Advent 3

May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

SEASON: Advent 3
PROPER: C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: December 17, 2000


TEXT: Luke 3:7-18 – “You vipers brood! . . . . Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” And the crowds asked him, “What then should we do?”

ISSUE: - This passage is a call to individuals who are Christians to make determined changes in their lives. Lives lived without the willingness to serve the common good, and to bear the spirit of God are unworthy lives. This is the clear message of this passage in the face of the worlds enchantment with the festive holiday season. Without the readiness and preparedness to receive the Christ into our lives, all the rest is empty and we remain spiritually depraved.
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The Gospel reading continues with the prophetic ministry of John the Baptist. As we read this lesson, it becomes rather obvious as to how the church is truly counter cultural in our world. The world is busy with the festive holiday season, while the church is still concerned with the spiritual issue of repentance and preparation for the coming of the Savior.
Few pastors today could get away with addressing their congregation as “you vipers brood”, more literally translated “you snake bastards.” “Who warned you to come slithering down to the river to wash your snake skins to deflect God’s judgment. It is your life that must change, not the surface of your skin!” The Jewish people of this time thought that their ancestry made them at one with God, and was their saving grace. John is clear that it is the individual person that must be repentant and change. Because your grandfather was baptized in that font, or that old Uncle Bill was an acolyte in the church long ago, or even ourselves gives us no clout. It is the present and how we are acting now as God’s people or not is what really counts. Deadwood is useful for nothing but to be thrown into the fire.
The people who came to John seem to be searching for a new spirit, a new spirituality in a time when the Jerusalem Temple just was not working. Spirituality was at a low ebb, and some people come to John looking for a new spiritual direction in a world that seemed scary, empty, uncertain, and increasingly unjust.
In John’s time it was dishonorable to have more than you needed. It was a culture of limited economics. If you had too much, someone else did not have enough. Today in our industrialized affluent culture, we think very differently. Americans think resources will never run out, and the more you have and possess makes you thought of as a person of great success. In John’s time, if you had two coats then you should give one away to someone who had none.
If you had more than enough food, then give some of it away. People lived day to day. Finding and making enough money for food was difficult and hard. The majority of people lived at a subsistence level. A wider degree of sharing was important. Recall that at the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus tells his disciples, “You give them something to eat.” Why does that miracle get recorded some six times? It is about an unheard of abundance of food that comes through Christ. Recall also the story of the two brothers fighting over their inheritance (Luke 12:13-15) Jesus replies, “Watch out and guard yourselves from every kind of greed; because a person’s true life is not made up of the things he owns, no matter how rich he may be.” Is it to be understood that life is measured not by what we possess as the world would have us believe, but rather in what we give away and share?
Tax or toll collectors came to John. These were people who had no honor or respect. Few got rich, but the system of collecting tolls and taxes at bridges, roads, and other various places often led to extortion. At tax or toll collector paid for the right to collect taxes up front. Then, he had to recoup his investment, which led to extortion and burdensome charges on peasants. John calls for change among them, to collect only that which was fair and just.
Tough soldiers came to John. They were also a hated lot as they served the corrupt system and rule of Herod Antipas who was nothing more than a puppet king for the Romans. Obviously they come to John feeling demoralized and spiritually empty and are willing to bear the insult of ‘you brood of vipers.’ John orders them to stop bullying, blackmailing, and making false accusations. They were to learn to live with their pay.
John’s spiritual direction is a matter of having these people change the direction of their lives. Let go of greed. Let go of hostility and cruel injustices. Begin to bear fruit that is good fruit. Dare to change your lives, John is telling them. Be ready be prepared for the Kingdom of God, for the Messianic Hope of a new world order that John sincerely expected to come. His baptism was an immersion into the Jordon River, and let the past sins be washed away, and to begin with a changed heart and soul, and ready to enter into a new way, a new Kingdom of God. John Baptizes with water, but the one coming baptizes with Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God and an enlightening renewing energizing fire. John is calling his disciples to the matter of re-embracing the love of God and of the justice of God. To change and to look forward to the renewed presence of God in your life was good news indeed.
In our day it is sure one daring parson who would begin his sermons with the phrase, “You brood of snakes, what brought you to church today?” Modern congregations want to hear about LUV. We can be very uncomfortable with sermons about sin. Who talks about sin anymore? In fact someone even wrote a book called, Whatever Happened to Sin? But we all know that there are surely things in each of our lives that need changing for our own souls health and for the good of the community we are a part of. We all have to consider our spiritual growth and development as human beings or our lives can become pretty empty.
One of the most important things we might all look at is our family life. Men may well need to look at how they express their love and their devotion for their wives. Women may need to do the same. What are some of the specific things that any married couples could do to enhance their marriage relationship, besides taking one another for granted? It is amazing in our time how married couples can have so much and lose it so quickly and create such pain and suffering simply because they don’t work at enriching their relationships.
Parents might also look at the quality of time they spend with their children. It’s a busy world, and many distractions, school activities and sports, can usurp precious time for just being together and getting to know and listen to one another. Our affluence and toys at Christmas cannot replace that precious time together.
Another one of the things that we might look at is how extremely over zealous we are about our own needs and cherished individuality. It is often the case that we demand our rights as individuals without concern for the great good of the community. We all want the rules bent to meet our needs. It is a form of greed. We can be like children who when asked to change behavior or contribute something worthwhile will say, “You can’t make me.” This can effect the way we drive, the way we live together in community, our attitudes with one another, our respect of other human beings.
Common to the Christian calling is the virtue of servanthood. Do we each have a mission or special purpose or calling? However great or small doesn’t matter much, but it may be important for our own worth and self-esteem to be able to say I am committed to tutoring a child, or visiting an elderly shut-in person, or to working with Habitat for Humanity re-furbishing or building homes for low income people. Maybe we have a mission for taking a stand on some important social issue and seek the attention of politicians who can effect change.
Making appropriate changes to our lives may not be merely a matter of doing things for others specifically, it may well have to do with living healthier lives. Maybe we do need to give up smoking, lose some weight, exercise more, or watch the amount of alcohol we consume, or get a grip on the amount of drugs we are consuming. Actually these things may seem personal but they do effect how we live in the community and in the family. Neither are they easy to do. But neither are they impossible to do with the help of God and various other health oriented organizations. But they do require a commitment to repentance, to change, and to a change of life style.
Maybe today, old John the Baptist might not refer to us as you ‘brood of vipers’ but as you “slothful, affluent, apathetic, self-centered scoundrels that serve your selves without a specific sense of mission. Get with doing something that gives hope to the world of which you are a part. Make the appropriate changes in your life that enables us to live up to our baptismal covenant: working for justice and peace, respecting the dignity of all persons, and bearing witness to a godly way of life.
We don’t know when Christ will come again in terms of The Second Coming. No one knows that, only the Father. All we know is that he has come and brought to us forgiveness, love, and grace. He brings to us an empowering Holy Spirit. At Christmas we are once again reminded of that presence and the humility with which he comes to walk with us in our human frailty, to be our strength and guide. Lets be firm and committed in our efforts to make the changes required that enable us to walk with and in the spirit of Jesus Christ.