Show the Way

 

We are undergoing a type of revolution here in the United States. The "Supreme" Court's decision in the Callais case out of Louisiana, stripping away the final portions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, has led to a cavalcade of Southern state legislatures hastily redrawing their Congressional districts in an effort to disenfranchise black voters. 

Blacks tend to vote for Democrats, and the Republican Party is desperate to use any means possible to stop the inevitable thrashing they're about to get in the wake of this horrid regime and its greed and grift at the expense of working people.

On Saturday, May 16th, thousands assembled in Montgomery, Alabama for All Roads Lead to the South. This was a rally to motivate all people of goodwill to stand up and fight for the rights of black and brown people to have their voices count at the ballot box this election year. I had really wanted to go, but having done so much driving lately...and the prospect of having to do seven hours round trip to Montgomery and then have the energy to drive back and forth to Valdosta the next day....nope. The spirit was willing but the flesh said, "Are you nuts?!"

But the evil being done in state legislatures, and my own grief still present at the loss of friends, was very much on my mind as I read through the scriptures assigned for this Sunday after the Ascension. Rather than isolated one pericope, I found that the Spirit was drawing on pieces and parts from three of the four.

See what you think.

Texts: Acts 1:6-14; 1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11; John 17:1-11

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I recently reconnected with an old colleague and friend from my days working in radio.

In our back-and-forth exchange…she shared with me an interview she had done with her husband for the StoryCorps program.

StoryCorps is an independent audio production company that travels the country by silver bus.

They set up shop… usually for a couple of weeks in a location… and offer to record people who want to share their stories about anything…and then StoryCorps distributes a copy of the recording to the participants.

The originals are housed at the National Archives in DC.

Some of those recordings are also played on National Public Radio on Friday mornings.

My friend had signed up with her husband to meet with StoryCorps when they came to her city.

And they reminisced about how they met.

As part of their discussion… they talked about death.

He was much older than she was…so the presumption was that he was going to die first.

He told her that when he died…he wanted her to be happy…and to do whatever things would make her happy.

“But what if I’m not going to be happy when you’re gone?” she asked.

“Well, you’re going to have to figure that out, kiddo.”

He did die…about six years ago.

And my friend is still striving to figure it out…and to find happiness in a life without her beloved.

Grief…and the sense of a profound loss…of a spouse…a lover…a job…or even fundamental rights…can plunge us into a liminal space.

The world keeps spinning on its axis…but we don’t feel as though we’re traveling at the same speed as everyone else.

It’s that odd time of knowing that something has ended…and yet we are stumbling our way toward the beginning of something new.

That’s the place where we find the disciples right now…as we move from the season of Easter…and the joyfulness of the resurrection… and head toward Pentecost…and the next act in God’s dream for the world.

This past Thursday…the fortieth day after Easter…we marked the Feast of the Ascension…which we heard about this morning in the Book of Acts.

Jesus’s time on earth has come to an end…and like the prophet Elijah…he is lifted up and away… to take his seat at the right hand of God.

Our Gospel lesson from John this morning recalls Jesus’s concluding prayer for his friends…a final appeal to God to watch over them…be with them…protect them from the storms of life that will come their way.

Jesus has done all he could do in his time on earth.

Now it’s their turn to figure it out.

It’s also our turn.

As we have listened to these words of Scripture today…and over the past many weeks…months and years of our lives…we’ve been given countless lessons in how to live into Love.

All the prayers…the hymns that we sing…and this meal that we share at this table…they’re all meant to reinforce and remind us that we already have the tools in our proverbial toolbelts to do the sometimes frustrating…and yet important and joyful work of repairing the breeches in the world around us…loving our neighbors…no matter who they are…in the way that we want to be loved…cared for…and treated.

We heard Jesus’s prayer in John’s Gospel…but Luke’s account of the ascension gives us some more color around that moment with disciples as he left them for the last time.

Luke tells us that Jesus spent his last hour opening their minds to understanding the Scriptures…connecting the dots between the prophets of the Old Testament…and everything he had shown and taught them.

And just before he ascended into heaven…he was offered them a blessing.

