Trinity Church in the City of Boston
The Rev. Morgan S. Allen
December 7, 2025
II Advent (A), Matthew 3:1-12
In you, O Lord, have we taken refuge; for the sake of your name, lead us and guide us.1 From Psalm 31. Amen.
32 years ago this month, Missy and I arrived in fair Shreveport, Louisiana, for winter break. Through what must have been impressive negotiations, her parents granted uncharacteristic permission for me to drive the two of us to and from a Dallas radio station’s concert event2 The “Edge Christmas Party.” The Internets tell me the date was December 19, 1993, a Sunday. at a former warehouse known as “The Bomb Factory.” We left around lunchtime for the three-hour expedition from the Queen City on the Red, and we arrived back home just after 3AM – a return trip that remains among the most exhausted and scariest of my hard-driving road adventures.
See, for most of nine hours, we had stood: first outside the venue waiting for the doors to open, and then inside, on “the floor.” In those days, rock-n-roll shows remained as God intended: entirely general admission. Ergo, if one got there first, and if one were willing to forego comforts, then one could occupy the best spot in the hall. Missy and I were so willing, and so we did accomplish; we stood at mark center with our hands on the stage, without much more than an inch to move in any direction.
The highly-90s bill included British alt-rockers the Catherine Wheel3 Last summer, three or four Catherine Wheel CDs found the shelf of our favorite thrift store, and I gave them a go. They may be slightly better than I remembered, but I’m still meh on them., the great Matthew Sweet4 We saw Matthew Sweet four or five times in those years, and I remain a fan., and an unlikely penultimate act, Tony Bennett5 Bennett was nearly 70 at the time and experiencing a renaissance among young-adult nerds looking to pivot even further from their peers’ mainstream. Though I had missed the memo on his emerging cool, Missy and I enjoyed “Fly Me To The Moon” and a few spirited holiday numbers – and Bennett seemed to enjoy the attention.. Finally, the headliners – for whom we had devotedly undertaken this journey – made their disheveled appearance: the Lemonheads, fronted by Bostonian Evan Dando.6 This roster included Juliana Hatfield on bass.
During the new liturgical year we began last week, we turned over the three-year cycle of lectionary readings, that schedule appointing the biblical texts we hear in worship each Sunday. In this “Year A,” we will hear often from Matthew’s Gospel. Though Matthew appears first in the Christian Testament, it was likely written second or third among the four canonical Gospels – in 80ish CE, as many as 20 years – a full generation – after Mark.
Matthew emphasizes Jesus’ Jewish identity, and in the King James Version, begins with the “begats:” as in, “Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas … until [another] Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.”7 The genealogy comprises vv. 1-17. The opening line: “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” The forty-two-generation8 Matthew 1:17. genealogy serves to set Jesus – even before his birth – in the line of Israel’s leaders, heroes, and kings.
Chapter one concludes with a brisk Christmas narrative; what Luke takes most of three chapters to tell, Matthew manages in eight verses.9 Matthew 1:18-25. Reinforcing Jesus’ Jewish bona fides, Matthew sets that story in the context of Isaiah’s prophecy: “Look, the virgin shall become pregnant and [bear] a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel.”10 Matthew 1:23a, quoting Isaiah 7:14.
Chapter two follows with the magi’s entanglement with Herod and their journey to visit Jesus11 Matthew 2:1-12. (again, signs set within a prophetic vision, this time of Micah12 Matthew 2:6, quoting Micah 5:2.). The Holy Family then escapes to Egypt to flee the tetrarch’s massacre of all children under two-years-old.13 Matthew 2:13-18. Upon receiving word from an angel that Herod has died, Joseph, Mary, and Jesus safely return to their country and make a home in Nazareth14 Matthew 2:19-23., fulfilling another prophecy of Isaiah.15 Matthew 2:23, quoting Isaiah 11:1.
Chapter three then begins with the opening bars of today’s appointment: “In those days, John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’”16 Matthew 3:1.
