2019-12-08 Peace Can't Wait

Peace Can’t Wait

Matthew 3:1-12 

You can't wait for peace any longer.  

Is there a heaviness to your spirit today.  Maybe you just cannot wait for peace.  Peace is a spiritual fruit.  “Bearing fruit” is the key to John’s message.  The only way to know if there has been repentance is with fruit.  Radical message that being a descendant of Abraham was not enough.  One had to have faith and action like Abraham as well.  John warns against “resting on your laurels.”  It is not enough to just claim Abraham as your Father.  A changed heart has to follow.  “The Christian equivalent of ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ Is ‘We have Christ as our savior.’  While trust in Christ’s salvation is a first requirement, it is not the last” (Douglas Hare, Interpretation: Matthew).

Do you want peace in your life? Bear the fruit of repentance.  

Repentance leads to reconciliation and grows peace.

Think of it like this; you may have a bad memory chip on your motherboard.  While replacing the damaged microchip, you may rid yourself of the defected part, you still can't operate well.  You need something else.  You need a software upgrade.  It’s a two-step process.  

Repentance (The Renewing of the Mind)

Let's start with the message of John the Baptist from today's Gospel lesson.  John meets us out in the wilderness. 

"I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire."

It's a two-step process.  Clean up and fill up.  You have to clean up before you can fill up.  You may think that the water baptism, the baptism of John, is a clean-up.  The water represents the cleansing power of God.  It also represents dying with Jesus.  It washes us clean as we die to ourselves.  When I die to myself, I give up.  I am in John’s wilderness.  

The wilderness is where we find ourselves after cleansing before we are where God wants us to be.  The wilderness is where we learn who God is and who we are to God.  The wilderness is when we are our most rebellious.  The wilderness is where we empty ourselves of the shame, blame, pain, name, and game.  We lay down the shame of past actions and thoughts; we lay down blaming others for our situation.  We lay down pain, physical, emotional, or imaginary.  We lay down our ego and need to have our name blazed on everything.  And, we lay down our game playing that keeps us victimized and everyone else the persecutor.  

The wildness is where we lay down our lives.  If we lay down shame, blame, pain, name, and game, we may be cleansed yet still feel unsettled and powerless to live our life for God.   Left in the wilderness, we may say, "if this is all there is God, then I don't want it."

It's the second part of the message that fills us up.  John baptizes to clean.  Jesus baptizes with Spirit to fill!

Let me run around this tree one more time. 

"The Greek word metanoia, poorly translated as 'repent' in the Bible (Matthew 3:2, Mark 1:15), quite literally means 'to change your mind.' Until the mind changes the very way it processes the moment, nothing changes long term. 'Be transformed by a renewal of your mind,' Paul says (Romans 12:2), which hopefully will allow the heart to follow soon. —Fr. Richard Rohr. "Changing Our Minds." Published on the Center for Action and Contemplation online. March 29, 2016. https://cac.org/changing-our-minds-2016-03-29/

Repentance leads you to change your mind about the condition of your life.  When you change your mind about your life, you lay down all that is a barrier between you and God.  Like a freshly washed, empty coffee cup, you are open to the pour of coffee.  Jesus pours the Holy Spirit. Jesus gives you your second baptism.  

Reconciliation (the indwelling of the Holy Spirit)

We often have been told and say that Jesus comes into my heart.  Jesus sitting on a throne in my heart is a beautiful thought but not biblical.  If Jesus is sitting anywhere, he is seated at the right hand of God the Father as by biblical testimony.  It is the Person of the Holy Spirit that is within us.  Of course, I am splitting hairs because Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are all three the Godhead of the Trinity.  Putting your finger on any part of the triangle is to put your finger on the triangle. 

Jesus taught us that when he leaves that he would send another to be in us.  So, which is better to have Jesus with us or to have Jesus in us as the Holy Ghost?  In the Gospel of John, Jesus breathes the Spirit into his disciples.  In the Book of Acts, the Spirit comes and enters each person all at once. Jesus' baptism is having the Person of the Holy Ghost, burning a fire in your gut.  

We often think of reconciliation as the righting of relationships between people and groups. I am going out on a limb this morning, church until you are in touch with, and until you are nurturing a relationship with the One that lives within you, reconciling with others shall be difficult at best and impossible most of the time.  We need is to pay attention to the One who dwells in us.  Tim Johnson puts the question this way, "Am I intentionally cultivating a deep and profound relationship with the Person living within me?"

If you say no, reconciliation needs to occur in you.  

If you say yes, you already know.

John cleans up the vessel.  Jesus pours in the Holy Ghost.  When John and Jesus finish, God reconciles us.  

Peace (completeness, wholeness, and restoration).

You may be stuck in the wilderness.  You may feel burned out, resigned, just waiting for your graduation to heaven.  Or, you may be singing the old Peggy Lee song, 

Is that all there is?

Is that all there is?

If that's all there is my friends, then let's keep dancing

Let's break out the booze and have a ball

If that's all there is 

Or, like so many Christians, you may think that the church is a social service club.  Here is the Goods News of Jesus Christ.  You do not have to wait for the peace of Christ anymore.   You can develop a relationship with the Person who lives with you.  You can activate the fruit of the Holy Spirit that Jesus has given you.  Paul teaches, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control."  These are the signs that the Spirit is doing its work in you.  Do strangers experience these in you?  More importantly, do the people who know you best and are around you most know you in these ways?  Yes, No, most days, some days?

Do you want to grow the fruit of the Spirit?  Peace, among other things? Intentionally cultivate a deep and profound relationship with the Person living within you.  Repentance is an invitation to a new way of life which is demonstrates the fruit of Spirit. Being a son of Abraham or being born again isn’t enough- your life must change, and your actions must bear out that reorientation. Are you willing to be changed by the good news?  Repentance (Renewing of the Mind) leads to reconciliation (The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit) and grows peace (completeness, wholeness, and restoration).