Sermon No. 3

God's Gonna Getcha!

You may remember, several years ago, T-shirts and bumper stickers with a profound theological message: "God's gonna getcha!"

Today's Gospel is again an account of John the Baptizer: "You snakes in the grass, who told you to try to escape the judgment? Don't you know that God is even now swinging a big ax, an ax which will cut you all down just as soon as the judgment is here?"

Y'all better get right with God so you can escape hell. Heaven is the fire escape! Otherwise, God's gonna getcha.

That is a common picture of the Judgment, of heaven and of hell . . . and of God! All centered around fear of punishment, and of God.

We are all, to some extent, afraid of the "dark" or the unknown.

There's a story of a little boy whose mother asked him to go out on the back porch and get the broom. It was dark out there and the little lad was afraid.

"But son, don't you know that God is out there?"

So he opened the door and said, "God, please hand me the broom!"

Religion based on fear is not authentic Christianity. God is not mean and harsh, the Old Testament notwithstanding. He is a Father who loves his children, even when they are not as good as they should be.

Fundamentalist preachers try to "scare hell out of people," try to make them so afraid of eternal punishment that they obey God and seek heaven to escape hell!
One of the seminary stories I remember is of the old-time evangelist who said (unabridged!), "Scared religion ain't worth a damn!"

Well, it ain't! As any loving Father, God wants us to be worthy of the family name. He wants to be proud of us. He wants us to obey his rules. But he wants us to obey him because we love him, because we trust him, not because we're afraid of the punishment if we disobey.

The doctrine of an eternally burning hell is a residue of pagan influence. It is neither logical nor theological in terms of Bible teaching. Some day we'll talk about it again -- it is a spurious doctrine, like Spiritualism and reincarnation, etc.

Fear is a terrible drain on our emotions. Fear and worry.

A man and his son got on a bus. The man dropped in his fare.

"What about the boy's fare?"

"I don't have to pay for him. He's only 3 years old."

"Three years old? He looks at least 8!"

"Can I help it if he worries?"

Do you get the humor of the Gospel? John throws out all those warnings . . . and the last verse reads, "And with many other words John exhorted the people and preached good news to them!" Good news! Happy news! Cheerful news! Good news from John the Baptist? C'mon . . .

Here we are at the busiest time of the year. Our lives are filled with tensions of holiday traffic and frustrations of Christmas shopping and the pressure of year-end bookkeeping. Then we sit here and listen to the readings tell us to rejoice, be glad, exult!

Bah, humbug!

But wait. John tells us to repent not because God is angry at us, not because he hates us and wants to make us miserable. We are to repent for our own good, because God has a better idea (and you Ford employees tho't it was Ford with a better idea!) and that better idea is that if we change our lives, we will find a better way, a better life. We will find happiness, peace of mind.

This third Sunday of Advent is Gaudete Sunday, or Rejoice Sunday. It is sort of a dress rehearsal for Christmas. We light the pink candle today and ask ourselves if we are ready for the feast.

Whether we find this happiness, this peace of mind, or not, depends on how we approach Christmas, whether our interest is in getting -- or in giving!

Remember the song, "What Will You Put Under Your Christmas Tree?"

What will you put under your Christmas tree?
Will it be gifts for the poor,
love for the old,
care for the weak?
What will you put under your Christmas tree?
Will it be packages neat,
candy to eat,
trinkets of gold?

Listen again to John:

If you have two coats, give one to someone who needs it.

(But I need a coat to match each outfit!)

If you have food, share it.

(Well, it might be smart to take some of the old cans of food out of the cupboard to make room for the Christmas cookies!)

Collect no more than you are due.

(Advent is a good time to give so that we can take advantage of our tax deductions!)

Be content with your wages.

(Christmas usually means spending more than our wages justify!)

I sound cynical. Do you suppose John sounded cynical in the wilderness? I wonder if Jesus sounded cynical on the Mountain side.

This is Advent. Jesus came. Jesus has come. Jesus is coming.

Sir Walter Scott was once followed by a stray dog. To scare it away, he threw a stone in its direction. He threw the stone harder and more accurately than he intended. It hit the dog. Instead of snarling or running away, the dog limped over to Scott and licked his hand.

Sir Walter Scott never forgot the shame he felt.

We have thrown stones this year. Some have hit their targets. "What you have done to the least, you have done to me." But instead of coming after us with lightening and thunder, God comes to us as an innocent baby "to save his people from their sins."

Yes, "God's gonna getcha." He's gonna getcha with outstretched arms, with nail-scarred hands, with love so amazing, so divine that every sincere heart will be touched by the Prince of Peace, the King of Kings.