Back in twentieth-century Massachusetts, Evan Dando grew up in Essex, the son of a real-estate-attorney father and a former-fashion-model mother.17 Sturges, Fiona. “Interview: The Lemonheads’ Evan Dando.” The Guardian. October 6, 2025. Dando recently published an autobiography, prompting fresh interest in his life and music. Likely benefiting from his mom’s connections in the industry, Evan modeled as a child18 While his family’s social station and his good looks would bring advantages, they would also cost him credibility with the tougher crowd his music courted. I also attribute the media’s swift willingness to criticize him as another mode of reaction to his perceived privilege., including in a mid-70s commercial as “The Jell-O Boy.”19 “Like Mrs. Susan Dando of Boston!” All this makes sense for me of the last track on 1993’s C’mon Feel The Lemonheads, “The Jello Fund.” Apparently, his dad created an investment account (see the Petridis article referenced below) with his adolescent earnings.
Following a move from the north shore into the city, Dando started at the Commonwealth School, just around the corner from us at Trinity. After a freshman year that brought waning academic interest and the beginning of his drug use, the administration attempted to expel him. However, his mother intervened: the independent school’s officials had a change of heart, and he stayed through graduation.20 Petridis, Alexis. “Rumours Of My Demise by Evan Dando – Review.” The Guardian, October 17, 2025. Ouch: “Indeed, you get the sense that Dando’s real issue may be that he’s never had to try very hard. His parents are wealthy and he’s educated privately at a school so liberal that the only rule involves not rollerskating in the corridors; they nevertheless try to expel him after the first year because of his disinclination to do any work, but his mum steps in and talks them round.”
In time, Evan started a band with two classmates: Ben Deily, who would graduate cum laude from Harvard and enjoy success as an award-winning ad executive21 bendeily.com.; and Jesse Peretz, who would become the band’s photographer before a notable run as a Hollywood producer-director-writer, including the HBO series Girls.22Peretz’ profile on the Internet Movie Database. Skidmore opened its doors to Dando, but a first semester of “four Fs and a D” closed them, and closed his academic career for good.23 Bell, Max. “It’s A Shame About Evan.” Vox, August 1994.
From 1987 to 1989, the band released three albums on the Boston-based label Taang!.24 The label name includes the exclamation point, ergo the period concluding this sentence. Taang! also released The Mighty Mighty Bosstones’ Devil’s Night Out and 1990s reunion-ish albums from the great Stiff Little Fingers. While still adolescent and mostly unremarkable, The Lemonheads showed a knack for lightning-in-a-bottle: catchy hooks, clever lyrics25 I attribute Dando’s willingness (or maybe that he lacks a certain social filter?) to write exactly what he’s doing or feeling as the key to his wit. Lots of examples, but an early one: in “Don’t Tell Yourself,” he shares what, in the right light, feels like a tender ambivalence: “Why don’t you try more? You’re ringing in my ears. I’m going to try more.”, and punchy covers. Of the latter, their first album includes a punkified version of “Amazing Grace,”26 Hate Your Friends, 1987. The opener, “Glad I Don’t Know,” is my favorite on the album, and it hits both their Dinosaur Jr-ish sound, as well as their characteristically poppier turn for the chorus. Deily’s “Uhhh” and “Ever” still sound great, too – play me 1,000 guitar tones, and I could identify that one as early Lemonheads. and two long-players later, their version of Suzanne Vega’s “Luka”27 Lick, 1989. I wore the writing off this cassette, ca. 1990. My heart leapt when he played “Mallo Cup” at the show week-before-last. found regular rotation on college radio and MTV’s 120 Minutes.
Atlantic Records noticed the attention and signed the band. In 1990, the Lemonheads released their major-label debut, Lovey28 Both Missy and I loved this album – which definitely set us on the “We like the Lemonheads” side of a judgmentally drawn, alternative-punk/alt.country line. We love Gram Parsons, and the cover “Brass Buttons” had us from the start. Likewise, “Stove” appeared on most of the (gajillion) mixtapes I made.. After two years of worldwide touring, promoting, and steeping in the rock-n-roll lifestyle, their breakthrough into the mainstream arrived with the follow-up, It’s A Shame About Ray.29 As another important signal of the scope and era of our fandom, Missy already had one of the original pressings before the label added “Mrs. Robinson” as a bonus track.
