Exhortation for August 24, 2003.
Worship is God’s work on us. We assemble in the presence of the Triune God not only to offer our praise and worship to the Father in the Son by the Spirit. We also assemble in His presence so that the Spirit can work on us in the Son to make us presentable before the Father. In the New Covenant, the veil has been torn, and we can enter boldly into the sanctuary, the heavenly Most Holy Place, to receive all God’s gifts. In worship, through Word and Spirit, God gives His good gifts to us.
Worship is also God’s work of judgment. We present ourselves before the Father so that the Spirit can inspect us and judge us. John the Baptist’s preaching alludes to this. As we shall see in today’s sermon, John warns Israel about a catastrophic judgment that is about to come on Israel. One of the images he uses is “winnowing” on the “threshing floor.” Winnowing is a way of separating the wheat from the chaff. Grain would be laid out on the threshing floor, and an animal would trample on it, separating the wheat from the chaff. Then the farmer would use a “winnowing fan,” like a rake, to throw the grain and chaff into the air. The grain would fall to the ground where it could be gathered and stored. The wind would drive the chaff away.
When John uses this image, he is calling to mind the temple in Jerusalem. According to 2 Chronicles 3:1, Solomon’s temple was built on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite that David had purchased (2 Samuel 24:18-25). This location was no accident. The temple was built on the site of a threshing floor because the temple was the place where Yahweh judged and winnowed His people. According to John, the Messiah is going to appear in the temple, on his threshing floor, and divide Israel into wheat and chaff. And this is what we see throughout Luke’s gospel: Jesus teaches frequently in the temple, and is a sign of division, a sign to be opposed, every time He opens His mouth. His teaching is the winnowing fan by which he separates wheat and chaff. Like Simeon, John is saying that the Messiah is destined for the “falling and resurrection of many in Israel” (2:34).
Winnowing still happens in the New Covenant temple, which is the church. We gather to receive the Lord’s gifts, but the Lord is also sifting us, individually and corporately. Jesus is at work through His Word and Spirit to sift and winnow His church. His word is a word of life, but it is also a sharp two-edged sword that separates bones and marrow and exposes the thought and attitudes of the heart. His Supper is a gift of food and life, but it is also a means of judgment for those who do not discern the body, those who eat of the one loaf but do not live in love with their brothers.
How do we avoid being blown away like chaff? By judging ourselves, by submitting to God’s judgment on us, by giving ourselves to the knife of the word and to the judgment of the table.