I work with youth and young adult ministries in the Episcopal Diocese of Texas. That means I get to spend a lot of time at Camp Allen helping run events for youth and young adults there, and I walk alongside youth and young adult ministers as they do the work they do, and sometimes I preach in congregations and talk a little bit about some of my work.
Normally, though, the lectionary readings for the weeks that I preach aren’t quite as intense as the ones for this Second Week of Advent. Maybe that’s why I was asked to come preach today – so I would be the one to preach on readings where we have this crazy John the Baptist – or Baptizer as his name is sometimes translated – eating bugs and honey and wearing camel hair shirts (which sounds really scratchy) and he’s telling people to repent and calling people broods of vipers and things burning up in unquenchable fires. Thanks for the invitation.
So why do we read this gospel at this time of year, during Advent? Right now, the world around us is visiting Santa Claus and wrapping presents and Amazon Priming. These readings don’t bring up any of those things. They certainly don’t bring to mind visions of sugar plum fairies and stockings hung by the fire with care.
So why do we read about John the Baptist? Because John the Baptist prepares the way for the coming of Jesus. And that’s what Advent is all about – the Coming of Jesus.
That is why we have a gospel message about broods of vipers here in Advent.
Let’s take a bit of a closer look at what John the Baptist has to say. Let’s start with what his sermon says. It’s actually just one line. Which it’s impressive that he gets people from all over to come and be baptized from just one line. And that one line is simply:
Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.
Matthew 3:2
Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.
These are the very same words Jesus uses in his very first sermon just over in the next chapter in Matthew.
Repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near.
John told all of Jerusalem and Judea to repent. And he tells us also to repent.
Repent is a weird word that has taken on extra meaning in today’s society. For us, it brings to mind crazy, yelling street preachers. Perhaps that’s what the gospel is trying to say about John the Baptist too. It certainly doesn’t make us think of the coming of 8lb 6oz newborn infant Jesus.
But repent is the message John gives us. John is telling us to repent because the Kingdom of Heaven has come near.
In Greek, the word repent is Metanoia. It literally means to change one’s mind or purpose. Its root is from meta, which means beyond or after, and nous, meaning mind. To change one’s mind. Specifically a spiritual conversion.
John the Baptist is saying that the Kingdom of Heaven has come near to us and because of that, we should experience a change of heart. This is the preparation that John the Baptist warns us of ahead of Jesus’ coming.
And once we have experienced this change of heart, John warns us to “Bear fruits worthy of this repentance – this change of heart – this metanoia.”
John reminds us that it’s not enough to simply change our heart and do nothing with it. Our encounter with the Kingdom of Heaven should be so complete and so transformative that even the fruit of our lives will change.
Bear fruits worth of repentance. Bear fruits worthy of metanoia.
Next we read in the gospel reading that John’s one-line sermon was successful: we see that many heeded John’s message, and began to follow his advice, and get baptized.
Then John’s sermon trickles down to the Jewish elites of John the Baptist’s day: the Pharisees and the Sadducees. But when they began to come to be baptized, John shows his full crazy street preacher self:
“You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”
I suspect John is asking a rhetorical question here – I don’t think he’s actually trying to get them to tattle on the people who warned them to get baptized.
Instead, I think John is making a comparison between the children of Abraham who think that their salvation is in their heritage and those who truly recognize that the Kingdom of Heaven has come near and repent – change their lives – make their lives full of fruit worthy of repentance. He recognizes that the Pharisees and Sadducees are resting on the fruit of their laurels. They aren’t actually being changed by being near to the Kingdom of Heaven.
Which begs the question: how were the Sadducees and Pharisees supposed to know what they were looking for? What does the Kingdom of Heaven even look like? How are we to recognize it when it comes near?
The other readings this week give us a glimpse into what the Kingdom of Heaven might look like.
In the first reading, Isaiah prophesies what the peaceful Kingdom of Israel will look like. When Isaiah was written in the 8th century BCE, the Kingdom of Judah was under attack from all sides by the larger and mightier Assyrian empire. During this historical time, the northern half of the Kingdom of Israel fell to Assyria in 722 BCE. With war all around them, Isaiah prophesied what peace could look like.
What the Kingdom of Heaven might look like. It’s a beautiful image.
A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse.
The wolf shall live with the lamb.
The cow and bear shall graze.
And a little child shall lead them.
Isaiah 11:1-10
It’s a beautiful image of peace.
And Isaiah tells us why this will happen:
For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
Isaiah 11:9
The peace of the Kingdom of Heaven will come to be because of the knowledge of the Lord.
So John tells us to Repent, because this beautiful Kingdom of Heaven has come near.
Repent. Change your hearts. Metanoia. Because the Kingdom of Heaven and peace where the wolf lies down with the lamb has come near to us.
When we read the Psalm appointed for today, we see a similar image. A blessing.
