2 Advent 2013A

Change. Just earlier today I mentioned a staffing change going on here at St. Paul. We have some changes in our town happening very soon. I’m sure you have some changes in your life or in the lives of those you love. Some of these changes are welcome, others not so much. The Buddha said that all is change, all is in flux; not even from one moment to the next is anything, even the most stable mountain, the same. And the lion’s share of the suffering we inflict on ourselves and others stems from our desire to resist change. The Buddha did not say what the change was leading up to, only that it is. And is constant.

John the Baptizer comes on the scene to say change is coming. And it’s not a comfortable message! He talks about wrath, and the ax lying at the tree, ready to chop. It’s a call to repentance, as you know in Greek metanoia: a change of mind and perspective about their lives and world. The surprising thing is that people are actually coming out to him, in droves even, and in him find a kind of renewal in this ritual called baptism, offering a hopeful view of the future.

A couple weeks ago I shared a view of the future which you might call dismal. After all, the readings were apocalyptic, a healthy perspective to consider now and then. Because unlike the Buddha the Biblical Prophets, including John the Baptist and Jesus, say the change is headed somewhere. It’s not just change for change’s sake. Sometimes that somewhere is frightening: like the Titanic sinking, and there’s a warning call, like John the Baptist today, who says the ax is ready to swing. Where there was once a majestic poplar, soon there will be but a stump. But we’d be remiss if we stopped there. In the Old Testament reading of Isaiah there’s an axed stump, but look closely! There are shoots coming out! And all of those shoots are brimming and bursting with potential life and hope.

We simply do not know when either is going to happen – the ax or the shoot. We just know both are inevitable.

Who says this better than Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life” a movie a watch almost every year about this time?  Jimmy Stewart, as George Bailey, is regular Joe, small town businessman, a good man. His whole life is all about making sacrifices for others, and as director of a Building and Loan he makes risky loans to people and trusts in their innate goodness. When an honest money error lands him on the edge of bankruptcy, and worse, possible scandal and criminal charges, he ponders ending it all. That’s when some divine intervention comes in, and he’s given a chance to see what life would be like if he hadn’t ever been born. What if he hadn’t helped all those people in mundane yet significant ways, with loans to build their businesses and homes; if he hadn’t made interventions which at the time he thought nothing of; if he hadn’t made certain self-sacrificing decisions? That world is now before him. And he does not like what he sees. Suddenly in comparison the world of his real life blooms with significance – AND when he returns from his parallel universe help comes from unexpected places.  He comes back to his own with new eyes. That’s repentance!

While John the Baptizer proclaimed disaster – which did happen, by the way: Jerusalem would be a smoldering pile of ashes within 40 years -- he also saw beyond the stump to the shoot. And that takes repentance. And for us too. Jesus, it turns out, is less of an axe-swinger and more of a “shoot-bearer”! Jesus himself was cut down, but the ax, or the cross, did not have the last word. The tomb miraculously empty did. Just as in the case of George Bailey, we can see God at work to bring about change, but the change that gives a fresh start and a healing space. Just as we look forward to the great day when God restores everything to the immortal hope that is stirring in God’s breast, which Isaiah foresaw: lions and lambs together; the cow and the bear, grazing. Cosmic restoration.

We may not see the grand vision yet. But you have already seen it in miniature in your own life. Maybe just in little shoots. Or if not, you know it’s coming. It’s not just a vain hope, it’s a proven reality. So for any George Baileys out there, repent, change your mind, to see the wonderful life before you.

In Christ. Amen.