“wheat and chaff”
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Lk 3:17 “His winnowing
fork is in his hand
to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn,
but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
I wonder
what John the Baptist
would have made of a modern combine harvester?
In John’s day a farmer would thrash his corn by hand
with a hand held fork on the winnowing floor.
And for over 1700 of the following 2000 years
that is how you separated the good corn from the worthless chaff.
I have
this image of a bearded and robed John the Baptist
sat in the air conditioned cab of the latest John Deere combine.
As he puts it into gear and heads for the harvest field, he says::
“Remember
harvest time comes for us all -
and God’s Combine is heading towards you right now.
When harvest time comes, the standing corn will be cut
The drums in the machine rotate at 500 RPM -
beating and separating out straw, wheat and chaff.
As the straw is baled
or just strewn on the field in the wake of the machine,
the chaff is blown off into the air.
The valuable grains of corn fall through the whirring metal drums
through the metal mesh to be safely collected in the grain tank.
So says
John, will souls be harvested
“Even so
lord quickly come - bring the final harvest home -
gather thou thy people in, free from sorrow free from sin”
Be ready -
the harvesters are coming.
So the first thing to say about this passage is an obvious
one -
it is about Judgement.
Whether pre or post industrial revolution,
John the Baptist’s message is clear.
God is not a soft touch.
God’s message is not one of
“anything goes” “sweep it under the carpet”
“do what you like” sentimentality.
God’s ultimate rule is about holiness and righteousness and goodness -
so there has to be an ultimate sorting out
of the good and the bad,
the wheat and the chaff.
But what kind of judgement?
What does the wheat and the chaff
stand for?
Are some of us wheat and others chaff?
Or are we all a mixture of the two?
· Some argue that you are either
wheat or chaff
If you have faith in Christ, you are true corn and you
will be saved.
If you lack faith you are worthless chaff - you will be discarded -
thrown into eternal torment
or at the very least have your existence ended.
· Others argue differently -
we are all like a head of corn - a mix of wheat and chaff -
God’s judgement is a refining, purifying process
which discards the worthless bits of each and every one of us,
and preserves for eternity my true self, the Divine image within me.
Interpreting Biblical imagery is not always a precise
science -
there are all kinds of images of judgement in Scripture,
and they don’t all point in the same direction.
· Some images
(the separating of the sheep and goats, or the chopping down of the barren tree)
most naturally imply that some (faithful) people are saved
whilst other (unfaithful) people are condemned.
· Other images
(pruning of the tree and refining the metal)
more naturally suggest that there is good and evil in all
and each needs to be cleansed, purified.
We have to interpret specific texts in the context of our
wider understanding of God.
I want you
to image a family - 2 parents, one child.
Sadly, the child of the family is selfish, violent and unresponsive.
The
parents try all kinds of ways to help the child -
encouraging and praising good behaviour,
discouraging and when necessary preventing disruptive behaviour -
but all its seems to little or no avail.
In the end
the parents have had enough. They give
up on the child.
They say to the child -
“You’ve had more than enough chances to respond to our efforts.
Now you are going to get what you deserve.”
So they
lock the child in the basement,
send food and water each day and nothing more.
The social
worker calls and asks about the child.
Oh, the parents say, he is permanently imprisoned in the basement.
The Social
Worker asks - What is the purpose of this suffering?
How will it help the child lead a better more loving life?
No, say
the parents, you don’t understand -
the time for that is long gone - he had his chance and he didn’t take it -
this isn’t redemptive creative suffering - it’s just retribution & justice.
The
parents are of course tried and imprisoned and their child taken into care.
Is that the sort of heavenly father the Bible tell us
about?
The sort of heavenly father we experience in our lives?
When we sing carols this week in aid of Action for
Children,
is it in the name of a Heavenly father
who writes off some of children as worthless chaff -
beyond hope, not worth saving?
