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? 8Bear 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. 9Even now the axe 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?’ 11In reply he said to them, ‘Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.’ 12Even tax-collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, ‘Teacher, what should we do?’ 13He said to them, ‘Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.’ 14Soldiers 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,
* 16John 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. 17His 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. (NRSV)
Grace and Peace to you from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen!
As we all know Advent is the season of waiting and expectations. But waiting is not an exciting thing to do, especially to me. I am not a kind of person who enjoys waiting, unless there is no other option. I prefer processes that give relatively immediate results. And I believe many of us do that. Specially going to service centers like MVA, Hospitals and many other places cannot be survived without magazines and Newspapers that we can read while we wait. We can’t even comfort ourselves with our cell phones, since they are not allowed in many of those places. I still remember what happened to me around the first month I moved to MD. I had to change my Driver’s License and my Car’s plate to that of Maryland. I picked a day I thought would be slow and went to one of the MVA offices, hoping that I would be done within the lunch break and get back to work. Of course, that was not what happened. When I reached there I sensed that it wasn’t the kind of slow day I assumed it would be. On the top of that I realized that I made a mistake by going to MVA during lunch time, when I saw tons of people packed in the room. Still that was okay, and I could deal with it. The worst happened when I finally approached the counter and provided my document after waiting for about two hours. Unfortunately one of my documents was not original copy and I was asked to provide the original. On the top of all that time spent on waiting, now I had to go home and bring the original copy. I wasn’t worried about driving home and coming back. What I was worried about was coming back to MVA and waiting again. So, I asked the person at the desk: “Do I have to take queue number when I come back?” And he assured me saying “Yes Sir.” That is when I began to ask myself what can I do while I wait? I soon began preparation and planning what I could read during those waiting hours.
Waiting without doing something is boring. But waiting is the one thing we can’t avoid in our daily lives; even in a Christian life, like Advent when the theme is all about waiting for the coming of the Lord. The question is then if we can’t avoid it, how can we make it exciting? I think that is why the crowds in our gospel text today asked John, “What then should we do while we wait?” What sort of preparation can we do while we wait the coming of the one who is powerful?
Though John begins his preaching with strong and provocative words, the crowds instead ask a very positive, calm and change oriented question: "What do you want us to do then?" He uses the opportunity to get to the heart of his message, turning to God and bearing fruit worthy of repentance. In these verses, John gives concrete ethical instruction to those gathered, and the content of that instruction is rather surprising to the people who felt that they were okay with God by virtue of being Abraham’s children.
This voice crying in the wilderness is meant for all to repent, to turn to where they were supposed to head in their living and to go in a new way. The voice asked them to amend their ways and prepare their life for the coming Messiah. The fruit of repentance that John talks about is more than saying sorry for one’s action.
William Willimon, who was a professor of religion at Duke University, on Christian century, wrote the following on this passage. “The repentance John calls us to is no mere change of mind and heart. It is a total metanoia (Greek term for Repentance), a complete turning around from self to God. More than an emotional “feeling sorry for my sins,” repentance is the fitting response to the presence of the Kingdom, the only way left now that our God has come, the necessary choice between self-salvation and God’s salvation. Here is a costly Kingdom.
For me that is the part which makes repentance less interesting thing. There is always something that we have to turn away from. But instead of focusing on what we have to turn away from, or what we have to give up, things can change if we focus on what we gain out of repentance: the joy of being right with God, the joy of sharing what we have with others, and the hope that beyond this wilderness experience there is life.
Until they heard John’s message, they were relying on the false security that the faith of their ancestors would be sufficient for them. But through a call to repentance John is declaring the coming of the new kingdom, with a new people of God and new identity; identity that is not based on race or some sort of ethnicity, but on the pure promise and word of God. It is based on how one conducts herself/ himself as a response to this coming of new kingdom. The call is not only a call to repentance but to a form of conduct consonant with the faith that one professes. It is also a call and a privilege to become God’s children, his own people. John makes clear that something is going to change with the coming of the one whom he is pointing to. In this new kingdom, it is made clear that physical descent from Abraham is not the only way that one can become God’s children. Now to have children of Abraham God does not depend on Jews who are physical descendents. God can even create Israel anew.
So, for John preparation for the coming of the Lord takes place, not by being Abraham’s children, but in our daily activity. We don’t quit our job and live in a monastery; I don’t blame anyone if the person is convinced enough that it is his/her call. What I am saying is that God is served better; life is well prepared for the coming of the Lord when we serve in our call where ever God placed us. John made it simple to the people to understand the core of Christianity, what it means to be a Christian amid our daily responsibility. For John being a follower of Jesus is not a rocket science. It is simple, but requires commitment.
John in this particular place does not even urge the people to adopt his way of life in the wilderness. Rather he invites them to reform their mode of conduct and life style according to the demands of this new kingdom that they are called to.
He abundantly made clear that faithfulness to God does not have to be at the expense of our job and our family. There are opportunities to do God's will, to be God's people, without leaving our vocation. In fact that is where God’s will for our life take place. I believe that our calls as Christians are shaped by where God places us: the roles in which we find ourselves and the needs of the neighbor with which we are confronted. John may have come from the wilderness, but the crowds of his time, and we live in the towns and cities, and these, too, can be places of testing and the arenas in which we offer our fidelity to God through service to neighbor.
And the amazing thing is that even those who are not well loved among the society can prepare for the new kingdom. Look at how bad his audiences are. They are more than ordinary. Luke tells us that part of those coming were tax collectors. These were far from those you expected to be coming to hear John. They were considered not only less than righteous, but they were seen as traitors to their people. They were a part of the Roman occupation and were instruments of oppression. There were the soldiers there as well. Again, not the patriots we honor for defending the freedom, but a part of a cruel, oppressive occupation, known for robbing the defenseless. Yet they are not excluded from John's attention or the possibility of "bearing fruits worthy of repentance."
It is indeed good news in that they don’t have to renounce their job, something they love to do. But do it in way which glorifies the Lord. Do it in a way that it allows them to share what they have with others, carrying for those who are less fortunate, be kind and nice to the people they work and live with, consider others better than themselves.
As I said earlier, Advent is the time of waiting, preparation and expectation. It is a time for facing the truth about the impending coming of the one who has already come; and therefore making better arrangements for daily life, better plans for the service of God, better provision for the praise and the worship of the God who is coming in such power and glory. A call for us today, from this text is not to be removed from life, but to bring our faith to our daily life while we are waiting the coming of Jesus. As we always do, to continue to live like the children of God, doing the very thing God wants us to do; holding to the spirit of the season, sharing and caring. It is a call to discern what God wants us to accomplish here and now. To continue to share what we have with others.
May God help us to do what we can while we wait for the coming of the one who is Emanuel, God with us, Amen!!
