Sermon by The Very Rev Chris Yaw, 12/7/2025, Advent 2
Matthew 3: 1-12
Dearest Holy and Blessed Saints of God!
In an attempt to assuage your insatiable curiosity about just one of the many questions that spring into that razor-sharp mind of yours following the Gospel reading you just heard, let me assure you that:
Locusts are a fantastic source of protein and essential nutrients!
And the key to making them palatable is ensuring they are thoroughly cleaned and cooked until perfectly crisp.
Step One - assuming you've already successfully enticed, captured, and incarcerated one cup of live locusts - is that you bring your vegetable stock to a rolling boil in a medium pot.
Step Two - is to quickly drop the live locusts into the boiling stock - and since locusts don't really like this, you must be prepared for the occasional survivor and be as determined as Pete Hegseth to ensure the task is completed... I know... fog of war...
Step Three - After 3 minutes, quickly drain the locusts and rinse them in cold water. This, they would like, had not their souls so recently departed…
Step Four - Remove the undesirable parts of the locusts - which includes twisting off their heads, peeling off their wings, snapping off the long, spiny back legs, and pulling out the black, threadlike digestive track - that is, unless you want to eat what they just ate.
Step Five - Toss the carcasses into a frying pan of 2 tablespoons of shimmering, hot olive oil, stirring continuously for 3-5 minutes, or until they are golden brown and audibly crisp!
And the last step is to remove them from the frying pan onto paper towels to drain the excess oil - then salt to taste, serving them warm with, perhaps, a squeeze of fresh lemon juice, and paired with a mellow chardonnay.
Now, if that sounds appetizing, you too, can be a prophet!
And not just any prophet - after all, John is dead and gone - rather ironic that he came onto the scene as a peasant in the desert who didn't have enough money for a $5 meal deal - and departed this earthly life in a royal palace - on a silver platter! At least part of him...
But I digress - back to your questions - and that quizzical character, John the Baptist...
If we go back as Jews, 2,000 years to that place and time, we would be very familiar with the holy books of the time.
One such book would be Malachi - he was a prophet - you can find that book today - it's the last book in the Old Testament.
And the last words of the last book of the Old Testament set the scene for John the Baptist - Chapter 4, verse 5, reads:
"See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents, so that I will not come and strike the land with a curse."
Yep - that's how the Old Testament ends - God's promise to send one of the 2 people in the Old Testament who never died - but were carried up to heaven - can anyone here name them? Or at least one... (it's Enoch and Elijah!)
So the sending of the prophet Elijah - if he never died, then he was free for God to send!
And guess what Elijah famously wore?
2 Kings tells us he wore a camel's hair coat and a leather belt.
I have heard many of you question John's sartorial penchant - so I want to remind you that a camel hair coat and leather belt were what ascetics wore.
You see me in a stole and alb - and your mind says: Priest!
You see a cop in a navy uniform and badge: police officer.
You see Honolulu blue numbers on a white football jersey and you WISH you saw Superbowl winners...
But you get my point: anyone in 1st century Judea who saw such a man, in such a get up would instantly think: Prophet - and maybe even Elijah - and maybe even a coming Messiah.
And that, my friends is why Jerusalem and all of Judea were coming out to the Jordan River.
To see the return of Elijah - the precursor to the coming of the Messiah - as predicted by the prophet Malachi - and whose harsh words and themes would not just be the words of the Forerunner - but of the Messiah.
Did you notice the first words of John the Baptist' sermon?
It's here in Chapter 3: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near!"
If you turn the page, to the very next chapter, Matthew 4, when Jesus gives his very first sermon, and what are his very first words:
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
We will also hear Jesus echo John's themes of division - good trees will stay, bad trees go into the fire; good wheat goes into the granary, the chaff goes into unquenchable fire.
Now hear Jesus in Matthew 13 - we have wheat separated from weeds, that get burned up - you remember that story.
In Matthew 25 we have wise virgins awaiting entrance into the wedding feast - separated from foolish virgins who don't get in.