But rather than being in despair…Luke says Jesus’s friends “returned to Jerusalem overwhelmed with joy.”

Not moping.

Not handwringing.

They were overwhelmed with joy.

That’s such an interesting observation.

And yet it makes sense.

Because something had shifted in them.

Deep in their hearts they understood that this ending of Jesus’s earthly ministry wasn’t an end….like “Well, that’s over!”

No, his spirit…his words…his mission was with them…and in them…in the same way that it’s within us.

We are the new hands and feet and mouths of Jesus.

That’s really good news…especially as we face the challenges that are before us.

The author Anne Lamott used a phrase in a recent Substack article that resonated with me, “Life is getting so much lifeier than I was prepared for.” (“Gold” from Hallelujah Anyways, May 2, 2026 on Substack).

She was writing about all the things happening at the global level of life as we know it: wars…billionaires using and abusing people and systems…and…while she didn’t name this one… I would add to her list the breakneck speed at which Southern state legislatures are undoing all the heavy lifting of the civil rights movement.

Add to those troubles…the more personal things that affect us: the surgeries…the troubling diagnosis…the death of loved ones. And Lamott says, “that’s more lifeier than I was prepared for.”

But even with those realities that sometimes can come at us in rapid fire succession…we aren’t hopeless when we remember and return to the root of our being: the Love of God that is in us…with us…and around us always.

That’s what our Epistle reading from the First Letter of Peter is driving at.

Peter acknowledges that ordeals will test and challenge us.

We are going to face health crises…and bad days at work…and gerrymandered political maps that deepen the rifts between us…and make us turn on one another.

As Peter so aptly put it: “Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8b)

But when such trouble arises…we must resist it…and stay steadfast in our faith.

One of my favorite theologians…Howard Thurman…wrote that “the evilness of evil isn’t about destroying the body or reducing cities to rubble;

Its real target is to corrupt the spirit and give the soul the contagion of inner disintegration.” (Thurman, Essential Writings, quoting The Meditations of the Heart, 110-111).

Now.... I admit…when something big has happened that makes it seem as if the ground beneath my feet is shifting every which way…I find it hard to remember to slow down…and as Peter says “Humble myself,” meaning…enter that prayerful place… and lean on God to seek help.

Or…more accurately…I get so caught up in my own mental wrestling that I forget that God is waiting and ready to remind me of those things that I already have learned.

So when I have finally have worn myself out with my thrashing…I ask for God’s guidance…and taking some deep breaths…I make my plea to the Holy One:

To tell me again those truths…that the real nature of God is love.

And Love is stronger than hate.

Help me to hear those words… so that it fills my heart and mind with balm of God’s peace.

Ground me in the goodness that is always there…

Open my eyes to take in the wonder of God’s artistry in the rising and setting of the sun and the song of the birds in the trees.

And with my soul now calm and the noise in my head quieted down…again show me the way so that I may help lead others with strength…courage…and kindness…so that I may

not be a stumbling block to those seeking the freedom that comes from God’s love.

As Pentecost draws near may our hearts and minds be primed as we seek God’s peace…and hope…so that we’re ready to do the work of Love that’s before us.

In the name of our One Holy and Undivided Trinity.

To Be Like God: A Christmas Eve sermon

 

I know I gave this sermon a different title on our St. Barnabas YouTube channel, but it occurs to me this title fits better with my overall message. 

I used this same Grimm Brothers story in an entry on my Substack, and as I was writing that entry...and as I discussed the story with my spiritual director, I realized that this anti-fairy tale had a theological as well as a moral message for us. 

See what you think. And Merry Christmas!

Text: Luke 2:1-20

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As a child…I enjoyed being read to at bedtime.

And it was often my dad who would read me to sleep.

One of my favorite stories was by the Grimm Brothers.

It was called The Fisherman and His Wife.

It’s an anti-fairy tale… the story of two people living in abject poverty by the sea.

One day…the fisherman goes out to the water…and he catches this tremendous flounder.

The fish pleads with the fisherman to please let him go…he’s not just a fish but a prince.

The fisherman was pretty amazed to have found a talking fish…so of course he releases him…and the fish dives deep into the sea.

