A Sermon preached by the Rev. Michael Anderson Bullock
[Zephaniah 3:14-29; Philippians 4:4-7; Luke 3:7=18]
You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? …So, with many other exhortations, [John the Baptist] preached good news to the people?1
Here are a couple of questions about what I just read to you from today’s gospel. How many of you would call John the Baptist to be your next priest-in-charge? How many of you would vote to elect John as your next bishop?
Admittedly, John is tough to hear and not easy to learn from. He doesn’t seem to be very nice! Yet, St. Luke refers to his preaching as containing “good news”. Most of us, I think, would say that the only thing good about John’s preaching is that it is evidently short. So, what’s the reason that crowds of people came out into the wilderness to hear him? What is happening here? Moreover, what character are we in this wilderness crowd? What do we hear? What difference does this story make in our lives? What is the “good news” that John has to offer?
I have to admit to chuckling at the opening line of today’s Collect of the Day. Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us… “Stir up your power and with great might come among us”? Really? Are we not already stirred up enough without praying to God for more agitation? Don’t we (at least secretly) want God to settle us and the world down? Again, what is going on here on this Advent 3 Sunday, this “Rejoice”, this “Rose” Sunday? What’s the “good news”?
In this sermon, I want to take a look at John the Baptist as a model – a model for our own spiritual lives in following Jesus and in directing others to do the same.
In particular, I want to focus on three characteristics the Baptizer embodies: truth-telling; spiritual direction; and keeping the main thing the main thing.
In terms of truth-telling, John the Baptist – at least initially – comes on rather strong – maybe too strong. He is clearly not a diplomat, much less a smooth talking, in-touch-with-his-feelings sort of guy. No, John pulls no punches when it comes to telling the truth – the truth about our life with God.
He shows no patience with the practice of waving our achievement credentials about to prove our worth and superiority. That is clear from the start of today’s gospel lesson. When the big-shots from Jerusalem came out to check on John, it seems that they were simply interested in measuring the competition that the Baptizer’s populist movement presented. That John’s immediate response to them was a harsh and unexpected verbal smack-down illustrates his truth-telling. Rather than allowing these “elites” to play their entitlement cards, John challenges them directly to “bear fruit worthy of repentance”: that is, to express through their outward actions the inward transformation that a life with God at the center entails.
In terms of piercing truth-telling, I am mindful of something that came my way in the ramp-up to the November elections. With so much posturing, pretending to be leadership, I continue to be struck by a most sobering and indicting statement – one that touches all of us: namely, “It was not the truth they wanted, but an illusion they could bear to live with.”2
It doesn’t matter that your family came over on the Mayflower or that your uncle donated the pipe organ or that you’re the nicest person in the world. As John so indelicately said, the deeper and overriding reality is to bear fruit – the fruit of a life rooted in God’s life. Moreover, the flaming words that the Baptizer uses against those who pose as the sources of their own lives is, in fact – for their own good. Such truth-telling is an expression of love and compassion, even though most immediate human responses to such “tough love” do not say, “thank you, very much!”
As I said in last week’s sermon, “repentance” means “turn around” – turn around because if our life’s orientation does not face God, then life by any other alignment is death. That’s the truth, whether we like it or not. Truth-telling.
The second characteristic that John the Baptist embodies as a participant in the Jesus Movement has to do with teaching and with providing spiritual direction, that is, God-direction.
In this gospel account and in spite of John’s harsh tones, his message got through to some; and it wasn’t a result of folks shaking his hand and whispering, “Nice sermon!” With his fiery warning that the old and decaying wood of the people’s lives was already being harvested for the fire pits, “the crowd” (as Luke refers to the gathering) – the crowd with a frantic voice came up to John and asked a most pithy question. “What then should we do?”
The self-satisfied may have already returned to their air-conditioned vans to go back to their respective domains, but it is clear that John’s message got through to those who knew the truth – the truth that they needed to change their lives. So, remarkably, as in one voice, the gathering asks for instruction and direction. They ask for guidance in making this necessary and challenging repentance shift. As we all know, if such transformation were easy, folks then and now would jump to embrace it. But the fact is such truth, such re-orientation of one’s life’s center is hard. Replacing God for something more manageable is deeply ingrained in all of us. We like the illusion of being self-sufficient; which is to say that letting go of such an addiction is painful.
“What then should we do?” Without hesitation, John the Baptist is quick to provide direction and instruction, offering something very concrete and immediate that these seekers can do to take one step toward the new, life-giving direction.
To the masses, John directed that they be generous and compassionate with those in their lives, promoting justice (a word that means “reunion”) – promoting justice and compassion by sharing what we have with those in need. Specifically, the Baptizer says that if you have two coats, give one away to someone who needs to be warm in the cold. If there are those in need of food, the Baptist prescribes compassionate sharing from what we have.
Then, another cohort, the tax collectors, step forward and ask what they need to do in response to the call for turning their lives around. John’s immediate answer is for the tax collectors simply to do their jobs. After all, the community needs to pay for its roads, the building of bridges, and keeping the water and school systems; but the tax collectors must cease and desist the gouging of their fellow citizens in order to keep this extra money for themselves. So, too, the soldiers should never use their force of arms to intimidate the populace they are supposed to protect. There should be no payment for protection. Just do your jobs, the Baptizer says, and through your generosity, justice, and compassion, visibly be God’s people.
John the Baptist provides simple, direct counsel that his hearers can do to start the process of being free, whole, and joyfully content. He does not require that they quit their jobs. No heroic gestures are commanded of them. Rather, John’s transformational message invites the people to take steps – concrete and practical steps toward being God’s partners and, thereby, learning how to be their best selves.
The last characteristic that John the Baptist embodies about preparing for and participating in the Jesus Movement is the most significant. In spite of all the attention he receives – both adulation and condemnation, John keeps the main thing the main thing. And that “main thing” is Jesus, the Christ of God.
To all who came out to him in the wilderness: those who heard and received his message of invitation and freedom and those who simply wanted a selfie and a t shirt, John kept pointing beyond himself to “the one whose sandal he was unworthy to untie”: Jesus.
In a time like ours, when life’s impact is determined by the number of “clicks” and “likes” one gains, John always kept his life and ministry focused on Jesus. And what strength of character this took to point beyond himself and to Jesus! “…the 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 with fire.”3
John’s baptism was for a clean restart – a do-over with God.
His wilderness ministry is nothing short of announcing the reconstitution of Israel, the reiteration of God’s covenanted people and partners, whose sole purpose is to demonstrate with their lives what life on God’s terms is like and, thereby, what it takes and what it means to be free.
Please note: the baptism you and I have is different from John’s baptism. Yes, our baptism is also a “do-over”, a new start that honors the God-life – a life we need and cannot provide for ourselves. But much more than this, our baptism is in Jesus, with Jesus, through Jesus; and that means we have what Jesus has. In our baptism, we receive the unbreakable relationship that the Father and the Son share: The relationship that Jesus would rather die for than break. This unconditional, unassailable relationship of love is the Holy Spirit; and through the gift of the Spirit, we are sealed as in a bond that is hardened by fire, like tempered steel, to be stronger than our fear of death— or any other screw ups.
Which, if we step back from all these important details to look in God’s direction (reopentance), we encounter the real reason we can and do “rejoice”!
Thanks be to God. Amen.
1. Luke 3:7, 18
2. Anais Nin (1905-1977)
3. Luke 3:16
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