Episcopal Church of the Incarnation

West Point, Mississippi

The Second Sunday of Advent (A)

Isaiah 11.1-10 Psalm 72.1-7, 18-19 Romans 15.4-13 Matthew 3.1-12

May the Lord be in my mind, on my lips, and in my heart, that

I may rightly and truly proclaim His holy Word. Amen.

This past week the Committee on the House of Deputies released its annual report on the state of the Episcopal Church. Nationwide in one year there has been a further 4% decline in the membership of the Church. This number is sobering, and yet we are not really out-of-line with the trends in most denominations, except for the fact that 41% of our decline is people who have left to join other Anglican groups. The average attendance in most churches is down, and the average age of church-goers is up, and these two trends have been pretty constant for years. So what’s going on? Is this what John the Baptist is talking about when he rebukes the Pharisees and Sadducees in today’s Gospel; when he tells them “[E]very tree ... that does not bear good fruit is cut down ...”? Perhaps there is another way to ask this question: Is there a correlation between a decline in the Church and a lack of focus on salvation through Jesus Christ?

A day before the release of the committee’s report on church attendance, I received an email message from a friend, which had the simple but attention-getting title, “Help!” I had not spoken with this friend or exchanged a letter with her in almost five years, although we have continued to exchange Christmas cards. She was the organist and choir director at a large parish in New Jersey where Elizabeth and I were once members and choristers. A very gifted musician, she is now at another parish, and therein lies the impetus for her recent cry for help. Her message was a self-described exercise in the venting of anger, frustration and dismay at what she sees to be the hijacking of her church by someone with an agenda; someone who in preaching tolerance and inclusiveness has succeeded in making her feel very much excluded.

Understand that my friend doesn’t have a fight to pick with anyone on any particular theological or social issue. She’s just tired of finding that she is surrounded by people who seem to have a fight to pick with her. So she needed to vent, but in venting posed a question: “What is the most important spiritual need of the average person sitting in a pew today?”

What, indeed. Notice that my friend didn’t ask what the most important issue is in the Church. Good for her, for in focusing on spiritual need rather than on any issue she identified that the Church and each one of us are called to be Christ-centered; Christ-centered and not agenda-driven or issue-oriented, regardless of the merits of any agenda, regardless of the finer points of any issue. Christ-centered. That’s the answer to the question, “What is our most important spiritual need?” That’s the answer to the question people struggle to ask when they vote with their feet and leave. It’s the answer of hope; it’s the answer of Advent. It’s the answer Paul enjoins on the Christians gathered in Rome, to “live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus,” or–to use the active voice of the Greek verb– “according to” Christ Jesus. According to. He’s in charge, and we are to center our lives and worship on Him, by Him, with Him, and in Him.

We are to center our lives on Jesus, and in doing so we are to let the world see that what we do and what we say mean the same thing. Let’s take a look at what we say. The Collect for this second Sunday in Advent recites that God “sent [His] messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation.” So what we’re saying is that the prophets–Scripture–is important; that the Bible has something to tell us about how we are to live in this life, and that in so living we make choices that have an impact on our eternal life. Thus highlighted by the Collect, our Old Testament lesson from Isaiah teaches that the Lord’s rule will extend to all the world. The psalm reminds us that it is the Lord alone who does wondrous deeds, and St. Paul emphasizes “[W]hatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that ... we might have hope.” Again, what we are saying is that God has something to tell us, and that it is a message of hope.

That is what we are saying in the Church this day. What are we doing? Do we in fact act as though God reveals His truth to us, and it is up to us to respond to this truth and follow Him? Let’s take a look at our Gospel for today. The people of Jerusalem and all Judea come out to John the Baptist, to be baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins. Surely in this great number are many with serious sins to confess, but John doesn’t react to them. Instead, he reacts specifically to the Pharisees and Sadducees, calling them a “brood of vipers”. Why this reaction? Why this condemnation of religious leaders who to all outward appearances strive to uphold righteousness? What John condemns is presumption, the presumption of those who would claim that their status justifies them. In this case its the Pharisees and Sadducees, who think that because they are the upholders of the Law they are justified, but fail to recognize that in their practice their faith bears no fruit.

Fast-forward to today: are we bearing the good fruit of faith? The numbers we just looked at, of an ongoing decline in church membership and attendance, would seem to indicate that what we are doing in most mainline denominations is not bearing good fruit. Numbers alone do not, of course, tell the whole story. But the numbers indicate that many people in our pews and outside the Church are not clear about what our message is. We pray that we might heed the warnings of the prophets. We pray that we may forsake our sins, and that in so doing “we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer.” But we act as though being a member of the Church justifies us. We presume to say, “I’m a good church-goer, who worships on Sunday,” or far worse, “I’m a faithful priest, and what I have to say about life matters because I speak with the authority of the Church.” We presume to say these things without looking closely at what fruit our lives of faith bear; without looking closely at whether our witness bears the fruit of people coming to know and love and serve our Lord in Christ Jesus, or merely persuades some people to agree with us about a social issue or agenda. We presume to speak with authority, and then act as though we are free of any authority.

I am reminded of a bishop I once knew. This bishop, now retired, spent his episcopate preaching that much of the faith is false or at best metaphorical only; for example that the virgin birth and the resurrection of the body are mere myths. During his nine year episcopate the membership in his diocese declined 21%, but he’s not finished yet. He still writes and is a regular on radio and TV, where his purple shirt and pectoral cross give him the “authority” to speak as a “Christian leader”. This bishop once became irate when I asked him how he reconciled his teaching with the vow he made at his ordination, in which he said “I believe the Holy Scriptures ... to be the Word of God, and to contain all things necessary to salvation ...” Perhaps he became irate because my question implied that if he wants to believe and teach that Scripture and the faith are wrong he needs to take off his purple shirt.

We presume to speak, but how do we act? Do we act as though we greet our Lord with joy, and give our lives to Him? In Isaiah’s prophecy he speaks of the coming of the perfect king, of the Messiah who shall rule, and of how the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him. He then goes on to describe this spirit, and in doing so lists for the first time in all of Scripture what we have come to know as the gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, fortitude, knowledge, piety and the fear of the Lord. It is by these gifts of the Spirit that we can judge the fruit that we bear. Does our teaching impart understanding and knowledge of our Lord’s will for us? Are we firm in our faith, or willing to accommodate what we say and do to the currents of popular opinion and wish-fulfillment? Do we fear God, in the sense of recognizing that He is in charge, and that he has “sent [His] messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation”? Do we fear God, in the sense of heeding the warnings of the prophets and forsaking our sins?

Advent is a time when we renew our hope, our hope and our faith that the Lord God Almighty is also God with us; that He comes to us and calls us to be with Him. In Advent, then, we refocus ourselves away from any presumption which would say we are OK because of who we are or because of what the Church is, to point to the One who comes. Just as John the Baptist did not focus on his own ministry and prophecy but on the coming of Jesus Christ–on the “one who is more powerful”–so let our lives and ministry point to Jesus and be Christ-centered. Let people know that all that we do, we do for the sake of Jesus Christ; that as the Church has baptized us with water He has baptized us with the Holy Spirit, and that in this Spirit we greet our Redeemer with joy, to bear the fruit of the hope that is within us.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son,

and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.