The fisherman goes back to his wife and tells her all about this amazing talking fish.

But his wife was wondering why her husband hadn’t thought to ask for something from this fish.

The fisherman shrugs and says he wouldn’t know what to ask for.

The wife looks around.

“We’re living in a pig sty. You could have asked for a nice cottage. Go back to the sea and ask for a cottage.”

The fisherman reluctantly goes back and he notices that the sea has become a strange murky green color.

He calls out to the fish:

“O man of the sea! Hearken to me! My wife Ilsabill will have her own will and hath sent me to beg a boon of thee!”

The fish comes swimming to the surface, “What does she want?”

The fisherman tells him she wants a nice cottage.

The fish tells him this request has been granted and to go home.

The fisherman goes home and finds his wife in a beautiful cottage with a couple of rooms…a nice kitchen…a garden with chickens and other animals.

This is a big step up from the pig sty.

His wife is delighted…..for a week.

But then she wants more.

She wants a stone castle.

She tells her husband to go back to the sea and ask the fish for a castle.

Again…he goes…even though he’s not really feeling great about all of this.

The sea is looking darker…and choppier. He gives the same bidding for the fish to hear his wife’s plea for a castle.

The fish again tells him to go home and he’ll find his wife waiting for him.

And sure enough…there’s now a stone castle and she has a throne with diamonds and gold.

But she’s still not satisfied.

Next she wants to be the Empress.

The fisherman is sent back to the angry sea…and the fish grants her the wish of being the Empress.

Certainly…that should satisfy her needs.

But no.

She wants to be the Pope.

The fisherman protests that she can’t possibly be made Pope…but she demands that he go to fish and tells him she wants to be made Pope.

The fisherman drudges back to the now very stormy sea…makes the request… and the fish makes her the first female pope in the history of Roman Catholicism.

She’s still not satisfied.

It only takes her a few hours to be bored with being Pope. It’s not grand enough.

She wants to be God….to rule over the Sun and the Moon.

The fisherman is really not wanting to go back and ask for this…but his wife thunders that he must go ask the fish to make her God.

So he goes back…to a sea with dark waters and lightening flashing everywhere as the waves are crashing onto the shore.

The fisherman makes his standard plea for the fish to come to the surface and hear his wife’s latest request.

“What does she want,” asks the fish.

The fisherman trembling tells the fish that she wants to be God.

So the fish grants this wish too.

And when the fisherman goes home…he finds that the couple has been returned to their lowly estate of living in a pig sty.

The Grimm Brothers story is one about the dangers of greed…and how it can consume and warp a person.

But I think if we consider the ending…it also makes an interesting point about God.

When the wife wants to be God…she assumes this is going to grant her powers beyond all powers…to give her more wealth and prestige than even stature of royalty and the papacy.

But to be like God in this story is to be poor.

Seems the Grimm Brothers not only understood the way greed distorts the human soul…they also knew something about the nature of God.

Because we know from our stories in the Gospels…when God enters the world through the birth of Jesus…it happens not in a grand palace to the super rich and famous.

God arrives in the form of a baby…a vulnerable child born to a carpenter and his very young fiancé.

And when the angels come to sing and trumpet the good news of Glory to God and Peace on Earth… they didn’t bring these glad tidings to the Herods of the region…or any of the other tetrarchs or even to the Roman Emperor…Caesar Augustus.

They found the shepherds…those who were among the lower working class…tasked with spending their nights watching over the sacrificial sheep belonging to the Temple…to hear this incredible news.

I think this is one of the important messages to us here in the 21^st century as we revisit this story and welcome this season of Christmas.

God loves and seeks out those who are on the margins of society…and God takes those who the rest of the world ignores and puts them into the center.

Because for God…borders are meaningless and people are not to be put into figurative boxes.

Each of us has a life that is important and meaningful to God…no matter who we are…or what labels we own.

And let’s face it: God isn’t about being tidy either.

Think about it.

Childbirth is risky and bloody…even in our modern world with sterilized equipment and trained medical staff.

And what we’re told is that Jesus was born amidst the hay and the animals because there wasn’t enough room for this poor couple to be lodged with other humans.

