A Sermon for the Third Sunday of Advent (Year C)
December 15, 2024
Text: Luke 3:7-18
Now, O Lord, take my lips, and speak through them. Take our minds, and think through them. Take our hearts, and set them on fire. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
This past Wednesday night, we had some unexpected visitors show up to church during our Advent supper and program. We were gathered in the Parish Hall where we had just finished eating our supper, and not longer after I began the program, I looked over my shoulder and noticed someone I had never seen before quietly come inside.
It was a young, Latino man who appeared to be no older than twenty-five.
He had a friendly smile on his face, and I could tell that he was looking for someone to talk to.
So, I stopped what I was doing, got up from my chair, and walked over to greet the man.
By the time I got to the front doors, there were more visitors.
A young woman, probably in her early twenties, carrying a small child who was wrapped up in a blanket, and three other young children who were probably anywhere from four to ten years old.
I asked the man, “How can we help you?”
He spoke very little English.
So, he used his phone to communicate with me.
He typed some words into a translator and showed me the message.
“Can you help us with some food and gas and a hotel room?”
My immediate thought was that this poor family has nowhere to go.
It’s 7:00 at night.
It’s freezing cold outside, and they have nothing.
So, I quickly scrambled and tried to come up with some ways to help.
I couldn’t give them food from the food pantry because they would have no way to cook it, even if they had a hotel room.
But, thankfully, we had some pizza left over from dinner. So, we packed up all the leftovers we had and gave it to them.
It wasn’t much, but at least it was something.
I couldn’t give them a check from my discretionary account because they would have no way to cash it.
But, thankfully, we had some money in the church office we had collected from the Holiday Jubilee last Saturday. So, I gave them enough to help with a hotel room and some gas for their car.
It wasn’t much, but at least it was something.
As they left, they were very grateful.
“God bless you,” they said, and “Merry Christmas.”
And they went on their way.
Later on that night, after the program was over and I had returned home for the evening, my mind drifted to that young family.
“Where did they end up?”
“Did they find a warm place to sleep for the night?”
I prayed that they would be okay.
And, I couldn’t help but think about my own life and circumstances and the fact that my family and I have so much to be thankful for.
We’ve never known what it feels like to be desperate for food.
We’ve never known what it feels like to be desperate for a warm place to sleep at night.
And, as a father, I’ve never known what it feels like to wonder if I’ll be able to provide basic necessities for my family.
The things I complain about not having are so trivial compared to what so many people live with on a daily basis.
It was a truly humbling experience.
And, I’m so thankful that our church was able to serve that young family in the way we did.
We were able to be the hands and feet of Christ for them.
And, they were able to be the hands and feet of Christ for us as well, reminding us in that moment that our call is to love and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbors as ourselves.
In my years as a priest, I’ve found that it’s very easy to become cynical when it comes to helping people in need.
I think it’s something we all struggle with, to be honest.
We encounter someone asking for help, and we immediately think to ourselves, “Do they really need help? Or, are they just looking for a handout?
And, what if they take the money I give them and go and use it do buy something they don’t really need?
People come to the church office almost daily asking for money to help with gas to get to a doctor’s visit or money to help pay the power bill that’s past due or money for a hotel room.
And, so the temptation I have to resist—and it’s really hard to resist at times—is to ask myself whether or not they really need to be helped.
Because, in most cases, there’s no way to know for sure.
And, to be honest, I’m not sure it’s our job to ask.
Maybe it’s our job to simply do what we can to help—trusting that God will see our good deeds of love and compassion as an act of faithfulness.
That’s not to say that we should allow ourselves to be taken advantage of or knowingly give money to someone who’s going to use it for the wrong reasons.
But, it is to say that sometimes, we have to take a leap of faith and trust that what we have to give will be used by God to fulfill his purposes.
The Christian mystic and author, Thomas Merton, said it this way: “Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. That is not our business and, in fact, it is nobody’s business. What we are asked to do is to love, and this love itself will render both ourselves and our neighbors worthy.”
I think what Thomas Merton was trying to say is that acts of love and compassion have the power to transform lives—not only the lives of those who receive that love but also the lives of those who share it.
Actually, I think it’s even more so for those who share it.
They say it’s better to give than to receive, and I believe that’s absolutely true.
Because something happens to us over time when we let go of the need to care only for ourselves and focus more of our energy and time on giving to others—especially those in need.
And the best word I can think of to describe it is joy.
There’s joy in living a life of service to others.
There’s joy in not needing to stop and wonder whether or not someone is worthy of God’s love.
There’s joy in knowing that God is able to use us as instruments of his love and compassion in the world, even in the smallest ways.
In my sermon last week, I talked a lot about the ministry of John the Baptist and his message of repentance.
I also talked about some common understandings we have about the word, “repentance.”
A lot of times, we think it means, “feeling bad for doing bad things” or needing to turn back toward God when we’ve lost our way.
And, while these can certainly be helpful understandings of the word, the actual meaning of “repentance” is to change one’s mind or point of view.
True repentance is less about feeling guilty about the things we’ve done or left undone and more about opening our minds to new ways of thinking.
Our Gospel lesson for this week is a direct continuation of our lesson from last week about John the Baptist and this crowd who comes to him for baptism.
His message to them is a call to repentance.
It’s a call to prepare a place for the one who is coming after him, a call to amend their lives and to open their minds to new ways of being in the world.
The people ask John, “What then must we do?”
“How do we bear fruits worthy of repentance?”
Or, an even better way of saying it might be this:
“How do we live as God is calling us to live?”
John doesn’t mix words.
In fact, he doesn’t hesitate in telling the people exactly what they need to do.
“If you have two coats, give one away.”
“Do the same with your food.”
To the tax collectors who came to be baptized and asked what they should do, he said, “No more extorting the people for more than they owe. Collect only what is required by law.”
To the Roman soldiers who came for baptism and asked what they should do, he said, “No more shakedowns. No more blackmail. And be content with your rations.”
John’s answer is simple.
Don’t be selfish.
Be fair and just.
Take care of one another, and do good.
As I was reading our lesson for today, one thing really stood out for me that I’ve never noticed before about these particular instructions John gives to the people when they ask him what they should do in order to bear fruit worthy of repentance.
Every single one of them is about how we’re called to treat other people.
We tend to think of repentance as turning away from things we consider sinful, as if it has nothing to do with anyone else.
But, John has other ideas.
John teaches us that, in order to bear fruit worthy of repentance—in order to live as God has intended us to live—we have to focus our lives on other people and the way we treat them.
It isn’t easy.
The easy thing to do is to focus only on ourselves.
But God, in God’s wisdom, has shown us the way to experience true joy and peace in our lives.
It can’t be bought or earned or received.
It can only be found in giving.
This is how we really celebrate Christmas.
This is how we prepare to welcome the Christ-child into our midst, by giving of ourselves and recommitting our lives to the work that God has called us to do.
Amen.
The Rev. Eric Mancil 