One Episcopal Church rector's recent Advent sermon (about 21 minutes, an MP3 download).

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Episcopal Church (TEC) • * Christian Life / Church Life • Church Year / Liturgical Seasons • Advent • Parish Ministry • Preaching / Homiletics

Of those things reported in the Scriptures that strain credulity, from the perspective of 21st-century America, it is not so much the miracles that pose a problem, but, I would suggest, the popularity of John the Baptist and his message of repentance. Can you imagine such a thing? We have officially entered the silly season of American politics with 2008 presidential campaigns – we're getting a good taste of it this weekend here in South Carolina – but can you imagine any of the candidates taking a John the Baptist approach to winning the electorate's affections, taking up John's style of slash-and-burn oratory?

Not only is it difficult to imagine a politician taking such a tack, the call to a penitent life is rarely to be heard in the church these days. Indeed, America's most popular preacher, with perfect hair and a smile that brings well-deserved glory to the modern practice of cosmetic dentistry, channels not so much John the Baptist as Norman Vincent Peale and a "gospel" of self-affirmation and positive thinking – which is no gospel at all. And we eat it up. Flatter me, coddle me, affirm me - but don't tell me I am wrong down to my very roots, that to be fit for the Kingdom of Heaven my life will have to be completely re-thought from the inside all the way out.

But that is just what John came preaching. And of course, it's a sermon not unique to that wild man John. If we were to read ahead to the next chapter of St. Matthew's gospel, we would see that "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand" is exactly the message Jesus proclaimed in his own preaching ministry. [ii] And were we to read ahead to chapter 10, we would see Jesus send his disciples out on their first mission trip and actually provide their sermon text: "Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." [iii] And if we wanted to skip even further ahead, out of St. Matthew's gospel altogether and into the Acts of the Apostles, to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, what is the climactic exhortation of St. Peter's sermon that day? "Repent and be baptized every one of you." [iv]

But that is a difficult message to preach and to hear in our own day.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Church Year / Liturgical Seasons • Advent • Parish Ministry • Preaching / Homiletics