The Shalom Breaker

How’s the Serenity

How’s the serenity?

Perhaps you’re familiar with the 1997 Australian film “The Castle”. It’s a bit of a classic.

Michael Caton plays the character Daryl Kerrigan who’s a very likeable character.

What I think most people love about this fictional family, is that they’re so content with what they’ve got.

Their home is nothing flash. Their possessions are fairly average. But they think they’re the luckiest family.

And Daryl just loves the serenity. Of course, watching the film, the irony is obvious. Daryl’s little quip - “how’s the serenity?” is punctuated with the roar of a plane coming into land given that his property is next to the airport. The two-stroke motor pierces the silence. Even the hum of the high-voltage power lines mocks the idea of serenity.

Now there is something very admirable about this irony. There is this simple thankfulness for what they’ve got - and that is to be commended.

Let’s switch the story and instead look at federal parliament.

This week, the Jenkins Report was handed down which outlined the poor workplace behaviours in our national parliament. What is becoming increasingly clear is that poor behaviour has been conveniently overlooked for a long time.

It’s almost as if the parliamentarians could have been saying “how’s the serenity?”, while completely ignoring the loud grumbles.

Now here’s the thing. In our lives, we get a lot of noise. We put it aside because we like to focus on the positives. We think we’re being Daryl Kerrigan, making the best of our situation, but are we actually more like the politician where our blind eye to the noise is actually becoming destructive?

How’s the serenity? Well, maybe it’s not quite as serene as you imagine.

Advent

This morning we’re continuing our journey through this period of Advent.

Last week I helped us think about the idea of the second coming of Christ. This morning my focus shifts to our preparation of that.

But let me turn back to a concept I spoke about last week.

You see, I looked at the trajectory of the Bible.

It started with creation - and it was here that we found shalom. When God rested on the seventh day, as I said last week, it wasn’t because he was tired and needed a breather. He rested because he was demonstrating the shalom that only God can create.

But that shalom was broken. And last week I spoke about God’s plan to restore shalom.

What is stopping Shalom

Now, if we’re going to be thinking about our what it means to prepare for Christ, if we put ourselves in this storyline of the return to the shalom that was broken, I think it stands to reason that we actually give some consideration to what it is that is breaking the shalom.

You see, on one level we can point to Adam and Eve. They did it. They made this mess.

Now, that may be true, but there is more to the story.

Well, I guess we could also point to those other nasty people in this world. You know the ones I mean. The ones out there. The ones that lie, cheat, treat people poorly, use and abuse people - you know the ones right?

And certainly there are a lot of people like that. That noise I was alluding to earlier - it’s those people who are spoiling the serenity - isn’t it?

Well maybe, but there’s more to the story than that.

You see, as much as we like to think that the reason this peace, this shalom doesn’t exist is all because of others, but when we do this we are hiding the fact that we too are guilty.

We point the finger at others who cut corners and take a few liberties to get ahead, all the while we are cutting those same corners and taking those same liberties.

You know how sometimes you’re in the car and some other driver will cut you off in a way that is rude, and frankly dangerous as well. That anger then builds up inside you and you vent that frustration, but then it’s not too long and you’ve got someone tooting their horn at you because you’ve just done the exact same thing to someone else.

Well the problem is not isolated to the road. We get annoyed at the noise of other, forgetting that we too are breaking the shalom that God designed for us.

Now, as we move into this second week of Advent, my message is actually going to be quite simple. If we are to prepare for Christ and the shalom he brings, we need to recognise that our action have contributed towards the breaking of shalom in the world.

And so we need to firstly repent, and ask God to help us become people who help create shalom, not break it.

John the Baptist

To help us think about this further, we’re going to look at the character that shows up at the beginning of each of the four gospels.

I’m talking of the eccentric, John the Baptist.

Now this guy is quite something. In Luke’s gospel, where our reading from the morning came, we even get the story of his birth, which is a fascinating read.

So who is he? Well, as it turns out, Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist were close relatives, probably cousins, which by my reckoning, that would make Jesus and John second cousins. Although not a lot is made of that connection.

Rather, the gospels indicate an important role that John plays. He is to be the person who prepares the people for the coming of the Messiah.

Now I’ll come back to this idea in just a moment, but we can know a few other details about John.

