Prepare and Repair

Matthew 3:1-12

Repent! It is the word which sticks out to us in this passage. This word does make it hard to explore the passage more fully. This is set in the beginning of the good news of Matthew and so it should be setting us up for the way the rest of the gospel will challenge us to live into its good news of Jesus.

Repair would be a good word for this because this is what the Baptizer is calling us to. To be repaired within ourselves, to bring repair to a broken world. As small churches we are much more attuned to what is broken in our small town around us. We have a beat and a pulse on what is happening, what isn’t fair, the places where we can join with others to help repair what has been broken.

The images in the Bible are of gardens being trampled, of them growing wild and being in need of weeding, of making paths straight and we understand curvy roads. We understand an untidy garden mess. We see what happens when things are let go and no one attends to them. They visit us on our doorsteps and are fed, or we make a garden and feed this way, or we start to see what might need mending because everyone is feeding and no one is…well, you know.

Attending to repair is a practice in seeing. Something we attune ourselves to by actually walking and connecting with those who are around us. So, we have to hit the streets and go out because this is worship too. We narrowly define worship and yet worship has 829 million definitions on google. That’s a lot. Worship is how we honor what Jesus taught and Jesus did not sit in the synagogue in order to show us worship.

Jesus healed people, repairing them to rejoin their communities. Jesus fed them when it seemed impossible to feed and in small rural places where the food was scarce. And the disciples were amazed to pick up baskets of food after. Jesus calmed storms and it was worship for they were in awe of Jesus controlling the wind and waves. Anyplace which takes us to awe, puts us in touch with the divine. The places where we  work to serve others is worship. It is played out in story, song, communion with others and takes us out of the comfort of what we normally experience.

When asked what younger people want in church, they responded they want a church which challenges them to act. They want a verb church, not a place church. A church which participates in repair is a doing church. It expands it’s outlook on what worship is and takes it to the next level of what we do in the world.

John the Baptist attracts people because when they hear his speech they are moved to act. They want to see things changed, they hope things will be different than they are, and they are inspired to do something new and different. This is a way we can be in the world with others in our community and neighborhoods. We can connect with people and move them to action. This repairs and restores us to a bigger community.

We must act out of our picture of abundance though. We have more than enough and can give out of our enough-ness to others who don’t have or in ways which support the community around us. Just look at what we have done with this building. Making it fuller because we had more rooms which were empty during the week. We saw we had abundance and acted on it. This will open us to a new relationship with a new neighbor. Yes, it’s uncertain still and a bit out of the ordinary, but this is what we are to mirror in our life and walk with Jesus. John gave us this picture today. A picture where we can plant and repair what has been overgrown or what has been forgotten. Weeding and planting prepares us to make things right once again.

We can only do this in a community with one another. The small church has an advantage in this. We are poised to be more agile with this because we are nearer to hearing what is going on in our communities. Where there is enough and what has been lacking. Where we might stand in for the gaps which might help one another. Where might we go to worship anew and find the places where healing and health happen for all.