2 Advent A (
Matthew 3:1 - 12
Pr. George L. Murphy
St. Paul’s Episcopal
Church,
AN ADVENT CAROL
It was late at night a couple of weeks before Christmas. Everyone else was asleep and Frank was sitting in the living room with a pen and a sheet of paper on his lap. David Letterman was on the television but he was muted and Frank wasn’t paying any attention to him. He was concentrating on his list of Things To Do Before Christmas. Some were important and some less so, but all would take time, something he didn’t have a lot of at this time of year. He already had several things written down.
Present for Alice (his wife)
Gifts for children (small ones – Alice would take care of the big stuff)
Gift for secretary
Put up outside lights (should have been done two weeks ago)
Buy tree and put it up
Write check to Salvation Army
As he was thinking about these and trying to remember what
Frank jumped. He’d thought the television was muted. And it was. He turned around. Standing there was a man with long hair and a beard, wearing a camel’s hair overcoat. “What ... who?” Frank gasped. Had he fallen asleep and started dreaming? He shook his head to clear it but the man was still there, looking at him.
“How’d you get in here?” he asked angrily. He was looking around for his cell phone, wondering if he should call 911. “Who are you? What do you want?”
The man in the coat took a step toward Frank and pointed a finger at him. “”You heard me. Repent!”
“What are you talking about? I’m just making a list – stuff I need to do before Christmas. I’m trying to get all this done before the last minute so we won’t have to rush around and yell at each other. What’s wrong with that? That’s nothing to repent of.” He was angry about having this guy sneak into his house and threaten him but a note of self-pity came into his voice as he concluded, “I’m just getting ready for Christmas.”
“I know all that,” said the man in the overcoat. “I didn’t tell you to throw your list away. But item number one should be “Repent!” You do understand what that means, don’t you? Be sorry for your sins. Turn your life around. Change your way of thinking. Repent. That’s number one.”
“Sorry for my sins? Turn my life around? Are you some kind of religious nut? Who are you and what are you doing in my house?”
“I am ‘a voice crying out in the wilderness; “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.”’ Wilderness in a figurative sense, a theological desert if you wish, but still a real desert. If you have to have a name, John will do. But that doesn’t matter. I’m the one who prepares the Lord’s way. And that means, repent!”
“You keep saying that – ‘Repent.’ Of course I know what it means. When you’ve done something bad and you’re sorry, you repent. But I haven’t done anything to repent for. Hey, look – I’m not saying I’m perfect but I haven’t done anything so terrible that a stranger should be telling me to repent. Now it’s late and ...”
“Let’s take a look,” John said. “The last twelve months should be enough.”
Suddenly
they were no longer in the living room.
They seemed to be floating overhead in the kitchen. Frank and Alice were there shouting at one
another. Frank remembered the argument
from last spring about where to go on vacation in the summer. He’d never realized before how he sounded
when he started making sarcastic remarks about his in-laws or how childish it
sounded when he started to talk about how hard he worked. But
Frank
turned to his companion to explain. “We
always have to waste a week of vacation with her family. She started the argument this time – you
know, ‘I suppose you’re going to complain about going to
“I see,” said John. “We’ll look at the next one.” The quarrelling couple didn’t seem to hear them.”
The scene changed. They were in Frank’s office and there he was, putting several of the company’s pens and legal pads in his briefcase before going home. “Wait a minute,” today’s Frank said. “Everybody does that. They expect you to. It’s like – part of the salary.”
“Do you report it on your tax return?” asked John. “But let’s move on.”
There were quick looks at other scenes. Frank and his friends in a bar after work, making jokes about one of their co-workers who had just left. Frank nodding as his boss explained why Blacks and Hispanics were responsible for the country’s problems.
“Now hold on,” he said after seeing himself leering over the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. “You’re making me look a lot worse than I really am. You’re just picking the bad stuff. What about all the good things I do?”
“All
right,” said John. “And they saw Frank
writing a check to the
“But ... but,” Frank gasped. “What right do you have to spy on my thoughts?” Then his voice slid from indignation to puzzlement. I wasn’t really thinking that, was I? I was just trying to help.” John was silent.
“And I go to church,” Frank said. “I’ve been an Episcopalian all my life. I was confirmed. I taught Sunday school. I was on the property committee.”
“Should we look at some of last summer’s Sunday mornings on the golf course?” John asked. “Anyway, God is able to raise up Episcopalians from stones if he wants to.”
“Well why do you have to bring this all up at Christmas?” Frank shouted in frustration. “This is supposed to be a time for peace on earth and good will. That’s what Christmas is all about, isn’t it?”
“What Christmas is all about is “You shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.” It’s about forgiveness and salvation for people who know they need to be forgiven and saved. Knowing that you’re a sinner, and discovering that sin messes up what your life should be, and realizing that you can’t deal with it by yourself, and coming to see that you are desperately in need of God’s forgiveness and healing – that’s what the word ‘Repent’ means. It means turn around – stop going away from God. It means changing the way you think and stop putting yourself in the center.
“Seems like a crazy thing to be doing at Christmas time,” said Frank. “How can you celebrate and be full of good cheer while you’re sorrowing over your sins?”
“It isn’t Christmas yet,” John pointed out. “That’s why I’m here now. I prepare the way for Christmas. I’m the grim and somewhat fanatical figure who yells at people to clear the path. Get those stones and dead branches out of the road! Smooth out the ground! Get the self-centeredness and resentment out of your hearts! Stop thinking that you do God a favor by going to church and understand what a favor God does for you when you hear the Gospel. Get the road into your heart and mind ready.
“Then you’ll be ready for Christmas. On Christmas Eve, when you hear that line from the Gospel that you’ve heard a thousand times before, you’ll know what it means and know that it’s the answer to your prayers: ‘To you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.’ And you’ll believe it and celebrate it.”
Suddenly
Frank was back in his chair in the living room.
Letterman and his guests were still there, mouthing silently on the
screen. There was no sign of the man in
the camel’s hair coat. There was his
list and his pen, lying on the floor. He
picked it up and looked at it. Then, at
the head of the list, even before “Present for