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Third Sunday in Advent
December 17, 2006 Sermon by The Rev. Bill Van Oss, Rector
 Readings       

Have you ever received a wake up call? I’m not talking about the wake up call you receive at a hotel when you need to be up for an early meeting. Wake up calls happen all the time – and, often, they are difficult and painful.

  • A man who has been inactive for decades suffers a heart attack.

  • A teenager, distracted with trying to change the music, gets into a car accident.

  • An alcoholic blacks out and wakes up in jail.

  • A woman needs to be hospitalized after taking a few too many pain pills that she needs to help her feel “normal.”

  • A husband comes home one night to find a note from his wife, telling him she needs some time and space.

  • The bills arrive at the beginning of January and there’s just no way to pay them.

  • You’re driving home one evening feeling sorry for yourself, about how difficult your life is, and you see the man sleeping in a doorway on a freezing night.

Wake up calls come in all sorts of ways. The ones I’ve mentioned are all quite dramatic; some wake up calls are less so – like a college student accustomed to getting all “A’s” in high school receiving first semester college mid-term grades and getting all “C’s.”

But the one thing “wake up” calls have in common is that they’re startling, shocking even. They jolt us awake from our sleep. They call us to change, but this is no mere change of mind and heart, no simple “feeling sorry for my sins.”  This is a metanoia, a complete “turning around”. Wake up calls call us to conversion, turning our life around, reorienting our life and our priorities, turning toward God.

John the Baptist issues a startling “wake up call” in today’s Gospel. It’s difficult to miss. “You brood of vipers! Wrath is coming! Repent! The ax is lying at the root of the tree. The winnowing fork is at work, separating wheat from chaff, and the chaff is burned!”

John the Baptist is calling the people to conversion, to turn their lives around. “The kingdom of God is coming,” John proclaims. Turn your face toward God. If you continue to sleepwalk through life, you’re going to miss it, “you’ll miss God’s coming.” God is breaking in.

And the people heed John’s wake-up call. They come to him, out there in the wilderness, expecting some spectacular event or some grand revelation. They ask: “What then should we do?”

And what does John tell them?

  • Share, be generous

  • Be honest

  • Be kind and just

  • Be satisfied, be able to say “enough”

Having received this startling wake-up call, this fiery call to metanoia, to conversion, the response seems so simple: be generous, be honest, be kind, be satisfied.

But isn’t that how it works with conversion? Conversions happen through small steps, tiny changes practiced day after day. Conversions almost never happen all at once.

  • The man who had the heart attack begins to walk each day

  • The teenager leaves the music off in the car so as to pay closer attention

  • The alcoholic begins to attend “AA” and to live sober one-day-at-a-time

  • The woman admits she has a problem with pills

  • The husband asks his wife to attend counseling with him

  • The family decides to create a budget and to live by it

  • And, we who sometimes feel sorry for ourselves realize how blessed we are and begin to live more grateful lives

  • Tiny steps toward the life God intends for us

  • Be generous, be honest, be kind & just, be satisfied, and you will be ready, you’ll be prepared for the coming Kingdom of God.

“Wake up!” the Baptizer cries, “The kingdom of God is at hand.” “Prepare.” “Turn your lives around, the 3rd candle is burning on your wreath.” “The Savior is on the way.”

Take the steps you need to take to make your heart ready for God’s arrival, for God desires to be born in you.

      
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