I remember walking down the busy streets of Chicago on chilly December days like these.
If you stop to think about it, it’s all pretty amazing how big cities work.
Millions of people, with cars, buses, and trains, all scurrying up and down the streets to their next meeting, appointment, or obligation.

Chicago in the summer is wonderful.
Chicago in December is rather…well, cold.
But despite the biting lake-front winds and flurries, there is an energy amongst the people that is unique and palpable. You can tell that things are happening.

I remember getting off the bus downtown on one of those chilly December days, and heading up the street, along with the multitudes of others braving the cold.

And I also remember briefly, just briefly, seeing a man standing in the midst of the passing crowds. He was bundled up for the winter cold as well, with a megaphone in his gloved hands. He was preaching about the kingdom of God.

“Religious nut,” I muttered underneath my breath, and continued on,
dismissing him as if a mere distraction,
an impediment to my goal of seeking warmth and comfort,
…as I also pass by the homeless woman sitting underneath a blanket,
as I pass by the guy asking for change,
as I pass by the children wearing coats much too thin for that type of weather,
as I continue on in my daily life, shuffling with the crowds to my next…whatever it was.

We have each been there before.
How many times have we passed by similar people like this on the street?
How many times have we dismissed them for being extreme or “crazy” when it came to their approach to talking about Jesus?

While I rarely stop to listen to the streetside preachers and “buy in to what they are selling,” it does get me thinking about things (maybe for you as well).

Here I am a Christian, someone on the “same team” as that guy or that girl, and yet dismissing them as a crazy person; a person out of touch with “reality.”

Here I am, thinking about how good and right I am for what I believe and how I live my life,
and in the same moment passing by vulnerable people in the cold: the homeless woman with mental health issues, the vet with PTSD, the children without a safe home.

But if we allow it, moments like these may carry with them for us some significant opportunities for reflection.
Who really is the “religious nut” in all of this?
What is the “reality” we profess to?

We are reading today from Luke, chapter 3. Just previous to this chapter, we actually have the Christmas story, the birth of Jesus, and then a story of Jesus as a child in the temple. The final sentence of chapter two reads,

⁵²And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years and in divine and human favor.
(Luke 2:52)

And then abruptly comes chapter 3. Luke dramatically jumps forward as he sets the stage (time, location, and context), and as he re-introduces a figure named John from chapter 1. This time, John is not a miracle baby to be born of aging parents,
but the grown man whom the angel Gabriel once promised John’s parents would one day become.

Verse 2 reads that “the word of God came to John.” John was called by God from the wilderness, a place set apart, much like many of the patriarchs and prophets of Israel.
John was likewise to be a prophet.

John compelled the people.
Why they came from the cities to see this man in the wild, well, each must have had their own reason.
He called on them to be baptized in repentance for their sins.

John’s message? God’s kingdom was fast approaching, and it would be life-altering.

He reminded them of the words of the prophet Isaiah who had come hundreds of years before them; the words then for a previous generation,
but somehow ringing true for this contemporaneous age:

“The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord;
    make his paths straight.
⁵Every valley shall be filled,
    and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall be made straight,
    and the rough ways made smooth,
⁶and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’ ” (Isaiah 40:3-5; Luke 3:4-6)

These ancient words, words that were perhaps now revered as comforting by some who had grown up listening to these images in worship,
words of a time far off sometime in the future, were now here.
And now that they are here, well, they seem rather unsettling.

The people’s natural responsive question of John, “What then shall we do?” (v.10), was met with specific instruction on how to live with compassion and justice for others, especially those more vulnerable.
John spoke about sharing possessions from our excess, about honesty in finances, about treating people with respect and dignity.
John, filled with the Spirit of God, was taking the ancient words of prophecy and applying it to their daily lives in very practical ways.
This wild “religious nut” was in a bizarre way speaking straight to the hearts of the people gathered.

And people wondered, “Could it be that this John is the chosen one? The one to save Israel?”

¹⁶John answered all of them by saying, “I baptize you with water, but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. ¹⁷His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” (Luke 3:16-17)

Was John right about Jesus?
I guess it depends on how we think of, how we experience, Jesus today.

Was Jesus more powerful than John?
Yes. We will read stories of his spiritual strength and authority throughout the scriptures.

Did he baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire?
Well, not technically, but these words certainly allude to the magnificence of the Pentecost story as tongues of fire fell upon the Apostles, and as they baptized in the name of Jesus with the power of the Holy Spirit.

Did Jesus burn “the chaff” with unquenchable fire?
This statement of John invites further reflection. If we understand that it means to condemn individuals to eternal damnation, then no, Jesus did not do that according to the scriptures.

But here’s another way of thinking about this.
If we understand this phrase of John’s to mean that encountering Jesus will transform our very lives,
that the unnecessary excess, the unusable, unhelpful parts of our lives may be removed so that our focus may be wholly given to God’s work in the world,
then yes, Jesus did do this for so many people in the scriptures,
and Jesus offers this for us as well.

What I love about John, within this very brief encounter with us today, is that while he may come across as unruly, hyperbolic, brash…a non-conformist religious nut,
he also invites us to intimately experience the life-giving encounter of Jesus as Christ.

“Behold the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29)

John understands that he is merely the messenger; someone to point to the life-altering experience of the true Messiah.

And perhaps this is our good news today: throughout our lives, God provides messengers to bring us face-to-face with salvation and new life.

John re-introduced the people to the ancient words of Isaiah, describing the coming kingdom.
He then shared his own words of God’s movement among the people.

John reminded the people of what it means to follow the words of God, not merely as religious speak, but to legitimately apply it to our daily walks in life;
to share of our wealth with the poor,
to advocate for the vulnerable,
to repent of our sinfulness in our lives as we encounter the one who will reconcile our hearts to God’s.

As we reflect on this second Sunday of Advent’s theme...

Religious Nut

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