"What Should We Do?:
Luke 3:7-18
The
third Sunday of Advent has traditionally been known as Joy Sunday. That’s why we lit the pink candle today and
heard the apostle Paul urging the church to “Rejoice always and in everything.”
Yet, as I meditated on the scripture
passages for this Sunday, I kept remembering how painful a season this can be
for many people-- people who are lonely,
people who are grieving the loss of a loved one, people who are struggling with illness and
wondering where God is in the midst of it all…
people who are depressed, people
who are trying to maintain their sobriety during a season of parties… people
who are too poor to be a part of the festival of extravagance the merchants
would have us believe is what Christmas is all about.
There are people who are hungry or
food insecure...or who are worrying about how they’ll pay their bills. Then there are terrible events that have
filled the headlines in recent weeks. The list could go on and on.
We grieve that there’s so much wrong
in the world. We’re still waiting for
the kingdom of God, and we yearn for it.
We wait and hope for what we can’t yet see.
During the weeks of Advent, we’re in
a conversation with the Old Testament prophets and John the Baptizer. In the scriptures, we hear words of consolation
and of challenge. Today we hear John
the Baptist saying to the people who came out to be baptized by him, “You brood
of vipers! Who warned you to flee from
the wrath to come? Bear fruits worthy of
repentance.”
What do we make of this blunt
talk? Where’s the good news in it?
Apparently, a lot of the people who
came out to hear John the Baptizer’s message did hear his message as good
news. Gospel from God. Some
of them even started to wonder whether John was the messiah they’d been waiting
for.
Things were terribly wrong. The people were living under the occupation
of the Roman empire, and at the mercy of tyrants like Herod or dishonest tax
collectors. Things were wrong, but they
were hoping God was going to do something about it.
One of my colleagues suggests that
when John compared people to a brood of vipers, he was saying they are like snakes curled up
in hiding inside a pile of logs. When
the fire of God’s judgment comes near, when the light of truth exposes us, we
try to slink out from under God’s gaze.[1]
“Hey, don’t look at me! I didn’t mess the world up!” we protest. “I’m okay.
After all, I’m a child of Abraham.
It’s those tax collectors and Pilate and Herod that are to blame. It’s those criminals and greedy corporate honchos
and crooked politicians or those terrorists-- fill in the blank—it’s those other people who
are to blame for this mess-- not me!”
We make excuses and look for others
to blame precisely because in our heart of hearts we know that we are not
clean. We, too, have contributed to the
mess.
I think John the Baptist is
right. “This means you,” he
declares. “Don’t even think about
relying on the fact that you’re a child of Abraham…or a good Christian…or
whatever, to exempt you.”
So…how can a message like this be good
news?
I’m grateful to Richard Rohr for
some new insights on John the Baptist I found in his book, Jesus’ Plan for a
New World.[2] Father
Rohr, who is a Franciscan priest, suggests that John the Baptist is probably
far more important than we have realized.
The beginning of the gospels tell
us that John appeared and preached in the wilderness, “proclaiming a gospel of
repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”
John “cries out in the wilderness,”
radically questioning the very legitimacy of the existing religious order, and showing how religion needs to constantly reform. The keepers of the religious status quo kept
sending people out to question John.
When John preached a baptism of
repentance and forgiveness of sins, it was revolutionary. Jews were supposed to follow the Law—the
Holiness Codes of Torah, and this upstart was making it too easy to get God to
love you and forgive you. He was making
it seem that God was as available as the water of the Jordan River.
The people were filled with expectation,
and they were questioning in their
hearts, whether John might be the Messiah they were looking for. But John was pointing to the One who would
baptize with the Holy Spirit and Fire.
Luke's gospel tells us that Mary found
out that she was pregnant with the Son of the Most High God she went to visit
her cousin Elizabeth. When Mary spoke,
Elizabeth's child leaped for joy in her womb.
That child grew up to be John the
Baptizer. God called him to be a witness
to the light of God, revealed in Christ. John knew that a lot of things get in the way of
receiving God's love and joy. That's why John was preaching about getting ready
for the more powerful one who was coming. Prepare the way! Repent!
In Charles Dickens' play, "A
Christmas Carol," Ebenezer Scrooge
is London's most notorious miser. He's a
mere shadow of the joyful person he was created to be, hunched up against the world... stingy and suspicious. When the Ghost of Christmas Future shows
Scrooge his own grave, the knowledge
that he will die breaks through all the defenses. He's overwhelmed with a piercing sense of remorse
for how he has been living. He repents!
Seeing the light of truth after
living in the darkness for so long can be scary. But what follows his rebirth into new life-- is
joy!
This Advent, John the Baptizer comes
to us, telling us that we need to change our ways.
The message of Advent is that God in
Christ is coming into the world. In
Jesus, God's Word became flesh and lived among us, full of grace and truth. What came into being in him was life, and
the life was the light of all people.
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not overcome it.
Edward Hicks was an American sign
and stagecoach painter in the early nineteenth century. He’s known almost exclusively for his many
paintings of the Peaceable Kingdom.
One of these, entitled The Peaceable
Kingdom with Quakers Bearing Banners,
was painted during a time when tension and separation had split American
Quakers into two groups. In the
background is a cluster of very somber-looking people. But in the foreground is a depiction of the
peaceable kingdom: a leopard is lying
down with a lamb. A little child is
embracing a lion.
