Purple, Blue, and Loving vs. Liking
Preacher: Rev. Heidi Haverkamp
Preached on: December 5th, 2010
Audio:
No recordingScripture Text:
Matthew 3:1-12
In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’” Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance. Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. “I baptize you with water for repentance, but 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 fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
Romans 15:4-13
For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.
May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the circumcised on behalf of the truth of God in order that he might confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, “Therefore I will confess you among the Gentiles, and sing praises to your name”; and again he says, “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people”; and again, “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples praise him”; and again Isaiah says, “The root of Jesse shall come, the one who rises to rule the Gentiles; in him the Gentiles shall hope.”
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Sermon:
You know, Advent used to be a season of penitence, like Lent. It was a time when people fasted, or restricted what they ate: a time of severity and emptiness. That’s why it’s a church tradition to dress the church with purple in both Advent and Lent. Purple was a very expensive color in medieval Europe: it was worn usually only by royalty. It’s a solemn, mysterious shade. It also alludes to the purple garment the soldiers put on Jesus to mock him as a “king” before they crucified him.
Now we’re starting to use blue again in many churches. Blue was actually a color used to keep Advent in ancient Christian Britain, Spain, and Sweden. We use blue because many church leaders have agreed that Advent shouldn’t really be severe and dark, the way Lent is. Blue is a color of Mary, a color of hope, peace, and faithfulness. Now, the vestments Carol Todd has made for us are sort of blue and sort of purple, so depending on your own beliefs or your own nostalgia, you can decide they’re whatever color you want them to be! But Advent isn’t a time, any more, when we fast or do a special confession of our sins or fill the font with sand.
And yet, we still hear a lot of scripture about repentance and judgment. Every Advent, we hear one or two readings about John the Baptist, the wild man out in the desert, calling people vipers and telling them to shape up. I always love how very un-Christmas John the Baptist seems to be. And yet, he’s the one who reminds us that this season isn’t just about celebrating. I don’t know about you, but I don’t really like to think about judgment. And I think most of us would agree that church shouldn’t be about judgment: focusing on our sins and failures. Deciding certain people are in or out. Feeling self-righteous.
And yet, what is this John the Baptist person doing, still popping up in the lectionary, like an Advent goblin of some sort in all his camel-hair, shaking his finger at us? Here’s the thing: God loves us so much that he sent his only-begotten son to come among us; God loves us so much that God emptied himself and took the form of a servant; God loved us so much that he became flesh and dwelt among us. If God loves us so much, doesn’t it make sense that God cares how we behave? God cares about us, and God cares about what we do. But that’s kind of like judgment after all, isn’t it? It is. But it’s also good news: God cares about us, and God expects something from us.
Our bishop told a story along those lines once:
He and his wife both happened to be home one afternoon and they were meeting their daughter at the bus stop one afternoon. She walked off the bus with something she had made at school – I think it was a bowl or something she’d made out of clay. And she was so excited to show her parents that she ran and ran and she fell… and the bowl or cup flew our of her hands and broke into dozens of pieces on the sidewalk. Her face just crumpled and she burst into tears and she said, “It’s broken! It’s broken!” And Jeff found himself saying, “Oh sweetheart, don’t cry! It’s allright! It doesn’t matter!” And as soon as he said it he realized it was the wrong thing to say, because it DID matter. Luckily, he said, his wife Lisa was there. She took Catharine up in her arms and she said “Oh sweetheart, tell me about what you made. And let’s go inside, and we’ll try to put it back together, ok?”
That’s the God John the Baptist is trying to lead us back to: “It’s broken,” and God wants to help us put it back together. God wants to help us put ourselves back together. And John the Baptist wants to make sure we’re awake. So he calls us vipers, he tells us that the ax is lying at the foot of the tree, and that the chaff will be burned. The state of our souls matters. Our behavior matters. This is serious stuff, my friends.. God expects us to be good, righteous people.
And yet, by the grace of the lectionary, which proscribes our weekly scripture readings, we’re not left with only the vitriol of John the Baptist. We also heard from the letter of our friend Paul to the Christians in Rome where he talks about how being a Christian is all about being welcomed and welcoming others. He tells the Romans that Christ didn’t come just to certain people – Christ, as a Jew, didn’t come only for Jewish people, but also for Gentiles. Not only for the cool kids, the chosen people, but also for the kids on the outside looking in: the Gentiles. Christ loves and welcomes the people on the inside and the outside. And, so, Paul writes, “Welcome one another… just as Christ has welcomed you.”
A blogger I read wrote about how it can feel different to think about God loving us versus God liking us.[1] Because, you know, your parents HAVE to love you. And Christians? Gosh darn it, we’re support to love everybody. We’re supposed to love love love, no matter how obnoxious someone is. And then, of course, sometimes human beings fall in love with people we end up not liking very much. I’ve done that a couple times: fallen in love with a person who ended up not being very nice to me, a person I didn’t really like.
We don’t necessarily like everyone we love. And that makes me wonder what’s harder: loving or liking? When you love someone in your family or fall in love with someone, it’s not really that hard. When you know you’re supposed to love all people as children of God, it’s not that hard to just love everybody, especially if you can do it at a distance.
But it’s hard to be kind to everyone. It’s hard to find something to like in everyone! It’s hard to see the goodness of God in everyone. It’s hard to respect the dignity of every human being, as we promise to do in our Baptismal Covenant.
Sometimes liking other people comes easily, of course. We like people because they touch something in us. We like people because we admire them. We like people because we enjoy their company. We like people because they make us laugh.
What would it mean if you believed that God LIKED you, and didn’t just love you?
Because you know what? God does. God LIKES you. Something about you touches something in God. God admires you. God enjoys your company. And you know, God thinks your jokes are pretty darn funny. God loves you and God likes you. A lot.
God likes you so much, that God yearns to be with you. God longs for your prayers. God yearns for you to do the right thing and to be a righteous, compassionate, generous person. God longs to work with you to repair this world that he made.
God likes you so much that God came to earth to be closer to you. God was born in a little stable in a lonely desert town to a teenage mother, all because God was trying to get to YOU. God wants you to tell her all about the parts of you that are broken and God wants to help you put it all back together again.
And God asks you to like others. To welcome them. Because by welcoming them, you are also welcoming yourself. And by welcoming others, you also welcome Christ.
Amen.
[1] Richard Beck, “On Christian Liking and Loving.” www.experimentaltheology.blogspot.com (11/15/2010).
