Sermon Advent 3 (Dec 16)

O God, by whom the meek are guided in judgment, and light riseth up in darkness for the godly: Grant us, in all our doubts and uncertainties, the grace to ask what thou wouldest have us to do, that the Spirit of wisdom may save us from all false choices, and that in thy light we may see light, and in thy straight path may not stumble; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

I will remove disaster from you, so that you will not bear reproach for it.
I will deal with all your oppressors at that time.
And I will save the lame and gather the outcast,
and I will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth.
At that time I will bring you home, at the time when I gather you;

These beautiful lines from Zephaniah, one of the minor prophets of the OT, talks about the restoration of Israel after they had been attacked and dispersed by other peoples over the centuries. God would bring his people home. God would save them.

Such a depiction of God would have been missing from the Slave Bible.

A new exhibit at a Washington, D.C., museum features an abridged version of the KJV Bible. It sheds light on how Christian missionaries converted enslaved Africans to Christianity by teaching them the Gospel... except the parts about freedom, equality and resistance.

According to NPR, Parts of the Holy Bible, Selected For the Use of the Negro Slaves, in the British West-India Islands, is on display at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., and is one of only three known copies of this abridged version. Printed in 1807, the text of the Bible was used by missionaries from England to convert slaves to Christianity. The censored version removed 90 percent of the Old Testament and 50 percent of the New Testament. (from the Root)

Verses that reinforced the institution of slavery were kept. "Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ." (Ephesians 6:5)

Others including Thomas Jefferson have remade the Bible to fit their beliefs. The problem with such selection, is we make the Bible into our image, forcing it to be something it was not intended to be. For such censoring, I believe makes us miss what are important lessons for us today.

You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

John the Baptist’s harsh rhetoric still challenges us today. No one likes to be called a brood of vipers and I wonder how many people would cut his words out from tehri bible (I wonder if it was in the slave bible.). John is not just insulting us, he is trying to get our attention.

Bear fruits worthy of repentance.

The fruit he is talking about is our lives. What fruit do we bear in our lives?

One pastor remembers the fruits of his Grandma:

As far as I know, Grandpa never discovered the secret my grandmother and I shared. Every Saturday she and I whisked into town in her faded blue Ford Torino. As I pushed our cart up and down the aisles of the Red & White, she carefully selected food in duplicate—two boxes of cereal, two jars of peanut butter, two bags of flour—until our cart looked like an abstract rendering of Noah’s ark with its produce and nonperishable food items arranged two by two.

Then we’d check out (an achingly slow process involving a hefty stack of coupons), load the car with heavy paper grocery bags, and drive straight to the town’s food bank, where my grandmother would donate exactly half of everything she’d just purchased. She bought my silence each week with a small candy bar, which was not immune to her rule: one chocolate treat for me, one for the food bank.

I never asked my grandmother whether our weekly grocery run was a direct response to Luke 3. “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none,” and “whoever has food must do likewise.”

“What shall we do?” ask the crowds, tax collectors, and soldiers in this passage. We are more inclined to ask, “Isn’t it perfectly rational, even necessary, to hang on to a fleece pullover for the fall, a down coat for winter, and a lightweight rain jacket for spring?” By situating ourselves in a radically different place and time from John, we think we can wiggle our way out of his demands for ethical living.

The question at the heart of this text—“What shall we do?”—differs significantly from “What shall we believe?” or even “What shall we prayerfully discern as our role in mission?” It differs more still from the question that, if we are honest, we know we have asked: “How shall we interpret John’s words in such a way that we may maintain our comfort while our neighbors suffer?” John’s response is clear. Repentance has to do with ethics, with action, with the Holy Spirit’s compelling us to be God’s hands and feet in the world—with attention to the needs of others rather than preoccupation with our own salvation.

By the world’s measure, my understanding of John’s preaching is more nuanced than my grandmother’s. But no advanced degree in theology will ever come close to her faith. “What shall we do?” the people ask the prophet. Sometimes we like to pretend the answer is complicated. Sometimes it really is. But buying two bags of flour and giving one away is a good start. (Christian Century)

The pastor’s grandmother grasped the Gospel in a simple and yet direct way. She bore that fruit that John talked about. "What then should we do?"

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I think of an economics professor who was traveling through a village in his native country. Famine had devastated the region. He met a woman who struggled to provide for her family by weaving bamboo stools. Her work was excellent, but no bank would ever lend her money to buy materials. The professor gave the woman and several of her struggling neighbors $27 from his own pocket as a "loan." He never thought any more about it — until the borrowers repaid the money in full, and on time.

So the professor began making other loans to groups of villagers. Some used the money — often as little as $20 — to buy another cow or a sewing machine or to expand their rice patties or mustard fields. Most of the borrowers were women.

In 1976, he formalized his loan-making arrangement as the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. Grameen operates on the principle of trust rather than financial capacity: that the poor can be as creditworthy as the rich.

Since its founding, Grameen Bank has lent out around $6 billion to some 6.6 million borrowers who have paid back 98.5% of their loans.

In 2006, the professor who lent $27 to a poor weaver some 30 years ago prior was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to Dr. Mohammed Yunas and Grameen Bank.

Doctor Yunas' ultimate goal: that "one day our grandchil­dren will have go to museums to see what poverty was like."

“Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.” We are called to do likewise. It is to care for our neighbor by living a simple, ethical and moral life.

No matter how we cut it, the ethical calling is clear. To follow Jesus, is to hear the demands of John, for he is not interested in our hesitation. He wants action.

Be it from the crowds, the traitorous tax collectors, or the Roman soldiers.

And from you and me.

Bear fruits worthy of repentance.

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Be humble and kind.

Live and rejoice.

Amen.