EDITOR'S NOTE: On Oct. 23, 2021, I was ordained as a minister of word and sacrament in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and installed as pastor at Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn. I also served the same church for four years from October 2017 to October 2021 a synodically authorized minister. The journey together these past four years has been an amazing one, full of learning, growing and a deepening of my theological mind. This sermon took place on Dec. 12, 2021, the third Sunday in Advent.
This week's gospel: Luke 3:7-18
7 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? 8 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. 9 Even now the ax 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.”
10 And the crowds asked him, “What then should we do?” 11 In reply he said to them, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.” 12 Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, “Teacher, what should we do?” 13 He said to them, “Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.” 14 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.”
15 As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, 16 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. 17 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.”
18 So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people.
The message:
Well, if you came to church today looking for a bright, uplifting Advent gospel, aren’t you surprised! … Turns out that Luke had something else in mind for us, didn’t he!
“You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits worthy of repentance!”
Not exactly a cheery message just a couple of weeks out from Christmas, is it?
But if you focus on that all important word of “repentance,” you start to see why it is that Luke’s message for today fits into the Advent season.
As we talked about a couple of weeks ago, Advent is the season of waiting for Jesus’ next return … his second coming. … The season of expectation and preparation for his return.
And as John is urgently reminding us here, part of that preparation for Jesus’ second coming is to repent! … “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits worthy of repentance.”
Well, it was John who had warned us about the wrath to come … and it was John who warned us to repent.”
And now in this season of Advent, he’s coming back to us in the gospel today to remind us yet again … to repent.
Now, do you remember when you were a kid, and you would get into a squabble with one of your siblings. … And if you didn’t have siblings, maybe it was a cousin or the neighbor or a friend.
You might have even been the instigator. … Maybe you pinched your sister. Or maybe you stole your brother’s block. … Whatever the offense might have been. … And it touched off a fight. … A whole lot of screaming, and maybe even a little wrestling.
And then what would happen … Well, of course, the fight would bring your parents a runnin’. … And someone would have to pay.
Your parents would investigate, of course. … Who started this? … And the accusations would fly. …Well he looked at me. Well, she stole my blocks. … And on and on until your parents would say, “Enough, now you two apologize to each other, this instant.”
And what was your response .. “Oh, well, that’s all I have to do to get out of trouble. … Alright then.” … “I’m sorry!”
And goes what, you … never … meant … a … word … of … it! … Did you??? … That’s what I thought!
And so in your apology, in your repentance to your sibling, you missed the entire point of repentance altogether.
Well, it’s no different than the gospel text’s message today. … In this case, it’s John talking to a group of believers, telling them to repent, but to really repent this time. … And he’s reminding them that there are some very dire consequences if they don’t repent.
“Even now the ax 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 so the key word here in today’s message is repentance.
And the problem with the word repentance is that like with so many of the biblical messages, is that today we have watered down what repentance actually means.
To repent doesn’t mean to superficially tell your sibling that you’re sorry for stealing his blocks, when all the while you’re thinking, “Yeah, I’m just going to do it again tomorrow.”
True repentance means that in the act of apologizing you’re actually deciding to correct your behavior. … I’m sorry for stealing your blocks AND I’m not going to do that any more. … That’s actual repentance.
But that’s not so easy when it comes to some of the grown up stuff John starts talking about in the gospel text today, is it?
“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.’”
So, he’s pointing a general finger at each and everyone of us and saying, “Well true repentance from your human ways is to actually become generous, even when it’s not convenient.”
After all, if we have two coats, isn’t it much more prudent to keep that second coat around for a rainy day? … What if your coat rips, after all. Shouldn't you have a spare? … And isn’t it that person’s fault, after all, if they don’t have a coat to begin with?
John doesn’t give us room to hide behind those excuses anymore, does he? … “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.”
There aren’t any caveats there, Faith Family. … You “must share with anyone.”
