Rev. Betsy Aldrich Garland
December 13, 2009
Luke 3:7-18

What Should We Do?

Is it Christmas yet? No, we’re still waiting and making ready. There’s no getting to Bethlehem and the sweet baby Jesus without a call to repentance. But if you’re like me, you’re getting a little tired of these John the Baptist wild-angry-man-in-the-wilderness lectionary lessons. We’d prefer to sing “Joy to the World” instead of “The Baptist Shouts on Jordan’s Shore.” We’d rather not be chastised by John when we’re preparing for Christmas. We’d like to have this baby! But the time has not yet come. You see, God is at work to prepare us to open ourselves to love, to clear away anything in the way.

John is a man on a mission, and he’s creating quite a stir. People seek him out, wondering if he is the One they have been waiting for to deliver them from oppression. Their lives are almost impossible under the Roman rule. Messianic hopes are prevalent. Any sign will do. Maybe John is the answer.

But, instead, he lambastes them, calls them a “brood of vipers,” tells them not to count on their being children of Abraham, or good church folks, and reminds them that God can replace them, even with stones, for goodness sake!

So the people ask John this pertinent question, “What then should we do?” John begins with the practical, ethical issues: If you have two coats or enough to eat, share from your excess with those who have none. Be fair in business; don’t cheat or collect undue bonuses for yourself. Don’t use your position to take advantage of anyone; be satisfied with what you have. This sounds like a prequel to the ministry of Jesus, doesn’t it? Which, of course, it is.

Their question, “What then should we do?” reminds me of the rich young ruler, who is missing something in his life, so he asks Jesus, “What can I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus tells him to keep the commandments, and he replies he has done so since he was a child. And then Jesus gives him the ultimate challenge, “Sell all you have and give the money to the poor, and come and follow me.”

But John doesn’t ask that of his followers: only that they be ethical and honest and fair. It seems that this is not enough, however. The people still ponder questions, hope for something more, hunger for something deeper.
Don’t we all? We, too, ask the question, “What should we do?”

What should we do when the baby is finally born and keeps us up all night? Or has a life-threatening fever or a disability? Or has such major behavior issues that we can’t keep him at home? What should we do when the baby grows up to be a teenager and keeps with a wild crowd? Or wants to stay out until 2 a.m.? Or wants to sleep with her boyfriend? What should we do – when we can’t find a job or have no health insurance? Or our parents are aging and need more care? Or our friends are losing their home to foreclosure?

What should we do when the phone rings every day at the church with people looking for rental assistance? Or help turning the electricity back on? Or a bag of groceries because their cupboard is bare?

What should we do when we are barely holding on financially at Edgewood, when more than half of our membership has not pledged for next year, when we are afraid to move ahead with plans for the education building because we are afraid we can’t afford to fix it up.

What should we do?

Joel Barker, who runs visioning workshops for corporations, says:

Vision without action is merely a dream.
Action without vision just passes the time.
Vision with action can change the world.

Perhaps we don’t have to change the whole world – only our part of it, and when we’ve done our part, and everyone else has done theirs, the world is different. In the news this past week was the anniversary story of North Kingstown Cub Scout Patrick Gannon who was concerned about people being hungry. So Patrick proposed that we eat cereal for supper once a week and donate the food and money saved to food pantries. One simple idea from a 10-year-old a year ago fed a lot of people.

What should we do?

Well, I can’t tell you how to live your life. I have enough trouble living my own – figuring out how much I really need -- and how much is superfluous stuff.

I have enough trouble living my own life – deciding how much to pledge to the church and other charities – and how much to spend on my own bills and pursuits, and

I have enough trouble analyzing how I spend my time to see if things on my to-do list advance my goals – or are a waste of my energy. Each of us must sort all this out for ourselves: to clarify our values, to share, to be fair, to be satisfied, as John the Baptist teaches. Each of us is responsible for the integrity of our own actions. Each of us is challenged to go to a deeper level of self-reflection and repentance.

But as your minister, it behooves me to make some observations about our corporate life. I’ve been here a year now, and I notice that, not unlike many churches, we flounder in indecision; we get stuck in anxiety, we give up without ever getting started, we procrastinate in laying concrete plans and implementing them. When are we going to replace the signs? I understand we’ve been talking about new signs for five years! When are we going to hire a part-time sexton? someone asked at my first Deacons’ meeting last year. Well, it hasn’t happened yet!

I suspect it’s not a problem of means – but a problem of courage, of focus, of effort. We all wait for someone else to do it, to save us, to make it happen, like the people who went out in the wilderness to John. Need paper towels in the rest room? Tell Wendy. Is a light bulb burned out? Call Jack. When I was a teenager, my mother left a piece of paper on the kitchen floor to see how long it would take before one of us picked it up. We all stepped over it for a week. Finally, in exasperation, she told us it was a test, and I sheepishly picked it up.

What should we do? I see some promising signs of Advent:

At the Deacons’ meeting this week we learned that 45 percent of our membership has pledged for 2010, a total of just over $88,000. All of you are probably in that number. Of course, we need to do something about the 55 percent we haven’t heard from. They will make – or break – our budget! Would you make a phone call or write a note? Your reaching out might make the difference. “If not now, when?” Jewish sage Hillel would ask.

Also at the Deacons meeting, a Nominating Committee was appointed. So here’s a question: How would you like to contribute your time and talent in 2010? You could speak to Fred or Carol or Pat or me. We’re meeting on Tuesday. “If not now, when?” Wendy and Jack and a few others can’t hold this church together by themselves. What? You’re retired and can’t get up and “do” anymore? There’s a place for everyone. Even if you’re a shut-in, you can pray, one of the most important jobs in the church.

Just before Thanksgiving, 12 people came to learn about the Music & Arts After-school program and were all excited. Laura volunteered to help write grants and others, too, thought about how they might be personally involved. Judy’s granddaughter has volunteered to help decorate one of the rooms for her Girls Scout Gold Award.

To do what we want and need to do, we need more members. Kent and Carol have noticed and have started to talk about a Membership Development Committee. Let us all be prepared to help. No one of us can build up this church alone!

Then, too, we have a number of members who haven’t sat in these pews for months. Do you miss them? Have you called? Have you written a note? Church “drop outs” often wait for someone to notice, to call, to care. “If not now, when?” If not you, who?

You’re thinking, I suspect, that this sounds like a sermon for Lent, not Advent. But no, it’s in the time of Advent that we need to consider such things. This church is pregnant with possibility. We are ready for a coming, an appearance, the arrival of something new, something unexpected. But before it can come, we need to let God change us from the inside out.

John the Baptist calls us to make a mental and spiritual U turn, away from self-absorption, fear, and the like, and toward a recommitment to lives focused on love of God and care of neighbor.

Is it Christmas yet? No! But hear this: The cows are making room in the stable. The shepherds are scanning the skies. The angels are practicing their glorias. And the wise men are resting their camels for the final push. The babe waits to be born in our midst.

What should we do? And who will deliver us?

Amen.