Jordan River. People who had been running away from one another because they thought that was the easier path, repented, turned around and faced each other. People who had been running away from themselves turned around and faced the darkness. They got in right relationship with one another and with God. And then they stepped into the river of God’s love so that all the anger, jealousy, resentment—whatever it is for you—could be washed away. That’s salvation. That’s the salvation that comes from our baptisms; we are saved when we repent—saved from estrangement, from bitterness, from lifelong anger and resentment. We are saved when we allow fresh starts in all our relationships. We are saved when we offer forgiveness and when we receive it.

And finally I believe we are saved when we offer the hand of compassion to one another. I entitled this sermon series after Ann Weems’ book Kneeling in Bethlehem but I realized this week that some of us are already kneeling because life has a way of bringing us to our knees. In pain and grief. In worry and despair. We are all on our way to Bethlehem this Advent season but some of us can’t stand up anymore. In the last three weeks, nine families at Christ Covenant have had loved ones die. Two families aren’t here today because they are at out-of-state funerals. Other families are taking care of very sick parents. Look around and see people on their knees in grief. Will you give them a hand? Getting to Bethlehem isn’t a race. It isn’t a competition. It’s not only about getting there ourselves; it’s about helping others get there too. It’s about using our hearts, our feet, our resources, our hands of compassion to help clear the path for them.

On any given path there can be so many obstacles. Poverty is an obstacle for many people. Homelessness is an obstacle. Lack of healthcare is an obstacle. But none of these can be allowed to prevent our sisters and brothers from getting to Bethlehem. Everyone wants to get there; some of us need a little extra help. We have three families that we’ve adopted this year to help provide Christmas for. Will you give them a hand? And we know buying Christmas gifts for them won’t fix the systemic problems they face. But it will help ease the burden for mothers who struggle to provide for their families. Maybe if we take care of some Christmas gifts, they can use what little bit of money they have to put food on the table so that not only are their children’s hearts happy, they’re bodies are fed too.

In the wilderness and in our darkest nights, John is crying out that hope is on the way and peace is possible. Let’s make room in our hearts for God. Let’s decide today that we are not going to run away and avoid one another or the pain in our lives. That we are going to lend one another the hand of compassion. That we are going to clear the path for one another and make a way in the wilderness.

John the Baptist is not exactly who we want at our holiday parties but he is precisely who we need because he tells us the inconvenient truth that saves our lives and our relationships: Peace and repentance go hand in hand. If we want peace in our relationships with one another, we must repent. We must turn around and face one another. If we want peace in our relationships with ourselves, we must turn around and face our issues. “Too often our answer to the darkness is not unning toward Bethlehem but running away. When are we going to learn that Christmas Peace comes only when we turn around and face the darkness? Only then will we be able to see the Light of the World.”2 Blessed be and amen.

1 Ann Weems, “Toward the Light.” Kneeling in Bethlehem.

2 Ann Weems, “Toward the Light.” Kneeling in Bethlehem.

Copyright © 2007 by Rev. Tessie Mandeville. Permission granted for non- profit circulation with attribution of author and venue. Other rights reserved.