For Sunday, December 4, 2016 – Matthew 3:1-12 – Matthew 3:1-12
Followers of Jesus do not think alike. Why does it surprise us when we learn we are divided on many issues? Maybe it is because we segregate ourselves according to theological understandings and differences in class, race, styles of worship, levels of education, and we begin to believe that most people are like us. We travel the wide path, choosing churches and friends through the lenses of conservative, liberal, or progressive, as we might choose universities or political parties. Then we learn that even within our selected church, we disagree about who Jesus was and is and whether we are called to a “change of heart” or a “change of direction.” Sometimes we simply don’t talk about substantive topics at all because we still have not reached consensus as to what time to meet, the best way to distribute communion, how to decrease congestion in the parking lot, and on and on we go.
If we are among the blessed, and we are, God is faithful to interrupt us. Someone unexpected breaks in from the wilderness, and we are jarred awake. A Muslim refugee family needs sponsorship and no one in town welcomes them. A transgendered woman/man seeks full inclusion in the church to serve as deacon, Sunday School teacher, or liturgist, as well as the opportunity, as simple as it sounds, to use the bathroom. Someone loves the wrong kind of person, has the wrong kind of disease, espouses the wrong kind of care for nation or creation—in some way or other, God sends a messenger, crying out, “Rethink what you think! Turn around and walk in a different way.”
So it is for the people of Judea when an unkempt preacher blasts forth, proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near!” Curious, people go to listen and are moved by his challenge to turn their lives around. To mark the moment, he baptizes them in the muddy river, this wild man they call John the Baptist. A radical departure from their religious norms, he stirs the depths of their hearts and also calls them to action. “Bear fruit worthy of repentance,” he says. From within or outside our circles of sameness, someone’s voice is trying to break in right now. Whose is it? What fruit will be borne if we dare to listen and turn? Will we let God disturb us and use us to disturb others?