I read an article recently that described the terrain of Bethlehem.

That unlike our nativity scenes that make it look as if the Holy Family was in a farmhouse barn… Bethlehem is a lot of very rocky terrain and mountains and caves.

The “inn” would have been in the front opening of the cave…while the animals were kept in the back at night.

So in these cramped stony quarters…with the stench of animals in the air… and hay bales for a birthing bed…this is how Jesus…the God with Us…came into the world.

It is into a messy…dangerous…noisy and chaotic world that God meets humanity on our level.

And the ask is simply that we receive and allow God into the fray with us.

Allow God to meet us in whatever circumstances we’re in…whatever joys or sorrows we’re holding…whatever fears hang over our heads…and whatever hopes we have in our hearts…on this night we’re asked to take a pause to realize that God cares enough about all of it…that God trusted a vulnerable couple…and a ragtag bunch of shepherds to be the ones to tell the story.

God is still counting on us today to be the ones who are willing to share this wonder…to see that the true power to transform this world is not given to the the well-heeled and famous.

And true power isn’t about domination and diminishing others.

God gives agency and power to the average person…to  you and me…to be the ones who can meet the needs of this world…because God has met us and loved us on our level through the life and ministry of Jesus.

On this Holy Night….we look to this new life that we celebrate each Christmas…as the one who came to show us that Love…Mercy…and Compassion is the way to live our lives.

To follow that path is the way to peace…and joy…which we can share with others as our gift to the world.

In the name of our One Holy and Undivided Trinity.

 

"The Spirit of the Lord is Upon Me"

 

The Rt. Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde preaching at the Washington National Cathedral.

What a strange...sobering...and utterly horrible week it has been. 

The inauguration of the 47th president was on Monday...which coincided with the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. Given the former's attitudes and campaign rhetoric...that just seemed like the cruelest of ironies.

And it didn't take long for the new old president and his cronies to begin his shock and awe campaign on the nation. They immediately took down the Spanish language translations of the White House website, have stopped processing passports of transgender individuals who refused to identify as either male or female, begun raids in certain cities to arrest and detain people who are immigrants, and have announced that churches and schools are no longer protected spaces for people seeking sanctuary.

Oh, and he pardoned all of the insurrectionists who attacked the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overthrow the government and prevent the certification of the 2020 votes confirming that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris had won that election. Five police officers who defended the Capitol died from that incident. Another 140 officers were badly injured.

Suddenly now, the Fraternal Order of Police is upset with the president. A little late folks.

On Tuesday, January 21st, the Washington National Cathedral held its traditional Prayer Service for the Nation. The Rt. Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, diocesan bishop of Washington, DC, was the preacher. And Bishop Budde took that opportunity, preaching on a text from the Gospel of Matthew, to speak of unity and the pieces that are needed to be in place for us to heal and become a more unified nation. One of those keys was that vulnerable people need to feel that they are protected, something that they are not feeling right now because....well...please see all of what I have already written. Bishop Budde looked at the president and vice president as she made her plea for him to have compassion and show mercy. It was bold, and it was on point. 

And, as one might imagine, the backlash against her has been intense. Some Republican members of Congress have demanded that she, born in New Jersey, be deported. The president called her a "so-called bishop" and that her message was "nasty." He demanded an apology. She refused.

Because Jesus' teachings are good...and require no apology.

The uproar from this service filtered down to all of us who work in the vineyards of The Episcopal Church. There was concern about what might happen on Sunday: will we see new people who want to be in a church based on compassion, mercy, and justice? Or were we going to have some troublemakers come in to disrupt our worship?

And what were we going to preach in the wake of all of this and as we enter into these times?

Here's what I had to say. See what you think.  

Text: Luke 4:14-21; 1 Cor. 12:12-31a

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“The spirit of the Lord is upon me…”

All this week…as I have been preparing this sermon…this phrase that has been lingering in my head.

Morning, noon, and night…this phrase has been on repeat.

I have a vivid memory of when I encountered this passage in Luke’s Gospel.

It was on a sunny October morning in Washington DC.