So in other words, bear fruits worthy of repentance. … Not the superficial fruits we like to pat ourselves on the back for.
But hold on … John doesn’t just stop there either. He has more to say.
After pointing an accusatory finger at each of us in general, John goes on to point fingers at very specific people in power, telling them they don’t get to abuse the system anymore either. … That they are just as guilty as the average person for not repenting.
For instance … “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.” … In other words, stop gouging those from whom you collect … just because you are in a position to do so.
And then what about the soldiers? … The soldiers asked him, “And we, what should we do?” .. He said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusations, and be satisfied with your wages.”
So, in a span of about two paragraphs, John has pointed his finger at each of in general, and then also at those of us in power, and finally at the entire power structure itself, and warned us all … that in preparation of Jesus’ second coming, we need to figure out what true repentance is.
As the brief description that appears before the gospel text in your bulletin states: “John teaches that preparation for God’s reign is not a matter of identity -- in other words just being a follower of Jesus -- but of bearing fruits of merciful justice, radical generosity, and vocational integrity.”
And the realization for those of us who are Jesus followers is that this is the radical repentance that John is calling for … and it is never easy.
There’s no more telling your brother that you're sorry for stealing his blocks when you know darn well that tomorrow you will do the same.
Repentance. … The repentance that John is preaching about to the crowd means that, sure, you apologize, but that in that apology you actually mean that you are going to change your ways. … That your actions will actually begin to pave the way for the return of Christ.
This isn’t about superficially donating to the food shelf once a year at Christmas because it makes you feel good. Or giving a nod to kindness by bringing your neighbor some soup when they’re feeling ill. … Or even just about doing the right thing. … All of that is good and is expected of Jesus followers.
But the repentance that John is calling for in today’s gospel, Faith Family, is a life-altering repentance. … A “I’m sorry God for my selfishness and greediness and unkind ways and I’m going to make a change of heart today” kind of repentance.
Because, after all, putting on a show of apology for your mom when your intention isn’t to be kinder at all … isn’t any different than the repentance most of us show in front of God.
“I’m sorry, God, that I didn’t give something to that stranger that was standing at the corner. … But tomorrow, I’m going to be more generous.”
“I’m sorry, God, that I haven’t mended that relationship with my loved one after all these years. … But tomorrow, I’m going to be kinder, more merciful.”
“I’m sorry, God, that I haven’t done more to help those in our society that have been marginalized through no fault of their own. … But tomorrow, I’m going to work toward more justice, to do the things that Jesus would do to create a more just world.”
And then tomorrow comes, and we are the same people aren’t we. … No more generosity. No more kindness or mercy. And no more work toward justice.
And that makes us like the very same folks who were standing before John the Baptist asking “What then should we do?”
Faith Family, John makes this very easy for us. … He reminds us very plainly that it is not enough just to be good people.
After all, he told the people in that crowd 2,000 years ago that it wasn’t enough just to be descendants of Abraham. That just because God promised Abraham salvation, it didn’t mean that every descendant after him got a free pass.
And so, just because we follow Jesus, and we believe that he died for our salvation, it doesn’t mean that we get a free pass. … John is telling us today that it isn’t enough to just be a good person.
Is it a start? … Sure, but what then should we do? … Do you remember that seemingly benign question in today’s text? … “What then should we do?”
Well, I am a good person, but what else is that I need to do to practice God’s generosity? … To practice God’s kindness and mercy? … To support God’s merciful justice? … To do all that it is that is required of me as a follower of Jesus?
Because at the end of the day, it’s not just enough to be a follower of Jesus.
Well, luckily for us, Faith Family, John spells it out for us very simply: “Bear fruits worthy of repentance.” … It is not simply enough for us to be Jesus followers. If we are actually repenting, it means we are changing our ways, and we are helping to usher in the second coming of our Lord.
And that is the Good News for Sunday, Dec. 12, the third Sunday of Advent. … Amen.
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