Sing a New Song” by Rev. Paul
Berghout
Piety
The man called his wife Eve because
she became the mother of all the living. Genesis 3:20
Sing a new song to the LORD. Psalm 98:1
In love, he destined us for
adoption to himself through Jesus Christ, in accord with the favor of his will,
for the praise of the glory of his grace that he granted us in the beloved. Ephesians 1:4C-6
And the angel said to her in
reply, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most
High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy,
the Son of God. And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son
in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; for
nothing will be impossible for God." Mary said, "Behold, I am the
handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word." Luke
1:35-38
Study
Since December 8 was the Second
Sunday of Advent, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary moved to
today. The Church celebrates the conception of the Virgin Mary within the womb
of her mother, St. Anne. Mary’s birth comes precisely nine months later in the liturgical
calendar.
But during Advent, if we were
going to live out the message of the Sunday readings, Mary may be the only better
person we could use as our role model than John the Baptist. Think about the
message we got about John in Sunday Mass and consider how it resonates in our
life if we would only let God’s word be done instead of our own like we hear today in the retelling of the Annunciation story.
Matthew's Sunday Gospel brought
us the excellent Advent reading of John the Baptist as the voice of one crying
out in the desert, “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.”
Today, Mary’s resounding “Yes” brings us the example of one living out that
reality.
How would you like to receive a
Christmas card with the figure of John the Baptist on it, saying— You “brood of
vipers” (Matthew 3:7)?
The expression means malice.
He reminded them of God’s
wrath, which is not the emotion of anger, but God’s holiness that brings judgment
in its train of glory. He says to the Pharisees and Sadducees: Don’t presume or
rely on the privilege that you have Abraham as your father—because a changed
life that produces good fruit is the only thing that shows evidence of God in
your life.
The evidence of God in your
life is a turning away from the “old us,” a letting go of things as we know
them to be sinful or harmful or not beneficial, and waking up to ideas as God
sees them for us.
The only thing that will count
at the judgment will be bearing fruit worthy of repentance, that is good deeds
issuing from a converted heart.
Sue Kidd, in her book, All
Things Are Possible, says that when she reads the news, she often
encounters a headline, characterized by “words in big letters shouting about a
world threat, a crisis, another crime.” But, one day, she read this remarkable
headline: “I Asked Jesus into My Heart.”
Here is the story:
“During the night, dogs had
begun to bark furiously around the home of a local couple. Usually, the dogs’
barking signaled something amiss, that perhaps prowlers lurked nearby. But the
next morning, the couple discovered nothing missing. Instead, someone returned something.
Outside the front door were two car speakers someone stole six weeks earlier. A
note attached to them read like this: ‘I’m sorry that I took your speakers, but
now I have repented my sins and asked Jesus to forgive me. I hope you will
forgive me too. I no longer take other people’s belongings. God changed me. I’m
a new creature since I asked Jesus into my heart.’
It was signed simply, ‘Saved.'”
It could have been signed, “Baptized.” I like “baptized” better. “Saved”
connotes that Jesus delivered us from the power of sin, but Baptism is more
than that. Baptism means that we have put on a new life in Christ. And we are
walking in it and renewing it and renewing it.
James 2:13 teaches that
judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy
triumphs over judgment. No amount of good works can compensate for an
unforgiving spirit.
Of course, on a Christmas card
featuring John the Baptist, he would be wearing clothing made of camel’s hair
with a leather belt—
An author named Craig Barnes
said that the rule of St. Benedict, which is the famously written norms for the
way that Benedictine monks live, states that when the monastic community
welcomes a new novice, they take the person’s street clothes and dress the
newcomer in the novice’s Benedictine robe. But they hang the person’s street
clothes in an unlocked closet so that each morning the person has to make a
decision anew: What identity will I put on? Whom will I be? Whom will I serve?
On the Christmas card, there also
would have to be a drawing of some locus and wild honey as John the Baptist’s
food. I hear that the vitamin content of
locusts is high.
We have disordered appetites by
the consequences of original sin, which is why we daily need God’s grace to
help us. Do you think eating
grasshoppers is gross? Then, consider what
the Catholic writer Flannery O’Conner wrote:
“What people don’t realize is how much
religion cost. They think faith is a big electric blanket when, of course, it
is the cross. It is much harder to believe than not to believe. If you feel you
can’t believe, you must at least do this: keep an open mind. Keep it open toward
faith, keep wanting it, keeping asking for it, and leave the rest to God.”
Sometimes all you can do is
hold hope for someone who has no hope until they can take it and keep it for
themselves—people call this being a "hope-holder."
Action
Lastly, John the Baptist is a
wild character, the last of the Old Testament prophets. He’d be entirely at
home in a survival show, with his camel hair gear and his diet of locusts and
wild honey.
He doesn’t mince words either.
He calls for repentance.
He takes the religious leaders
to the prophetic woodshed for their insincerity, and he calls all of us to
repent.
So, if our Christmas card of
John the Baptist played music or sound—it would speak just one word, “Repent!”
The word “repent” means “to
change one’s mind.”
Repent was the first word of
John the Baptist’s preaching (Matthew 3:1-2).
Repent was the first word of
Jesus’ gospel (Matthew 4:17 and Mark 1:14-15).
Repent was the first word in
the preaching ministry of the twelve disciples (Mark 6:12).
Repent was the first word that
Jesus gave to His disciples after His resurrection (Luke 24:46).
Repent was the first word of
exhortation in the first Christian sermon (Acts 2:38)
Repent was the first word in
the mouth of the Apostle Paul through his ministry (Acts 26:19).
Repentance is about restoring
our relationship with God
The modern ear and the
defensive ego that's listening with it hears the word "repent" and
fails to recognize the voice of God's grace. It sounds like guilt (William J.
Sappenfield).
To repent is about hope. That
is God's answer to our need for on-going conversion and sometimes
incapacitating, tears, and guilt.
Repentance means to “go beyond
the mind that you have” (Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan).
Repentance asks us to consider
the ways we have become captive to outmoded ways of thinking. Repentance frees
us from our will, like Mary, to accept and to do God’s will and to sing a new
song, God’s song, unto the Lord.
How does the incarnation of God
in Jesus Christ confront the status quo in our lives?
Amen.
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