Luke 3:7-18 John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 9 The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire." 10 "What should we do then?" the crowd asked. 11 John answered, "The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same." 12 Tax collectors also came to be baptized. "Teacher," they asked, "what should we do?" 13 "Don't collect any more than you are required to," he told them. 14 Then some soldiers asked him, "And what should we do?" He replied, "Don't extort money and don't accuse people falsely-- be content with your pay." 15 The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ. 16 John answered them all, "I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." 18 And with many other words John exhorted the people and preached the good news to them.
Good morning, good afternoon, good evening. Polite, simple to the point. You snake bellied, poisonous, good for nothing slobs! A bit less kind, it certainly still gets a point across, but not one that would encourage further conversation. John’s greeting would certainly not pass for the front of a Hallmark card, at least not for one that you would send to a person that you would like to be your friend after reading it. It is an offensive greeting, and one that is intended to offend, at least, I’ve never called someone a snake to their face and meant it in a good way.
You brood of vipers, you pack of snakes, you who take life away from those around you. John really sets the table to get worked up and beats people over the head with the bad that they are doing in their lives.
This Sunday, this third week in advent, has a tradition of being called Gaudete Sunday, or “rejoice” Sunday. Certainly you can hear that theme running through some of the lessons, but maybe no one told John the Baptist that this was supposed to be Rejoice Sunday. Maybe no one told him that we’re supposed to be excited that the Messiah is coming, maybe no one told him that we were supposed to be having parties and sharing gifts in celebration. Or maybe someone did tell him. And maybe he realized why exactly it was that the Messiah was coming, why it was that God had to come down to earth in the first place. John is just telling us how it is, so that we understand where we are.
We have come looking for the easy way out. We want the baptism from John, but he wants to make sure we understand what it’s all about. Forgiveness of sins after you change your ways. Baptism after repentance. You brood of vipers, you don’t even get who you are, you just want to feel good about the way you conduct your life. What we don’t even get is that the way we live our lives leads us to death, our selfish, greedy passions walk us right down the path.
And not only that, but the way that we live our lives leads others to death. I find it to resonate completely that John answers the three requests for direction, with answers about how to deal with our money, and our possessions. To the tax collectors: collect your honest amounts, to the Soldiers: be happy with what you earn, and don’t use force to take money from others, and to the everyday person: take what you have and share it with others. John tells us to take the things that we want to hide, the things we don’t want to talk about, the things we want to keep private, and use them in a way that helps lift up the people around you.
After sitting for a while and reflecting on the speech from John, I think we’d all like to move on. We’d like to get someone else on the podium, someone who’s gonna let us off the hook. Well John gives us a glimpse of what’s coming next. And I got bad news for you, it sounds like it’s gonna get worse. This new person that’s coming has way more authority than John will ever have, this new person, is going to tell you how it really is, this new person is coming with the Holy Spirit and fire to clean you all out. If you thought John was bad, you haven’t seen anything yet. Rejoice! This is the good news that John is sharing! Not buying that, eh?
I think we misinterpret John’s message a little bit. I’ve certainly heard a fair bit of talks about how damnation and the fires of hell await you if you don’t straighten up your act, and if you read John’s speech in a certain way, that’s the meaning that you’re going to get. What I think we miss out of John’s speech is God’s desire for life. The ultimate conclusion is not that the wicked get punished, but that things need to change in order for life to grow. Look again at the directions of John’s answers. The replies to the people who ask are less about the people themselves, and more about the people that are going to benefit from this new way of living. Collecting the right amount of taxes is less about the tax collector, and more about the person struggling to make ends meet. Giving away the clothes is less about you breaking with your possessions, and more about allowing the naked person to be clothed. The reason that you continue to host interns like me is less about getting some of the needs in this congregation met, and more about equipping us interns to go and preach the word in another place.
This text puts a whole new spin on stewardship for us. That our money, and our talents, and our time, and our work is less about preserving ourselves and making us feel good about contributing, and more about the people who will benefit from the continued ministries of this place. Now that sounds an awful lot more like good news to me. I think what stings us about John’s words is that he is telling us how far all of this needs to go. John is giving us the formula for what needs are still out there, what ministry needs to be done, and telling us with his not so kind greeting that we have been blind to seeing it so far. And the Messiah, who is coming down the road next is going deeper than John, and going to tell you exactly how much needs to happen in order for life to flourish.
We don’t have any requirements in our Baptism that say you need to live your life in a certain way in order to be forgiven. We can sit here, and we can become greedy and selfish, exploit people, tend to our own needs until the end of our lives. But I ask you, when you hear the words of John telling us what needs to be done in order for life to grow, and when you think that whoever is coming after John is going to teach you a new way of living that goes beyond death and suffering, can you really just sit there and continue on with the same pattern you’ve always been in?
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