I
have a confession to make. I am a fan of
the TV show Grey’s Anatomy. For those of
you who have not seen the show, Grey’s Anatomy is another one of those hospital
dramas that follows the lives of doctors through the drama of medical and
personal lives. I started watching this
show not because it is the most popular show on television right now, but
because in seminary Thursday night, which is when the show airs, was our
fellowship night in the dorm where I lived.
We cook and eat a meal together and by the time we got done, Grey’s was
on so we stick around and watch. Twenty
highly educated seminarians of every age and race sitting around watching what
amounts to a soap opera. But it makes good television. I bring that up because a scene from a recent
episode struck me and has been on my mind for over a week now. In that episode, two ambulances crash outside
of the emergency room leaving one group of paramedics dangling upside down in
their overturn ambulance. One of the
paramedics is expected to die. His wife
is a nurse at the hospital. Meredith
Grey, the star of the show, is given the task of bringing the wife to say
goodbye to her husband. While the
husband and wife are saying their goodbye, Meredith Grey comments to the chief
of surgery a few feet away, “This is who I am for her now. This is where our stories crossed. We worked together in the hospital for over a
year and I never knew her. And now I am
person who told her, her husband was going to die. That is who I am in her story.” “That is who I am in her story.” A very interesting phrase. That got me thinking, “who am I in people’s
stories?” Not the long term stuff, friend,
fiancé, pastor, but who am I to those random people I have met. You know those people who only know me
because I am the guy who knocked over the display in the grocery store or fell
going up the stairs at my apartment when they were people waiting for me to get
out their way. Who are we? Where do our paths cross?
There
is no doubt where John the Baptist’s path crosses those who hear his message. Shut your eyes and imagine the man. Clothed in camel’s hair with a leather belt
eating locusts and wild honey. Hear his
voice as he proclaims, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven
has come near.” “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” “You brood of vipers! Who warned you
to flee from the wrath to come?” He is the kind of person you would remember
meeting. He is the kind of person whose path
you might not want to cross. From
a biblical perspective, though, John the Baptist is and was vital to
proclamation of the gospel. He really
did prepare the way for Jesus Christ and his message to come into the
world. His message of repentance
prepared the way for the message of repentance, forgiveness, and grace that
Jesus would bring into the world. In
fact, this line I just read from Matthew 3:2, “repent, for the kingdom of
heaven has come near” is repeated word for word by Jesus in Matthew 4:17.
This
message of repentance is not one that we like to hear. Repentance has to do with sin and sin is
definitely not something we like to talk about.
Which has always been ironic for me, since Christ was sent into this
world to save sinners, not perfect people, as if those could exist. And that is why this John the Baptist is so
important because he reminds us of sin.
He reminds us of our sins. He
reminds us that Jesus Christ came into the world to save us, all of us. And it is particularly when we forget this,
that the church and the world suffers.
The Pharisees and the Sadducees represent the cost of this
forgetting. Leaders of the religion
detached from a sense of their own sinfulness.
Indeed, John calls them out specifically, saying “You brood of vipers!
Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Bear fruit worthy of repentance.
Do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our ancestor';
for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to
Abraham.” They are not anything special
because they are priests, Pharisees and Sadducees. God can raise up anyone to do what they
do. But they need to have the right
heart. The heart that knows that they
have sinned, that seeks repentance, and that turns to good. The Pharisees and the Sadducees remind me of
that line from Shakespeare’s Macbeth, “False face must hide what false heart
doth know.” The Pharisees and Sadducees,
and then I would turn this around on us too, were scared that acknowledgment
of their imperfection and sin would bring judgment and preclude them from a
life of faith and ministry. And that is
just wrong. It is by our acknowledgment
of sin that we are forgiven and prepared to bear fruit as John says. It is by knowing that we are sinful and then
knowing that we are forgiven in Jesus Christ that we have faith. God loves us so much.
I
read an article Billy Graham recently wrote that makes a pertinent point
here. He was asked: What do you think is the greatest
need in our churches today? Do you think it's better preaching, new styles of
worship, more youth work, or what? His
answer was this:
“I'm convinced that the single
greatest need in most churches today is spiritual revival - for a renewed
commitment to Jesus Christ and a greater desire to do His will, regardless of
the cost.
How does
this happen? It must begin with an awareness of our spiritual poverty - an
acknowledgment of our sin and our emptiness before God. It is no accident that
Jesus' first words in the Sermon on the Mount dealt with this truth:
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven"
(Matthew 5:3). This must lead us to confession and repentance, asking God to
forgive us and turn our hearts toward Him.
Spiritual
revival also means seeing the world the way God sees it, with all of its
brokenness and rebellion and heartache - and then asking God to use us to touch
it for Christ. When we are concerned only for ourselves, our lives and our
churches will grow cold and stagnate - but when we become burdened over a world
that has lost its way, then God can begin to use us.”
I respected Billy
Graham before I read that answer. I
respect him more now because I did. What
he recognizes is that the sin and brokenness of this world, of which we are all
part, is both the greatest thing that defines us outside of Jesus Christ and
the greatest motivator in Jesus Christ.
It is because we, ourselves, have experienced the brokenness and the
heartache of the world and have sought forgiveness that we are sent out into
the world. Not because we are prefect,
but because we are broken. That is how
John the Baptist prepares the way. He
reminds all of us of that one commonality that unites the world. We are
sinners. We live in a broken world, full
of heartache and difficulty. And maybe,
if we take the brokenness serious enough we will reach out to help all those
others going through what we are going through.
Many of you
have been following the story over the last few weeks of “Operation Holiday
Homecoming.” The operation is an effort
to bring home 2600 soldiers to spend Christmas at home with family before being
deployed to
In our
community there are others that need help.
Within three miles of this church are the most affluent community in the
state and some of the most poverty stricken areas. We are in the center. There is a diversity of needs. For us to
reach out to this community, we have to see them. We have to see their struggle. To see their struggle as our struggle.
Divorce, drugs, poverty, whatever the heartache, whatever the brokenness, we
have to see them. Remember Billy
Graham’s words, “when we become burdened over a world that has lost its way,
then God can begin to use us.” Who are
we for these people? Where do our
stories cross?