The Gospel reading for the third Sunday of Advent is Luke 3:7-18. Here’s my sermon for December 16, 2018.
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, you brood of vipers.
Can you imagine being in the crowd hearing John the Baptist preach? Close your eyes and picture it. You’re in a crowd of people who have traveled out into the wilderness, off the beaten path, down to the river. This wild looking man is standing there, bellowing to the crowd.
In the words of The Message paraphrase:
“Brood of snakes! What do you think you’re doing slithering down here to the river? Do you think a little water on your snakeskins is going to deflect God’s judgment?
It’s your life that must change, not your skin. And don’t think you can pull rank by claiming Abraham as ‘father.’ Being a child of Abraham is neither here nor there—children of Abraham are a dime a dozen. God can make children from stones if he wants.
What counts is your life. Is it green and blossoming? Because if it’s deadwood, it goes on the fire.”
You can open your eyes, but imagine what it would be like to hear that message.
“You — shape up! There’s a fire coming, and you don’t want to burn! This is your warning! Repent!” I’m sure John was a far more engaging fire and brimstone preacher than I am, but you get the idea.
In confirmation class, we’re spending this entire year walking through the Bible, and this last week, we finished the Old Testament by talking about prophets. Sometimes we think of prophets like fortune tellers or people who predict the future, but really, prophets are messengers from God.
Their primary function in the Old Testament is to speak truth to power, to go to the kings and the temple leaders and the people, and to tell them to shape up, follow God’s commands, stop worshiping idols and oppressing the poor and all that, and most importantly, turn back to following God.
Often, the prophets deliver warnings as well. Turn back to God, or God will allow your enemies to defeat you. Needless to say, their messages are not usually well received. Prophets are rarely popular people. In fact, they often get threatened with arrest or exile, or they’re even stoned.
John calling the people a brood of vipers and warning them to change their ways so they don’t get burned up with the chaff is a pretty typical message for a prophet. In fact, his message isn’t even that harsh as far as prophets go.
But here’s what I think is the most interesting part of this reading. Verse 18. “So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people.”
This doesn’t sound like good news! If I start attacking you and calling you a bunch of evil snakes, I imagine our attendance might be lower next weekend.
I don’t think I’d keep going back to hear a preacher who spoke to me the way John speaks to his audience. It doesn’t make me want to “rejoice.”
So why does John’s audience hear it as good news?
One answer is to look at who is hearing him. The people coming out to the wilderness to listen to John are not the elite of society. These are not the rich landowners, or the important government or religious leaders. These are ordinary people.
David Lose points out that from John’s examples, he seems to be speaking to “poor crowds with little to offer, despised tax collectors” hated by their countrymen, and “mercenary soldiers known for extorting the vulnerable.” Yet his call to faithfulness includes them. They have something they can do. Even they can “bear fruits worthy of repentance.”
John’s call to redemption includes everyone, even you and me. It’s actually a message of hope and possibility!
Even more, John’s message is good news because it points to a better way to live. As offensive as it sounds, it’s not that complicated.
If you have more than you need, share with those who are lacking. Tax collectors, don’t take advantage of your position to cheat others. Soldiers, don’t abuse your position to extort from others or demand bribes. Boil John’s examples down and this is kindergarten level stuff: “Share. Be fair. Don’t bully.” These are achievable demands.
John warns that even now the ax is dying at the root of the trees. Trees that do not bear good fruit will be cut down and burned. Speaking of Jesus, he says one more powerful than him is coming, who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. The chaff will be burned with unquenchable fire.
Can this be good news? Can we rejoice at this? Well, don’t you have things in your life that ought to be burned away? Maybe not that you want burned away, but that ought to be? This is what we heard the prophet Malachi talk about last week, the refiner’s fire purifying us, straining out our impurities. This is God working in our lives for good. Will you let God change your life?
Almost three years ago, Christin and I traveled to Tanzania with a group from Wartburg Seminary. We spent most of our time visiting churches and learning about the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania, but we also had two days to go on safari. There was a great moment when we were driving in the park, and someone noticed off in the distance behind us, there was an elephant visible through the trees.
We asked our driver to stop, and we’re all zooming in as far as we can getting pictures. Our driver kept asking, “Are you ready? Can we keep going?” But this was the only elephant we’d seen, so of course we wanted to get lots of pictures. Finally, our driver insisted we turn around and keep going, and literally right in front of us, there was a whole herd of elephants crossing the road. We were so focused on this one elephant in the distance behind us, we almost missed the amazing scene in front of us.
The guide knew there was something better, which was why he kept telling us to turn around and move forward.
We sinful people think our ways of living are so good. Or perhaps we know they’re not so good, but they’re familiar. Better to stick with what you know, even if it’s broken, then to try something new that might be worse. Fear of the unknown is a real thing.
But like any good prophet, John calls us to trust God. He wants us to give living God’s way a shot.
Sure, it’s nice to have the comfortable security of two coats, but how much better could the world be if you made sure your neighbor had one too? Taking advantage of your position as a tax collector to get rich might seem good (who doesn’t like being rich), but wouldn’t it be better to not be hated by all your neighbors?
Wouldn’t it be better to be able to sleep at night knowing you hadn’t cheated and stolen to get what you have?
All three of Luke’s examples of John’s preaching are about trusting that God will provide. All three are about trusting in God for life and security, rather than trying to take shortcuts ourselves. They’re about moving forward trusting in God’s abundance rather than getting stuck where we are, afraid of what we might lose if we change our ways. What would your life look like if you believed John’s message?
Being refined by God and purified by the fire of the Holy Spirit is a terrifying thought, but ultimately, the call to repent is good news. There is joy here, for us and for the world.
Through John, God is calling us to turn away from our old ways, to turn away from our selfish, sinful, greedy way of living focused on ourselves, and to turn towards Jesus Christ and the path on which God calls us to walk. That’s where the “joy” Paul talks about comes in.
We rejoice because in this season of Advent, God is calling us into something new, into a new way of living, into a new way of understanding the world.
This is a season of preparation, of anticipation. Living into something new requires leaving something behind.
Prepare your hearts. Trust God. Jesus is coming. Thanks be to God. Amen