John is an amazing character, isn't he? Not what we would
expect as we come up to Christmas. What if, riding atop the last
float of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, there was not jolly
old Saint Nick, but a wild-eyed John the Baptist dressed in a
glorified burlap sack? Even the perpetually perky Katie Couric
would wince as she offers parade commentary from her reviewing
stand, not quite sure what to say.
But this is not mid-town Manhattan and this is no Macy's
extravaganza. It has been something of a parade though, as
people trekked out to the desert to hear this strange man. He IS
an astonishing preacher, we have to grant. Not many would start
out the way he does - he stands before the assembled crowd,
stares at them with a look of scarcely-disguised disgust, then
bellows, "You are a bunch of SNAKES!!!" Wow. That should get a
congregation's attention.
The crowd is equally amazing. After this phenomenal insult,
they must know that it is downhill from here, but they stay.
"Vipers...the wrath to come...repentance...trees cut down and
burned...winnowing fork...unquenchable fire." What was John
trying to do? Scare the hell out of the people...literally? And
then there is the gospel writer's remarkable conclusion to this
drama: "And with many other words John exhorted the people and
preached the good news to them." GOOD NEWS? Right!!!
What do you think? Was John's preaching "good news?" I
wonder. Actually, I do not wonder. I think it WAS and IS good
news, because John, in his unique way, was saying there is hope
for us, that despite all the evidence to the contrary, we are not
stuck with our worst selves. We can change. We can be
different. We can be better...better, perhaps, than we ever
thought possible. And I, for one, think that is good news
indeed.
Spend a few minutes with me looking carefully at John's
message. The heart of it is repentance, that good $2.00
"churchy" word that means, not only being sorry for your sins,
but being sorry enough to QUIT! The Greek behind the word
repentance reflects a changing of the mind, a 180-degree shift.
The world outside the church says very little about repentance
because the world outside the church is not convinced that such a
thing is really possible: "A leopard cannot change its spots,"
"Can't teach an old dog new tricks," and all that. At this time
of year, we hear a great deal about Scrooge...always a metaphor
for someone who is mean-spirited, miserly, and miserable. But
the Scrooge of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" repented, and by the
end of the story becomes a generous warm-hearted benefactor. Why
do we remember only the rotten in him? Is it because the world
remains unconvinced of the possibility of change? Or perhaps it
is that misery loves company. If no one else can change, neither
should I be expected to change. John says WRONG!!!
In that context, we begin to get a better understanding of
his talk about "vipers" and fleeing "the wrath to come." You
see, standing on the edge of the wilderness, John is using
wilderness talk. The picture he envisions is of those desert
grass fires that are nature's way of removing old dead growth to
allow new grass to grow. When those flames sweep across the
desert floor, indigenous creatures - including snakes - run for
escape. Thus, it would not be unusual to come across a brood of
creepy-crawlies where you might not expect them - like right
beside the river where they would hope to be safe! John is not
simply in the name-calling business here, but he IS calling a
spade a spade. He knows that the people have traveled out to him
and are ready for his baptism because they see it as a sort of
fire insurance. They are escaping from God's refining fire, just
as snakes escape the desert's fire, and John says that ought not
happen. As desert fires clear out old growth to make room for
the new, John wants the people ready to have the dross and dead
wood removed from their lives. The word he uses for the process
is repentance.
But John is not content with someone saying, "Sorry." Don't
just talk the talk, walk the walk. John says, "Produce fruit in
keeping with repentance." The phrase "in keeping with" [Gr.
axios] has as its root the image of a balance scale. One side
needs to weigh the same as the other side. It has the idea of
being "worth the same as" or "equivalent to" or "measuring up
to."(1) In other words, your talk might declare that you have
cleaned up your act - repented - but your walk will SHOW it.
John's next comments are as apt for today and tomorrow as
they were for the people who stood there listening to him: "Do
not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.'
For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children
for Abraham." In other words, don't you dare say, "This does not
apply to me; I am a church member...have been all my life; I'm
OK, John." Don't dare say, "I'm saved; I was born again on July
18, 1985 at a city-wide crusade; I'm 'washed in the blood of the
Lamb,' so John's words don't worry me." Don't dare say, "I read
my Bible and pray everyday; I'm at church every time the doors
are open - John is not talking to me." Maybe. Maybe not. The
truth is that more folks than we care to admit sow their wild
oats for six days a week then on the seventh day come in to
church to pray for a crop failure. John's message is that your
religion MUST make a difference in the way you live in the world
and the way you treat people; if it does not, your religion is
not worth the dead grass that is burned up in a prairie fire.
God is interested in your FRUITS, not your ROOTS!
OK. We buy that, John. Now what? To the preacher's
credit, he does not hesitate: "The man with two tunics should
share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do
the same." In other words, in the jargon of the trade, John has
now "stopped preachin' and gone to meddlin'." It is one thing to
stand in the pulpit and rail against sin, injustice, oppression -
everyone shouts AMEN...HALLELUJAH...PREACH, BROTHER! - but it is
quite another to tell folks to start giving their stuff away.
That is "meddlin'."
Perhaps you have heard the story of two farmers whose lands
shared a common border. They were talking about how much they
cared for each other. Jack said, "Joe, if you had two tractors,
you'd give me one?"
Joe said,"Right!"
Jack said, "And if you had two bulls, you'd give me one?"
Joe replied, "Right!"