Luke’s gospel tells us that John was in the wilderness when the word of God came to him. Matthews gospel gives us even more of a description, telling us that he has clothes made out of camel’s hair and has a diet of locusts and honey.

But back in Luke’s gospel, we told what his ministry was - and quite simply, it was to preach a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

In many ways, this is what John’s ministry was all about. A baptism of repentance that can help us get to the root of the problem.

Jesus is the answer, but to understand the answer, you need to understand the problem.

That’s what John the Baptist helped prepare people for.

Because of the insight that God had given him, he could see the problem clearly.

And this is why all four gospels identify John the Baptist with the words we find in Isaiah 40 - namely: “A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him’”.

Actually, I’d love to spend the time exploring the context of this quote in the book of Isaiah, but let me just do it ever so quickly.

Isaiah 40 are words of comfort directed to the Israelites just before they return to their home country following their period of exile in the land of the Babylonians.

Now, why is that context relevant to the time of Jesus? Well, it’s because its a pattern of God’s people returning to where they belong. A pattern ultimately fulfilled in the New Testament, when we don’t just have one national group returning to their national home, but rather all people called by God returning to their spiritual home.

So how are the paths made straight?

Well, metaphorically, the valleys are filled in, the mountains made low, the crooked made straight and the rough made smooth.

To put that in plain language - identify the problems, and deal with them.

And what are our problems? Well, they’re myriad. But we can sum them up in a word - sin.

John’s sermon

Well, from verse 7 - we get what you might call a sermon of sorts from John the Baptist to the crowds that have gathered.

And what you’ve got to love about John the Baptist is that he doesn’t pull any punches. He doesn’t care if he offends anybody with the truth. He’s got a message, and he’s going to say it.

Actually, I say he doesn’t care if he offends anybody - it’s perhaps more accurate to say that given the way he opens, I think he possibly is intending to offend.

He starts with the words “You brood of vipers”.

Now I remember doing various preaching courses at my time at Bible College, and one aspect of those courses helps you think about the introduction to your message. Now maybe I just tuned out for a bit, but I’m pretty sure no preaching instructor has ever said - ‘now it would be good to start you sermon by insulting everyone’.

But nevertheless, this is what he did.

He did it because he has one job - to make sure the people know what the problem is, and to push them in the right direction to have the problem dealt with.

If you want to prepare yourself for Christ, you need to repent.

A common objection

Now in some ways in which we could think of all of this as pretty obvious. After all, you wouldn’t have to have been a Christian for too long to have heard that we need to repent.

But yet somehow this familiarity can be our biggest problem. That’s because the temptation is to just give repentance a bit of lip service. In other words, say the right thing and everything will be fine.

After all, we’re a Christian, we’re fine.

John the Baptist anticipated a similar objection, albeit with a Jewish spin.

He puts the words in the mouth for them “[but] we have Abraham as our father”

In other words, yeah yeah, that repentance talk is all well and good, but we’re already covered thank you very much. We’re part of the promise. We descend from Abraham.

Well again, John doesn’t beat around the bush. He counters: “The axe has been laid to the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire”.

When you think about it, they are pretty harsh words.

Now we know that some Jews don’t accept Jesus and so we can see how these words apply to them - but what about us Christians.

Well, the reality is, you can be a fine upstanding Christian who everyone looks up to, but if you have not produced any fruit in keeping with repentance, well, we have problems.

So it’s probably worth clarifying - what is this fruit in keeping with repentance? Well, it doesn’t mean that you’ll be perfect. We certainly know that even after you’ve been a Christian, even for a long time, you still will fail. But the fruit in keeping with repentance, well that indicates that you have some awareness of your failures and you are trying to do something about it.

Sometimes you will meet people who not only have some obvious flaws, but think nothing of it, even sometimes celebrating them. This is where we have a problem.

Examples

Well, if we’re to call this a sermon, we find that this sermon gets some interaction with the crowd. Actually, it would seem that despite the bluntness of the message, it is actually getting through. And it’s probably worth noting that the fact it’s getting through has a lot to do with the fact that the Holy Spirit can move in powerful ways.

And so someone from the crowd asks: “What should we do then?”

John then gives us a couple of examples, which is great, because it can help us to think through what it means to have fruit in keeping with repentance.

