Welcome

Good morning! I’m Pastor Ashley Dargai. To those here in the chapel and those joining us online: we are so glad you’re here!

This morning, we will sing songs of worship, pray together, hear from scripture and one another, as we move toward the pinnacle of our service: the table of our Lord, where we will take the bread and drink the cup in remembrance of our most Gracious Host, Jesus. The purpose of our time together each Sunday is to bring our hearts closer to the heart of God, so I invite you to participate in as much or as little in our prepared liturgy as your spirit is willing.

We welcome all sounds and smells from the youngest to the oldest among us. For our young ones, there is an Advent coloring page and crayons for children to participate in worship as well as a designated area in the back for families of little ones who need to move around with a box of quiet toys and crafts for children and their grownups to pull from. We believe that every age offers a unique perspective of the image of God, and we know that the energy and spirit of children can be different than adults and we consider that reality a gift.

A couple of announcements before we begin:

There are visitor cards in the pew in front of you—if you arrived during the pandemic or later, of if you have moved and have not updated your info with the church, please fill it out and drop it in the offering plate when it goes by later in worship.

This Wednesday, December 15 at 7 pm in the sanctuary, is our special Advent service dedicated to joy, our Joy as Resistance service. Joy is a spiritual practice—it is a call for us to boldly trust in the grace all around us. So during this service, we will engage in whimsy and delight, singing the most joyful carols and using all of our senses to say yes to the grace of Christ. We invite you to join us! There will be transportation available for those who cannot drive in the dark, so if you will need a ride, please contact us and let us know.

This is the last Sunday order forms for poinsettias will be available in the church office and in your bulletin. You can purchase a poinsettia for the church sanctuary or you can do a virtual poinsettia, which means your donation goes to the general church budget. Poinsettia are traditionally purchased in memory of a loved one. They’re $10, and you can drop by the church office or call or email secretary@azlechristianchurch.org to order them remotely.

We will have our Christmas Eve services here on Christmas Eve. At 5 PM, we will have a family-friendly, interactive service. And then at 11 PM, we will have a candlelight Lessons and Carols service, singing Christmas in together.

To keep up with all the life we live together here at Azle Christian Church, make sure you follow us on Facebook and subscribe to our weekly e-blast and monthly newsletter. To sign up for the eblast and newsletter, go to our website, azlechristianchurch.org, and subscribe. There is also a live calendar on our website where you can see what we have going on each month. You can also find us on Instagram and TikTok, both at @azlechristianchurch.

We continue our Advent series today: Less Is More. We will be joining up John the Baptist, a real charmer, to consider how we prepare our hearts for the coming Christ.

Let’s pray to turn our hearts toward God for this hour.

Spirit of truth, open to us the scriptures, speaking your holy word through song, through the bread and cup, and through offering ourselves, and meet us here today in the living Christ. Amen.

Litany

One: On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: Do not fear, O Zion; do not let your hands grow weak.

All: The Lord, your God, is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory;

One: God will rejoice over you with gladness, God will renew you in love, God will exult over you with loud singing.

All: I will save the lame and gather the outcast, and I will change their shame into praise.

One: I will bring you home at the time when I gather you; for I will make you renowned and praised among all the peoples of the earth,

All: When I restore your fortunes before your eyes, says the Lord.

(From Zephaniah 3)

Prayers of the People

The Lord be with you.

Our prayers are with the tornado victims across Kentucky. If you would like to help, you can donate to our denomination’s disaster relief fund, Week of Compassion.

We also mourn the death of Glenda Hoover, long-time member. A service for both her and Wendal will be held in the spring.

This morning, our prayer today is a joint effort. We will read together in a call and response a poem by Allan Boesak, called “Advent Credo,” which is an insert in your bulletin.

One: It is not true that creation and the human family are doomed to destruction and loss—

All: This is true: For God so loved the world that God gave the only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life;

One: It is not true that we must accept inhumanity and discrimination, hunger and poverty, death and destruction—

All: This is true: I have come that they may have life, and that abundantly.

