December 17, 2006
Zephaniah 3: 14-18 + Philippians 4: 4-7 + Luke 3: 10-18
What should we do?
is the question this crowd asks after the Baptists sermon.
What should we do?
This is the question that forms the heart of Luke’s Gospel
the Gospel we shall proclaim from now until next Advent.
I’ve asked that question many times in my life,
and I’m certain that you have too;
and sometimes I’ve gotten an answer that left me ready to say:
“Yeah, well thanks, forget that. “Sorry I asked.”
I suspect that some of those people
who asked John what to do felt like it was a mistake to have asked.
Holding on to that second coat, that extra bread or old sandals
and wondering: “What is enough?” goes through every mind that hears his response.
Do I risk my own comfort for someone who has not worked as hard as I have?
Can the tax collector who has had his thumb on the scale
really live with a cut-back in revenue?
Those soldiers he’s talking to:
do they really stop pushing people around? They are not out in that miserable desert to teach dancing. Their pay is meant to be supplemented by this bullying behavior, this extortion.
Any change in behavior always leads to a discovery of inner obstacles.
On Advent’s Third Sunday,
John the Baptist calls for a change: Repentance!
His advice is really a journey of self-discovery.
You really get to know yourself when you start to make a change.
Luke gives us John’s suggestions, and with them we might learn a great deal about ourselves and expose the obstacles that keep us from God.
Put simply what John says is:
Share what you have; Avoid greed; and use your power well.
We all have more than we need,
and the moment we hesitate to share that wealth,
we’ve uncovered an obstacle.
This is a proposal to imitate God.
God shared all of creation with us, and as if that was not enough,
he shared his only Son:
not a spare, not an extra, not the one least loved, but his only son.
“No greed.” says John. When we confront the greed of our lives,
we find out exactly what is in the way between us and God.
When God made a covenant with us, as recorded in the First Testament, he asked us to return one tenth of what we earn: a dime out of a dollar. Not the whole thing, not even half, just a tithe: right off the top.
The first fruits he called it.
When we fail to do that, we act as though everything depends upon us.
It denies that we are dependent on God and on one another.
That exaggerated individualism leads to greed, war, and abuse.
“Use your power well.” says John. Don’t force, invite.
It’s another imitation of God, a divine quality in us there since we were created with free will. God does not force. God invites.
I have wondered for many years what John the Baptist must have thought about this one who was to come.
I honestly think he may well have been very disappointed,
especially when he was sitting in Herod’s prison.
Where was that all – powerful one he waited for his whole life?
When you listen to what John said and how he said it,
you can’t help but think he was surprised by Jesus of Nazareth.
Jesus never came with thundering curses and threats of judgment.
In stead of threats to powers like Herod, he preached to the poor.
He promised liberty to captives, sight for the blind,
freedom for the oppressed.
His first contact with tax collectors was to have dinner with them.
His way of bringing people to God was different than John’s,
and herein lies the cause of our Joy:
that love is what the repentant will receive,
not judgment or condemnation.
The Joyful are always in repentance, free, generous without question or limit. They are always returning to God what God asks only to be surprised by the fact that God will not be outdone. This is the rehearsal part of Advent’s work: the Joy of Christmas cannot be contained. It breaks out in the middle of Advent, and the giving is not seasonal. It is a way of life.