I was sitting quietly in the nave of St. Monica and St. James-Capitol Hill…the place where I was assigned to do my field ed.

The light was streaming in through the windows casting purple and yellow shadows over the baptismal font.

I opened my Bible to the Gospel of Luke…and began reading through this portion.

And as I did…I remember being overcome with a deep and profound understanding not only of my own call to be a priest…but what this passage means for all of us who claim the mantle of Christ.

Because this passage is basically the crux of the Jesus movement…his mission statement…the bass note of Jesus’s call.

We’re going to be hearing a lot of “call” stories during this season of Epiphany.

Epiphany is really all about being called….having that great “A-ha!” or “Eureaka!” moment…when we realize what we’re meant to be doing with this one precious life we all have.

Epiphany is a time for considering those gifts of the Spirit Paul has been talking about…and what and how we use those skill sets we have to making this a better church and a society where we can all breathe free.

In this case…we’re witnessing the crystallization and Jesus’ public testimony of his call…his purpose.

How the Spirit that is upon him is moving in him…through him…and out of him to accomplish God’s purpose in the world.

It all began with his baptism at the Jordan River…when the Holy Spirit descended upon him as a dove.

From that point forward…the Spirit becomes the life blood pumping through his veins.

It’s the Spirit that drives him from the Jordan out into the wilderness for forty days.

That time…alone in the dessert…helps to shape and refine him….and the Spirit is there…giving him the power to resist the tempter as he tries to steer Jesus away from his life’s purpose.

The Spirit then guides him home…back to his hometown… to the synagogue where he grew up.

He’s now a young man. A very faithful…and faith-filled young man.

But in this space…this synagogue…he is with the people who remember him as a little boy.

I think we all might relate to what that’s like…when you go back to some place…your hometown…where they knew you when you were young…and maybe even a little stupid?

They know your mama and your papa and your siblings.

It can be so hard to break free of the preconceived ideas of who you are and what you’re all about in those situations…and it’s no different for Jesus here.

Still…he’s the hometown boy.

So when he comes into the synagogue…the community honors him by calling upon him to read from the scroll of the prophets.

He unfurls the scroll…and finds in this passage in the sixty-first chapter of Isaiah:

The spirit of the Lord is upon me…

I wonder how that must have felt coming out of his mouth.

Indeed…the spirit of the Lord is upon him.

It’s in him…

It’s on fire in his heart.

This spirit is upon him to bring good news to the poor.

Yes indeed.

It’s on him to heal…teach…and touch people who are the powerless and those feeling hopeless under the iron fist of the Roman Empire.

The spirit has sent him to proclaim release to the captives.

All those same weary people who are feeling hemmed in and cut off…including cut off from their own hearts. Jesus has come to release them and regather them.

The spirit is giving him power to give recovery of sight to the blind.

We’re not just talking about physical blindness.

The spirit is giving him the power to open the eyes of those whose status have kept them comfortable enough that they fail to see the suffering around them.

He’s here to open the eyes of everyone…to see each other more clearly as children of God.

Everyone is of equal importance and value to God.

The spirit of the Lord is upon him to liberate the oppressed…those on society’s margins…those being “othered”…and bring them out from the edges and into the center.

With this Holy Spirit-inspired mission…Jesus is accepting this assignment…and when he accomplishes all of this…it will truly be the Jubilee Year of the Lord’s favor.

He takes his seat.

Now all these folks who’ve known the little boy Jesus are looking at him for a word.

A message.

The synagogue didn’t have a clergy person…so they want to hear from Jesus.

“Tell us, O wise one, what shall we make of this passage?”

And…in this moment of his own Epiphany…sitting in his childhood synagogue…Jesus looks around the room at all of them:

“This scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Full stop.

This is Jesus’ mission.

The mission will be accomplished when those who have heard these words of the prophet Isaiah accept that this is their mission, too.

They have the power to make these things happen.

They can help bring about a truly peaceful and prosperous world by reaching out to one another…treating each other with respect and dignity…refusing to treat people as “others”…as objects of scorn and derision…and helping to free people from the devils that plague them…those internal and external forces that belittle them and tell them they don’t matter.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon them.

It’s also upon us in this hearing.

