Looking for a Break-Through
Scripture: Luke 3:1-18
Rev. Richard H. Thompson, January 10, 2010

I want to spend the next several weeks exploring a theme: How God loves you (and me). This is important, because "love" is such a misunderstood word. We use that word all the time. We say, "We love chocolate." But we don't. We want chocolate. One of our problems is in English we only have one word, "love." In the Bible there are many words. One means family love - what a parent feels for a child. It's protective, nurturing and closed to family only. Call it the love of the tribe. There's another word for general attraction, say for ideas, or the game of football. Another for desire, to have or possess, say for chocolate, or sex. And then there's another word, different from any of these and little understood, for the love God has for us.

What does it mean that God "loves" us?

In Christmas God is saying to humankind, "I love you so I have come to be with you, to walk in your shoes." But that's only the beginning. Jesus' life is a demonstration of how God loves us. So the simple idea is this: over the weeks leading to Easter, using the Gospel of Luke, let's try and understand how God loves us through what Jesus says and does. Let's try to figure out what difference this might make in how we relate to God, and to each other. I wonder if we're not in for some surprises...

To begin, we find that the ground needs to be prepared. There needs to be a certain readiness. We hear about a wild man coming on the scene around the year 28 out in the desert, east of the Jordan river. This is how Luke describes what he said, Luke 3:1-17, from "The Message":

In the fifteenth year of the rule of Caesar Tiberius-it was while Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea; Herod, ruler of Galilee; his brother Philip, ruler of Iturea and Trachonitis; Lysanias, ruler of Abilene; during the Chief-Priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas-John, Zachariah's son, out in the desert at the time, received a message from God. He went all through the country around the Jordan River preaching a baptism of life-change leading to forgiveness of sins, as described in the words of Isaiah the prophet:

Thunder in the desert!
"Prepare God's arrival!
Make the road smooth and straight!
Every ditch will be filled in,
Every bump smoothed out,
The detours straightened out,
All the ruts paved over.
Everyone will be there to see
The parade of God's salvation."

When crowds of people came out for baptism because it was the popular thing to do, John exploded: "Brood of snakes! What do you think you're doing slithering down here to the river? Do you think a little water on your snakeskins is going to deflect God's judgment? It's your life that must change, not your skin. And don't think you can pull rank by claiming Abraham as 'father.' Being a child of Abraham is neither here nor there-children of Abraham are a dime a dozen. God can make children from stones if he wants. What counts is your life. Is it green and blossoming? Because if it's deadwood, it goes on the fire."

The crowd asked him, "Then what are we supposed to do?"

"If you have two coats, give one away," he said. "Do the same with your food."

Tax men also came to be baptized and said, "Teacher, what should we do?"

He told them, "No more extortion-collect only what is required by law."

Soldiers asked him, "And what should we do?"

He told them, "No shakedowns, no blackmail-and be content with your rations."

The interest of the people by now was building. They were all beginning to wonder, "Could this John be the Messiah?"

But John intervened: "I'm baptizing you here in the river. The main character in this drama, to whom I'm a mere stagehand, will ignite the kingdom life, a fire, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out. He's going to clean house-make a clean sweep of your lives. He'll place everything true in its proper place before God; everything false he'll put out with the trash to be burned."

What are we getting from all this about how God loves us? I think it's that God loves us into break-throughs, call them "turn-arounds", "tipping points", "water-shed events" - when we finally conclude something has to change. We all have had these experiences, some small, some life changing.

So I walk into my garage and trip on the mop causing a basket to fall on my head. I finally decide, "That's it! This is going to change!" And I set to work to clean my garage.

Or maybe you've finally had it with all those bank notices and decide you really are going to balance your check book.

Maybe you've had it with the mediocre grades. Finally, something sort of clicks inside, and you get serious about hitting the books.

Maybe, at this time of year, it's to get back in shape.

It's what takes a person to that first AA meeting.

It could happen because of the birth of a child, perhaps a grandchild. Suddenly it dawns on you that this precious gift is also a huge responsibility. This little one will need you. Will watch you. Will draw conclusions about what's right and good, what's not, based on what he or she observes in you. And you realize the old ways no longer work.

It could be the loss of a job. This bad economy has forced countless break-throughs that have caused people to look at their lives with new eyes, including their relationships. Isn't it interesting that during this Great Recession that the divorce rate has been going DOWN?

How does God love us? Sometimes God loves us into break-throughs. Because there are things that need to be broken through - that if they are not broken through, we miss out on what God wants to show us. We stay stuck, trapped, caught in bad thinking, bad habits, bad relationships. (So can a whole nation.)

So here's this wild man John. I picture him standing on the far bank of the Jordan river, shouting out west toward Jerusalem, with impassioned voice, veins sticking out of his neck, "Come out! Leave everything, drop what you are doing, and get yourselves back out here!" Read: "Leave your settled lives, your routines that have become ruts, that have become canyons. Walk away from your easy acceptance with things that aren't right with your or your neighbors, or your country, and come out here and cross through this Jordan river again." We call it John's baptism of repentance. We could also call it "re-entering the land." In other words, "Start over. Rewind. Take two." (It's what Jesus meant when he said, "You must become like a little child...")

It is God's grace that there is even this possibility that we can start over.

- Don't you love that there are erasers on the other end of pencils (except in golf)?

- Or the delete key on your computer.