One: It is not true that violence and hatred should have the last word, and that war and destruction rule forever—

All: This is true: Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, his name shall be called wonderful councilor, mighty God, the Everlasting, the Prince of peace.

One: It is not true that we are simply victims of the powers of evil who seek to rule the world—

All: This is true: To me is given authority in heaven and on earth, and lo I am with you, even until the end of the world.

One: It is not true that we have to wait for those who are specially gifted, who are the prophets of the Church before we can be peacemakers—

All: This is true: I will pour out my spirit on all flesh and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions and your old men shall have dreams.

One: It is not true that our hopes for liberation of humankind, of justice, of human dignity of peace are not meant for this earth and for this history—

All: This is true: The hour comes, and it is now, that the true worshipers shall worship God in spirit and in truth.

One: So let us enter Advent in hope, even hope against hope. Let us see visions of love and peace and justice. Let us affirm with humility, with joy, with faith, with courage: Jesus Christ—the life of the world.

We affirm these things in the name of Jesus, who gave us this prayer to pray together:

Our Father, who art in heaven

Hallowed be Thy name

Thy Kingdom come

Thy will be done

On earth as it is in heaven

Give us this day our daily bread

And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors

And lead us not into temptation

But deliver us from evil

For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever.

Amen.

Sermon

Luke 3:7-18

John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. 9 Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

… You can run on for a long time

Run on for a long time

Sooner or later God'll cut you down

… Go tell that long tongue liar

Go and tell that midnight rider

Tell the rambler, the gambler, the back biter

Tell 'em that God's gonna cut 'em down

10 And the crowds asked him, “What then should we do?” 11 In reply he said to them, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.” 12 Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, “Teacher, what should we do?” 13 He said to them, “Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.” 14 Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what should we do?” He said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.”

… Well my goodness gracious let me tell you the news

My head's been wet with the midnight dew

I've been down on bended knee

Talkin' to the man from Galilee

… He spoke to me in the voice so sweet

I thought I heard the shuffle of the angel's feet

He called my name and my heart stood still

When he said, "John, go do my will!"

… Go tell that long tongue liar

Go and tell that midnight rider

Tell the rambler, the gambler, the back biter

Tell 'em that God's gonna cut 'em down

15 As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, 16 John 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 thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His 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.”

… Well you may throw your rock and hide your hand

Workin' in the dark against your fellow man

But as sure as God made black and white

What's down in the dark will be brought to the light

… You can run on for a long time

Run on for a long time

Sooner or later God'll cut you down

18 So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people.

… Go tell that long tongue liar

Go and tell that midnight rider

Tell the rambler, the gambler, the back biter

Tell 'em that God's gonna cut you down

This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.

How do we go from “Joy to the World” to “God’s Gonna Cut You Down” within a matter of minutes?

Cue John the Baptizer: who is both the radical cousin of Jesus who lives in the woods and eats bugs and shouts at people walking by, and also, very surprisingly, the patron saint of spiritual joy.

John’s birth story is well-documented in the book of Luke. He was born too late to parents too old. Perhaps he is the patron saint of spiritual joy because of the event when his elderly pregnant mother encountered a pregnant Mary, and he leapt for joy in her womb at being in close proximity to the coming Messiah. Due to his miraculous birth story—nearly as miraculous as Jesus’ own arrival—people saw him as a sign of God’s work in the world. The expectations were high for this family. What would John grow up to do, his parents might have wondered as his mother’s belly grew?

Would he serve as a priest, helping cultivate connection to God for his fellow Jewish brothers and sisters? Would he make an impact in the humble service of carpentry like his cousin would, talking to ordinary people about the goodness of God? Or would he be like Simeon and Anna, prophets residing in the temple, ushering in God’s presence?

Well, imagine his parents’ disappointment that he was loud and at times, obnoxious and rude, shouting at the very religious leaders they were hoping he would emulate. It makes you wonder, did he choose to go out to the wilderness? Or did his parents send him out there? Or did they come to some “agreement” that it would be best for the family if he stayed away for a bit?

