Burn Away the Chaff: Love God. Love People. Do Stuff.

Brad Sullivan

2 Advent, Year A

Sunday, December 8, 2013

St. Mark’s, Bay City, TX

Isaiah 11:1-10
Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19

Romans 15:4-13
Matthew 3:1-12

So folks tend to think of repentance as a rather less than joyous affair.  “Repent” we hear John the Baptist cry, and, nowadays quite honestly, “repent” we tend to hear fairly angry sounding preachers cry.  It seems like repentance is supposed to be this miserable activity where we say, “yeah, your right, I’m terrible,” and then are left just feeling kinda terrible.   

Advent is a season of repentance so in the secular world, we skip Advent all together and go straight for Christmas, and my biggest problem with that is not that the secular world ignores the need to repent and largely forgets about Jesus.  My biggest problem with secular pre-Christmas is not the commercialization and rampant consumerism.

No, my biggest problem with overdone secular pre-Christmas is that unlike most of the year when, if you don’t want to hear a particular song or any music at all, you basically just don’t turn on your radio and problem solved. During secular pre-Christmas, however, the Christmas music, both good and bad is unavoidable, and two weeks after going to HEB one morning, the Beach Boys’ Little Saint Nick is still running through your head.  You’re welcome.  I’ll take a little Advent repentance over that any day plus, I think Advent is a joyful time.

I spent the weekend with youth from St. Mark’s and around the diocese at a youth conference at St. Martin’s in Houston, called Conspire.  The name of the conference is every bit as provocative as it sounds.  The point is for the youth to conspire together about how they can change the world, in Jesus’ name for Jesus’ sake.  In the words of our keynote speaker for the weekend, Bob Goff, how can they and we “Love God, love people, and do stuff.”  That’s the conspiracy:  love God; love people; do stuff. 

The keynote speaker, Bob Goff is a lawyer and author of the book, Love Does, and he’s one of the most joyful souls I’ve met.  He was a trip, and he talked about our need to stop agreeing with Jesus.  What he meant was our propensity for reading the Bible, agreeing with what Jesus says and then not really living that out. 

Sometimes our fears keep us from living as love, living as Jesus said.  Sometimes feeling totally in adequate or overwhelmed by the enormity of the task Jesus has for us, keeps us form living as love.  Jesus has a task for all of us, something which each of us is particularly suited to do. 

For Bob Goff, it turns out that his task is to help children in Uganda who have been victims of child slavery, among other things.  He goes over there every sixty days to help get kids out of slavery, to prosecute the bad guys, and to help the bad guys repent.  He loved his enemies.  He started a school for some of these bad guys who were hurting children, and when they graduated, he was there, giving them their diplomas, proud of them, and loving them…and telling them that if they ever harmed a child again, that they would die in the deepest darkest hole of a prison that Uganda had, which from the sounds of it is a very deep dark hole.  That’s loving your enemy, and keeping the children safe. 

Mr. Goff didn’t plan to do all of these things.  He had the knowhow, as a lawyer, to prosecute.  He had the resources to go over there and help, and he had a heart full of love to say yes without fear whenever he was met with the next challenge.  So, stop agreeing with Jesus, Mr. Goff said.  Go and do what Jesus says.  Become Love itself.  Love God; love people, and then do stuff. 

This is really what John the Baptist was talking about when he told people to repent, adding that “[Jesus] will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” (Matthew 3:12)  Love God; Love your neighbor, and do stuff.

Ok, it may sound kinda dissimilar, but here’s the deal.  All wheat has chaff.  That’s the outer covering of the wheat.  The wheat grows inside it until it is mature and then the chaff is removed when the wheat emerges.  The chaff is thrown out and the wheat is used.

We have both wheat and chaff within us.  Our fears and insecurities are part of our chaff with which we try to protect ourselves.  Whatever we use to protect ourselves in such a way that we are unable to love God and love people:  fears, insecurities, anger, holding on to past hurts, these are all our chaff.  Now, we can grow somewhat even inside of our chaff, but we can also become those fears, become those insecurities, become that anger, become those past hurts.  We can, if we choose to, turn our wheat into chaff.  Then, in then end, will there be anything left other than chaff? 

Our true selves are the wheat.  The chaff is just our protective covering which can help of for a time, but eventually keeps us from becoming love.  Jesus loves us that we may become love and be truly and fully human ourselves, to get rid of our chaff.  Once we are love, once we are truly human, we don’t need to worry about what Jesus means or what all the answers are to all of our questions.  We don’t need to know how it’s all going to end.  Once we get rid of our chaff, become love, become truly human, then we just need to do stuff.

Repent, John the Baptist said.  Start removing your chaff.  Turn around, John said, and begin the process of undoing the harm you’ve done, healing the wounds you’ve made, and then walk in the path you see Jesus leading.  Follow Jesus step by step, one step at a time.

We’ll mess up and fail, and we won’t know where exactly the end is, and that’s ok.  We just keep following, offering up to God the chaff of our lives as our burnt offering to him, praying for Jesus to burn away the chaff we hold onto, and praying for the Holy Spirit to grow the wheat inside of us.  Repent.  Follow Jesus, and become love.

Advent is a joyful time.  Repentance is a joyful occasion with or without Little Saint Nick.  Repentance is part of the process whereby we ask God to help rid ourselves of our chaff and become more fully the wheat we were made to be.  Repentance is part of the process whereby we follow Jesus and become more fully the beloved and loving human beings God made us to be.  What could be more joyful?

At the Conspire conference, the youth were told that they could become love, that they could conspire together to change the world in Jesus’ name…and they believed it, and so it will happen.  When John proclaimed a baptism of repentance that folks could turn their lives around, wash and be made clean, they believed him, and so it happened.  If we believe Jesus can burn up the chaff in our lives, that we can repent, and that God’s Holy Spirit will grow the wheat in our lives and turn us into love, then it will happen as well.  Repent, for the kingdom of God has come near.  Love God.  Love people.  Do stuff, and be not afraid.  Amen.