And further in Matthew 25 we have the separation of the sheep from the goats - those who follow Jesus' commands to care for others go to God's presence - and those who don't go to that other place.
Why this literary proclivity? Is Jesus trying to scare us into submission? Guilt us, shame us, threaten us because that's what any good religion is all about?
Perhaps... but I find it more helpful as a chilling reminder of one of the greatest gifts God ever gave us - maybe even THE greatest gift: our ability to choose!
Freedom! To choose.
Locked up and forced into labor at a Nazi death camp for years, writer and psychologist Viktor Frankl emerged from that time to pen a best-selling book many of you have read: "Man's Search for Meaning."
And he articulated, better than most, following reflection on his years as a P-O-W - as fellow prisoners died all around him every day: that the Nazis had taken away his family, his home, his possessions - but one thing they would never, ever get - and he would never, ever surrender: his choice to respond to his circumstances.
Your happiness: your choice.
Your contentment: your choice.
Your commitment to follow Jesus: your choice.
Life is too short to play the blame game, the victim, and the "put-upon."
I know it's not always that simple - but don't tell that to John - his words were harsh!
Have you ever tried to awaken a teenager? I do, on a regular basis -
And I don't go in with a peacock feather to tickle his chinny, chin, chin - won't work -
Neither will a whisper or gentle touch on the shoulder. Awakening such a species takes bright lights, heavy metal, and a 6.9 earthquake shake of the mattress.
Why the Baptist's hyperbole?
He was all about getting up and going on, standing up and moving ahead - about you and me making the right choice to choose God - which is love - to love ourselves and others - to serve ourselves and our neighbors.
Had any wake up calls lately?
Watch out - it's Advent - What's God awakening you to today?
------
Another way I've found helpful in interpreting these difficult, terse, verses, is to take them not as angry rants - but as helpful advice.
Here's what I mean...
If I tell you not to sit on the charcoal grill - I yell at you - I antagonize you - I throw a raw steak at you - Then you, of course, can berate me for telling you how to live:
"Don't you tell me where I can or cannot sit!"
But you can also thank me for keeping your derriere free of grill stripes.
If I tell you to put your convertible top up at the car wash - you can yell at me for infringing on your freedom.
But you can also thank me for not ruining your 8-track tape player.
In other words - John's rawness and anger may be expressions of his deep compassion and commitment to love and justice. Perhaps John wants to awaken us to the reality of suffering in and around us - and kick us in the pants so that something can be done.
25,000 Russians were killed in Ukraine last month,
369,000 Sudanese children will die from preventable diseases this year - many due to USAID cuts,
360 Palestinians have been killed since last month's ceasefire in Gaza - they join 70,000 other Palestinians who have died.
And, this morning more than 50% of the children who live in Detroit are living under the poverty line!
Does this upset you? Or is there some other injustice that's got you wound up or ticked off?
Because it's suffering - it's suffering like this, that we may be paying attention to or not, that fueled the fervor of John the Baptist, and lit a fire underneath all the people who came out to wake up.
John's message was directed at a system that wasn't fair - One that hurt widows, orphans, and those on the margins - while those in power enjoyed feasts and festivities.
And while I always look for one person to blame - I know it's not that simple - and John seemed to sense this - as he baptized all who came to repent - for their part in making this world less than it could be.
John had a way of awakening compassion that is such an integral part of you and me.
The fervor, and radical nature of his message shows us how important it is for you and me to live into who we really are - a people who want to help others - want to share our largess - want to be part of the solution and not the problem - so that we can live our best lives - and so those suffering so terribly in our violent, broken world can find some relief.
Dear beloved ones - Advent is about opening our eyes to the distractions and detours that keep us from being the caring and loving people we are –
So, Jiminy Crickets, let's heed the Baptist's cry – OK, not his diet or dress - but let us take very seriously God's work of waking you and me up to compassion, care and love - it's for ourselves and for untold numbers of people around us.
Amen.