I.N.I.
A sermon
to be preached at Our Savior Lutheran Church, Arlington, Virginia on
6 December 2015, the Second Sunday in Advent, and based on the Gospel
for the Day, St. Luke 3: 1-14
Grace,
mercy, and peace be yours in Christ Jesus our Lord,
Dear
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
John the
Baptist. John the Baptizer. John the Baptizing One. He's usually the
star of the story on the Second Sunday in Advent. Although, truth be
told, he wouldn't like it we if left it at that. John always believed
that his cousin Jesus was the star of the show: the great Morning
Star whose arrival meant that a new day was dawning, that God was
doing a whole new thing in the world. Which we would agree with, of
course. So what I meant is that each year on the Second Sunday in
Advent we read again a lesson that reminds us of John's activities
that prepared the way for the Lord.
John was
quite a character. If there had been cable news networks and social
media outlets back then, he would have been all over them. He'd have
been an Internet meme. His face would have been recognized worldwide,
and maybe some part of his message would have been broadcast, too.
Imagine what that would have been like. Imagine, if you will, what it
would have been like to be there along the Jordan River to hear and
see him.
John was
far from unique on one level. There were other preachers in that day.
There were people who lived the life of a prophet out in the wild
places. There were self-proclaimed messiahs who gathered crowds
around themselves. Some of these people would have made a real name
for themselves in their day. But really none of them besides John are
known today. So what would it have been like to hear him preach?
He seems
to have worked in the same wilderness where he had been living. You
remember his diet of locusts and wild honey, and that he wore a
leather belt around his waist. Those were different enough traits to
have been remembered and recorded. And he preached in “all the
region around the Jordan” River (Luke 3:3), not deep in the cities.
He was in the wilderness. The wilderness of the day was all that land
that wasn't city or village or farmland. Unpopulated. But he wasn't
preaching to the trees and bushes because the people went out to hear
him. “The crowds came out” (3:7) to where he was.
So we've
got a strangely-dressed and strangely-fed man outdoors in an
unpopulated area along a river, and he's surrounded by people who
want to see and hear him. Much of the Jordan is not a large river,
averaging only 100 feet wide, not like the Potomac anyway. So above
the noise of the crowds – and the preaching of the prophet – we
can hear the murmuring of the water as it passes downstream. It's
probably warm. Maybe even hot. Dry and a little dusty.
People
in the crowds might be standing in clumps of two and three, with the
friends they've walked with to get there from their village. It was a
real mixed crowd, a cross section of the population, that included
tax collectors (a real despised minority, though well off, or better
off than most people because – as everyone knew – the tax
collectors skimmed off the top of the revenues they were gathering
for the occupying Romans). And, speaking of Romans, there were
soldiers there engaging with John even though they may have been sent
out to keep en eye on things, and maintain a little discipline. Since
it was a religious message John had, there were probably religious
professionals there, too, priests, Levites, Pharisees, and Saducees.
We don't get much more detail from the Gospels, but judging from the
composition of the crowds who came to hear Jesus, I suppose that
there were women and children along as well. The young teenagers in
groups off to the side of things, checking out who else was there and
what they were wearing.
Now,
without a PA system to amplify his voice, John was either shouting,
or maybe circulating constantly through the crowd, or maybe the
people were moving in and out of range, hearing him say something
then wandering away to discuss it or think it over.
There
was a lot to think over. A lot to discuss. Luke tells us that John
was “proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of
sins” (3:3); that John did it in fulfillment of the prophecy of
Isaiah about preparing the way of the Lord (3:4-6); and that when
people came out to be baptized them he 'welcomed' them by calling
them a “brood of vipers” (3:7) [which, yes, is an insult]. You
sort of have to wonder about his approach, don't you? Did he expect
that calling the people that would win them over? Or did he expect
that many would automatically think John must have been referring to
other people in the crowd? That's probably what we would
think, isn't it? Or that the speaker was a crazy man.
Well,
John was neither crazy nor was he talking about someone else. He was
talking about everyone there. Everyone here, too. Did you notice his
warning to them? He fingers the thing that most of them were certain
of religiously, the thing that they could all agree on, the thing
that probably meant the most to them. He focuses on their identity as
“the chosen people.”
John
said to them “do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham
as our father'.” Why? Not because they didn't have Abraham as their
father. But because starting right then, that heritage, that ancestry
wasn't any longer going to be enough to cut it with God. They were
still God's chosen people, of course, but John is saying that the
franchise is being opened up much more broadly If you read the Old
Testament, you see that once upon a time there was a sharp division
between the children of Israel and the nations. But now that's ended.
Although, a close reading of the Old Testament reveals many places
where God speaks of Gentiles as believers. God could, if He wanted,
raise up as many children of Abraham as there were stones under their
feet. In other words, that in itself isn't a special trait any
longer. If that bloodline is what you've been counting on to save
you, John says, you're seriously misguided.
The axe,
he says, is at the root of the tree, ready to chop it down. That
ancient family tree, to be cut off at ground level, now means way
less than it used to.
