Luke
3:7-18
“Conflagration”
December
16, 2018
During my last year of seminary, I
took what turned out to be one of my favorite courses. It was “The History of Christian
Preaching”. There were only two of us in
the class, so we met in the professor’s office once a week over lunch – and she
provided dessert. We read sermons from
the early Church all the way up to the early twentieth century and discussed
them from a variety of angles: Were they faithful proclamations of the
gospel? How were the scriptures
interpreted and applied? Was the
speaker’s rhetoric appropriate to the setting?
Do we know how the hearers responded?
There
was a final exam with one question: Of
all the preachers whose works we encountered over the past months, which one
would we most like to have heard, and why?
I went with Girolamo Savonarola.
He was a monk who lived in Florence, where he was burned at the stake on
May 23, 1498.
What got him burned was preaching
that sounded very much like John the Baptist’s.
Repentance was his message, and he demanded to see signs that it was
real. He saw the need for heartfelt
sacrifice on behalf of the poor, and demanded that it be shown.
“O my brothers, to you I say: Renounce your
extravagance, your paintings, and your vain ornaments. Make your robes less full and of thinner
material. Do you not realize that your
extravagances are taking alms away from the poor? O brothers, O children, it is necessary to
speak frankly in this way, that no one may say: “I did not know about it,” and
so excuse himself. I am obliged to speak
thus, [“Woe be unto me if I preach not
the gospel!”] Woe to me were I not
to say it! I declare to you that if you
will not listen to the voice of God, He will punish you. …
O merchants, renounce your usuries; give
back other people’s belongings and the things you have dishonestly taken;
otherwise you will lose everything.
O you who have anything superfluous, give
it to the poor, for it is not yours… the poor too ashamed to beg, who so often
die of hunger, while you have so much in excess. …
And now, O priests, I must come back to
you; I mean the bad ones, for I am always reverent to the good ones. Renounce, I say, that unspeakable vice,
renounce that accursed vice that has so greatly provoked the wrath of God upon
you. If you do not, woe, woe to
you! O lustful ones, dress yourselves in
hair-cloth and do that penance which you need!
And you who have your houses full of vanities and pictures and indecent
things and evil books, …poetry contrary to the faith, bring them to me to make
a bonfire or a sacrifice to God. And
you, mothers who adorn your daughters with so much vanity and extravagance and
fancy hair ornaments, bring all these things here to us to throw into the fire,
so that, when the wrath of God comes, He will not find them in your houses. And thus, I command you as your father. Now, if you will do this in these matters, as
I have told you, you will be sufficient, you alone, to placate the wrath of
God; otherwise I should regret to have to bring you bad tidings.”[1]
And
so were lit the famous “Bonfires of the Vanities” that destroyed much of the
artwork of the early Italian Renaissance, sometimes voluntarily, and sometimes
by the act of gangs of teenage boys who broke into the houses of the Medici and
other nobles who had fled the city.
Into the fire went the paintings and
the musical instruments and the mirrors.
The jewelry was melted down and the gold and silver used to help the
hungry and the homeless. The public
squares blazed up, and he took it as a sign of the kingdom of God chasing out
the kingdom of this world. After all,
had not John the Baptist spoken of the coming of Christ as that of a refining
fire?
“‘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. 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.’” [Luke 3:16-17]
I
don’t remember the details, but I do remember when I was in high school that
there was a televangelist who held a big event where he invited people to show
up with their heavy metal and disco records and to toss them onto a big
fire. If you’re really, really turning
your back on such things, you might as well get rid of them rather than keep
them as a temptation. Savonarola has had
his imitators to this day.
Most repentance, though, is neither
that dramatic nor that simple. As John
the Baptist advised people, to truly repent is to do what you are called to do
with integrity and honesty, whatever your situation. It’s not a once-and-done matter, but a way of
life.
“Even tax-collectors came to be baptized, and they asked
him, ‘Teacher, what should we do?’ He said to them, ‘Collect no more than
the amount prescribed for you.’ 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.’” [Luke 3:12-14]
Really, to become caught up in the dramatic and fiery
moments is often still to be concentrating on yourself. “What must I do?” “What should we do?” Repentance is to turn your gaze away from
yourself and look instead at the needs of others. What is going on in their lives? What is it like to be them?
The
Messiah came, as John said he would, and his coming burns away the useless and
undesirable parts of human life. His
coming, however, was not as someone who was concerned at all about his own
comfort or his own dignity. How
comfortable is it to be born in a stable?
How dignified is it to be wrapped in strips of cloth and left in a
feeding trough? Had he been born in our
own day, he would have been one of those children born without any prenatal
care, lucky if there is a midwife to help out, and defined as “at-risk” in
government reports or news articles. It
wasn’t for himself that Jesus came among us, but for the sake of all
humankind. He didn’t come to destroy,
but to build.
“God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the
world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
[John 3:17]
Those
who would follow him have to expect a change of perspective that reflects
his. They have to expect a turning
around of their minds (which is the precise meaning of the word that the Bible
uses, “metanoia”). They have to expect to start seeing what they
did not see before and experiencing the love of neighbor and even the love for
enemies that Jesus showed. Jesus’
followers have to take to heart – which is not an empty expression – the words
of Paul, who experienced the deepest kind of repentance and renewal himself,
and said:
“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility
regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your
own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you
that was in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.
who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.
Therefore God also highly exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.” [Philippians 2:3-11]
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.” [Philippians 2:3-11]
So, folks, friends, sisters and brothers:
"Penitenza! Penitenza!" Repent! Repent!
Rethink, reorder, reorganize.
Start over, begin again, clean house.
Rejoice, renew, restore, restart, refresh, reboot.
The kingdom of God is at hand!
[1]
From “Penitenza! Penitenza!” found at http://www.elfinspell.com/ChurchHistory/Petry-NoUncertainSound/GirolamoSavonarola-59.html
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