A Scots man, and atheist, was spending a quiet day fishing when suddenly the Loch Ness monster attacked his boat. In one easy flip, the beast tossed him and his boat at least a hundred feet into the air. It then opened its mouth, waiting below to swallow them both. As the man sailed head over heels and started to fall toward the open jaws of the ferocious beast, he cried out, "Oh, my God! Help me!"
Suddenly, the scene froze in place and as the atheist hung in midair, a booming voice came out of the clouds and said, "I thought you didn't believe in Me!"
"God, come on, give me a break!" the man pleaded, "two seconds ago I didn’t even believe in the Loch Ness Monster!"
"Well," said God, "now that you are a believer you must understand that I won't work miracles to snatch you from certain death in the jaws of the monster, but I can change hearts. What would you have me do?"
The atheist thinks for a minute, then says, "God, please have the Loch Ness Monster believe in You, also."
God replies, "So be it."
The scene starts in motion again, with the atheist (now believer) falling toward the ravenous jaws of the monster. The Loch Ness Monster folds his claws together and says, "Lord, I am truly grateful for the meal I am about to receive . . . "
Well, the fisherman and the monster were both introduced to faith in sudden and unexpected ways. You and I are not necessarily in the position of being asked to believe but we are in the position of being asked to take the next step.
In our lesson from Isaiah we have the classic proclamation of the coming of the Messiah/Divine peace. It is an idyllic and poetic image of a new world in which there is no more violence or destruction. Even the predatory and poisonous creatures have a new way of making their living. The point being that the fullness of the Kingdom of God will be radically different from the world we live in now and will be a place free of fear and suffering.
In the lesson we heard from Romans, Paul urges the community to be united and to remain focused on the mission of spreading the Good News. Rather, than focusing on the things that divide them. This is a lesson we need to take to heart as a national church.
Finally in our Gospel lesson we have the debut of John the Baptist, the true Wild Man of God. This guy who has been scrounging a living out in the howling desert, suddenly stumbles his way into town and what comes out of his mouth? “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand!”
Frankly, his message for the religious leaders of his day is rather harsh. Yet many see the hand of God upon him and respond. John warns the Pharisees and Sadducees that being ethnically Jewish will not save them from God’s judgement. Their lives must demonstrate their commitment to God’s ways of justice. We Christians can fall into a similar trap. We often hear Christian people talking in a self righteous way, being arrogantly boastful of their goodness and hatful toward people whom they see as inferior. All of us need to remember that just clamming Christ does not guarantee us salvation. We must live the life of a Christian in as authentically a manner as we can.
This calling is not so much about repenting from our sinfulness as it is about letting the Holy Spirit draw us onto the next step; allowing ourselves to be moved into a further or deeper conversion. It about recognizing that, though we do good things in God’s name - and try to avoid doing evil as we should - there is always room to grow.
Today, let us ask God to help us see where we can improve our selves and trustingly take the next step God has prepared for us.
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