Matthew credentials John with ancient authority, naming, “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.”’”30 Matthew 3:3, quoting Isaiah 40:3. After checking with Trinity’s resident grammarian, we believe this nest of quotation marks – ” ’ ”, if adding spaces to see them a little better – is correct (quoting a quote within a quote). Torquing that passage’s punctuation31 From A voice cries out: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God’ to The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’ to emphasize John’s wilderness-ness, Matthew notes the Baptizer’s camel’s hair coat, leather belt, and appetite for honey-encrusted locust.32 Matthew 3:4. The next verse’s location detail reiterates John’s outsider status, his having taken up a faraway post where the Judeans must “go out” to reach him.33 Matthew 3:5. “Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him …”
And then the Gospel pivots.
With the single-sentence, eighth verse – “Bear fruit worthy of repentance” – the lesson’s weight forcefully shifts from John’s identity to John’s message, and from Jesus’ lineage to our behavior.34 Matthew 3:8. With affirmation after affirmation of Jewish heritage, the authoring community of Matthew builds a three-chapter setup for the Baptizer now to warn the Abrahamic leadership against depending upon their inheritance as a qualifier for fidelity. John challenges any idea that they and their ancestors have somehow collectively “banked” sufficient holiness to pay forward their right relationship with God. Instead, John challenges them to demonstrate their righteousness. He stirs their urgency: “Even now,” John cries out – not soon, not tomorrow – “Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees.”35 Matthew 3:10.
For those of us who grew up somewhere other than LA, New York, or Boston, bands provided a taxonomic shorthand for identity that could counter the happenstance of our geography, the cut of our cheek bones, and the financial circumstances of our homes. Identifying with a music scene amounted to a chosen family, a community to hold one’s aspirations and sense of self – an “alternative” to the overproduced neon dreck of 1980s popular radio.36 While some punk and metal might point in other directions, I generally think of this alternative ethos as valuing good humor, good taste, kindness, and creativity above who looks the best and/or has the most expensive car parked in the school lot. With our stereos, we found the freedom to endorse a different set of values than the one the predominant culture imposed upon us. The record stores we visited and the mixtapes we traded offered us an identity we could elect, rather than only accept.
Along with cosmic-country37 Derived from Gram Parsons’ description of his genre. and poppy-punk ambassadors The Replacements and Soul Asylum38 Following my closest friends, I chose the Minneapolis scene, with Soul Asylum at center. In addition to The Replacements, add Hüsker Dü, and The Jayhawks (and from the mainstream, Prince). All these bands – along with Athens’ Drivin’ N Cryin’, Indigo Girls, and R.E.M. – had the country sensibilities of Gram Parsons and Alex Chilton at their edges, which I love., The Pixies and Dinosaur Jr, Missy and I chose the Lemonheads – and Wednesday-before-last, we took our daughter, Ginna, to see the band at The Wilbur [She was *so* excited!39 Definitely sarcasm font here, but she was a little excited. Unfortunately, the band didn’t play “The Outdoor Type,” which is their song she knows best. Dando also didn’t play Shreveport native Victoria Williams’ “Frying Pan,” which may have been for the best, because I might have cried.]. Though we maintained enough pluck to buy floor tickets, we also made plans to limit the amount of our standing; we arrived long after the doors opened40 We arrived during the opening act – which I customarily consider disrespectful, but it was a rock-etiquette concession we needed to make on the night before Thanksgiving.. Entering the theater, we immediately observed Ginna would join a rank of teenaged children brought by their middle-aged, former alt-rocker parents41 While Ginna may have feared my embarrassing her, there were (thankfully) conspicuously more embarrassing dads around us busting some of the most awkward 90s dance-ish moves you or anyone has ever seen. In another setting, someone might have worried these men were experiencing a medical event. to bear devoted witness to a prophet of old. Despite the fortifications of those multi-generational ticket purchases and what amounted to a holiday homecoming show for the band, the venue remained two-thirds empty42 This made my heart hurt. – a far cry from the congested, contagious energy of that show Missy and I attended long ago; I confess my surprise.