In any case, he was out there, and astonishingly, crowds were coming to him wanting to hear what he had to say. Not one for hospitality, he shouts at them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you of the coming wrath?”

One of these years, I’m going to put that on our family Christmas card.

He tells them to bear fruit worthy of repentance. And he calls out their self-justification, their claims of, “Well, we have Abraham as our ancestor, so I think we’ll be fine. Or our family has a lot of history around these parts, or our roots go deep, so maybe slow your roll, Johny boy.

He tells them, them being the Very Religious Persons, the VRPs, that you cannot dismiss God’s ongoing call on your life with some of kind of appeal to heritage. John points to the stones and says, “Heritage? Ha! God can makes these stones the sons and daughters of Abraham if God needs to.”

He tells them the ax is waiting to be pulled back to chop down the tree with the deep roots they boast about!

It’s harsh. Ouch, John. He’s not even talking to me, and my feelings are hurt. I can imagine the people in the crowd saying, “We came all the way out here for this?”

But miraculously, the people are curious about this confrontation. So, John, what then should we do, they ask? How do we bear fruit worthy of repentance? How do we avoid the coming wrath?

What kind of answer might they have expected from such a radical, affronting presence? Abandon your home and families? Dwell in the desert like him? Start a revolution?

Actually, our boy is full of surprises because he essentially tells them to go home. He doesn’t say this explicitly, but he directs them to their everyday, ordinary lives. Their jobs, their neighbors, their families.

God is not out there to be reined in, God cannot be coerced or pacified with big sweeping gestures of religiosity. No, God is in the nitty-gritty dailiness of their lives. Instead of constructing a big flashy religious gesture, John tells them to inhabit their life as deeply and as generously as they can right now. If you’re looking for holy ground, it’s beneath your feet. It’s the carpet in your house, it’s the tile of your workplace, it’s the road underneath your sandals.

He addresses the tax collectors: collect only the money prescribed for you.

He tells the mercenaries: don’t extort money by threats or false accusations.

To the VRPs: don’t allow your religious heritage to make you arrogant or complacent or entitled.

To everyone who has anything: you have gifts to give, so stop hoarding and live generously.

The kind of repentance John is describing is not some ethereal or mysterious thing. All the possibilities for salvation we need are embedded in the lives God has already given us. The kingdom of God is not out there, but it’s here. Within and among us, sprouting up in our day-to-day interactions.

And that’s all fine and good until we get to that last part of the text.

The winnowing fork and the unquenchable fire. Just the mention of them triggers my internal fire and brimstone alarm. In the name of all that is sweet baby Jesus, the lectionary writers who chose this text for Advent must have been hanging out with Ebenezer Scrooge, right? Who else could imagine such stark language at Christmastime? Well, that couldn’t be right because Scrooge was motivated by greed and Advent is very anti-greed.

Maybe they were inspired by the Grinch—the one who hates Christmas and people in general and whose heart is multiple sizes too small. But that can’t be right either, because each text has been pointing to expanding the borders and becoming more inclusive in thinking about what God is doing through Christ. Contrary to the Grinch, the heart of Christmas is many sizes too big for us.

Why, oh why, are reading about a winnowing fork and unquenchable fire two weeks before Christmas?

We don’t do a lot of winnowing these days—it’s at least not in our common cultural vocabulary. But it’s helpful in this context to understand what chaff is.

Chaff is the husk surrounding the seed. Like the husk you see around a cob of corn. It’s inedible. The chaff was seen as useless, at least until tamales were invented. It kept the seed from growing. So the chaff was thrown in the air with a winnowing fork, and the wind would blow it over a couple of feet. A labor-intensive sorting activity.

This is a very particular type of sorting. There are quite a few metaphors used to describe sorting in scripture. Sheep and goats. The ones who said, “Lord, Lord” who Jesus never knew.

