Text: Luke 3:7-18
Advent 3.
When families contact the church to enquire about baptism, we don’t tend
to respond like John the Baptist did to those who came enquiring about his baptism in the wilderness. He called them ‘a brood of vipers and asked, Who warned them to flee from the coming wrath? We usually just say “Would you like to get together and talk about it?”
But John is different. His baptism is different, his approach is different. I wonder why?
Why the confronting language? The brood of vipers, the wrath of God, the axe lying at the root of the trees, the winnowing fork, the chaff being burnt. What’s John doing? What’s he driving at? Today we consider –
The warning
The way and
The welcome
by which he seeks to call and draw and gather people back home to God.
The warning, the way, and the welcome.
First, the warning. You’ve already heard part of it but John goes on to tell the crowd to “produce fruit in-keeping with repentance.” He says: “…do not begin to say to yourselves: ‘We have Abraham as our father’ for I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.”
Some of these folks who came to John in the wilderness were there under false pretences. They didn’t think they needed John or his Baptism of repentance. They didn’t think their lives needed challenging or changing in anyway. They felt secure in knowing they were descendants of Abraham. They were from good stock, which they believed gave them a place of privilege and superiority over others.
John’s warning is a warning against pride and self-importance. Things we are all susceptible to when we think too highly of ourselves and not highly enough of others. John the Baptist is helpful because he gives us a different perspective: an outside perspective on what really needs chopping and changing in our lives, if we do want to turn back to God.
Imagine driving along in your car and you think everything is fine. You have the radio on, the air conditioner on, the petrol tank is full because you saw it a week or so ago at a bargain price, and you filled up. So you’re pretty pleased with yourself.
All seems well…but then someone drives up alongside you and they are yelling at you insistently to wind down the window, trying to tell you you’ve got a flat tyre. Or your boot’s open. Or your engine is on fire, or something. Now you’d be crazy to say “Ah they don’t know what they’re talking about—it looks fine from in here. There’s no problem from my perspective from where I sit things look great.”
Surely you’d listen to the person outside the car because they see things you don’t.
John is like this, he brings an outside perspective; an outside voice; an unconventional approach. But we ignore him at our peril, we remain proud and smug and self-important at our peril. Turn around John says; turn around to see that God has more for you than just you! That is his warning.
What about his way? How does he go about it? John’s message has this great levelling effect. The valleys are filled in, the mountains are made low. The crooked roads become straight and the rough ways become smooth. He brings down the proud and lifts up the humble. And some of the proud do wake up to this fact, and they ask him this question, “What should we do then?” What is the fruit of repentance? How should our lives change? When we turn to God, when we are baptised, when we do trust him, what changes should that bring?
John explains to them very practically and very ethically how it looks in each of their situations, and he says for those who have plenty it looks generous, it looks like sharing, it looks like not being too attached to worldly possessions. It looks like giving things away, not just our old things that we don’t want any more. But maybe new things too.
“Anyone who has two shirts” John says, “should share with the one who has none and anyone who has food should do the same.” Most of us have far more in our pantries and in our wardrobes than we really need, and John says turning to God involves turning away from being solely interested in our own needs, and turning towards the needs of others. Turning away from greed, turning towards generosity.
The tax collectors ask “What about us” and John encourages them: be fair and equitable. Don’t rip people off don’t take more than you should. Don’t be dishonest on your tax returns. The soldiers asked “What about us?” and John replies: “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely. Be content with your pay”. They’re called to not be harsh with people to not accuse people and to be content with what they earn.
That’s a good one for all of us to learn to be satisfied to be content. The surveys show that most of us, when asked how much money it would it take for us to feel truly secure and be truly happy, respond by saying “Just a little bit more than we have, not too much more, but a little more would be nice.” John encourages us to learn to be satisfied, to learn to be content as a way of living out repentance and living out our baptism. And for each person in each station and each vocation it looks slightly different.
But the point is that the way of John puts us all on a level playing field and calls us all to be deeply aware of the needs of others on that playing field. What opportunities might we find to do that as Christmas approaches and we witness to family, friends or strangers in need.
At this point the crowds are starting to wonder about, John. Who is this guy? And they wonder if he may in fact be the Messiah, the way he talked, the fire in his belly, the authority in his voice, the commitment to God. But he quickly set them straight on that count. John answered them all: “I baptize you with water, but one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire”.
John’s ministry was always preliminary and always intended to give way to the ministry of Christ. John’s was a baptism of repentance, Jesus’ was a baptism of the Spirit. John’s was a message of law, Jesus’ was especially a message of grace. John told us not to trust in ourselves. Jesus gave us something better in which we can trust, the mercy of God, the forgiveness of sins, the healing of our hurts.
Together John and Jesus sing a beautiful duet; the law and the gospel, music to our ears. Together they show us how far away from home we have strayed, how urgent it is that we turn back and how ready God is to welcome us back when we come like the prodigal son. We read in Zephaniah that the Lord says: “At that time I will gather you, at that time I will bring you home.” Coming home to God Is a beautiful thing, a joyful thing, a wonderful thing.
We were welcomed into God’s home and family through our baptism. We might not remember it. We might not think about it on a daily basis. But that doesn’t make it unimportant or change the reality of what God did. At our baptism a relationship was established between you and your heavenly Father and you were welcomed into his home.
May God fill you with the promise and joy of coming home to him in this Advent season.
Amen.