A
question you might well ask yourselves is whether you're counting on
some modern-day equivalent of that family tree for your salvation.
Have you determined that you're a Lutheran, the child of Lutherans,
and therefore – just because of that membership – well-assured of
salvation? Are you counting on the fact that you're living in
America to help you through into eternal life? Do you maybe even keep
track of the fruit that you bear, convinced that bearing fruit “in
keeping with repentance” (verse 8) will be what gets you where we
all want to end up? If so, beware. “Even now the axe is laid to the
root of the trees”.
There's
only one tree that will help us, and that's the tree on which Jesus
died. You remember that John the Baptizer was living in the very last
days before Jesus was revealed to the world. So there were details
about salvation he did not go into. He was just preparing the way.
His calling was to speak the truth about the human condition to those
who would have the first chance to hear the Gospel message directly
from Jesus. In a way it seems that his ministry was to rough things
up a bit, to rile people up, to upset the religious apple carts of
his day, to get them talking. His ministry was to get people asking
“Well, okay, if God doesn't want all that from us, then what shall
we do?”
John's
answer is “Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. … Every tree
therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into
the fire.” (verses 8 and 9) Okay, fine, the people think, at least
there's a plan. We can't rely just on being children of Abraham any
more in this new paradigm of John's, but we need now to bear fruit.
Good, we can do that. Except that, well wait, John also says that if
has to be “good fruit” because otherwise our trees become quick
fire wood.
John's
got his listeners hooked. He's a wise preacher after all. He got
their attention with the “brood of vipers” remark, then hooked
them with his comments about their family tree going back to Abraham,
and then they have
to ask the next question. They have to ask the follow-up. “The
crowds asked him, 'What then shall we do?'” (verse 10) He got them
to ask him what they
needed to do. If John had started out at that point, the crowds
wouldn't have been ready to listen to him. But they asked.
So
here's the lesson, here's the point that John's been leading up to.
If any of you have 2 tunics, 2 winter coats, say, 2 down jackets,
give one to a person who doesn't have one. If anyone has food, do the
same and share it. (And can we just notice in passing that John does
NOT say 'anyone who has extra
food...' or 'anyone who has enough
food...' or 'anyone who has food to spare...'.
John's criteria is “whoever has food” is to give it to him who
has none.)
But
that's not all. The tax collectors there in the crowd wanted to know
what they should do (as if there were probably going to be special
rules for them as Jews who were working for the Romans). Or maybe
they weren't completely sincere and were just waiting for John to
tell them to give up their jobs, the kind of thing they'd heard
before. But, no, John says simply “collect no more than you are
authorized to do.” So in their case, it wasn't going to be a matter
of going into their closets and pantries and giving up their extras
to the poor. They were being charged to do their jobs honestly. So,
yes, it'd likely have the result of a lowered standard of living for
them, but at least now it'd be an honest living.
And
then the soldiers also asked John what they should do. In some ways
the most interesting segment of the crowd, don't you think? Were
these Roman soldiers assigned as crowd control? Had someone hired
them to moonlight on a security detail? Had they just happened by and
been attracted by the sights and sounds? Whatever their reason for
being there in the first place, their purpose now was to show us that
this new world being announced by John was for everyone. He didn't
say 'forget about it, you guys are Romans and this word is only for
the privileged chosen people.' Remember that John had already
demolished that old privileged position. He treats the soldiers like
everyone else in his audience, giving them a direct and clear answer:
“Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation,
and be content with your wages.” Much like the tax collectors, the
soldiers are also called to just do their jobs.
Well,
then, what about us on the other side of the world and 2000 years
later? Does any of this apply to us, is it meaningful now? Oh, yes,
indeed. We are no longer a people waiting for the appearance of our
Messiah. We are a people waiting for Christ's return. Yet there are
ways that John's message applies to us today. Think about how John's
directions for bearing fruit all happen to be various ways of walking
with the poor. Share your extra coat; share your food; don't skim
money that would help the poor; and don't extort money from the
powerless. So, helping the poor is one way to bear fruit. And that's
clearly something we can do.
I
also think it's pretty clear that John just wants people to do their
jobs, to fulfill their callings in life. If everyone did that, and
there was no more cheating or corruption, then he sees a future that
is better for all. What's your calling in life? What is your
vocation? How are you fulfilling it?
John
was bringing people to repentance and baptizing them. But as
Christians you've already been “called, gathered, enlightened, and
sanctified” (as we learned in the Small Catechism). So what now?
Our basic calling as Christians is to “thank and praise, serve and
obey” God. We can start going about doing these our jobs as
Christians, by reading God's Word and by celebrating the Sacraments.
We gather together rejoicing that the Jesus who was preached by John
the Baptizer is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world
through His suffering and death. We sing His praises. We bless His
name. And we eagerly look forward to His Second Coming.
Amen.
And
may the peace of God that passes all human understanding keep your
hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
S.D.G.