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| William Holman Hunt's "The Light of the World" |
Someone’s Knocking at the Door,
Somebody’s Ringing the Bell
Someone’s Knocking at the Door,
Somebody’s Ringing the Bell
Do me a favor and
open the door and let em in.
(Paul McCartney)
Paul McCartney’s song might not be your typical Advent hymn, but it does capture the essence of this morning’s reading from the Gospel of Matthew. It would appear that someone is knocking on the door of our lives. So, will you open the door?
Now, if you open the door, the person knocking could be John the Baptist who wants to warn us that change is in the air. The person bearing this message might seem a bit off-putting. According to Matthew John was an interesting character who dressed in camel skin clothes and toted a lunch pail full of locusts and honey. This is the message John brings to those who open the door: "Change your hearts and lives! Here comes the kingdom of heaven!” (Mt. 3:2, CEB).
So, “You better watch out! You better not cry! You better not pout! I'm telling you why!” Someone greater than Santa is coming to town! John might not be wearing what some might consider his Sunday best, he wants to make sure we’re all cleaned up and ready to go when Jesus comes to town. That is, after all, one of the core messages of the Advent season.
John the Baptist figures prominently in the Advent story because he serves as Jesus’ advance man. He wants to make sure we know that the kingdom of God is about to be revealed. John’s job is similar to the one that prepares for a presidential visit to a community. The President doesn’t just show up on a person’s doorstep without any prior preparation. No, the presidential staff, including members of the Secret Service, goes ahead of the President to make sure everything is ready for the president’s visit. As you might imagine, nothing is left to chance. Even if it’s a last-minute visit! Since John serves as Jesus’ advance man, he wants to make sure we’ve changed our hearts and minds in preparation for Jesus’ visit.
Now, you and I might have a few questions for John. We might want to know more about this king who is coming to town. What kind of king is he? What will this kingdom of heaven look like? After all, there are all kinds of rulers and leaders in our world. Some can be benevolent and honorable, while others might be tyrants. So what will Jesus’ reign look like?
The first thing John tells us is that he, John, isn’t worthy to the shoes of this coming messianic ruler. As great a prophet as John might be, the messiah is greater. While John baptizes with water, which cleanses the outside of a person, the messiah will baptize with the Holy Spirit and Fire, which purifies our inner being while empowering us to live fully in God’s realm.
Isaiah fills in some of the gaps in John’s message when it comes to the identity of this coming messianic ruler. According to the prophet, the one who is coming to reign on earth will bring gifts of wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, and the fear of the Lord. With these gifts in hand, the messianic king will rule wisely and justly. Not only will he rule wisely, but he doesn’t judge us with easily corrupted senses. While human judgments can be skewed by riches and power, these enticements won’t impress the coming judge who will rule on behalf of the poor and the meek (Isaiah 11:1ff).
While John prepares the way by making the path straight for the coming of the Lord, he also wants us to know that this new age will be different from the current one. I know, you’ve heard that one before. Politicians are notorious for making promises they rarely keep. It’s not that they are evil people, it’s just making promises is easier than keeping them! Will things be different this time? That is the question on the hearts and minds of many!
This morning we lit the Peace candle. As we lit this candle, we invited God’s peace to enter our lives so that we could join Jesus in being peacemakers in this world of ours. Jesus spoke of becoming peacemakers in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus declared that “blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Mt. 5:9). So, when John knocks on our door he invites us to embrace the peace of God, so we might be children of God.
It’s true that peace is not present in this world. Wars and violence seem to be everywhere around us. Ukraine might be on our radar, but it’s not the only place where violence and death seem to have the upper hand. John’s Advent message is this: A new age is about to dawn. Someone is coming who baptizes with fire and the Holy Spirit. When he arrives, he’ll introduce a different kind of realm, the realm of God. This realm might start small, sort of like a mustard seed, but over time it will grow and make itself felt. While it will face significant resistance, including the messiah’s death on a cross, that cross will not have the final word. Peace might be slow in coming, but it will come nonetheless as we embrace God’s love that is already present in our world.
Isaiah envisions this coming peace in dramatic terms. He envisions a wolf lying down with a lamb, a leopard with a kid, a lion with a calf, with a small child leading them. This is Isaiah’s vision of the coming heavenly realm that will be marked by innocence, trust, gentleness, and friendship. This might not be the way of the world, but it’s the way of Jesus. If we’re going to embrace the way of Jesus we’ll need to heed John’s warning and change our hearts and lives so we’ll be ready for our baptism with the Holy Spirit and Fire.
How will this coming king enter our world? According to Matthew the Messiah, unlike Caesar or Herod, won’t be born in a palace. Instead, he’ll be born in the little town of Bethlehem. While Matthew doesn’t offer us a creche scene, Luke’s image of the manger might be helpful here. It serves as a reminder that God’s realm is very different from our earthly realms. It’s a reminder to those in the Christian community who value power to control the lives of others that Jesus offers us a different vision of power. Jesus’ vision is that of Isaiah, who envisions a time when nations will beat "their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks." When that happens, God’s peace, the peace that we’ve been called to embrace, will reign on earth as in heaven (Is. 2:4).
Someone is knocking on the door. Will you let them in even if they look and sound like John the Baptist? Are you ready to heed John’s message of repentance in preparation for the coming of God’s realm? This time of preparation, which involves repentance, starts with a bit of self-examination; something many of us struggle with. In this call to repentance, we hear the call to abandon lives of violence, anger, hatred, dishonesty, and slander, while we embrace God's peace, love, and grace. In this there is hope and there is joy, two other Advent themes.
Paul McCartney asks whether we’ll welcome into our lives the one knocking at the door. Charles Dickens, in The Christmas Carol, offers us another vision of preparation. Early in the story, the ghost of Jacob Marley visits his former partner. He comes to warn Scrooge about what awaits Scrooge if he doesn’t change his ways. Marley points to the chains that he carries. These are the chains he forged in life. In death he carries the weight of his disregard for humanity. If Scrooge doesn’t change his ways, he faces a future weighed down with even heavier chains. The good news is that Scrooge has an opportunity to change his life. Will he take it?
We don’t have to embrace Dicken’s vision of the afterlife to hear in it a call to live lives that honor God by caring for God’s creation, especially those who live on the margins of our society. Both Jacob Marley and John the Baptist want us to know that we will be well served if we travel light as we prepare to receive the coming King.
With that in mind we can hear this word from Jesus as found in the Book of Revelation: “Listen, I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come into you and eat with you, and you with me” (Rev. 3:20). Will you open the door to John and to Jesus?
As we ponder how to answer this question, might we attend to this word from Jimmy Carter who wrote a number of years ago: “We are always in the presence of the Holy Spirit, as my sister Ruth seemed to know. Whether the door is open or closed is our decision” (Partners in Prayer, Advent 2004, Dec. 3). So, since “someone’s knocking at the door,” will we let him in?
Preached by:
Dr. Robert D. Cornwall
Minister-at-Large
First Presbyterian Church
Troy, MI
Advent 2A
December 4, 2022
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