Musical Prelude and Service.

Apologies for the sound issues, it does get better.

Philippians 4:4-7 & Luke 3:7-18
Rejoice in the Lord always!
On this third Sunday of Advent this is the key message, rejoice in God. Express your joy in the knowledge that God is with us. God comes to us in the person of Jesus, coming as an infant and growing in a community of ordinary human beings far removed from the seats of power.
So as we reflect during this time of Advent about who we are, who we are meant to be, who God sees us to be and who God would have us be; Rejoice!
However, we also hear a different message from John the Baptizer this week. We hear a message that can dampen that sense of joy. A message that can leave us defensive or possibly offended. That scary preacher in the wilderness, John, calls us to repentance. The prophet who looks at those who come to him seeking wisdom and a new start and calls them a brood of vipers and hypocrites. John preaches that a change is nigh, and people need to get ready. And to get ready, they need to take stock of their lives, make some changes and enter a new relationship with God.
Rejoice in the Lord always. But also repent.
On first glance, it’s a bit of mixed messaging.
God is with us. God loves us and offers us peace and hope. How can we not rejoice.
But at the same time, we have the one who proclaims the coming of Jesus, calling us hypocrites and stating we need to repent.
One could get a bit of whiplash from this. But let us bear in mind that Luke tells us John goes on to preach the Good News. That this call for change, while also proclaiming the coming of Jesus, is Good News.
We desire a closer relationship with God. We desire a just and kind world under the reign of a loving and merciful God. And yet we are stuck in patterns of self-interest and ambition and greed. We live in a world that quite often insulates us from the suffering of our neighbours. We are left blinded to the struggles experienced by fellow members of our community. And we are frequently unaware of the terrible troubles people on the other side of the world or in remote parts of our own country endure on a regular basis. Or we are left believing there is nothing we can do about it.
But we do have choices. They may not be world changing on their own, but if we consider the things we do or don’t do, the things we say or don’t say. When we choose to remain silent in the face of hatred and inhumanity, we do make a statement.
In a great many ways, we do need to change our course as John so forcefully says.
But …. Rejoice for this is Good News!
I want to discuss briefly a Greek word that some of you may have already heard in the past – Metanoia. Metanoia is the Greek word for change; changing one’s mind, one’s heart, one’s direction.
This is the word one finds in the gospels, where in our English bibles we most commonly read “repent”. Metanoia. To undergo a change.
Repent is rooted in Latin. It comes from the word poenitire, which means to make sorry. So, it means to feel sorrow. It is linked to sorrow and to pain. A sense of regret. When the first English bibles were
being written, the translators were working from the Latin Vulgate bibles and used the word penance or repent, where Greek sources would use the word metanoia.
It stuck. And in many cases, it would seem relevant.
We have been left with this notion of change based in sorrow and regret. That we must express a sense of guilt and pain for who we were and what we did.
It’s a message that wasn’t necessarily there in Luke’s gospel, but the idea that to follow God we do need to alter our course, see the world through new eyes and new ways of thinking does remain.
Before I go any further, I want to be clear that I am not dismissing the need for penance or repentance. I believe that there are times when repentance is absolutely crucial; especially if you are intent on rebuilding a caring relationship with someone you have wounded.
But, metanoia, or a change in direction itself may not require penance, however, I believe it often leads toward it.
As we do seek to amend our ways, to alter our course if you will, what do we need to do? This is the question those who came to John kept asking. His response is basically to approach the world with a sense of justice. A desire to share what we have. Stop exploiting those around us. Stop using our power over others to further our own ambitions; to increase our own wealth.
Work to produce the good fruit that God desires from creation.
John is baptizing people into a new life with or in God. Baptism was a ritual way of cleansing yourself to serve God, and also a way of entering into a new community, such as gentiles converting to Judaism. But in that act of baptism is the idea of release. In Greek called “Aphesis”. A word Jesus uses in the following chapter of Luke. Released from your sins. Released from your former life.
God desires for us to live joyful lives. God desires for us to let go of old ways of relating to the world which either directly or indirectly brings harm to others. God desires to see love and compassion spread through the world with us working in partnership to make this a reality.
God desires that we be released from assumptions about who we are and what we do. That in God through Christ, we are made new. We can be released from that which has burdened us. We have the opportunity to remake the world. And the knowledge that God comes to us; God lives amongst us in the person of Jesus is absolutely Good News.
Jesus approaches us – showing us the way to live in loving relationship; to be released from our damaging patterns and ways of seeing and relating to the world. Jesus comes to offering hope and peace. Guiding us as we change our thinking and change our direction.
Rejoice. Let your gentleness be made known to everyone. The Lord is near.
So how can we not rejoice in God? Always. Thanks be to God.
Amen
Rev. Warner Bloomfield

Music provided with permission through licensing with CCLI License number
2701258 and One License # A-731789