Jack: "And if you had two calves, you'd give me one?"
Joe answered, "Now, Jack, you KNOW I've got two calves!"(2)
John says, "The man with two tunics should share with him
who has none, and the one who has food should do the same." That
does fly in the face of the way we celebrate Christmas, doesn't
it? How many new coats will be under the tree this year? How
much feasting will go on? Someone has suggested that when we
share the extra coat, we might discover that we suddenly have
more closet space at home without the cost of more fancy racks or
building on another room. When we who have plenty of food share
it with someone who is hungry, we might discover a way to drop
those ten extra pounds we picked up over Thanksgiving. That may
all be true, but I would not imagine John buying that as
appropriate motivation. We share because it is RIGHT to share.
PERIOD! If you want do right, then DO IT! Jesse Jackson has
said, "It is easier to walk your way into a new way of thinking
than to think your way into a new way of walking."(3) Did you hear
that? Listen again: "It is easier to walk your way into a new
way of thinking, than to think your way into a new way of
walking." John would say Amen!
"Tax collectors also came to be baptized. "Teacher," they
asked, "what should we do?"
"Don't collect any more than you are required to," he told
them."
This was new. Tax collectors were a hated bunch for two
reasons: 1) they were seen as traitors, having gone to work for
the enemy - Rome, and 2) because they made their money by
extorting as much as they could get away with from their
neighbors; they paid Rome a certain amount each year for the
right to go out and collect even more - whatever they brought in
over and above Rome's requirement, they could keep for
themselves. John says take only what is reasonable and no more.
This would be a big change.
No problem with that today, right? Well. In 2002, the
average CEO compensation package equaled $10.83 million according
to the New York Times. While pay cuts for the most richly
rewarded CEOs reduced the size of the average compensation
package, most CEOs actually got pay raises. Median CEO pay
increased by 6 percent last year - more than twice the growth of
workers' paychecks. How much did you make? And while
shareholders - including workers who depend on the stock market
for their retirement savings and pensions - lost some $7 trillion
by the time the market finished its collapse, today's CEO pay
packages are roughly equal to the levels attained back in the
glory days. At the same time workers' retirement savings have
suffered through the worst stock market decline since the Great
Depression, hundreds of millions of dollars have been doled out
in special retirement plan deals to executives.(4) Hmm. Is any of
this fair or right? What do you think John would say?
"Then some soldiers asked [John], "And what should we do?"
He replied, "Don't extort money and don't accuse people
falsely - be content with your pay."
We probably have less struggle with avoiding extortion than
being satisfied with our wages, especially when those executive
compensation packages come up. We struggle with the idea that
what we make is a reflection of our worth in society, and we are
offended. We ought not to be, but we are. John says be careful.
Good advice. Solid. Reasonable. For those who were
serious about leading lives that would please God, what John had
to say offered hope. His suggestions were not beyond the reach
of anyone. Perhaps that is why he made such a profound
impression on the crowds. Could John be the Messiah, the
Anointed One? The one who would lead the Chosen People back to
the greatness of King David's day? No. John says, "One more
powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not
worthy to untie.
Ready or not, here he comes. "You'd better watch out/You'd
better not cry/You'd better not pout/I'm tellin' you why... No,
not Santa. One whose "winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his
threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he
will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." At first blush,
this does not sound like someone I would look forward to. But in
the context of what John has just told us - that change IS
possible, that you and I CAN be better than we are, and that
reasonable measures taken can MAKE us better - then the
coming...the Advent...of this newcomer is good news indeed.
Ready or not, here he comes. Are you ready?
To be honest, probably not. We would rather be the snakes
in the desert who are content to run to the river for safe haven
from the flames. Are there things in our lives that ought not to
be? Are there people who have been neglected who need our love
and attention? Has life become too hectic, too wrapped up in the
pursuit of passing fancies? Probably. And that is precisely why
we need the season of Advent...not simply to let us know that
there is a diminishing number of shopping days till Christmas,
but for the expected use of this time for reflection, for
introspection, for taking spiritual inventory, and, yes, even for
change. Ready or not, here he comes. Are you ready?
For those who are, I have good news indeed. Because those
changes in our lives bring with them something wonderful. No
wonder the Apostle Paul could write the Philippians and tell them
to "Rejoice in the Lord always; I will say it again,
Rejoice!...The Lord is near." Ready or not, here he comes. And
the Lord's nearness results in what Paul calls "the peace that
transcends understanding." Be on the alert for the signs and
symptoms. They come up on you like joyous floats rounding the
corner in your own Macy's parade:
- An unmistakable ability to enjoy each moment.
- A "could care less" interest in judging other people.
- Even less interest in conflict.
- A sudden inability to worry.
- Frequent, overwhelming episodes of appreciation.
- Unexpected attacks of smiling.
- An increased susceptibility to the love extended by others
as well as the uncontrollable urge to pass it on.
The parade rolls on and leaves you finally with "The peace
that transcends understanding." Happy holidays indeed! Are you
ready? Well, ready or not, here he comes.
Amen!
1. Brian Stoffregen, via Ecunet, "Gospel Notes for Next Sunday," #8952, 12/7/03
2. John Lohr, via PresbyNet, "Sermonshop 1997 12 14," #17, 12/9/97
3. Quoted by Brian Stoffregen in "Gospel Notes"
4. http://www.aflcio.org/corporateamerica/paywatch/
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