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Sermon December 15, 2019
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers,
The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen’s
Advent III, Year A
http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearA_RCL/Advent/AAdv3_RCL.html
Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. James 5:7
This is the one about whom it is written,
“See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way before you.” Matthew 11:10
Please be seated.
Earlier this week, I received the 2020 Southern Exposure Seed Exchange Catalogue. When I moved to Newport, I knew I would miss the greasy beans I had learned to eat in Kentucky. I had never heard of these green pole beans, so named because they tend to be shiny, nor the white and pink half runners. I loved them. They have a hearty bean. You can dry them and eat them in the winter, even. They do have a strong string in them, so de-stringing them before cooking is necessary.
The second summer I was here, I asked Kay and John Cramer to help me be able to grow these beans and they built me a raised bed. I’m really not much of a farmer, although I come from a long line of farmers, Sicilian and German. I mostly can plant and water and harvest.
I ordered the greasy bean seeds from Southern Exposure and have planted and harvested a crop of these beans for 3 years. The seed packet says to thin the plants once they come up, but I can’t bear to do it. These beans “run” and climb like crazy and while I try to make a sturdier structure each year for them, they mostly overwhelm it. That’s why you need to thin them. The bees love the flowers and I have gotten stung trying to harvest them. And I am so happy to eat these beans I love.
So I am drawn to this passage where James uses the attributes of a good farmer to help us understand what we need to do as we wait for Jesus to come again or for Jesus teachings to permeate our earth. In fact, as I prepared to write this sermon, I looked back to see what I had done on Advent III in 2016 and I preached on this very same verse from James!
James reminds us how farmers wait patiently for the crop, which is true. And I also know there is work involved. First of all, there is work with the soil, even if it’s just turning it over a bit or disturbing it to plant the seeds. You need the seeds and while I can purchase mine from a catalogue, someone somewhere is making sure that part of the crop is used for the seeds for the next season and taking care of them, so they are available for me to purchase. Sometimes there is weeding so the plants can grow well.
I love watching the bean plants push out of the ground after a couple of days AND it sure does take awhile until the beans appear and are ready for harvest. I do become impatient waiting for the harvest, which is at least 72 days, only 10 1/2 weeks, but seems like a long wait.
In our Gospel today, we hear more about John the Baptist. He is now in prison and will soon die. Even as he carried out his ministry, he knew he was only preparing the way for the real truth to come. Now he wants to know if he indeed has seen it in the person and ministry of Jesus Christ. Jesus says to tell John the actual events of what Jesus is doing. It’s not just the words and teachings of Jesus that matter, it is the outcomes of his ministry. Life is changed.
Then in our passage Jesus lets the people know how important and necessary John’s ministry is. John’s ministry is a preparation and a “making the way” for Jesus.
The good farmer, the messenger prepares the soil and sows the seed, so the plant can grow. John did that. People flocked to the wilderness to see John. Jesus asks them why they went. Some might have gone out of curiosity and yet it appears when they heard John, they were moved to be baptized. Their lives were changed.
John prepared the soil and sowed the seed. He encouraged people to repent and to change how they were living. He told them someone else was coming soon. Because he had encouraged them to think and to live in a different way, they could be ready to hear Jesus calling them to think and to live in a different way.
How are we like the farmer who prepares the soil and plants the seed? How are we messengers, preparing the way for Jesus?
Think about the past week, how have your actions been a messenger for Jesus Christ? So many were involved in the effort to serve over 850 children in Perry County for Christmas as bags and bags of gifts and rolls and rolls of tape and wrapping paper and gift cards were taken to Join Hands for at least 52 of those children. We reached out to people like Sue Beamer, who had surgery, making sure she was doing well and offering to help her with things she might need. We sent condolences and prayers to the family of Don Robinson and we will sign a card for his family today.
In many, many ways as individuals and together, we are messengers for the power of Jesus to change minds and hearts and lives. Let us continue be the messengers sent from God to prepare the way.
Amen
