Sermon: Sacred Remembering

Matthew 3:1-12

Sacred Remembering

James Sledge                                                               December 8, 2013 – Advent 2

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” So says John when he appears in the wilderness. Repent has a scary sound to it, but Jesus says exactly the same thing. After John is arrested, Jesus moves from Nazareth to Capernaum and begins his public ministry, repeating word for word what John had said, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” It somehow sounds different when John says it, less inviting in a way. He sounds too much like street preachers and tent revivalist who use “Repent” as an accusation.

Quite literally, the word John and Jesus use means to change one’s mind, with implications of turning away from something that you once thought a good idea, but now see differently. Before the word became an almost exclusively religious one, it could be used without some of the accusatory sense we may hear. In such usage, you could be headed out on a trip, realize you were on the wrong highway, and repent of the directions you were following. And in fact, there a few places in the Old Testament where God repents. In the book of Jonah, God “repents” of plans to destroy Nineveh.

Our gospel reading connects John’s message of repentance to his identity as one spoken of by the prophet Isaiah. “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’ ” According to both Jesus and John, repenting is critical to preparing for God’s new day, the kingdom that has drawn near.

Advent is a season of preparation and expectation. A lot of getting ready goes on this time of year. Choirs prepare special music. Houses and churches get decorated. Special worship services are prepared. Presents are bought and wrapped. Travel plans are made.

There are some big events in our lives, things that require planning and preparation, that point toward big changes coming. Think of all the work and planning that goes into to a college graduation or a wedding. Or consider a couple about to have their first child and all they must do to get ready. They need a crib, a stroller, baby clothes, and so on. And this getting ready is only a beginning. It starts this couple down a road that, for better or worse, will be vastly different from one without children.

What will change as a result of your Advent preparations? Do they start you on a new and different path? How will things be different come January, when all the special services are over, the presents all opened, and the decorations all put away?

There’s no escaping a fair amount of nostalgia at Christmas, and nothing wrong with it. We should look back and remember and rehearse the familiar story of God’s promises, of Joseph and Mary and a birth in Bethlehem. A big part of Christian faith is remembering, but faithful remembering, sacred remembering, is more than just nostalgia.

Faithful, sacred remembering is a remembering that opens our eyes to a future we would not have glimpsed otherwise. It is remembering that reveals to us the character of God, the way God moves in history and interacts with humanity. It is a recalling of the past in order to envision a new and different future, which is why it is critical that we remember John’s – and Jesus’ – call to repent, to change.

The story of Jesus is the story of something that has happened, but is still to come; a story of the already but also of the not yet. Faithful remembering, sacred remembering, joins us to both the already and the not yet and reshapes the future according to the purposes of God.

Not all remembering works this way. As a child I lived in both North and South Carolina, and I witnessed my share of remembering. The phrase “Forget, Hell!” with the image of a gray-haired Confederate soldier holding a battle flag was quite. But there was nothing faithful, much less sacred, about this remembering. This profane remembering “forgot” the central role of slavery in the Civil War, and the future that emerged from this remembering was one of segregation, racism, lynchings, and hatred that remains to this day.

Faithful, sacred remembering leads to a very different sort of future. And sacred, Advent remembering calls us to prepare for something more than a celebration that gets packed up and carried to the attic come January. Advent remembering focuses us more diligently on the new future Jesus’ birth heralds. And that cannot happen without changing, without repenting and adjusting our path to align it with the one Jesus walks.

When John calls on people to change, to repent and get ready for God’s new day, some of the good, religious folks come out to see what all the commotion is. And John lets them have it. He accuses them of unfaithful, profane remembering. “Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor.’ Do not claim the stories of God’s faithful acts in the past if they do not direct you into God’s future. Discover a faithful remembering that shows up in changed lives, lives that bear(s) fruit worthy of repentance.” 

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Just over a week ago, Pope Francis created quite a stir with the release of his first, major papal document, “Evangelii Gaudium.” Bits of it immediately went viral online, and a front page headline in The Washington Post read, “Pope decries ‘trickle-down’ economics.” The excitement around this new pope has greatly improved the Church’s image in the world, and not just the Catholic Church. The pope’s faithful remembering, his recalling Jesus’ humility and God’s special concern for the poor, the weak, and the vulnerable, has envisioned a new future, this seems to me very much about the fruits of repentance, born of sacred remembering.

As we move through Advent, any faithful, sacred remembering surely will recall that the story of Jesus’ birth speaks of a day when the poor are lifted up and the powerful brought down, when the hungry are filled with good things and the rich are sent away empty. And this remembering will take place alongside holiday celebrations marked by conspicuous consumption, calls to buy more and more, and tables piled high with food and drink.

In such a context, how will this year’s Advent remembering change your and my path just a bit, aligning it a little more with God’s future? What newness will emerge from our sacred remembering?

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While looking for something else the other day, I stumbled across this little piece by Ann Weems entitled “New Shoots.”

Born in the light of the Bright and Morning Star,

    we are new.

Not patched, not mended… but new

    like a newborn…

    like the morning…

The guilt-blotched yesterdays are gone;

    the soul stains are no more!

There is no looking back;

    there are no regrets.

In our newness, we are free.

In the power of God’s continuing creation,

    we are:

    new shoots from the root of Jesse,

    new branches from the one true Vine,

    new songs breaking through the world’s deafness.

This then is a new day.

New shoots, new branches,

    new songs, new day…

Bathed in the promise of God’s New Creation,

    we begin![1]

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[1] Ann Weems, “New Shoots,” Searching for Shalom (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1991), 56.