May righteousness flourish and peace abound, until the moon is no more.
Psalm 72:7
The Kingdom of Heaven is a place where righteousness flourishes and peace abounds until the end of time – until even the moon is no more.
Then in the letter to the Romans, we see another picture of the Kingdom of Heaven. Paul paraphrases the first line of the passage in Isaiah.
The root of Jesse shall come, the one who rises to rule the Gentiles, in him the Gentiles shall have hope.
Romans 15:12
Paul is adlibbing a bit here. The original passage in Isaiah actually doesn’t say anything about the Gentiles. But Paul interprets this new shoot out of the root of Jesse as the Gentiles. And more importantly, Paul gives us his interpretation of why this root of Jesse sprouts up:
To Give Hope.
The root of Jesse shall sprout up – shall come near – and in him the Gentiles shall have hope.
The Kingdom of Heaven has come near, so this causes us to repent. And this is a cause for hope.
This is the story of Advent.
This is why we hear these weird passages as we prepare for the coming of Christmas. Putting all these weird passages together – the gospel, Isaiah, the Psalm and the letter to the Romans we get the full story of Advent:
The Kingdom of Heaven where the lion and the lamb lay down together has come near, so let’s repent and have a change of heart. Let’s practice metanoia, and all of this is a cause for hope.
As I mentioned, my work at the Diocese of Texas is with Young people. I work with youth – who are still in junior high and high school – and with young adults in the diocese. These are Gen Z and Millennial generations.
One unique characteristic about these rising generations is that they are justice-minded. They are focused on creating a more just world. They don’t care as much about doctrinal differences or affiliations to get that justice out in the world. But they want to make a difference. Millennials especially are key to this. Believe it or not, Millennials care about more than just avocado toast.
They want to make a difference in the world.
They want to see the Kingdom of Heaven come near.
They want the Kingdom of Heaven to come near and have that change hearts and spread hope.
They want to work with God to make the Kingdom of Heaven come near.
This is what millennials and Gen Z want from our churches – to be places where the Kingdom of Heaven has come near.
And they don’t want to wait to make that happen. They live into the words of John the Baptist – that the Kingdom of Heaven has come near – and actively work to make that Kingdom of Heaven shine out like a beacon into their neighborhoods.
And yet, we hear a lot about waiting in the season of Advent. And perhaps we think that might mean that we’re simply supposed to wait for the kingdom of heaven to come near. But both John the Baptist – and Jesus in the very next chapter – tell us that has already happened. The Kingdom of Heaven has already come near.
But we know – and rising generations who are working with God to make the kingdom of heaven come near – know that we have not yet reached the point of the picture of peace that Isaiah so beautifully describes.
So we have the Kingdom of Heaven coming near, but we aren’t quite to the point where the lion is lying down with the lamb. We aren’t even to the point where Republicans and Democrats can have a civil conversation on facebook or at Thanksgiving dinner.
We believe that John the Baptist and Jesus are speaking truth when they say that the Kingdom of Heaven has come near, but we also know it has not yet come to fruition. We see the brokenness in our world all around us and know we aren’t living in the fulfilled Kingdom of Heaven.
There is a fancy theological term for the space between where the Kingdom of Heaven has come near and its fulfillment as described in Isaiah: the term is “inaugurated eschatology.” Inaugurated means begun and eschatology is the study of the end times. So Jesus has inaugurated, or begun the Kingdom of Heaven, but it has not yet come to completion as it will be in the end times. Inaugurated eschatology.
In other words, The Kingdom of Heaven has come near AND we are still to pray for THY KINGDOM COME. It’s come near but it hasn’t completed yet.
It’s both/and. It is both already come near – and it’s not yet.
And this is also what the season of Advent is for.
To sit in the tension between what Jesus has already begun and to hope and pray for what is not yet.
Just like that ancient chorus that we say or sing each week in our liturgy:
Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again.
All three of those are true. Christ lived and breathed and came near and begun the beautiful Kingdom of Heaven but we still wait for the fulfillment of that.
The Kingdom has come near in Jesus. But the Kingdom of Heaven is still to come.
Millennials get that tension. They live in that tension every day. The frustration that the world is not what it could be. And they actively work towards that fulfillment. They get the both/and of Advent. The sitting in between.
This Advent, I invite you here at St. Aidan’s to look and find those places where the Kingdom of Heaven has already come near.
Maybe look to where your young adult neighbors are already working to usher in the Kingdom of Heaven in and around Cypress.
I ask you to ponder these questions as you go about the busyness of Advent:
- Where do you see those places where the Kingdom of Heaven has already come near?
- Where do you see young adults already working to usher in the Kingdom of Heaven in your neighborhoods?
- How might God be asking St. Aidan’s to participate in that work?
- How might you ask young adults to join St. Aidan’s in that work?
The Kingdom of Heaven has come near. Repent and bear fruit worthy of repentance. Amen.