The Sermon Text —Gospel - Luke 3:1-6

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high_priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,

‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:

"Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.
Every valley shall be filled,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth;
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God." ’

There are so many things that are unique and attractive about this period of the year. Let’s look at a few. I’ll start with the obvious – gift giving. We bring gifts to people we care about. Are you at the place in life where you really enjoy giving more than receiving? I’m not saying receiving isn’t fun, but giving, picking out something special for a special person is wonderful. If not for the tradition of the season, some one us wouldn’t do it.

Gift giving began with the Magi – who brought gifts for the Christ child. Gift giving started with Christians. Today, of course, gift giving is universal. You don’t have to be a Christian to give gifts.

Another appealing part of this season is giving to the poor. This too has its origins in the church. It is a 12 month endeavor for us and other Christians – such as the Salvation Army. Yet at this time of the year many people and organizations join to alleviate suffering, poverty and hunger. A TV station collects coats for kids; the Marine Corps runs Toys for Tots. In Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, where Sally and I lived for 15 years, book stores collect books, the Exchange club distributes bikes they have repaired, another group collects boots...and they are all distributed by a group called – Christmas Outreach. Similar things happen in the Madison community.

Another delight of this season is its music. There is no season that has produced more beautiful music than Christmas. It began the night of the birth of the Christ child when angels sang on the Bethlehem plain. "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace..."

Our gospel today comes from the musical section of Luke’s gospel. If you open your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke and look at the first three chapters you will see many indented passages. They indent to distinguish the poetry from the prose. Thus in chapter one the words of Elizabeth, the angel Gabriel, Mary, and Zechariah are all indented. Each of what they say is poetry. I think that some of the poems were actually hymns that were sung. We’ve lost the tunes, but not the words. In chapter three we find the piece that we read today. Perhaps another hymn, this one from the Old Testament prophet Isaiah – "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord." This passage really ought to be sung, and in fact, we will in just a few moments, at the hymn of the day.

Music and Christmas go together like love and marriage. Today, you get to listen to some wonderful sacred music. Church choirs across the city and our state are doing similar things in the days ahead. So are our church colleges, who have perhaps the finest musical traditions in the country.

Churches are not the only ones who make music. The Madison Symphony orchestra has a Christmas Spectacular honoring the wonderful musical tradition that Christianity has engendered. The reason they perform is a bit different than the reason we perform, but they help make music a huge part of this season. Nearly every major recording artist has released a Christmas album. Even Jewish musicians such as Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond have a Christmas album. There is even an album out called Punk Rock Christmas and Jingle Punx by a group called "Massive Hernia." What next – Snoop Dog rapping "O Come All You Faithful?" or Metalica playing, "Silent Night?" Music helps to make the season bright, and many groups join in making music.

There is one thing on our list of things that make this season special that remains our task and our task only. Listen to these words from our gospel today: The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. It is the task of telling the story. It is the task of announcing good news. That is not something we can farm out to someone else. The Christmas tree in the state capital, the singing of "O Little Town of Bethlehem" by the Madison Symphony Chorus, the massive giving of gifts by business and charitable individuals – all of this we share. But we cannot share the task of telling good news in a world so desperate for good news. That is our task and our task alone. What is the good news?

For all those who are on a journey seeking the truth the good news is: The truth will find you. We have lost our capacity to find God, the ultimate truth. We plan to seek the truth, but we end up not doing it, or not doing it well. We don’t plan to do evil, but we do. We plan to get out lives organized, but we don’t. We plan to put our priorities straight – but we don’t. We plan to be in touch with God – but too often we just don’t get it done. Christmas tells us that rather than wait for us to get it together, rather than wait for us to find Him, God entered our world to find us. C.S. Lewis calls this "The Great Invasion." Since we didn’t or couldn’t visit God, God visited us.

God came to make sure we understand that we are important. He created the world for us. Society says: "If you produce, you are valuable." God arrives with the message that we are valuable simply because we belong to God. We are irreplaceable, whether we are successful or not.

Let’s say you have two children. One makes a lot of money. The other barely gets by. Do you love your so-called successful child more than your less financially successful child? Of course not! Neither does God. This is about relationships, not about production.

In this society we teach people to grow up, and to become mature. God tells us that to him we will always be like little children. In fact he encourages us to be like little children. He encourages us to trust like a child, to wonder like a child, to love like a child.

In our society we are told over and over again: the future is in your hands. Christmas tells us that the future is in God’s hands. It also tells us the future is good. God has made a plan for our future. The plan isn’t about stuff; the plan is about relationships. Here is the plan: we will be with God. We are God’s children, we have been sealed with the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever.

You and I are commanded to invite people who have no faith community to connect with us. We need to be clear: we are a flawed community. We are far from perfect, but we want others to know that if they like music, they will probably like us. This time of the year it is rather easy to make the invitation. "Come and hear the music," we say. But remember, the music doesn’t stop once Christmas is over. We do it every Sunday of the year.

We also make invitations to people who like helping people this time of year. But please note, this is not a December activity for us, we do that all year long. Our food pantry is open 52 weeks of the year, not just around the holidays. This is not to make light of what others do seasonally. We say, welcome aboard. But when they go out of business, we keep on going. We continue to feed people every week. Our crew, led by Bob and Peg Hoekenga, know that people are just as hungry on the 24^th of January and the 24^th of February as they are on the 24^th of December. So, we invite people to connect with us to feed people all year long.

We are in business all year working with men with chronic mental illness, and young single mothers, and children who need tutoring, and those who face eviction, and those who are trying to go straight after some time in jail. These are 12 month activities. Come join us.

But above all, join us when we share good news...the good news that God has entered our dark world and let the light of truth and hope shine. Join us as we remember the great promises: nothing can separate us from the love of God. Nothing. Join us as we rehearse the good news: God has entered our world and made the impossible possible. Amen.

© 2006