December 5, 2010 – 2nd Sunday in Advent

Is 11:1-10 Rom 15:4-10 Mt 3:1-12

When I read the readings for this Sunday in Advent I couldn’t help thinking, “Well, John the Baptist really took his gloves off.” This gospel passage is not one for the faint of heart. In it we hear John insulting the leaders of the lay sanctity movement, the Pharisees and the Sadducees. It probably doesn’t hit our ears in the same way as it did in the first century, but John was essentially calling these leaders bastard children of snakes! Oh, my. The Pharisees and Sadducees were people who prided themselves on keeping the Mosaic Law in all its minutia and living pious lives. Being called bastards of snakes would really have angered them.

Nevertheless, John points out to them, that their piety has to be more than show and more than a veneer. Love of God must be at the core of our being directing all of our relationships and activities. John is calling everyone to true repentance. That is to say, he wanted his listeners to look deep into their own hearts to see what really guides their decisions and actions. If it is less than genuine love of God and neighbor, then beware: the ax is already laid at the root.

John’s call to repentance is universally applicable, even for us twenty-one centuries later. Who among us can honestly say that we’ve done our very best at all times? Who among us can honestly report that we have loved everyone that God has put into our lives? Rather, isn’t the truth that we’ve picked and chosen whom we will love and for whom we will do good? Haven’t we grown complacent about many issues? Have we become like the Pharisees and Sadducees in sorting our recyclables, all the while wasting energy, increasing our carbon output or being engaged in excessive consumption? This Sunday of Advent is a good time to ponder the question of excessive consumption when we are busy about preparing gifts for everyone on our lists. We are tempted by all kinds of advertising to buy-buy-buy, substituting purchases for genuine love and friendship.

The final section of the gospel reading today adds special emphasis for the need to repent now, not later. John tells us that Jesus is coming and when he comes, he will have a winnowing fan in his hand, ready to gather the wheat and burn the chaff. John came for repentance, but Jesus will come in judgment. He will sort us like the farmer sorts the grains of wheat from the chaff that blows in the wind. Will we be solidly holy, like the wheat grains, so that he will gather us to himself or will we be all show with no substance to our love so that we are thrown into the fire?

This Sunday is not an easy one to act on. We have habits to overcome and defenses to protect ourselves from real change. The pay-off for real repentance is spelled out in the reading from Isaiah today. Justice will come on the Earth, peace will reign, and there will no longer be any threat of violence to fear. Jesus’ birth brought about the beginning of this Kingdom of God. His second coming will usher in the fullness of God’s reign. Will we be ready?

Let us all be grateful for the warning John the Baptist gave us. Let us examine ourselves to see how well we have loved our neighbors, human and other creatures. Then let’s set about setting all of our relationships right and so become ready for the judgment that most certainly will come.