The mission statement of Jesus is also the mission statement of anyone who says they are a follower of Jesus.

We are all called to be a friend to those who are living in fear for their financial security…their healthcare…their safety.

We are all called to help free people from captivity…whether that’s encouraging the addict to get help in recovering from an addiction…or aiding a person escaping some kind of abusive and dangerous situation.

And we are all called to recognize our own prejudices and to do our best to see Christ in all people…and not just the people who look like us or talk like us or worship like us.

These ARE the core values of our faith…and our following of Jesus.

If we have been baptized into his life…death…and resurrection…then we are bound to the basic principles of having compassion for those who are scared…showing mercy for those who are vulnerable…and seeking a world where everyone is treated with fairness and equity.

These principles don’t make us popular.

They never have.

But they will always put us on the path toward God.

Jesus didn’t read those prophetic words of Isaiah out loud to just let them evaporate into the ether.

And we shouldn’t let them fade away or refuse to hear them either.

To be a Christian in this time…and in our country today…is to remember that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was not one of the powerful rulers of this world.

And he didn’t want to be.  

He was one of the disenfranchised…living and moving and having his being among the outcasts of society.

In this time that we’re in…we need to read…mark…learn…and inwardly digest this message.

Take these scriptures home and read them again and again.

And then…with those gifts that we’ve each been given by the Spirit that is in us…whether we are teachers…listeners…healers…or helpers…use those gifts to give back love into this world to those who need it most.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon us.

In the name of our One Holy and Undivided Trinity.

 

Brood of Vipers? It's Not Too Late to Change: a Sermon for Third Advent at Christ the King

What a strange set of readings for this Sunday! There's such hope and joy coming from Zephaniah. Then there was Paul's Letter to the Philippians, a church he actually liked, which starts with "Rejoice! Again rejoice!" 

And then John the Baptizer is screaming insults at people coming to be baptized. 

This was possibly the last sermon I am going to be preaching to the congregations of Christ the King Episcopal Church in Valdosta. I have enjoyed preaching there because the congregation is more likely to spontaneously respond to what I'm saying...not something that is typical of most congregations in the Episcopal Church. But then again, CtK is not your typical Episcopal Church. They were, until 1988, an Assembly of God congregation. 

I put my theater skills to work in this sermon, which shocked the 10am congregation. They weren't expecting someone to scream at them "You brood of vipers! Who told you to flee the wrath that is to come?!" 

But then...I don't think "the crowd" was ready for John's smackdown either!

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Prayer: God, fill our eyes with seeing and our minds with knowing;

Let there be moments when Your Presence, like lightening,

Illumines the darkness in which we walk.

Help us to see, wherever we gaze, that the bush burns unconsumed.

And we, clay touched by God, will reach out for holiness,

and exclaim… in wonder… how filled with awe is this place…and we did not know it. Amen.—Shabbat Evening 1, Mishkan T’filah, 53.

I wish I could claim the words of this prayer as my own…but truthfully I lifted them from the prayer book at my wife’s Jewish temple. We were at the Friday evening Shabbat service for the sixth night of Hanukkah. Everyone had been invited to bring their menorahs from home and set them up on tables at the front of the sanctuary to light for the service. During a moment of silent prayer and reflection, my eyes landed on these words…which seemed so perfect in that candle-lit space. They work well with our own season of Advent…where we are constantly being reminded to look for the light of God’s presence in our world which is often full darkness.

And speaking of one noticing the light in the darkness…we have John the Baptizer in the wilderness. Now…last week…was John One-point-oh. His was the voice crying out in the wilderness to prepare the way…make the crooked paths straight. And perhaps we didn’t quite get it the last time…so this week…on “Stir up Sunday” it’s John Two-point-oh. He’s not just crying out somewhere off at the county line anymore. Now he’s all up in the faces of the crowd:

“You brood of vipers!! Who warned you to the flee from the wrath that is to come?!!”

Well, OK, then!

I wouldn’t recommend “brood of vipers” as a Christmas card greeting. No wonder Hallmark doesn’t have a niche market for Advent cards!

