You Brood of Vipers!
|
Advent 3C - RCL
|
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? 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. 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 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." 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." 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."
As the people were filled
with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John,
whether he might be the Messiah, 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. 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."
So, with many other
exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people.
Today is Gaudete Sunday – the third Sunday in Advent. It can be translated as “Rejoice” Sunday – it
comes from the traditional introit (or entrance Psalm) for the mass that we can
also find in our reading from Philippians – “Rejoice in the Lord always; again
I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is
near.” It dates back to a time when Advent was viewed as a little lent. A time of fasting, self-denial and
repentance. The color and the tone of
the season was similar to that of lent. Purple
vestments. No meat on Friday. Solemn
services. This Sunday was meant to be a
lessening of that season. A time for
rejoicing. A time to let up on our
fasting and self-denial. And a time to
stir up the Christmas puddings (or fruitcakes!) should you be a cook.
So too the color changes from purple – or for us today blue –
to rose. Many advent wreaths, including
ours, have a rose colored candle that is lit today. Likewise the color of the vestments can also
be Rose – should a church have them. A
dear friend and fellow priest gave me a set of rose vestments that I am
thrilled to be able to wear today. Many
churches these days do not have rose vestments.
And when they do they are sometimes bright pink!
The Church I grew up in – St. Paul’s Benicia originally had a
bright pink set of vestments. My Godfather
– the priest there –hated them. But the
altar guild dutifully set them out every third Sunday of Advent and in the
middle of Lent (the other Sunday you can wear rose) and he dutifully wore them. He knew better than to mess with the altar
guild! But eventually he went out and
bought a nice rose set – and gave away the pink set to a church that was just
starting up.
Advent today –for most of us – is not treated as a little
lent. It has the feel of
preparation. Of getting ready to welcome
the birth of a baby – the Christ child – into our hearts and our homes. We need to still examine our hearts to see if
they are ready. Just as we do in Lent to
be prepared for the resurrection. But we
do it with less solemnity than in Lent.
How can we not with secular Christmas all around us. The carols going none stop in the
stores. The decorations having gone up
in October!
And yet we are different:
·
Our
churches are not filled with Christmas – not just yet.
·
Our
hymns are not Christmas Hymns – not just yet.
·
Our
celebrations are perhaps a bit more subdued.
And then we have our readings. We do not yet read about the baby Jesus and
the manger. We do not have stories of
Mary and Joseph on a donkey – perhaps two weeks out from Bethleham. No we get John the Baptist calling us all “A
brood of Vipers!” What is this all
about!
John the Baptist never comes across as a “Santa” type
figure. No – he is more of a wild man in
the wilderness dressed in camel’s hair and eating strange food. And yet…
And yet the people are coming to him to be baptized and to
repent. And he is not easy on them. He is not polite. John says
“You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to
come?” He tells them that they cannot
rely upon their ancestors to get them on the right side of God. That being the “chosen people” is not
enough. That God can raise up a new set
of the chosen from the very rocks! It is
stern stuff. It is unsettling stuff.
No wonder the crowd asks what they have to do to escape the
cleansing fire that is to come. John
speaks to us in his answer just as much as he spoke to them. As another preacher paraphrased John - “Do you own two shirts? You have more than you need. Do you
have food? Give some away. He leaves no wiggle room for those who might be
tempted to say, “But I’m not rich.” The command is absolute: some people in
your community don’t have enough to survive, so if you have anything at all,
share it.”[1]
Does this sound familiar?
We will hear Jesus say very similar things later in the church
year. John – like Jesus – challenges our
societal view that we should pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. A society that blames the poor for being
poor. A society that idolizes the rich
and famous.
Our society and that ancient society where John – and Jesus
– lived have unfortunately not changed much.
A small fraction of ultra rich and powerful people feel it is their god
given right to step on and suppress the poor.
That somehow they are better than anyone else and their reward is from
God.
·
This
is radical stuff.
·
This
is Jesus stuff.
·
This
is St. Matthew’s Stuff.
I saw this in action here last Monday at the community
dinner. I saw you the good people of St.
Matthews make sure that those who have little to nothing would have something
for Christmas. I saw a group of
volunteers who made sure that the hungry who came to the dinner had their fill
before any of us where fed.
Deacon Cindy told me that the plan was for about 120 people
for dinner. And as I was checking in the
line we quickly reached 120 – then 140 – at which point Cindy thought perhaps
the volunteers night not eat. And we
were OK with that thought. Then it
looked like there was enough food so we let in the rest of the line. Over 160 people ate a dinner prepared for
120. And enough for the volunteers to
eat too! Almost 200 people ate a dinner
prepared to feed 120.
And we thought there would not be enough toys for all the
kids. That Santa’s sack would run
dry. And that did not happen. Sure there may have been not quite enough
toys for one of the older age groups but there was enough for every family to
have something for all of their kids to open on Christmas.
I tell you I once again witnessed the miracle of the Loaves
and Fishes – but with ham and toys! The
miracle of loving our neighbors. I saw
the Love in action. I saw the volunteers
do what John asked people to do. I saw
Advent preparation in action.
That is how we get our hearts ready to welcome Jesus during
Advent. We won’t prepare our hearts in
the malls. No. We prepare our hearts to welcome the birth of
Jesus when we look into our hearts and drive out any brooding vipers that we
may be harboring. We prepare our hearts
when we rejoice with all of God’s creation.
We prepare our hearts to welcome Jesus when we give a coat or a hat to
those who have nothing.
We prepare our hearts for Jesus when we work to transform a
society that still extorts and takes advantage of people into one that values
the contributions of all people. We
prepare our hearts to welcome Jesus when we welcome the refugee into our midst
– and not when we fear the refugee. We
prepare our hearts to welcome Jesus when we accept people of other religions as
children of the one God. Not when we
condone ethnic or religious intolerance.
The Good news is that I see people here doing these
things. I see a loving group of people
loving God and loving neighbor. Oh sure
we all probably have a few vipers hanging around our hearts. We all have our moments of intolerance. John is calling us on this third Sunday of
Advent to continue our preparations. To
find our vipers and to cast them out.
John said “…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. 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." Each and everyone of us has both Wheat and
chaff in us. Everyone we meet has both
wheat and chaff. This third advent I
invite each and everyone of us to recognize the wheat in ourselves and in our
neighbors. And then to find the chaff in
ourselves and offer that to the cleansing power that we remember coming to earth
as a little child on Christmas day.
Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment