It's A Wonderful Life - Hope In It!

Second Sunday in Advent

Matthew 3:1-12         In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’” Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance. Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. “I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

+++

Frank Capra was a filmmaker who seemed to identify with the little guy – the ordinary men and women – the John Does and Mr. Smiths.  And George Baileys.  My daughter Kira loved George Bailey when she was a little girl.  Many days I can remember Kira coming home from school, hanging up her backpack, and saying, “I think I’ll watch a little George Bailey.”  That’s what she called the film.  She would start the tape wherever it happened to be and watch until it was time to do something else.  This was her way of unwinding after a hard day in the second grade.  As a little person, she appreciated George Bailey.

All the little people in Bedford Falls appreciated George Bailey too – with good reason.  He had compassion for them – unlike the infamous Mr. Potter, whom we will meet this week.

Last week we watched the scene in which George has his last conversation with his father, Peter Bailey.  They talked about Peter’s hopes for George and George’s dreams for his future.  Later that evening Peter Bailey died.  The scene we will watch today takes place a few months later when George is meeting with the board of directors for the Building and Loan as they prepare to make decisions about its future.  Mr. Potter is there, as a member of the board, and he has a few opinions about this institution that has been a thorn in his side.

***

Mr. Potter is the opposite of the kind of man Frank Capra admires.  He despises the little people, the poor and middle class folks in Bedford Falls.  He believes that giving people a hand only spoils them.  He exhibits the worst kind of greed.  He is concerned not only with increasing his wealth but also with decreasing others’ wealth.  For some reason, he thinks he deserves it all.

That is some kind of badness.                                                                                      

George wants nothing to do with his badness; he wants to walk away from this town and Mr. Potter, and begin to live the life he’s dreamed about.  Duty has kept him here this long, but now that he’s signed all the papers he is gone.  He has his coat, he’s headed for the door, he is almost out of the room, and then Mr. Potter opens his mouth and George gets hooked and reeled right back in.

He begins to speak of decency and human dignity, the right to have a roof over one’s head and become a contributing member of society.  He speaks of justice – biblical justice.

***

John the Baptist comes to us today and preaches his message of justice by way of repentance.  He offers a baptism that is unlike anything ever seen before.  And the people seem to be hungry for it.

Even the Pharisees and the Sadducees come forward.  But then John turns on them. “You brood of vipers!  Who told you to flee from the wrath to come?”

It isn’t self-evident – what exactly the problem is here.  If you walk into this as a newcomer to the conversation, you wouldn’t necessarily understand why John is angry.  But it helps to understand a little bit about the history of the relationship between the prophets and the religious authorities of Israel.

In the Old Testament books of the prophets the story is repeated many times.  The religious authorities, once they get in a position of power, seem to forget what they are there for.  They forget that they have been given power for the purpose of serving others.  Power granted by the Lord is not meant to be hoarded, but to be spread around; to lift up the lowly, to fill the hungry with good things.  This is what I mean by biblical justice.

When we forget these things, systems of evil are allowed to grow like weeds, killing everything good in their path.  People can get trapped in such systemic evil – if we don’t have some men and women who stand up and say there is another way.

George Bailey seems to be one of those guys.  This man, who desperately wants to wash his hands of it, to get out of Bedford Falls, can’t seem to help standing up and saying to Mr. Potter that there is another way – there must be another way. 

His confrontation that day in the boardroom with such cruelty awakens something in George. Before he knows what he is doing, he is making a case for the old Bailey Building and Loan.  He says he knows it’s not much, he knows it is small in comparison to the big bank in town; he knows it could easily go under, but he also knows this should not be allowed to happen.  As humble as it is, this town needs the Building and Loan, if only so that people will have some alternative than to crawl to Mr. Potter.

Did you hear him say that?  So that people will have some alternative than to crawl to Potter.

Do you remember?  One of the last things his father said to him was that Bedford Falls was no place for any man, unless he was willing to crawl to Potter.  Now George finds himself in a position to challenge the truth of that notion.  It turns out, in fact, that there is another way for George.  There is another way for us too.

As people of the Word, we don’t submit to evil.  We don’t look into the face of evil and shrug our shoulders.  We don’t turn our backs on the victims of greed or the victims of senseless, immoral violence and act as though there is nothing we can do about it.  We are people of the Word, and we can and must do something about it. 

It isn’t always easy.  John the Baptist didn’t advocate the easy path, and neither did Jesus.  George Bailey didn’t always find it easy to do the right thing – he had some low moments, for sure.

At his lowest moment, the moment when the Building and Loan was about to go under, carrying George down with it, do you know what he did?  He went crawling to Potter.  

He crawled before evil, and evil threw him down into the darkest depths.  But not beyond the reach of God, who was able to pluck him out of the depths, by the help of God’s angel – a scruffy little one called Clarence – and set him on a right path again, strengthening him with renewed hope.

And hope will always set us in the right direction.

This Advent journey asks us to walk through some dark places.  The world’s darkness intrudes on our holiday cheer – it certainly has this year, between Paris and Colorado Springs and San Bernardino.  But the light of Advent is not so much about cheer as it is hope.  Hope is the most powerful thing we have in the darkest time of the year, as we look to the light of the world, the prince of peace, the one who brings with him another way.  And we follow.