January 13 sermon - Born Again To Be Noticed

In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: “A voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for Him.’” John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come One Who is more powerful than I, Whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will clear His threshing floor, gathering His wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” (Matthew 3:1-12)

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

     “Born To Be Wild.” What a song. It was released in 1967 and sung by Steppenwolf. Some people have called it the first “heavy metal” song - can I mention heavy metal music in a worship service? (And, believe it or not, there is Christian heavy metal music!) You can look it up on You Tube if you’re at all interested. But back to “Born To Be Wild.”

Get your motor runnin'

Head out on the highway

Lookin' for adventure

And whatever comes our way.

     And it goes on to say:

Like a true nature's child

We were born, born to be wild.

     I read about John the Baptist, and I thought about this song, and it seemed to me that John the Baptist would have approved! I mean, the guy ate bugs and he had a wardrobe that would have made him stand out in the crowd. If there’s such a thing as a “wild man” John the Baptist might have been it. Back in 1965, Charlton Heston offered one of the best film portrayals of the Baptist ever. Here’s a look at it, in a two and a half minute video from You Tube:

     That was John the Baptist, in a pretty good portrayal by Charlton Heston. And he was wild - which meant, basically, that he was noticed. Being noticed had some unfortunate consequences. The man ended up having his head cut off and brought to Herod on a silver platter. Being noticed comes with a price. Years ago, I used to spend a fair bit of time in downtown Toronto. I used to see on a regular basis a John the Baptist type standing at the corner of King and Bay (the financial heart of the city; some would say the financial heart of the country.) Unlike John the Baptist he was nicely dressed, and I never saw him eat a single bug, but he did get noticed, because he would spend his time shouting at the well-dressed, wealthy, powerful folks passing him by (and some of the not so well dressed, not so powerful and not so wealthy folks, because he didn’t seem to play favourites) “Repent! Repent!” I’m not sure that anyone ever took his message to heart, but people noticed him. There’s no doubt about that.

     I don’t want to be John the Baptist. I wouldn’t look good in a camel hair shirt. And locusts? Well, they’re probably full of protein, but … I don’t think so. But I do still want to think about John the Baptist as an example of living out faith and living out one’s call from God. We live in a society that has become conditioned to the idea that somehow faith should be restricted to the private realm. It’s not to be a public thing. Go to church if you want, but don’t bother me with it. And it’s my honest opinion that we too often look for excuses to avoid God’s call on our lives rather than looking for opportunities to fulfil God’s call on our lives.

     If John the Baptist was “born to be wild,” then it seems to me that we are called to follow in his footsteps. We might not be “born to be wild,” but I would say that perhaps we’re “born again - to be noticed!” John the Baptist called people to God, and so are we called to do that. Certainly not with the same strategy. “Repent you bunch of snakes” probably won’t get much of a hearing in the modern world, but we have opportunities to call people to God and to bear effective witness to Jesus, if we take advantage of them. We shouldn’t be anonymous doers of good. Instead, we need to make sure that we’re noticed in such a way that we make sure people understand that the good we do isn’t just for the sake of doing good, but that it represents our way of fulfilling God’s call on our lives. We shouldn’t hide our faith - we should live it in such a way that people come to know, through us, the love and care and compassion and mercy of God. Too often, our  culture conditions us to adopt an attitude of what might be called “easy-believism.” Just believe, and you’ll never have to think about it or talk about it again. That seems to be the message that’s even crept into the church. The church becomes the place to be Christian, in the rest of the world we just don’t talk about it.

     Here’s why John the Baptist is a good example for us. He would have talked about it. No one could have stopped him. It should be our privilege to be noticed for Christ and to offer people the good news of God and God’s grace.