An Advent Sermon on the Turmoil in America, Repentance, and Confession.

(please consider listening along)

Wednesday night after Vespers I was standing around talking to Aram about the unrest and despair in our country and about our Gospel reading for today which says Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. And I said, you know, given the tangled unrest in our nation right now, I wonder if it’s possible to make a path STRAIGHT enough for the Lord, to which he replied, or, you know, GAY enough.

Classic HFASS comment.

I was grateful for the laugh Aram gave me, given that it’s been such an intense week for everyone.

Here we are in the midst of Advent and it feels like we are definitely waking up. But we are not waking up to a Normal Rockwell, snow covered candy cane and log fire delusion, that’s for sure, we are waking up to the inequality and racism and violence and distrust in America. Just doesn’t feel that Advent-y

It feels troubling.

I don’t presume to have the same point-of-view as everyone here, but I am troubled by what feels like the un-changeability of the system. Troubled that seemingly the blackness of a man’s skin is enough to give them a death sentence for theft, or selling cigarettes or carrying a bag of skittles while wearing a hoodie.

So how exactly does a preacher possibly fit any of that into Advent? do we even WANT to make the path straight and prepare the way of the Lord, knowing, as we do, that he’s gonna definitely notice what a mess we’ve made of things?

Yes, our society is broken.

But this week I realized that if we can peel our eyes away from Hallmark Channel Christmas specials and the 24 hour news cycle long enough we might realize that maybe the turmoil in our world couldn’t be more Advent-y.

Because if we think about it, the Christ child on whom we await, would be born in a land controlled by an empire that he was not a member of. He would be born in the midst of a system where the protection received from the powers that be were enjoyed by some citizens but not by not others. Certainly not by his mom, a homeless unwed pregnant teenager. And when Jesus was born it was such a threat to those powers, that Herod slaughtered the children 2 and under in all the region just to try and wipe out the Prince of Peace. Those not protected by the system lost their babies. Not for nothing, but the infant mortality rate for African American children is 2 ½ times higher than for white babies.[1] All of that is to say, church – we ARE living in an Advent-y time. Because when God came to us in Emmanuel – God chose to enter a time and violent and faithless as our own. Jesus came to save sinners right smack in the middle of the mess they’d made of things.

So when I was trying to figure out what the hell to say about all of this that would be a sermon and not a rant, I kept reading and re-reading our Gospel for today.

“See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,

who will prepare your way;

³the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:

‘Prepare the way of the Lord,

make his paths straight,'”

⁴John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. ⁵And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

But of course it goes without saying that I read this Gospel over and over while also obsessively reading my Twitter stream. I promise to not quote weightlifters in my sermons too much, but I follow Olympic Weightlifter and man of faith Kendrick Ferris on Twitter and this week he tweeted “I can’t remain the same and expect to make a impact on this world”. I couldn’t stop thinking about that. I can’t remain the same and expect to make an impact on this world.

Not for nothing, but if living in a troubling time is Advent-y then so is the way John the Baptist was given to prepare people for the coming of Jesus Christ. It wasn’t Facebook rants or singing Vespers and it wasn’t eating a small piece of waxy calendar chocolate each day for a month. It was repentance. John the Baptist offered a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins and people came from all over confessing their BS.

You know how people were prepared to receive Christ? by admitting first that they needed him.

And to be clear, repentance isn’t about feeling bad. It’s about freeing yourself from holding onto your own bullshit. Repentance is about freedom.

It’s about being changed.

So you know who all those people were who came to be baptized by John? They were the ones who knew they needed it. In came streams of racists, and soldiers with a guilty conscience, and addicts, and liars, and those who emotionally manipulate others to get what they want, in came all the greedy stockholders and activists and criminals and cops and every single person who knows they need forgiveness.

To be an Advent people is to be those for whom an opportunity to lay down their BS is heard as good news. Because the repentance that John preaches is not about feeling bad. Feeling bad is easy. Repentance is about change.

Yes, we need systemic change. We need legislative change, institutional change and governmental change.

Don’t mistake me, I believe that is true. But John the Baptism and Kendrick Farris made me turn the focus from me being right about those things to looking at my own crap a little more than I wanted to this week.

I cannot remain unchanged and expect to have an impact on a broken world. I was unprepared for how convicted I’d be by that.

See, I had to look at how my liberal moral outrage feels good for awhile but it feels good for awhile like eating candy corn feels good for awhile… we know it’s nothing more than empty calories, slacktivism feels good at the moment until you crash from the self-righteous sugar high and then realize you’re still hungry for something real.

But there’s a reason why it feels empty. It feels empty because what I am desperate for is to speak the truth of my burden of sin and have Jesus take it from me, yet ranting about the system or about other people will always be my go-to instead. Because maybe if I show the right level of outrage on-line it might make up for the fact that every single day of my life I have benefitted from the very same system that chocked that man to death and said it was ok. So, yeah I like so many others am troubled by what I’ve seen these last few weeks.

But were I to be completely honest, I’m troubled that I wasn’t more troubled before. Troubled that I have more self-determination than others. Troubled at how much the powers that be protect me but not others. Troubled by how totally easy it is for me to take a break from all of it – to decide to just focus on something else, entertain or shop myself into oblivion when I am tired of caring about it. I’m troubled by how easy it is for me to just take a breather any time I choose when Eric Garner can’t breath at all.

So if you are anything like me, then maybe it’s a relief that the way in which John the Baptist prepared people for what God was about to do was by repentance, confession and forgiveness. If you are anything like me, you’re also running to the shores of the Jordon with all the other sinners desperate to be changed. We need repentance. Because Church, we can’t remain the same and expect to make an impact on this broken world.

So for the time being, I say we forget about all the other things that Advent is supposed to be about or how we think we are supposed to be experiencing it and let’s go old school with a little repentance, confession and forgiveness.

Because I believe God wants to be known and received by us and I think God gets how hard it is for us to do this when we are busy alternating between being right and feeling bad. So today, here in this place at this time with these people, let us repent. Let us be a people changed by God. Because in the tender compassion of God, we are sent a savior. One who is hard to welcome, or see, or feel without having given up on other options first. It’s just too damn hard to hold onto our bullshit with one hand and reach for Jesus with the other. So – from the beginning – ever since John the Baptist – there has mercifully been a way to prepare to receive Christ – and it’s to name what you’re holding onto and let God take it from you and replace it with God’s own mercy. Lay it down with me at this table and receive from the Prince of Peace a new heart and a new spirit. Lay down what troubles you and know that having done so there is absolutely no chance that God will leave you unchanged. And the world needs that. Amen.

[1] http://www.minoritynurse.com/article/quiet-crisis-racial-disparities-and-infant-mortality

post script: last Sunday we moved the confession and absolution to right before the Eucharist and people were given an opportunity to write down that which they desire absolution from. These were read aloud as the confession, making the absolution – “God who is gracious, merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, loves you as you are.  As a called and ordained minister of the church of Christ and by Christ’s own authority, I declare to you the entire forgiveness of all your sins, in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen” – all the more powerful.