“Thy Kingdom Come”

Matthew 3:1-12

John the Baptist wouldn’t last very long as the pastor of most modern American congregations. He didn’t dress for success. He seemed to lack basic social skills. His diet was unusual. He wouldn’t make many friends with his prophetic utterances. Just imagine the result if he referred to his Executive Presbyter, some of his colleagues in ministry, or members of the Session as a brood of vipers. Yikes!

But that was John the Baptist’s style, a style reminiscent of Elijah and the other classic prophets of Israel. He spoke God’s truth whether people wanted to hear it or not, and he never, ever pulled any punches in doing so. As the forerunner of Christ he quite clearly let people know what was coming. The Kingdom was at hand. The Day of the Lord was drawing nigh. And for many it would be, in the words of Amos, a day of darkness and not light, full of gloom with no brightness in it. It would be like a man running from a bear only to meet a lion, then after making it safely to his house, resting his hand on the wall, where he suffers the bite of a deadly serpent.

The Messiah was coming, bringing with him the wrath of God’s judgment: the chaff would be winnowed from the wheat, the wheat made pure, and the chaff consumed by God’s purifying fire. The Spirit of God would confront each and every person. Each and every person would have to either choose Jesus or deny him, would have to either opt for citizenship in the Kingdom of God or expulsion from that Kingdom. Those who wouldn’t confront their sins, honestly confess them, and then truly repent of them would be the ones expelled. They would be the chaff destroyed by the fiery wrath of God.

As we move through Advent we need to pay attention not only to John the Baptist’s words but also his style. Advent is the one season in the church in which we are most tempted to overly sentimentalize Jesus. Yes, he was born in Bethlehem, coming to us as a baby. Yes, he grew up to teach and live out the very grace of God. Yes, he was gentle Jesus, meek and mild. But he was much, much more. As one commentator so wonderfully put it, Jesus came to do more than just hand out free lunches and warm fuzzies. He came to announce and live out the Good News of God’s saving love. But the Good News that is the Gospel was and is a sometimes-painful word. It requires choices: Jesus or not, the Gospel or not, the Kingdom or not. Either you’re in or you’re out.

Advent isn’t just about the first coming of Jesus on that Christmas night 2,000 years ago. It’s about so much more than a baby in a manger. We are to celebrate that coming, the coming of Jesus as Emmanuel – God-with-us – the Word made flesh. But we cannot ignore the rest of the Christ-event. We need to celebrate the God incarnate who walked among us as Jesus, teaching, healing, and proclaiming the Kingdom; and Jesus, the incarnate God, dying in our place on a cross. We must celebrate the resurrected and ascended Jesus. And as we often forget this time of year, we are to anticipate his coming again to bring God’s Kingdom in all its fullness.

There again we have to be very careful. We may say with John the Revelator, “Even so, Lord, quickly come.” We may pray for that coming every Sunday when we say together the Lord’s Prayer. “Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done; On earth as it is in heaven.” But like those ancient Israelites addressed by Amos, we must be very careful about what it is we’re asking God to do. Are we inviting upon ourselves a day of darkness instead of that day of light we expect? Are we inviting the winnowing judgment of God, one that separates the wheat from the tares and ends with a purifying fire? Are we ready for Jesus, in all his might and splendor?

Bear with me as I quote some words of caution written by Frederick Buechner about the casual praying of the Lord’s Prayer: “We are asking God to be God. We are asking God to do not what we want but what God wants. We are asking God to make manifest the holiness that is now mostly hidden, to set free in all its terrible splendor the devastating power that is now mostly under restraint… And if that were to suddenly happen, what then? What would stand and what would fall? Who would be welcomed in and who would be thrown the Hell out… To speak those words is to invite the tiger out of the cage, to unleash a power that makes atomic power look like a warm breeze.”

When John the Baptist stood on the banks of the River Jordan preaching repentance as the only legitimate way to honor the coming Messiah, he was preaching to a receptive audience – sort of. Everybody wanted to hear about the Messiah. Everybody wanted to know more about this coming Day of the Lord. Folks were excited about the yoke of Roman oppression being lifted from their backs. They were ready to welcome the new David, and more than ready to be citizens of his worldwide kingdom. If there were a First Century Aramaic version of “Happy Days Are Here Again,” I’m sure they were singing it. They were probably ecstatic about all that Kingdom of God stuff.

But their ecstasy was based on a false assumption. As sons and daughters of Abraham they assumed that their ticket to heaven had already been punched, that for them the Day of the Lord would be a great day of celebration, and that citizenship in God's Kingdom was defined by geography and bloodlines. “Wrong!” said John the Baptist. “Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!” The boundaries of God’s Kingdom are contained within one’s heart, soul, and mind. Citizenship in that Kingdom is dependent on one’s relationship with God. One’s relationship with God is a matter of honesty: honesty with God and honesty with oneself. Sins have to be confronted, confessed, and then repented of. Priorities have to be reordered. Changes – deep inner changes – have to be made. God’s grace is free. It is not cheap.

In a few moments we will be invited to the Table of our Lord. Prior to that invitation there will be a time of silent self-examination. Each of us will be called upon to look deeply within ourselves, confront our sins, confess them, and then repent of them. Once again we will have an opportunity to face up to our ongoing responsibility to reorganize the priorities of our lives, an opportunity to once again put first things first. And as is often the case, there may come a moment of spiritual clarity in which we must face the falseness of some of our assumptions about God’s Kingdom and our place in it. Then and only then will we be ready to take our seat at the Lord’s table. Then and only then can we even begin to dare to say with our Lord Jesus, “Thy Kingdom come. They will be done. On earth as it is in heaven.” Amen.