Radical Like John the Baptist

One thing I keep hearing as people talk about the emergent chuch is the radical nature of the Gospel that's been sanitized and even hidden by the church in Christendom for years. As a Lutheran I see Martin as one of the first to listen to the whole text and to let it work on him and not the other way arround.

Reading John this week has gotten me hopeful about the future church again maybe because I can see God at work through such radical preaching.

After hearing a particular story from scripture a few times I start to think I know what it's really about. And I must confess that sometimes I stop reading the story and just try to push ahead thinking I already know what the point of the Word already is supposed to be. Advent and Christmas are seasons when we are tempted to push past the story found in Scripture without spending any actual time listening to the stories. And the stories of God breaking into our lives at Christmas without our authorization are some of the best that we can share with the world.

John was never tamed or bridled. He was created by God on purpose and he came preaching a message that was so radical and so bold that people came out to the wilderness near the river Jordan to hear it. They came from Jerusalem and all over Judea to hear John's bold unrestrained message. It was a message that wasn't meant for somebody else or some other people. It was a message that was meant for the nation of Israel. And it rung in their ears so boldly they couldn't stop listening.

John spoke so boldly to them, the NRSV and NIV said he addressed the people who came out to be baptized by him in Luke 3:7, as “You brood of Vipers!” John literally calling them the γεννήματα spawn or offspring or the fruit of ἐχιδνων poisonous snakes. How's that for the opening line of a sermon. You brood of vipers. John understood that God was up to something big. He knew that Kingdom was coming and that the time had come to get ready.

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.” Luke 3:8-9 NRSV

John the Baptist was and is a dangerous radical. John was the most unrestrained man of his time in all Israel until Jesus came along. John came and told the people the straight truth. He didn't bother to shave off the rough edges that make us uncomfortable. John wasn't worried about being politically correct. He wasn't worried that the prophetic word that he shared with the people on God's behalf might sort of kind of make them uncomfortable. John knew who they were and he knew that they and all of us have shame, sin, guilt,and grief that we need to lay aside.

John's radical preaching was hard to ignore in his time and it's hard to ignore today. This past week I've been reading Wild at Heart by John Eldridge and seeing in John a true man of God who was really wild and free as God had intended. Eldridge makes a pretty good case in the first chapter that men are contained and constrained by our civilization and that was never God's design or plan. Adam, Eldridge says was created out in the wilderness, but Eve was created in the Garden. Eldridge even points to Jesus and John the Baptist being lead by the Spirit out to the wilderness. John was a radical bold man of God. He had a message from God that wasn't a lullaby. Repent. Lay down you sin. Repent. Don't fake it; don't pretend God doesn't know your sin. Repent.

Who do you imagine as a faithful man of God?
Do you imagine a nice guy, a real push over, a pussy cat or do you imagine someone dangerous an untamed: someone like John. But if your part of my generation of TV watchers you've seen Christian men often portrayed as a sort of Ned Flanders. Nice and restrained.

So what does that say about all of us: are we nice or a we wild and free, like John.