But winnowing is not a sorting of good grain and bad grain. The purpose of winnowing is to save every piece of grain.

The grain and chaff coexist on the same plant. They are part of the same organism. And husking and winnowing the chaff pulls it away from the grain so that it can be used.

Our Advent series is focused on downsizing, on purging, on scaling back our spirituality, all in preparation for the coming of Christ.

We began Advent thinking about the end of the world. We started very big—the cosmos getting ready for Jesus. And then we got a little smaller and moved with the prophet Malachi to institutions—government, religion—how should they brace for the incoming of God?

And today we get smaller and look at our daily lives. Our interactions with others, our relationships, our vocations.

Next week we will scale down even further to a family, leading us the fulfillment of Advent in one tiny baby, who we know, was there at the creation of the cosmos.

We’re winnowing down, we’re refining our expectations, we’re getting focused so that we’re ready for Jesus in this rhythm of faith that brings us through Advent each year.

If the wheat and chaff coexist on the same plant, then the chaff in our lives is part of us. The winnowing is the work God is doing within us. It’s the stuff that John is calling out: self-absorption, apathy, greed—anything that makes us less generous, less fair, or less considerate of others.

The work of this winnowing fork and the unquenchable fire, the baptism and the work of the Holy Spirit is not to destroy, but to sanctify. There is dignity in this harsh word because what John is assuming in his abrasive challenge is that we have the capacity to rise and meet it. There is still something in us that is worthy of redemption, of sanctification, of salvation.

We often equate judgment with condemnation, but to judge something means to see it clearly. John is seeing something that perhaps we can’t. The adolescent John said to his very religious parents and to very religious people,”Things cannot stay this way forever!”

I have been fascinated by Johnny Cash’s music for awhile. I read a book called Trains, Jesus, and Murder: The Gospel According to Johnny Cash, and what struck me was it was as if Johnny Cash lived in Advent in his spirituality throughout his entire life.

Cash spoke of the apocalyptic as easily as someone might talk about breakfast cereal. His music was marked by scripture, by a sense of expectation and watching. The Man in Black stood in solidarity with the poor and suffering not out of great benevolence but because he identified so deeply with them. His outlook on the judgment of God was most appropriately on his own self and not on all the sinners out there. What was God going to do with him?

“God’s Gonna Cut You Down” is not a Johnny Cash original. It’s an old American folk song, previously recorded in a folksy, upbeat tune. But Cash slowed it down, gave it an ominous downbeat, and in his gravely voice, he gave a warning. Was he warning people out there? Or was he looking in the mirror? It’s hard to tell with him.

But perhaps we can take his warning of “God’s gonna cut you down” not as a warning of coming destruction of all we love, of our very selves, but as a welcome of God doing the work it takes to preserve us in love, to save us from the apathy and greed and self-absorption that would suffocate us. The chaff is being thrown in the air, to be blown by the wind, to be cleansed from us by the spirit of the Living Christ.

We rejoice today on Joy Sunday because the God of the universe sees in us something worth preserving.

We rejoice today because all is not lost.

Nothing is beyond redemption.

In the winnowing, we are being preserved.

And so we return home, to our daily lives, to our workplaces and our families, and inhabit our lives as deeply and as generously as we can. Because that is where God is working, and that is very good news. Amen.

Stewardship Moment

There are many ways to support and resource the ministries of Azle Christian Church: Venmo, giving online, or the offering plate. I also invite you to bring nonperishable items for our Little Free Pantry. The collection shelves for the pantry are in the Fellowship Hall right outside the kitchen.

The deacons are going to hand these plates over during our final song, starting at the front row and they just to need make their way to the back where a deacon will collect them. You can drop your offering, an “I gave online card,” or an information card.

Invitation

If you’d like to become a member of this faith community, or if you’d like to become a disciple of Jesus, please talk to me after service or sometime this week.

Benediction:

Please rise in body or spirit for our benediction, the final song, and the Doxology.

May the God for which we wait preserve us in love and fill us with joy as we return now to our daily lives. Amen.