And Evan Dando, sigh: bless his heart. Sweaty and donning an ill-fitting suit that accentuated his late-middle-aged physique, he wore his hair as he had when he was 20 – but the locks that once framed a face fit for charming a string of Hollywood and runway girlfriends, now looked only worrisomely tangled. Instead of whimsy and easy cheer, his beard shrouded a mouth of shiny caps and a bridge that has changed the shape of his jawline. As Dando tells the story, he lost most of his teeth on Martha’s Vineyard during the pandemic, the consequence of a drug habit that included a daily cycle of heroin and cocaine, speed and weed.43 In this piece from Rumors Of My Demise and posted to Literary Hub, Dando writes of some hard days. There’s clever (“I lose stuff all the time: phones, guitars, pencil sharpeners, gin and tonics, girlfriends, jewelry, bagels, tuners …”) and deeply sad (“As the years melted away, I knew I needed to do something different. I had come to the island to quit heroin, but I fell into my old habits. Martha’s Vineyard is a tough place to be a junkie. Everybody knows you there. It was impractical and embarrassing. I swallowed my pride and became a miserable pariah. Most of my real friends retreated, hoping things would change. The rest got a kick out of watching me unravel …”). Until dental assistance, he subsisted on the delivery cheeseburgers he could barely chew with his aching gums.44 Ibid. A second consecutive Advent sermon about faithful urgency, righteous priorities, and cringy orthodontia.
Though Dando’s spirit seemed affable and bright enough on stage that night, trouble seeped from the edges of his meandering, inconsistent performance.45 When he was on, though, he was on: the “Confetti” solo is not for the meek or messy, and he nailed it, note perfect. Generally, his guitar competency – the only one on stage – impressed me. After all these years, I’m still quick to defend him! We could sense it, even before we could hear and see it. My first feeling about the show was worry for him.
On most days, the fond devotions I have invested in my favorite bands across a lifetime of loyalty allow me to blind and deafen myself to time’s passage. Listening to the same records I spun 30 or 40 years ago unrolls a convincing gauze of dopamine’d nostalgia. Without deliberate effort or any conscious intent, I can daily slip into a season long since passed, one where I’m still twenty with a full head of hair and the world on a string, and likewise, my college-radio favorites remain young and vital and forever cool. Down Stuart Street Wednesday-week – with an actual 20-year-old at my side – the-world-that-was crashed against the-world-that-is, and what I expected to be a celebration, turned into a warning: the flashing ax was there, lying at the roots of the tree, at the foot of the Marshall stack, at the toe of my Chuck Taylors.46 No matter, we had a good time.
So, too, John’s sermon seeks to tear the curtain of the stories we tell ourselves – including that winsome one where we have as much time to make a difference in the world as we had a half-century ago. While images of flames and sharp objects can feel frightening on their surface, Matthew’s opening gambit fluoridates47 The teeth, man. I’m not over it from last week. the Baptizer message that God loves all people – and God’s hopes that those people (that’s us!) will take maximum advantage of the limited time they have to do good. John asks us to appreciate that living other ways, with other priorities, will bring other costs, even if those damages’ incremental creep remains slow, almost imperceptible – those consequences arrive not as a judgment, but as a mortal inevitability.
Sharing freedoms and holding one another’s hopes in our chosen family of the Church, John calls us to demonstrate our faithfulness. Endorsing a different set of values than the one the predominant culture imposes upon us, John invites us to an identity we can elect, rather than only accept. John reminds us of the Good News that we can realize God’s dream when we love more and love better … not soon, not tomorrow, but now – making a straight path through the wilderness and following it together.
With grateful hearts and gracious lives;
Amen.