Weekly Message from Rev. Matt Handi
Message from
The Rev. Matt Handi
December 11, 2024
I wonder if we are tired of waiting. Back when Luke wrote his gospel almost two-thousand years ago, everything seemed so immediate. Generations would not pass before Christ’s kingdom would arrive. Prepare for the winnowing and separating the wheat from the chaff and all that.
Soon.
Christ would arrive soon and so we’d have to repent of our ways; give coats to those with none; take only our fair share; treat others justly. Sit up straight, folks, Jesus is coming back lickety-split. Post-haste. In a jiffy. Two shakes of a lamb’s tail and all would be put right in the world upon Christ’s return to here.
But, it seems like soon ended a long time ago. It seems like we’ve witnessed too many wars, too many pandemics, too much poverty in two thousand years’ time. It seems like the dishonest still take more than their fair share, the hungry still hunger.
It seems like our reward for being good humans has yet to come to pass and will we ever experience such a reward? And is that our expectation, that in exchange for good behavior we will be rewarded? Immediately?
So, here we have John the Baptist in Luke’s gospel urging people to “flee the coming wrath.” The wrath which will baptize us with fire, that will separate the chaff which burn with an unquenchable fire. Repent and you won’t experience these things. Repent and you will remain with the wheat. Repent, and you will avoid God’s wrath.
Read a certain way, it seems as if good deeds will eventually be a measure of salvation. Repent, and you will experience salvation. Do good acts worthy of repentance and you will be saved from the fire. Seems pretty clear. In fact, John even gives us instructions. To the crowds he was teaching, he said whoever has two coats should give one away, whoever is fed should help feed those without food. To the tax collectors he told them to be fair in their dealings with those they collected taxes from. The soldiers were told to not extort money from those they are expected to protect.
Essentially, do those things and everything will be A-OK because the fires are close and we want to avoid them. Still, we see again the fires are not necessarily close at hand. The timing of Christ’s return is uncertain. And yet, we prepare for that ultimate if not imminent arrival.
Yet, I do not think God’s grace is a transaction. The reward in our preparation is not just redemption, but the turning of our lives over to Christ. The reward for giving another your extra coat is found in making that person warm. The value in feeding the hungry is easing their hunger. The benefit of turning our lives over to how God would have us serve, to perform acts worthy of repentance, is not the promise of rich rewards and the avoidance of unquenchable fire, but is inherent in the very turning over of our lives.
When we turn our lives over to God, when we act as God wishes, we are being who God wants us to be. Our very nature can shift from one keeping too much, too many coats, too much food, too much of everything for fear of scarcity into sharing the abundant love God has for us as individuals and, most importantly, as a people.
And further, by acting generously towards those without, justly towards all peoples, and without judgement against any, we are preparing the way for the kingdom we so desire to see returned.
And that is what this season is about. Prepare not for some reward in heaven but for the return of the Christ child who will ultimately show us the way. The way to shifting our focus from reward to being.
Being who God wishes us to be.
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