Episode Transcript
[00:00:12] Speaker A: Welcome to the Blessed Sacrament Homilies podcast where our mission is to help everyone recognize and experience the presence of God. We hope you are nourished and encouraged by the Word. Thank you for joining us.
[00:00:26] Speaker A: The Lord be with you and with your spirit.
[00:00:29] Speaker B: A reading from the Holy Gospel according.
[00:00:30] Speaker A: To Matthew Glory to you, O Lord.
[00:00:34] Speaker B: John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the desert of Judea and saying, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
It was of him that the prophet Isaiah had spoken when he said, a voice of one crying out in the desert, prepare the way of the Lord.
Make straight his paths.
John wore clothing made of camel's hair and had a leather belt around his waist.
His food was locust and wild honey.
At that time, Jerusalem, all Judea and the whole region around the Jordan were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan river as they acknowledged their sins.
When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, you brood of vipers who warned you to flee from the coming wrath, produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance.
And do not presume to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father.
For I tell you, God can raise up children to Abraham from these stones.
Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees.
Therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
I am baptizing you with water for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is mightier than I.
I am not worthy to carry his sandals.
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire his winnowing fan in his hand, he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.
The Gospel of the Lord Praise to.
[00:02:46] Speaker A: You, Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:02:48] Speaker B: I've tried to think back, and in the six and a half years I have been pastor here, I believe this is number 39, the 39th sports analogy I used when I was preaching.
[00:03:04] Speaker B: This one is a lion's analogy, but I think it's fairly accurate.
[00:03:11] Speaker B: I've come to believe that they are at their best when they are underestimated.
When people start to doubt them because they dig a little deeper, they seem to work a little harder and they play better.
And when everybody thinks they're the best, that tends to be when they start to slip a bit.
Perhaps they believe their own hype, I'm not sure, but there seems to be a few more hiccups during those times.
[00:03:46] Speaker B: Well, religion, as in organized religion throughout history has kind of had those same problems.
We see one dealt with here with John the Baptist, who is out preparing the way of the Lord and preaching a need for repentance, to see things in a new way.
And he notices the Pharisees and the Sadducees. They were the ones in power, they were the top dogs.
And because of that they got in cahoots with Rome.
They were okay with the Roman Empire, which led to a bit of corruption and definitely led to a lot of self righteousness.
They began to believe their own hype.
So they thought that everything they believed was perfect and accurate.
They thought that the way they lived was exactly what God was expecting of them.
Therefore they did not need to change.
Everything was good.
They became self righteous.
The only way we become righteous is through God's love and mercy. Our human nature is we screw up too much.
[00:05:09] Speaker B: Well, the early Christian church was pretty darn good too.
Now there were conflicts and arguments, we can see that in the Romans reading.
[00:05:19] Speaker B: But the focus was always on proclaiming God's mercy and that need for repentance to see things differently.
And then along came Constantine and made it the religion of the empire.
And that's when they started to believe their own hype.
And pretty soon we can see a history of corruption and self righteousness, particularly among those in leadership.
[00:05:53] Speaker B: Well, that same analogy I think could be put into the Christian church right now in our country.
[00:06:03] Speaker B: Where we are the ones in power, we are the ones in control and we've started to believe our own hype.
So we've become self righteous.
And rather than proclaiming God's mercy and God's love, we instead use our faith to point out the faults in others, to wave a finger.
We've gotten off the mark.
[00:06:29] Speaker B: And I can't help but think that if we were a little more on the outside, we would dig deeper into our trust in Christ and work at proclaiming that to others rather than shaking a finger at others.
We'd go back to standing up for those who are marginalized and forgotten rather than proclaiming a prosperity gospel, which is the biggest nonsense in the history of the Christian church.
Jesus, mission and ministry, the one that was set forth by John the Baptist, prepared for by John the Baptist, was always a one that looked out for those that were on the outside the most. The ones that were forgotten, the ones that were poor, the ones that struggled, the ones in need of mercy being proclaimed.