To
interpret the image like that is to forget
·
the
Prodigal Son, the 100th sheep,
·
God
on a cross crying “Father forgive”.
·
That
God is the very definition and meaning of infinite love.
Yes - God will destroy the chaff, the dross, the dead wood,
but never as the purely destructive act of vengeance
Always as the creative act of redemption.
So - what will it be like - this creative purging
purifying judgement?
We can’t know in detail -
but maybe the Biblical imagery does point the way.
Maybe it will be like being thrown into a combine harvester
or smelted in a furnace -
And
the more evil we bring with us,
the more we hang on it,
and the more the more chaff and waste is a part of our life,
the harder the process will be.
There
is no easy way out - no hiding place.
Tiger
Woods has issued injunctions to the press
stopping pictures of his infidelities hitting the UK media.
We cannot restrict and limit God’s access to the evidence
-
he sees us for what we are - always has and always will -
and part of the horror of the day of
judgement is just that -
that our inner being is laid bare.
Now we see in a mirror dimly - then face to face.
And that means not only seeing God and his love in all its
clarity -
it also means seeing ourselves in all the clarity of our own sin.
Andre
Agassi’s new autobiography
includes the confession that he took drugs
but lied about it to avoid a ban-
Significantly he said - “The person I knew least was myself”
And this is the judgement -it’s coming out of the darkness
of sin
into the glorious light of the presence of God -
seeing every single failing for what it is,
seeing myself for what I am,
and seeing with frightening clarity the hurt I have caused others.
And not
only every personal hurt and infidelity
but also every human face of suffering
behind the statistics of global warming, economic injustice, UK arms trade -
the whole corrupt society in which I am complicit
When I think about judgement day, I don’t see the Old
Bailey,
or imagine being sentenced by a great judge in a wig,
throwing the book at me in righteous indignation.
No - I fear a much harder judgement than that.
I fear a weeping man with the marks of nails in his hands,
looking at me not in anger but in sorrow and saying
“Now do you see what you have done to me
to your friends and neighbours,
to the poor and suffering of the world?
Now do you see what you are?
And
then he says -
I love you so much, I stayed with you through all the pain you caused me.
I couldn’t leave you to drown in your own sin.
I had
to be there for you - and now am here to bring you home
And that’s the day of judgement -
the moment we see it all.
the moment we bitterly regret it all - and say
oh that I could have my life again!
That is the moment - it is the fire and the wind of
judgement
Which cuts through us like a
forest fire on the wings of a hurricane.
Then Christ smiles and says
“Come - let me wipe every tear from your eyes -
For now we must celebrate -
because this child of mine was dead but is alive again -
he was lost and now he is found” (Lk 15:24)
Order of Service
Sunday 13th December 2009 3rd
Sunday of Advent
10.30 a.m. Morning Worship led by Rev
Andrew Sails
Hymn 125 “Hail to the Lord’s Anointed”
Prayer
All Age Ministry – Mary Hext
Hymn 77 “Joy to the world”
The Peace
Leader: Let us share the peace
Adults: The peace of
the Lord be with you
Young Church: And also with you
Leader: Go in peace
[Young people leave for their own sessions]
Reading:
Malachi 3:1-4 (p.961)
Hymn
“Change My Heart O God” [congregation remains
seated]
[NHWS 38 Eddie Espinosa, ©1982 Mercy
Publishing. CCLI Licence No 58752]
Reading: Luke 3:7-18 (p.1029)
Hymn 98 “Cradled in a manger meanly”
Sermon “Wheat and Chaff” (Luke 3:17)
Hymn 726 “God of all
power, and truth and grace”
Offertory
Prayers and Lord’s Prayer
Leader: …….Lord,
hear our prayer
People (sing) Bless the Lord, my soul,
and bless God’s
holy name
Bless the Lord, my
soul,
who leads me into
life.
[© Taize Community NHAWS 381
Calamus Licence 1613]
Hymn 243 “Rejoice the Lord is King”
Blessing