C,
Advent 3 “The
Scrooge of Advent”
Luke 3:7-18 By
the Rev.
Third Sunday of Advent
Prayer:
From our Gospel text we get the idea that word gets around that a prophet is out in the desert. Prophets were kind of a strange group of people. They were known as outsiders. Among other things they delivered a message from God. Usually their message went something like this: “People, you’ve messed up. You have not followed the law and the Covenant you’ve made with God.” And so, the prophet would tell the people to change “or else”. The “or else” part included facing God’s judgment and punishment.
We may wonder why people would leave their homes and the comforts of civilization and go out to the desert to hear such a message. Curiosity might have grabbed their attention; curiosity may have led them to go to hear this prophet for themselves. Regardless, when they arrived, the prophet they encountered, John the Baptist, made an unexpected announcement.
After trekking out to the desert to hear this rough around the edges, wilderness prophet, John insults this well meaning crowd by calling them “a brood of vipers” who needed to repent. He said, “you brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits worthy of repentance” (vs. 8). For the curious well meaning crowd, John uses harsh words. John connects the need for their repentance to his unexpected announcement. John said the crowd needed to repent to prepare for the coming Messiah.
As we enter into the 3rd week of the Advent season, we might be like the crowds who go to hear John preach. John’s message is not a feel good message; this text is not a feel good text. This time of year we have Christmas trees going up, Christmas Carols playing in the background in our homes and in the stores where we shop for gifts. We have parties to go to and festivities to celebrate the season. We are entering a season of joy and a season of giving. Why is it that we are met by this harsh message from John the Baptist? You might ask…why is John the Baptist being a Scrooge in this season of celebration?
John used harsh language because he was trying to get the crowds attention. Maybe in our text, the Gospel writer was trying to get our attention. John’s had an important announcement to make. He called the people to prepare for the coming, the physical birth of Jesus, the Messiah. Now with our yearly celebration, we might be used to this idea: we sing about it, we have paintings and carvings and crèches that depict the scene. But imagine, if you were in the crowd, and this was the first time hearing the concept of Preparing for the Messiah. Actually John gives a timely message to those who come out to hear him. The event that is about to happen, the coming of the Messiah, will change not only their lives, but it will change how God relates to the world. Preparing their lives was something the crowd needed to do. Maybe it’s something we need to do.
John goes on to tell the crowd what they might do to prepare for the Messiah. With his strong language, John continues to get the crowds attention. He compares their lives to a fruit tree. He said ‘you and I are kind of like a tree, if we don’t produce good fruit, if we don’t do something meaningful with our actions, we’ll be cut down, tossed aside, and discarded—thrown into the fire’, he says.
The crowd asks him, ‘well John, what do you suggest? What could we do that would be meaningful to prepare for the Messiah? (vs. 10).
At this point, John backs off a
bit from the harsh language and he teaches them that preparation is important, but not difficult. He gave them three examples: first, he said "share with those who don’t have what you
have." John said, ‘Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has
none, the person with food must do likewise’ (vs. 11). Second he said, "Be honest when you interact and deal with people.” (He told the tax
collectors ‘Don’t collect more from people than you are supposed to’ (vs. 13). Thirdly,
he told them “don’t take advantage of
people, treat people properly”. He told the soldiers ‘Don’t extort money
from people by threats or false accusation’ (vs. 14).
These practices, if you think
about it, are pretty basic and fairly simple.
They are not elaborate. To simplify
them, John said, ‘Share with people, be honest with people, treat people
properly.’ One commentator, said that John’s examples for preparation—John’s
examples for how to live in order to prepare for the Messiah, seems like basic
things we learn as children. This feels
more like the stuff of children in Kindergarten [rather] than [the coming] Apocalypse
[that John had proclaimed] (Lose).
That may have been John’s point. Preparation for the Messiah doesn’t mean
that we do something complicated.
Remember, John called the people to ‘repent—bear fruit worthy of
repentance.’ The word repent literally means ‘to turn.’ So, when someone repents it means that they
‘turn’—they turn away from one thing, turning toward something else. They turn away from one set of actions and
turn to other set of actions or practices.
John suggested the people could
prepare for the Messiah by turning to a simple set/type of actions. John encouraged the crowd to not be
egocentric or self focused—turning away from being an inwardly focused person
to an outwardly focused person. When you
share with someone, you take the
focus off yourself and recognize the needs of another human being. When you are honest with someone—a spouse or partner, you are showing them
respect; when we don’t take advantage of
other people, when we can or have the power to do so, we’re recognizing the
dignity, value and worth they have as a human being. Considering the needs of other people, showing
respect and recognizing the dignity of others are basic actions John suggests
that we can put into practice in our lives.
When we do, when we ‘turn’ to these
practices, as John suggests, we ‘produce fruit’ a meaningful way of life that
God calls us to live. Another benefit of
turning to these actions is that when we put them into practice, we create an
avenue in which God can work in our lives.
Putting these simple things into practice—considering the needs of other
people, showing respect and recognizing the dignity of others, when we do these
things, we open the door for God to work through us.
Here at St. Philip’s, one example of
how we could put these simple things into practice would be to support our
Christmas Project which raises money to give warm winter clothing to school age
children who cannot afford it. The
children who benefit from this ministry attend school just down the road from
here. You should see their faces light
up as they come in, class by class to get something as simple and basic as a
sweatshirt to keep them warm in the winter.
Responding to their need and participating in this ministry is a unique
way that you and I can respond to John the Baptist’s call that ‘whoever who has
two coats must share with anyone who doesn’t have one’ (vs.11).
We say that Advent is a season of
preparation. With his harsh words, it’s
not that John the Baptist is trying to be a ‘Scrooge’ and dampen the
season. He is just trying to get our
attention, to remind us what this season is all about. Gifts and celebration will come. There will be a reason for joy. Christmas carols and joyful music will
certainly have its place because the Messiah is coming. For us there will be and in fact there
already is reason to celebrate.
But this season reminds us that we
need to be prepared to recognize him.
This season is about preparing ourselves so that we recognize the
presence of God already in our very midst. In our Memorial Acclamation we say: Christ
has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again.’ (BCP, 363) In anticipation of Jesus’ coming into your
life John suggests that we put some basic things into practice: consider the
needs of other people, show respect to people and recognize the dignity of
every human being. Doing these things
creates an avenue in which God can work in our lives when we do these things,
we open the door for God to work through us.
Advent reminds that we always need
to be prepared to recognize and receive God’s prompting in our lives because
the Spirit of God is in our very midst every hour of every day. Like the crowds who went out to hear John
preach in the desert, we don’t know when we will see our Savior. … But he is coming. … So, watch, wait and
look for God to come into your life this Advent Season.
Amen.