Peace Sunday

About a year ago, I provided the lesson on this same passage.  So here we are reading about John the Baptizer in Matthew yet again.  When I spoke about John the Baptizer earlier, I focused on the impact he must have had on the Jews in the area.  People traveling to the wilderness to hear his message.  Even the Pharisees and Sadducees came to hear him.  With his message of repentance and his speaking out against the established power authorities, he was a powerful character then and today.  So Today I am not going to use the same message I used then.  I am going to try to relate John the Baptizer’s message of repentance to this second Sunday of Advent which is represented by the Peace Candle.  

I started with an AI search of the meaning of repentance in the Bible.  AI tells us: “Repentance is a fundamental change in the attitude and action that involves a heartfelt conviction of sin, sorrow for wrongdoing, a turning away from sin, and a turning toward a new way of life.”  So we see John the Baptizer in the wilderness proclaiming “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near.”  Remembering that repent means more than just sincere regret.  We see that John the Baptizer was telling the people to reorient their lives and turn toward God’s vision for the world.   Later in Mathew’s passage, John the Baptizer tells the Pharisees to “bear fruit worthy of repentance”.  At the end of our reading, he tells his listeners that; “he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”  This is a rebuke of the Pharisees who feel they are entitled due to their lineage and power in the church.  These are also strong images of the purification that can come with repentance.                 

So how does this passage in Matthew relate to today, Peace Sunday?  Maybe this message challenges us to consider whether our lives need a reset.  Are there habits, attitudes or prejudices that are causing tension in our lives, whether in our families, our nation or in us.  God’s peace is more than a world without conflict.  God’s peace is inside each one of us.  

John the Baptizer’s mission was to prepare the way for Jesus.  He told us: “ I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming.  I am not worthy to carry his sandals.  He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”  

You know I like reciting the Lord’s Prayer.  That is because I like remembering and thinking about the words and not getting sidetrack by the beautiful song.  Shortly we will say: “On Earth as it is in Heaven”.  I see God’s heaven as love and therefore we should strive of love on earth.     

As we celebrate Peace Sunday, we remember God’s love for all of us.  The Peace candle is emblematic of that love.  

So as we celebrate Peace Sunday, may we hear John’s call to repent as a call to turn toward Jesus’ teaching to love all and strive of real peace in our world.