Luke 3.7-18
John said to the crowds that 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. Do not begin to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our ancestor”; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the axe 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?’ In reply he said to them, ‘Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.’ Even tax-collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, ‘Teacher, what should we do?’ He said to them, ‘Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.’ Soldiers also asked him, ‘And we, what should we do?’ He said to them, ‘Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.’
As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by saying, ‘I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing-fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing-floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.’
So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people.
Well what are we to make of today’s reading? It’s definitely a hard hitting one!
Its perhaps a little surprising to read at this time of year, I mean, its not like the Annunciation to Mary that the she is pregnant? Or the visit of the Shepherds and the wise men, or all of the other stories that find their way into our carols, and have become all nice and lovely and sanitised. We have Carols about those kinds of things. I have never heard a carol that begins with the words ‘you brood of vipers’ anyway!
I know that all the preparations are well underway for Christmas. We have our tree up, I see houses near where I live all glammed up with some really beautiful light shows. No doubt lots of shopping will be happening soon either online or in person with huge queues in supermarkets…
Have we missed something? In all of our preparations for Christmas, have we really missed something important here? Are our preparations not quite there yet.
I spoke last week about the expectation of the coming messiah, the hope of the people of Israel who will free them from bondage to their pagan oppressors. This week, the final prophet who heralds the coming of the messiah, John is baptising people in the Jordan. People come from all over go see him and be baptised by him. Indeed some of them think that his is the messiah and he has to explain that he isn’t. The people want to be followers of the God of Israel, they want to renew their pledges to him; to dedicate their lives to him. They are coming to john essentially, for salvation. But John, rather than saying, ‘the time has come, the Romans will soon be gone, our commander has arrived to lead our armies in revolt,’ rather than saying that he says, to his own people, ‘you brood of vipers. Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?’ This is a scathing rebuke; the axe is at the foot of the tree he says, every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down.
The people must have been stunned when they heard this. Take some time later on to read the passage slowly with the expectations of the people in your mind. Put yourself in their shoes; You can feel the shock at what John is saying. The stunned people ask the question that would probably be on every bodies lips in response to his scathing rebuke, ‘What should we do?
In the first week of advent I invite us all to ‘get to know Jesus better,’ to take this time to really think about who he is, and what he came to do, and I suggested that we should do this because ‘Time is short’.
Last week, I suggested that we need to think and consider and about what needs to change in our own lives. What needs to change within us. What would put on the right track, what would aim the right way.
I also said last week that Jesus is a refiners’ fire’ he burns away all the impurities in our lives. He turns our hearts away from our own concerns. Theologians throughout the ages have described sin as a life ‘curved in on itself’ a life that only wants to deal with ones own concerns, who doesn’t care about others. Jesus in purifying us, broadens out our lives and our hearts. He turns us away from ourselves bad our own selfishness.
What then should we do?
John tells anybody with two shirts, to share with somebody who doesn’t even have one shirt. And if you have enough food and somebody else doesn’t, you should do likewise.
If we were to expand this into a basic principle it would be something like, if you have more than you need, then you should give to those who don’t even have their basic needs met. In other words he is saying be Generous, do Good things.
So Do good, that is the first thing. What is the second,
Lets look at what he tells the tax collectors and the Soldiers.
He tells tax collectors, those who are known to be deceitful, those who had a tendency to line their own pockets with ill got gains. He tells them not to take any more money than they are expected to by the authorities that employ them.
To the soldiers he says something similar in essence; he says do not exploit others for their own benefit and says that they should be content with their own pay.
I think we can boil this down to a simple statement, Stop doing things that are wrong.
So, Do right,
And Don’t do wrong. It seems so simple doesn’t it. Isn’t this simply obvious. Imagine what the world would be like if everybody did this!
It is all too tempting to the Christian to say, well I’m a good church Goer, I have a relationship with Jesus, everything is fine! I find myself tempted to say this sometimes; to be honest, far too often.
But look what John says to those in his tie who were complacent; ‘[a]nd do not begin to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our Father.” For I tell you that our of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. I’m other words, they can’t just act the way that they want to and say, it’s fine, God is on our side. John here doesn’t give the one who comes to be baptised the excuse of saying, well I believe in God, I’m a descendent of Abraham, I’m safe, I’m okay. Likewise for us, we do not have that excuse either, to simply say that, well we know that Jesus is our Lord and saviour.
So what? So everything. It’s not enough to just say it and have faith in it, action follows belief.
John is speaking something fundamental about the ways that humans should interact with one another, particularly when there is economic or situational difference. John knows that it is all about mutual service to each other, that is what it means to be fully human, and that is what it means to be a child of God
It’s always better to give than to receive. Try it, give something to somebody, see their eyes light up and notice when they say ‘thank you’ it makes you feel warm inside. That happens because when we do that, we are doing what we our purpose is, to share life together, to enjoy it, and glorify God who gave it to us. Give your time to another.
What you’ll notice, is that those who keep everything for themselves, those who want to spend all their time doing what they want and not thinking of others. You’ll notice that they are not happy. And the reason they’re not happy is because they have got everything backwards. They think that to be happy in this life they need to be as selfish as possible, but they’re not happy, they’re not fulfilled, because they are not doing what they were created to do. It’s like putting diesel into a petrol engine. If you do that, the car breaks down.
God made us so that we would serve one another, he designed us that way, and he did that because that is what he is like, a serving God. One who served us in the most amazing way, by sending Jesus to us so that he could deal with all of the evil in the world. So let us do likewise and serve each other, and be true children of our Heavenly Father.
Amen