Orange Barrels

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Church Episcopal

December 4, 2016

2 Advent A

          Don and I have lived in a number of different places.  We have lived in the cities of Nashville, Tennessee; Lexington, Kentucky; and Springfield, Ohio.  We have lived in the rural mountains of western North Carolina.  We have lived in the small city of Piqua, Ohio and the suburb of Evanston, Illinois.  But no place we have lived takes their orange barrels as seriously as Northeast Ohio!  In the few months we have lived here, we have navigated the ever moving orange barrels of downtown Hudson, Twinsburg, and Interstate 271.  Every time I thought I had the traffic pattern down and knew which lane to be in, the barrels moved.  Sometimes they moved several times in a single day.  Dodging orange barrels seems to be competitive sport here.  But then, all of a sudden, one day they were gone, at least the ones downtown and in Twinsburg.  And within a few days, I found that I really wasn’t thinking about them anymore.  The orange barrels came, were a great inconvenience for a while, then they were gone and forgotten by most of us, other than those merchants whose livelihoods were so affected.

          There is a parallel between those orange barrels and John the Baptist.  Every Advent, when we try to beat a path to the manger and the baby Jesus, we are detoured though John the Baptist.  We, or at least I, want to hear tidings of comfort and joy.  Instead, we are called a brood of vipers and told to repent by a man in the wilderness with questionable taste in both food and clothing.  One option is to treat John the Baptist like those orange barrels, putting up with this inconvenience for a brief time, and then forgetting about him as soon as possible.  But since we encounter John the Baptist each and every year on the way to the manger, perhaps the more faithful option is to hear him out.  Hearing him out, however, feels like subjecting ourselves to a good scolding.  How can there be any good news in a diatribe that begins with “You brood of vipers?”

          Actually, I sort of like John the Baptist.  If we listen carefully, the prophet does speak good news at the same time that he speaks the truth about our lives as human beings. Listen to what the prophet says.  First, John the Baptist says "Repent. For the Kingdom of Heaven has come near." We get caught up in the annoying, but necessary, call to repent and miss the reason for that repentance. We are called to repent, not as an end in itself or so that the Kingdom of Heaven will arrive.  We are called to repent because the Kingdom of Heaven has already come near. That is good news, and the call to repent is the call to turn from those things that keep us from knowing the Kingdom of Heaven in our midst. What prevents us from experiencing God in our midst? Resentment? Fear? Worry? Self-absorption? The need to be in control? Repent, John the Baptist says, and experience the Kingdom of Heaven in our midst.

          Secondly, no one likes to be called a brood of vipers. If John the Baptist came from a good, Southern family, he would know at least 6 ways to say the exact same thing in a less offensive manner. But John does have our attention now. And if we listen, we hear John tell the vipers to bear fruit worthy of repentance. So, apparently, even vipers can repent and bear fruit worthy of that repentance. If vipers can do that, I imagine you and I can do that also. The Kingdom of Heaven is out of no one’s reach.  That is good news.

          Thirdly, John is clear that he does not have the final word. John says "one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire." Next week, we will hear John’s perplexity about Jesus when John asks from prison "Are you the one who is to come, or shall we wait for another." Jesus isn’t quite who John thought he would be. Jesus was less about fire and brimstone, and more about giving sight to the blind, raising the dead, and healing the lame. The Kingdom turns out to be bit more like Isaiah’s description this morning, where “The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.”  But John has the basic message right-the kingdom of heaven has come near and everyone has the opportunity to repent and draw near to that Kingdom.

          Isaiah gives us a vision this morning of what the Kingdom of Heaven looks like.  In the Kingdom that Isaiah describes, all of creation can trust each other, because each member of creation is trust worthy.  No one is out to hurt or destroy anyone or anything.  In that vision, the earth is a peaceful place where all creatures, including humans, can live together in harmony.  What John the Baptist tells us is that awaiting the one who is to come, the one who will bring the coming Kingdom closer, is not a passive activity.  John stops us on the way to the manger, not to burn time until Jesus comes, but to make us pause and think about how we will prepare.   What will make us ready for Jesus’ arrival?  The reading from the letter to the Romans tells us with words that echo the passage from Isaiah.  Live in harmony with each other.  Welcome one another as Christ welcomed us.  Be people of hope.  Know the scriptures.   John the Baptist turns out to be the orange barrel that makes us stop on the way to the manger so we can prepare for the birth of the Christ Child by removing our own obstacles to finding Him.

                                                                   Amen.