Those somber-looking people in the background
are connected to the peaceable kingdom by a banner that declares, “Behold I
bring you glad tidings of great joy.”
The sinuous ribbon with its beginning in the mists of eternity weaves
its way through and among them, braiding them together.
Our Christian joy and faith aren’t
based solely on the evidence we see in the present-- but on the hope of the future. Our Christian joy comes to us in our
experience of God’s presence. So how
are we called to live?
Three times in today’s gospel
lesson… “What should we do?” That’s a question for us today.
What should we do, as we yearn for
God’s peaceable kingdom? What should we do,
to live more fully into the reign of God?
I don’t have any simple answers for
you today. But I think our faith is
calling us to move beyond the simple answers on either side of important issues, to listen to one another’s
perspectives, and to pray together and work together, and open ourselves to the
Spirit’s leading.
One of the challenges we face today is our
desire to live in safety, while responding faithfully to the needs of our
neighbors near and far. It isn’t
uncommon during an election season for us to hear political rhetoric that plays
on our fears. But we need to learn from
our history... and be guided by our faith.
During Hitler’s
rise to power in Germany, too many religious leaders and others were
silent. When fear and xenophobia
prevail, there can be terrible consequences.
Some of us are
starting to think about historical parallels between the current debate over
Syrians seeking refuge in the United States and the plight of European Jews
fleeing German-occupied territories on the eve of World War II.
Among the many
who tried-- and failed—to escape Nazi persecution was Otto Frank and his
family, which included his wife, Edith, and his daughters, Margot and
Anne. The Frank family visa application
documents were discovered in a New Jersey warehouse in 2007.
As historian
Richard Brietman wrote, “Otto Frank’s efforts to get his family to the United
States ran afoul of restrictive American immigration policies designed to protect
national security and guard against an influx of foreigners during time of
war.”[3] And so Anne Frank and her family perished in
concentration camps.
In contrast to
those who were silent and passive during the horrors of the Holocaust, an entire town in occupied France sheltered
5,000 Jews at great risk in a “conspiracy of goodness.”
In occupied France, collaborators delivered
83,000 Jews, including 10,000 children, to the Nazi death camps, and only 3,000
returned. But the residents of Le
Chambon and the surrounding area quietly took in and saved as many Jews as
their entire population, who came to them for shelter and refuge.
The people of Le
Chambon were Reformed Christians, descendants of the French Hueggenots. Motivated by their faith, they welcomed the
refugees and housed them in private homes, on farms, as well as in local
schools. You can read about this in the
book, Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed.[4]
What should we do?
This Advent, God is ready to be born
in the cradle of our hearts and lives, either for the first time or as a renewed
birth, as God-with-us reaches new depths within our very souls. And this, my friends, is reason for JOY!
Do you remember what Ebenezer
Scrooge was like when he was re-born that Christmas? He couldn't keep his joy to himself! He was filled with the joy of new life... and he just had to share his joy with
others!
When we receive the JOY of Jesus
Christ, we're called to proclaim the light that outshines all darkness. We're called to carry the light out into the world
and be witnesses of the light.
God calls us out of darkness-- into the Light that overcomes the
darkness. Our job as we wait for Christ
to come again in power and glory is to proclaim the good news of Jesus, who is
the light of the world… the Christ who calls us to live lives that reflect his
light!
We are called to feed the hungry…and minister to the sick…
to show God’s mercy and justice in our lives. In the passage we heard on Christ the King
Sunday about the final judgment. Let’s
see if you can fill in the
blanks in what Jesus said: “I was hungry and you [fed] me. I was thirsty, and you gave me [something to
drink]. I as in prison, and you
[visited] me. I was a stranger, and you
[welcomed] me.”[5]
In the words of one of my favorite hymns, we are
called to “live into hope-- of captives
freed... of sight regained... the end of greed.”[6] We are called to live as God’s blessed peacemakers.[7]
On this Third Sunday of Advent,
there is good news—joyful news. No
matter how dark things look, we know that darkness does not have the last
word. Jesus, the Light of the world, has
come and shines in the darkness. The
darkness does not and will not overcome it.
So--
let us rejoice always.[8] Let us live prayerful lives-- lives that show
gentleness to all we meet... and embody God’s love for those who are lonely and
hurting. Let us pray without ceasing,
and give thanks in everything… for this
is the will of God in Christ Jesus for us.
The peace of God, which surpasses
all understanding, will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Come, Lord Jesus!
Amen!
[1] Mary
Harris Todd, in a sermon at www.goodpreacher.com.
[2] Richard
Rohr, Jesus’ Plan for a New World: The
Sermon on the Mount. (Kindle Loc
1668)
[3] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/11/24/anne-frank-and-her-family-were-also-denied-entry-as-refugees-to-the-u-s/
[4] Philip
Hallie, Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed: The Story of the Village of Le Chambon and
How Goodness Happened There. Harper,
1979.
[5] Let it
be noted: there were responses to the “fill
in the blanks.” The people at
Littlefield Presbyterian Church are well acquainted with Matthew 25.
[6] “Live
Into Hope.” Lyrics by Jane Parker Huber.
[7] Matthew
5, in what we know as “The Beatitudes.”
[8] Philippians
4:4-7
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