E. Stanley Jones, that great Methodist missionary, said "whatever gets your attention, gets you. If you give your attention to negative things and a glance at Christ, the negative things will get you. If, on the other hand, you give your attention to Christ and just glance at the negative things, Christ will get you."

The Baby from Bethlehem came to get you. Don't resist him!

I think of an old adage which goes a little beyond John's call.

"If you have two coats, sell them both. With the money from one, give to the poor. With the money from the other, buy flowers for your soul." I guess you can understand why I like that one!*

(*To readers who don't know me, I wear a flower every day)

John's cry in the wilderness was not a warning to fear, but an invitation to live.

Reuel Howe, the founder of the Institute for Advanced Pastoral Studies, where I spent many happy and rewarding hours, sat in an airport.

A young man asked him, "What do you do?"

"I'm a pilgrim," answered Howe.

"What do you mean? I tho't they were all dead!"

"I'm another kind of pilgrim. I'm trying to find my way from birth to life."

"You mean from birth to death!"

"No," said Howe, "I mean what I said. I'm trying to find my way from birth to life!"

That's what this season is all about, finding our way from the birth in Bethlehem to the life more abundant, the reason for which he came.

There is no fear in love, we are told. God is love. So in the coming of Jesus we lose all fear and revel in the revelation of supreme love.

A birdwatcher told of an encounter with a bear. "When I walked into a clearing, I was face to face with this great big bear. I turned and ran toward the only tree in the field. It was very tall, and the lowest branch was 25 feet from the ground. The bear was right behind me, so I took a flying leap for the branch."

"Did you make it?"

"Well, I missed it on the way up, but I caught it on the way down!"

If we believed the "gospel of fear" we could relate to that, couldn't we! We do powerful things when we are afraid.

But we believe in the Gospel of good news, the message of love. Jesus came to be born as one of us, to live as one of us, to die as one of us . . . for us.

The good news is: God's gonna getcha. He's going to love you so much that you simply can't resist!

Somewhere I heard of a black man who many years ago said he was going to share the Jesus story with some whites. One of his friends said, "How can you do that? How can you get them to listen to a black man?"

"First, I'm going to go shine their shoes and clean their toilets."

Jesus said, "I came not to be served, but to serve." That, dear saints, is what Christianity is all about.

Let us pray . . .



