120719 – Matthew 3. 1-12
I ran across this book about America and our failure to be AWAKE as a nation.
And IN IT, I found an illustration that was used by a Southern Baptist preacher.
He related an incident that occurred in the late 1800’s. His point was that we DO NOT pay attention, even though we may be ALERTED to the things that are occurring RIGHT around us.
We kind of get CAUGHT UP in “our own little worlds” sometimes…
The Robert E. Lee was a PLEASURE BOAT and it STEAMED out of Vicksburg, Mississippi.
Hundreds and hundreds of people were on board.
Sometime after midnight, on September 30, 1882, the boat actually caught fire.
The CAPTAIN, one W.S. Cannon, was the one who discovered it and told his PILOT, John Stout, to RUSH DOWN through the main deck and run down every corridor to WAKE everyone up.
He was to do so with GREAT HASTE.
The pilot DID NOT have time for any explanations or idle talk. GET UP grab your stuff and GO!
Strangely some of the passengers aboard became ANGRY at being awakened in the middle of the night…out of a SOUND sleep.
Some thought that to be awoken thusly was just plain RUDE.
Others thought it must have been a DRUNKARD or a PRACTICAL JOKER …running out there in the hallways…and making a WHOLE LOT of NOISE at an ungodly hour.
SOME were actually AMUSED by it all and they LAUGHED. For whatever reason they thought it was FUNNY…and thought it will certainly be TAKEN CARE OF by the CREW…
…THAT IS, until, such later time, as you could actually hear them SCREAMING in terror as the flames overcame them…
Still OTHERS heard the WARNING but just DID NOT believe it and waited to hear it again – more clearly.
But as the PILOT ran down the corridor “his message” was harder and harder TO actually HEAR.
In another few minutes they were swept down into a FRIGHTFUL DEATH.
But there were some who heard the warning and BELIEVED it to be true.
They IMMEDIATELY awakened from their sleep and made their escape to find SOME safety.
I read the story and thought “HOW VERY like US.”
How very HUMAN. We HEAR “what we want to hear.”
I am sure that is the way that John the Baptizer was “treated” with his MESSAGE OF REPENTANCE and immediacy.
I don’t need to REPENT. I don’t need to turn my life around. I don’t need to go in a different direction! I am FINE! After all when I COMPARE MYSELF to “others,” I am practically a SAINT. I don’t STEAL. I don’t KILL. I don’t CUSS like a sailor. What do I need to repent FOR? Repentance is for sinners…
Plus I have TIME on my side. I can always repent LATER, if need be.
I am sure there were those who probably POINTED and made FUN of the Baptizer…after all he was AN ESSENE…and you know “HOW THEY ARE!” THEY were definitely DIFFERENT!
They were all hung up about CLEANLINESS, they were always found washing away this sin and that sin…
I bet the dude has a year’s supply of PURELL. He probably carries a 12 ounce container of it in his leather girdle.
Just check out what the guy EATS! No wonder he lives in the hill country. No wonder he hangs out in caves. Who does he think he is Euell Gibbons?
And check out “that OUTFIT” of his, too! I mean WHO DRESSES like that? WHO goes out looking like THAT?
And HE is going to Baptize US – I don’t think so!
The Pharisees and the Sadducees reportedly came out to “SEE HIM…” But again, probably with ulterior motives…
They TOO, had “heard things”…they wanted to CHECK HIM OUT for themselves…they too, wanted to know what kind of religious WIERDO, ZEALOT or NUT this guy was!
This is EXACTLY how the world treats the WARNINGS of God.
SOME become angry with the church. They AVOID it at all costs. So they also avoid THE WORD! They pay it NO HEED…it is OLD, OUTDATED, ANCIENT and ARCHAIC.
Others are AMUSED; they treat it ALL as sheer “ENTERTAINMENT.”
Then there are those who HEAR the gospel but wait for a CONVENIENT TIME to SET THINGS STRAIGHT with God.
And yet, John’s message was clear: The Kingdom of God is near, REPENT and believe in the GOOD NEWS.
The message is ALWAYS URGENT because we never know HOW MUCH time we each have…
So the word for today is REPENT…now what are YOU going to do with IT? Amen.