Two shirts

The first example involves someone who has two shirts. This person is encouraged to share with the person who has none. Now I strongly suspect that absolutely everyone here has more than two shirts at home. That’s certainly okay. It’s not trying to say that you’re not allowed to own more than one shirt. Rather the principal is clear. Don’t go amassing more than you need when you could be helping others.

What I love about this first example, is that it opens this whole concept up.

You see, we’ve been talking about repentance of sin.

Naturally, we form quite a narrow view of sin. As Christians, we might be able to articulate a wider definition of sin compared with the general population, however, isn’t giving your excess shirts away taking this concept a bit far?

Well, not if we’re thinking in terms of breaking shalom.

You see, sin is the problem, but the big effect of sin is that it breaks shalom. And so if we are to restore shalom, then we need to restore the imbalances that exist.

This now has wide ranging ramifications for us as a society.

Racial injustice

I want to suggest that this concept of giving a shirt to someone in need, could even be applied to matters such as racial injustices, or other forms of discrimination.

When we start treating one group of people differently, then we’re breaking the shalom that God intended - we are sinning - and we need to repent.

Don’t exort

Well coming back to John the Baptist’s message to the crowd, we get some very unexpected people turning up.

Firstly the tax collectors, and then some soldiers.

In both cases these people represent some bad things. In the case of the tax collector - well, if we were to draw up some sort of social hierarchy, they’d have to be pretty close to the bottom of the bottom. The Jewish tax collectors were basically seen as traitors. They’re working for the enemy.

In the case of the soldiers, well, it doesn’t state it very clearly, but my assumption is that we’re talking of Roman soldiers. These are the ones that are subjugating the Jewish people.

Interestingly, in both cases, John the Baptist does not tell them to cease what they are doing.

Rather in both cases he is essentially saying, if you are going to produce fruit in keeping with repentance, then everything you do should be done honestly.

Don’t take more than is required. Don’t make yourself rich on the back of other people.

These are the things that break shalom.

Don’t break shalom

And so the message is clear - we need to repent of the wrong doing. But don’t just think of sin in the narrow sense - rather think of it as anything that is breaking the shalom in this world.

What are the things you are doing that is causing division when division is not necessary?

What are the things you are doing that are causing angst with others?

But taking this even further… in what ways are you supporting inequalities, whether consciously or subconsciously, that work against the shalom that God intends?

If w are to prepare ourselves for Christ, then we need to recognise that as he brings shalom to this world, we need to identify where we are working against it.

Advent

As this passage continues, the people start to wonder whether John himself was the messiah. Has the advent of Christ already come?

John is clear - no. He’s baptising with water, but one is coming who will baptise with the Holy Spirit.

Just look at verse 17. “His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing-floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire”.

Now this is obviously a metaphor - but what’s he going on about?

Well, the metaphor is clearing speaking about a separation of the good from the bad, such that the bad will be dealt with.

Now on one level, we see this metaphor applied to the separation on the final day - when those who have accepted the free gift of Christ will go to glory, and those who have not, will have eternal separation from God.

However, I can help but think that the metaphor also speaks of a separation within us. The elimination of our worldly nature.

And this becomes very important in the context of what we’ve been talking about.

You see, I’ve been talking about the fact that we need to produce fruit in keeping with repentance. The problem is, the nature within us that wants to break the shalom that God intended - is far stronger than what we can oppose.

We see an opportunity to get ahead - we take it.

Without Christ, the task is impossible.

But the greatest news is, in Christ’s strength, we can make a difference.

When we repent, we’re not just making some sort of resolution that we’ll try harder next time - we’re actually handing it over to Christ who can actually do something about it.

This is the greatest part about living in this time between the first and second coming of Christ.

Christ has already won the victory over our sinful nature.

And so as we prepare for his second coming, we know that by repenting of the times when we break shalom, we can actually become people who start to create shalom here on this earth today.

Conclusion

How’s the serenity?

Well, it’s probably not as good as we sometimes make out. But with the help of Christ, we can actually work against the noise that disrupts.

This world started in a state of shalom. It will culminate in a state of shalom.

Though we currently live in a time when shalom has been disrupted, sometimes severely, we know that we can prepare for Christ’s return, by working toward shalom - and repenting when we are the ones that are breaking it.

So let me pray...