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Last week I spoke of those examples in my life of living out our Faith.
There’s another person I remember from my early life that I want to talk about today. He was a teacher of mine who we’ll call “Mr. Smith”. Now Mr. Smith was very devout, and even lead a Bible study, which is how I met him. At first things went well with this group. I learned a lot and made a good group of friends.
But then I started to see a dark side. Mr. Smith didn’t show the same sort of love to others that Jesus shows us. In fact, he was very judgmental. I saw him act this way while talking about some of my other classmates, particularly ones that were not part of this group. When I started to see this, I knew it was time to find a new Bible study group. Looking back, I am glad I did. One thing that came out later, was that people not in the Bible study were getting lower grades in Mr. Smith’s class, mainly when it came to essays. It may have cost me to leave the Bible study, but knowing that, I am more glad I did so.
Years later, Mr. Smith left teaching to start a Christian ministry. It was a very successful venture for a while. Then after some time it became public that Mr. Smith had taken a leave of absence from his ministry group when it came out he had multiple affairs with women who, it ended up, were not far in age from his oldest child. It was disheartening to see, though I sadly cannot say I was terribly surprised.
The really unfortunate thing is that I knew many people who might have come to Faith if it hadn’t been for their interaction with Mr. Smith. He didn’t show the same love and compassion that Jesus shows us. He didn’t live into the values he espoused. Outward he told one thing while living a very different life all together.
Unfortunately, this is very similar to the people John the Baptist speaks out against in the Gospel today. This is like those leaders in John’s and Jesus’ day who were often hypocrites when it came to their Faith. It is why John is so harsh towards them.
While these leaders were trying to maintain control, they were really keeping themselves and others separated from God. They were making their work about themselves, not God, which is what kept them from growing in love and relationship with the Lord. Even more unfortunately, there are still many who do the same as them today.
In Jesus’ day, as well as ours, there are leaders who want to use God’s name as a tool to have us follow their ways instead of our Lord’s. Fortunately for us, we can spot these people by what they do and say, just as we can with those who genuinely want to, and do, serve our Lord.
The hope we have is that we do not have go down the same path as the leaders in John the Baptist’s day, or even those like Mr. Smith. John reveals a path to those who come to him for guidance to live in God’s ways from this moment onwards. He even lays such a path for tax collectors, who were considered the worst of sinners for their exploitation in service to themselves and the Roman Empire in John’s day.
John calls us to go in the same direction Paul and Isaiah would have us walk. In the First Song of Isaiah, we are told to make the Lord’s deeds known to the people. We are called to make God known to the world through words and deeds. Paul tells the Philippians to do the same. He calls on them to let their gentleness “be known to everyone.” This is the same path our Gospel spoke of in our Wednesday service, that we are called not to be judgmental, but to be humble as life-long learners striving to be closer to God. As we know from our service each Sunday, when we love God, we also love our neighbor as ourselves.
This is the reason for hope and rejoicing in our readings today. We do not have to follow in the ways of those who would judge instead of express love for one another. We can instead repent and return to the Lord in the way John tries to map out for us. We can start to show our love for God through our love for others. We can make God known through our love and kindness towards each other. That is the sort of preparation we are called to make in this Advent Season. That is the sort of life we are called to live in our Faith.