		God's Gonna Getcha!
		You may remember, several years ago, T-shirts and bumper stickers with a profound theological message: "God's gonna getcha!" Today's Gospel is again an account of John the Baptizer: "You snakes in the grass, who told you to try to escape the judgment? Don't you know that God is even now swinging a big ax, an ax which will cut you all down just as soon as the judgment is here?" Y'all better get right with God so you can escape hell. Heaven is the fire escape! Otherwise, God's gonna getcha. That is a common picture of the Judgment, of heaven and of hell . . . and of God! All centered around fear of punishment, and of God. We are all, to some extent, afraid of the "dark" or the unknown. There's a story of a little boy whose mother asked him to go out on the back porch and get the broom. It was dark out there and the little lad was afraid. "But son, don't you know that God is out there?" So he opened the door and said, "God, please hand me the broom!" Religion based on fear is not authentic Christianity. God is not mean and harsh, the Old Testament notwithstanding. He is a Father who loves his children, even when they are not as good as they should be. Fundamentalist preachers try to "scare hell out of people," try to make them so afraid of eternal punishment that they obey God and seek heaven to escape hell! One of the seminary stories I remember is of the old-time evangelist who said (unabridged!), "Scared religion ain't worth a damn!" Well, it ain't! As any loving Father, God wants us to be worthy of the family name. He wants to be proud of us. He wants us to obey his rules. But he wants us to obey him because we love him, because we trust him, not because we're afraid of the punishment if we disobey. The doctrine of an eternally burning hell is a residue of pagan influence. It is neither logical nor theological in terms of Bible teaching. Some day we'll talk about it again -- it is a spurious doctrine, like Spiritualism and reincarnation, etc. Fear is a terrible drain on our emotions. Fear and worry. A man and his son got on a bus. The man dropped in his fare. "What about the boy's fare?" "I don't have to pay for him. He's only 3 years old." "Three years old? He looks at least 8!" "Can I help it if he worries?" Do you get the humor of the Gospel? John throws out all those warnings . . . and the last verse reads, "And with many other words John exhorted the people and preached good news to them!" Good news! Happy news! Cheerful news! Good news from John the Baptist? C'mon . . . Here we are at the busiest time of the year. Our lives are filled with tensions of holiday traffic and frustrations of Christmas shopping and the pressure of year-end bookkeeping. Then we sit here and listen to the readings tell us to rejoice, be glad, exult! Bah, humbug! But wait. John tells us to repent not because God is angry at us, not because he hates us and wants to make us miserable. We are to repent for our own good, because God has a better idea (and you Ford employees tho't it was Ford with a better idea!) and that better idea is that if we change our lives, we will find a better way, a better life. We will find happiness, peace of mind. This third Sunday of Advent is Gaudete Sunday, or Rejoice Sunday. It is sort of a dress rehearsal for Christmas. We light the pink candle today and ask ourselves if we are ready for the feast. Whether we find this happiness, this peace of mind, or not, depends on how we approach Christmas, whether our interest is in getting -- or in giving! Remember the song, "What Will You Put Under Your Christmas Tree?" What will you put under your Christmas tree? Will it be gifts for the poor, love for the old, care for the weak? What will you put under your Christmas tree? Will it be packages neat, candy to eat, trinkets of gold? Listen again to John: If you have two coats, give one to someone who needs it. (But I need a coat to match each outfit!) If you have food, share it. (Well, it might be smart to take some of the old cans of food out of the cupboard to make room for the Christmas cookies!) Collect no more than you are due. (Advent is a good time to give so that we can take advantage of our tax deductions!) Be content with your wages. (Christmas usually means spending more than our wages justify!) I sound cynical. Do you suppose John sounded cynical in the wilderness? I wonder if Jesus sounded cynical on the Mountain side. This is Advent. Jesus came. Jesus has come. Jesus is coming. Sir Walter Scott was once followed by a stray dog. To scare it away, he threw a stone in its direction. He threw the stone harder and more accurately than he intended. It hit the dog. Instead of snarling or running away, the dog limped over to Scott and licked his hand. Sir Walter Scott never forgot the shame he felt. We have thrown stones this year. Some have hit their targets. "What you have done to the least, you have done to me." But instead of coming after us with lightening and thunder, God comes to us as an innocent baby "to save his people from their sins." Yes, "God's gonna getcha." He's gonna getcha with outstretched arms, with nail-scarred hands, with love so amazing, so divine that every sincere heart will be touched by the Prince of Peace, the King of Kings. E. Stanley Jones, that great Methodist missionary, said "whatever gets your attention, gets you. If you give your attention to negative things and a glance at Christ, the negative things will get you. If, on the other hand, you give your attention to Christ and just glance at the negative things, Christ will get you." The Baby from Bethlehem came to get you. Don't resist him! I think of an old adage which goes a little beyond John's call. "If you have two coats, sell them both. With the money from one, give to the poor. With the money from the other, buy flowers for your soul." I guess you can understand why I like that one!* (To readers who don't know me, I wear a flower every* day) John's cry in the wilderness was not a warning to fear, but an invitation to live. Reuel Howe, the founder of the Institute for Advanced Pastoral Studies, where I spent many happy and rewarding hours, sat in an airport. A young man asked him, "What do you do?" "I'm a pilgrim," answered Howe. "What do you mean? I tho't they were all dead!" "I'm another kind of pilgrim. I'm trying to find my way from birth to life." "You mean from birth to death!" "No," said Howe, "I mean what I said. I'm trying to find my way from birth to life!" That's what this season is all about, finding our way from the birth in Bethlehem to the life more abundant, the reason for which he came. There is no fear in love, we are told. God is love. So in the coming of Jesus we lose all fear and revel in the revelation of supreme love. A birdwatcher told of an encounter with a bear. "When I walked into a clearing, I was face to face with this great big bear. I turned and ran toward the only tree in the field. It was very tall, and the lowest branch was 25 feet from the ground. The bear was right behind me, so I took a flying leap for the branch." "Did you make it?" "Well, I missed it on the way up, but I caught it on the way down!" If we believed the "gospel of fear" we could relate to that, couldn't we! We do powerful things when we are afraid. But we believe in the Gospel of good news, the message of love. Jesus came to be born as one of us, to live as one of us, to die as one of us . . . for us. The good news is: God's gonna getcha. He's going to love you so much that you simply can't resist! Somewhere I heard of a black man who many years ago said he was going to share the Jesus story with some whites. One of his friends said, "How can you do that? How can you get them to listen to a black man?" "First, I'm going to go shine their shoes and clean their toilets." Jesus said, "I came not to be served, but to serve." That, dear saints, is what Christianity is all about. Let us pray . . .