The choice of words is strong. And insulting, really. Vipers have these really long venomous fangs and had the reputation for eating their way out of their mother’s body…thus killing their own mama.

In Luke…we hear that John is slinging these words at “the crowd”; in Matthew’s version of this same moment, it’s the Sadducees, scribes, and Pharisees. These are the groups that our hippie hero prophet John, who’s out there in the wilderness eating locusts and wild honey, has tried to escape. He’s on the outskirts of town to get away from what he thinks of as a corrupt religion and has become the leader of another group of Jews…the Essenes…in what he believes is a purer religion that’ll get back to being in right relationship with God.

There’s this word…”brood.” One commentator I read noted that the word “brood”—and what word that is “brood”—is not the actual pit of vipers itself but the offspring of these snakes. So this “brood of vipers” represents, for John, generations of dull and corrupted Judiasm.

Add to this the presence of the tax collectors: now THERE’S a particularly hated group, right?

Nobody likes the I-R-S…and in those days…the I-R-S was really hated because they were Jews hired by the Roman Empire to collect the taxes from their fellow Jews. They were seen as traitors. And it didn’t help that there were many who would engage in fraud, overcharging the taxed and pocketing the change.

Oh, and then who else is in this crowd but the soldiers! They were kind of like “Herod’s henchmen” who would bully and shake down the Jewish citizens.

So all kinds of representations of Empire and Classism and Brutality…everything that is the polar opposite of John…they’ve all come out into the wilderness…seeking John’s baptism in the River Jordan. You can imagine how thrilled he was to see them!

After John gives this brood of vipers a tongue lashing…they look at him, blinking, and say, “What then should we do?”

“Well,” John says, putting his hands on his hips…

Soldiers: don’t extort or threaten people.

Tax Collectors: only get the money actually owed.

Jewish leaders: You know what the code says: You have two coats: give one to the person who has none.

To put it another way: “You need to get yourself right! You need to take a good look at yourself and realize that there are things you’re doing, behaviors you’ve had, that have been harmful to your fellow human. Get yourself right with God…now! Because the Light is coming…capital “L” light…is coming.”

And we know that’s true even today.

Each week…one more candle gets lit on the Advent wreath…to remind us that even in the midst of days that are growing darker earlier…during times where we might feel down, depressed or overwrought…the Light is coming and getting brighter and brighter. And, as difficult as it can be to hear that accusation—‘brood of vipers’—we need to hear John’s message behind those words.

Because we are the crowd, too.

Just like that crowd at the Jordan…we are products of the society in which we live that has allowed for disparities of wealth and divisions among people to grow. We may not be actively participating in causing harm to others, but we often benefit from the way our society is structured that keeps some on the margins…out of sight and out of mind.

I think about what happened with all the shutdowns that came with the pandemic. Suddenly, we learned that “essential workers” were not just nurses and doctors in the hospitals; it was their janitorial staff.

Essential workers were stocking shelves and checking out people at the cash registers in grocery stores.

They were… and are… farmworkers and the meat packers in neighboring communities, helping to keep the supply chain of food going so that there would be something in the grocery stores and restaurants (another set of “essential workers”).

While some of us stayed at home, others simply could not.

Let’s not even get started on the disruption to education. Some school children could get on the internet and attend classes remotely; many others didn’t have a stable enough connection. Some classes could switch over to remote learning; others were far more challenging…and to the point where some teachers put away their planners for the last time and took early retirement.

As long as we’re comfortable and undisturbed by the gaps that exist in our community, and as long as we sit idly by when we hear phrases such as some place being in the “good part of town,” we run the risk of being just like that clueless crowd out in the wilderness, looking dumbstruck as John gives them what for.

And that’s why we need John…and we need Advent.

We need to get that push… that shake up… to take a look at ourselves and what’s around us.

Last week…we prepared the way for the Light’s return. Now John is saying…get rid of the behaviors and let go of those things which are holding us back.

When the light illumines a place and reveals what has been hiding in the darkness…don’t look away.

Address it.

Deal with it.

The answer to “What should we do?”

Be ready because “the way things have always been” is coming to an end and a new thing is about to happen.

And let the church say, “Amen.”