"Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us…."
That’s what we prayed at the beginning of the service.
And I have to wonder if that’s what motivates the outburst from
John the Baptizer in our Gospel this morning.
I always love seeing the meme passed around on social media with
the bearded guy in a brown sackcloth growling out: “Happy Advent, you brood of
vipers!”
Because his words are so jarring…I think it’s easy for us to get too fixated
on that first part of the Gospel.
There’s a lot more happening here…and we’ll get to that in a
moment.
But first…just as a refresher…this Gospel lesson is found in the
third chapter of Luke…beginning at the seventh verse.
In those first six verses we heard last week…as Bishop Logue noted
in his sermon… Luke…the meticulous note taker and keeper of orderly records of
everything… listed out the names of all the major powerful political and
religious leaders of the day… the functional equivalents of who is
president…who serves in the U.S. Senate all the way down to the mayor of
Valdosta. Names that the Jewish population would have easily recognized…and
could make life easier or harder for the folks of that time.
And God…in God’s mission of redemption of the people…those huddled
masses yearning to breathe free…surpassed all the prestigious leaders in the
Roman Imperial matrix and went straight to John…out in the wilderness
conducting his baptisms in the Jordan River….and gave him the charge.
God tapped him to live out the words of the prophet Isaiah…serving
as a prophetic witness himself of the new thing that was coming into the world.
John has been loud.
He’s attracted the attention of people… a lot of people.
And among those coming out to see him are the very people John can’t
stand.
See John was not just some lone guy doing his own thing out by the
Jordan River.
He was the leader of a movement…the Essenes…a break away sect from
the Judaism of the day.
The Essenes felt that Judaism wasn’t cutting it any more…and that
the leadership had become corrupted by the forces of the Empire.
John and his disciples were seeking a purer form of the
religion…getting back to the “true Judaism.”
So when the crowds start coming…and John sees tax collectors…who
were Jews working for the Roman Empire…and Pharisees and Sadducees…who were the
Jewish leaders he’d had a problem with in the first place…and soldiers…the locals
who had come to serve the Empire under Herod…John starts demanding “Who sent
you?!”
Not only is he angry…there’s an air of suspicion in his tone…which
makes sense.
The world of John…the First Century Palestine…was full of uncertainty.
It was tumultuous.
And for anyone on the wrong side of the Empire…it was dangerous.
So it makes sense that he’s on guard.
John bellowing out an invective such as “brood of vipers” is the
typical street back talking an underdog uses against their bully.
But can you imagine how this must have shocked the crowd?
It certainly isn’t the normal way to greet people who are coming to
be baptized!
And given that these are people with positions and privilege…they
could have taken this tongue lashing as reason to retreat into their shells
again.
But something happens.
After John has dressed them down so thoroughly…demanded that they
must “bear fruits worthy of repentance”…they stop.
They listen.
They ask, “What are we supposed to do?”
I have to wonder if John wasn’t a little bit surprised.
Here he’s called them names and questioned their motives for coming
out there…and now they’ve asked him…him…to tell them what they
would need to do to show that they’ve truly had a change of heart…and
demonstrate their willingness to repair the breeches in their society?
How should they make amends and live differently?
And so he tells them: got two coats…give one to the person who
doesn’t have one.
Tax collectors: quit with your practice of tacking on an extra
percentage for yourself. Just charge the tax owed.
Soldiers: heard what I said to the tax collectors? You get a
salary. Don’t go twisting the arms of other poor Jews and basically stealing
their lunch money.
In other words…live your lives in harmony and without brutality
toward others who are living under this tyranny of Rome.
Such a scene is an important one for us to see in our own times and
during this Advent season.
We need those John the Baptizer figures calling us to account…to
wake us up to the ways in which we live and move and have our being that may be
making things harder on others.
It can be things we’re not even conscious of because we live in a
society that keeps us distracted from noticing what we ought to
be paying attention to and questioning.
We see it with the whole debate about public schools and public
libraries.
There is so much focus on banning books and trying to suppress
knowledge…preventing us from getting to know each other better…that we are in
fact becoming more and more isolated…and fragmented…and suspicious of each
other.
There’s no harm in learning the story of our country through the
eyes of her immigrants.
There are important lessons to be learned about what promises were made
and promises broken to the indigenous populations.
And… hard as it may be to hear the true stories of the slave trade
and the way our European ancestors made it acceptable to enslave Africans for
profit…these are the real stories that remain as sins we’re still
dealing with today.
Because such wrongs have lived on in the invisible lines of where
people can live…which influences whether they have good schools or even
something as basic as a grocery store nearby.
When we learn each other’s stories…and listen to the experiences of
people different than ourselves…we begin to form stronger communal bonds.
This can lead us to question other things that we seem to take as
“just how things are”:
Why is it that some kids must depend on their schools in order to
get proper nutrition and then families have to scramble in the summertime?
Why is it that city and county own buildings that stand empty, but
they can’t seem to figure out affordable housing?
When we insist on going to stores on holidays, do we remember that
the person working may be having to take time away from their family for our
convenience?
John the Baptizer told the crowd he baptized with water…but what he
also did was to trouble the waters of his time.
He told them they needed to start waking up and paying attention to
the needs of those around them.
We need to hear that message too.
Because…as our opening collect said…”we are sorely hindered by our
sins.”
Not just our personal wrong doings or slights.
There are things that have been and are still being done in our
name that are counter to our baptismal promises to seek and serve Christ in all
people…and respect the dignity of every human being.
Those acts…whether we actively participate in them or not…still
require us to stop and listen…
And we are left with that same question: “What should we do?”
We should begin with where God meets us…in our own bodies.
It begins with our self-care.
It’s like the instructions we always here on the airplane. If for
some reason the cabin starts losing pressure and the oxygen mask drops down…put
your own mask on first and then help your child or other fellow traveler.
But if we’re breathing fine…then do tend to that person who isn’t.
We should raise our voices to attract attention to those people…and
those places that aren’t doing OK.
Because in caring enough to notice…and in the giving and the
receiving…we build up community.
And building community…strengthening the bonds between people… that’s
the true joy of this season of expectation and celebration of God’s gift to us
in Jesus.
Because building community and empathy and trust…is the work of
Jesus.
The one who is even greater than John…the one who points the way to
Love…and coming at a time when Love’s presence is most needed.
May we be the bearers of the light of joy.
In the name of our One Holy and Undivided Trinity.
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