Break-throughs lead to turn-arounds, also known as "repentance." The New Testament word means "change of thinking." But break-throughs don't come easily. That's why we call them "break" throughs. Not everyone in Jerusalem up an left everything to come out to the Jordan. Others probably came out of curiosity, as if this were some kind of news event, a happening, but they had no intention of getting personally involved - sort of the way people drove slowly by a traffic accident. Others apparently came out to do the religious thing - you know - get baptized because it just seemed the right thing to do. But John turned on them, "You think getting dunked in water is going to fix anything? It's not the water! Don't kid yourselves! This is not some magical ritual that 'poof; changes your situation." I don't think they could feel the love... I bet everybody got defensive, "But we're all children of Abraham.." Read, "We're born into God's good graces, We're all Jews aren't we?" John would answer them, "God can raise children of Abraham from these stones..."

The thing is, John knew that the One coming was right around the bend, and the time was now to prepare his way. So he used strong language. There really was no time left. What if John could not break-through to these people? What if they just sort of stood there nodding their heads thinking to themselves, "Well this preacher certainly is enthusiastic, isn't he? What an unusual technique, making us take a bus ride all the way out here to dip in this muddy river. Really quite impressive the response he's getting..." Then they would be at high risk for missing what Jesus had for them.

Is it possible that we can miss how God loves us? How God wants to love us, because we think we already get it? That the biggest barrier to experiencing God's overwhelming love is our assumption about what "love" is?

You can always tell when a "break-through" is happening. People don't ask, "What shall we believe?", or "What shall we say?" They ask, "What shall we do?" Because doing does something out there, but also in here, doesn't it? We make the outside and the inside match up. This is called "congruence." It's also called "integrity." God loves you and me aback into our true selves because God wants us whole.

John's answer about what to do went like this:

- To the crowd he said, "Share your surplus with those in need." Put your wealth to work in the service of helping others who have no surplus.

- To the tax collectors, read anyone in position to name the price, he said, "Be fair, keep your head on straight, don't be greedy."

- To the soldiers, read anyone in position of authority (so police, government, or military), he said, "Don't use our authority to take advantage of people because they fear you."

In other words, make it real, make it material. So that anyone can see it in your life documents: your checkbook, your calendar, your resume, the contacts on your phone, the favorites on your computer screen. Otherwise, it's just words, just cheap grace.

German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer dies at the hands of Hitler's Gestapo two weeks before the end of the war. He wrote this about the grace of God:

"Grace is represented as the Church's inexhaustible treasury, from which she showers blessings with generous hands, without asking questions or fixing limits. Grace without price; grace without cost! And the essence of grace, we suppose, is that the account has been paid in advance; and, because it has been paid, everything can be had for nothing. Since the cost was infinite, the possibilities of using and spending it are infinite. What would grace be, if it were not cheap?

[Cheap grace means grace as a doctrine, a principle, a system. It means forgiveness of sins proclaimed as a general truth, the love of God taught as the Christian 'conception' of God. An intellectual assent to that idea is held to be of itself sufficient to secure remission of sins.... In such a Church the world finds a cheap covering for its sins; no contrition is required, still less any real desire to be delivered from sin]

Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.

Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake of one will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble; it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him."

Break-throughs help prepare the way of the Lord because they lead to observable, material results that make it more likely for people to see His coming, to be able to point to specific things done, actual differences made.

For example, we gathered yesterday in Santa Paula to dedicate this beautiful duplex just completed with the help of many hands from WPC and many other churches working with Habitat for Humanity. A word of special thanks to Jim Adams for helping to organize the coalition of churches, Chuck Seabury for tireless volunteer coordination, Don Miller, Steve Arndt and dozens of others who gave time to build something beautiful. But here's the back story: there was a house on that corner before. It was known in the community to be a crack house, infamous for crime, drug dealing, prostitution ... a place of darkness. Finally, the city decided it was time for that house to be gone. So that old house was razed to the ground. The old foundations were ripped out, to prepare the way for a new house. With the help of thousands of hours of donated labor and dollars, the Solis and Rubio families yesterday cut the ribbons across the doors of their new homes and accepted hand made quilts and a Bible from their friends. It's really a beautiful place, a kind of jewel in the neighborhood. Something the whole community can point to, that anyone can see, and take heart, and hope, and faith.

Isaiah put it this way, "And all flesh shall see the salvation of God."

It's what break-throughs do. They make God's love visible.

It feels right and good on so many levels when God breaks through to us. It feels like windows open to a fresh breeze. It's like new foundations getting laid for a whole new life. It's exciting.

Those who were baptized by John were excited too. They wondered, "Brother John, are you the One?" I imagine John had to laugh. "No, hardly. You haven't seen anything yet! I baptize you with this muddy water, just to get you into position. To help you get set. The One you're asking about is coming, and He is more powerful than I. I'm not worthy to even untie his shoes. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with Fire." In other words, "When you meet him you will not be the same, nor will this whole world. He will sort all this out."

Sometimes God leads us out away from all the "trappings" (that really is the right word, isn't it?), out into the desert where we can see more clearly what is real about ourselves, about God. Not to try an ruin us, or fill us with guilt, but to love us. I think we'll know when it happens. We'll hear ourselves asking, "What shall I do?"

Who knows? Perhaps, for some, that time is now....

Amen

---

Questions for Reflection.