The Unauthorized Homily

By Bill Dunn

A commentary on the Scripture readings from the Sunday Lectionary

(Scripture readings for Sunday, December 17th: Zephaniah 3:14-18; Philippians 4:4-7; Luke 3:10-18)

WHEAT AND CHAFF AT THE FINAL JUDGMENT

Well, here we are at the third Sunday of Advent, a little more than one week away from Christmas Day, and the gospel reading STILL does not talk about Jesus’ birth.

Seems kind of weird, doesn’t it? In secular society, we’ve been preparing for Christmas since, oh, about the end of the World Series. I swear a saw a house in town completely decked out, included a huge Christmas tree glowing in the living room, on November 12th this year. And that’s when I first noticed it. Who knows, it might have been like that since Labor Day.

On the church calendar, however, the Christmas season doesn’t begin until the Christmas Vigil on the evening of December 24th, and then runs for the next 12 days. (Which is where we got that gruesomely tedious tune, “The Twelve Days of Christmas.”)

The season of Advent, the four weeks before Christmas, is the time we prepare for the coming of the Lord. But as we discussed a couple of weeks ago, it’s very easy to focus only on the birth of Jesus—that brief moment in history when he was tiny and helpless—and ignore the majestic and powerful Jesus. This Jesus, the Jesus of the Resurrection, the Second Coming, and the Final Judgment, is quite a bit more awe inspiring (and frightening) than the little baby in the manger.

The gospel reading this week continues to remind us that Jesus’ primary purpose in becoming human was not to present a cute little Nativity scene for us to focus on once a year, but instead to be the redeemer and judge of all the world.

John the Baptist was teaching and baptizing the crowds, and some began asking whether John was the long-awaited Messiah. If John was at all prideful, he easily could have accepted their praise and adoration. But John would have none of it. He immediately said, “Whoa, time out, fellas. You got the wrong dude!” (Well, OK, maybe that’s a loose translation…a VERY loose translation.)

John explained, “One mightier than I is coming. I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals.” Isn’t it refreshing for a change—and quite surprising—to see someone who is not blowing his own horn all the time? Unlike many folks today (and I’m just talking about regular folks, not the completely out-of-control politicians, athletes, and celebrities), John was more concerned with receiving praise from God rather than praise from people.

John knew his role was to be the forerunner of the Messiah, the one who pointed Him out to the crowds and then stepped aside into obscurity. John could have generated a lot more interest in himself—maybe even launched a TV ministry and pleaded for donations each week—but he knew that was not what God called him to do.

In describing the Messiah who was soon to appear, John said, “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

In case you don’t quite understand the farming and harvesting symbolism (the same symbolism Jesus used later on), John was saying that Jesus will separate the righteous from the wicked, with the righteous being gathered into Heaven while the wicked are sent to a very hot and uncomfortable location (no, not Miami in July).

God does not wish for anyone to spend eternity in Hell. (I’m not sure what He thinks about Miami.) He loves us so much that He took on human flesh, He willingly bore our sins while hanging on the cross, and then He conquered death once and for all by bursting out of that tomb three days later. He promised that we, too, can conquer death if we put our faith in Him and follow Him.

But God’s patience will not wait forever. At some point each person must decide whether to be counted among the wheat (the righteous) or the chaff (the wicked). If a person postpones making a decision and does not make a commitment to Christ, he will end up in the chaff category by default at the moment of death.

Jesus the infant in the manger is definitely less threatening than Jesus the righteous judge. In the same way, it is more heart-warming to think about the verse from Luke, “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord,” than the verse from Hebrews, “Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.”

It is not wise to ignore reality. The reality of the situation, and the reason the gospel readings dwell on the final judgment—even during Advent—is that each of us will be judged by Jesus some day. A ton of Christmas decorations and manger scenes covering the front lawn will not help at that moment.

©2006