Do the Good that is Yours to Do
Luke 3: 7 -16; Isaiah 58: 9b – 12
Is it strange for me to say that Advent would not be Advent without the appearance of John, the passionate preacher in the wilderness, sometimes known as the baptizer or the forerunner?
Not only does John leap as a fetus in Elizabeth’s womb as she is visited by the pregnant Mary; he also proclaims good news about the one who will follow him in public ministry as an adult. If we don’t read about him during Advent, we often read about him in association with Jesus’ baptism, right after Epiphany. He’s kind of a seasonal standard.
Details about John are included in all four gospels, marking his vital importance to the bigger story of Jesus – and each gospel treats his story a little differently.
In Luke’s gospel, we don’t get the delightful details about John being clothed in camel’s hair while eating locusts and wild honey. But John appears in the wilderness, outside of the city, beyond the towns.
Remember that location matters in Luke’s gospel. John’s location is figuratively beyond any community. He is “away from the center” of things, and so in Luke’s gospel, we are invited to see him as an “outsider” to the establishment – he is not one of those people with political, economic, social or religious power and influence.
Also in Luke’s gospel, we don’t see John preaching explicitly to the religious authorities, calling them out as the brood of vipers.
Instead, John offers that title to ALL who are coming to hear him – the brood of vipers in Luke’s gospel then is less exclusive. In fact, John says that it doesn’t matter if you are a “son of Abraham,” a title for the Jewish people. Because God can raise up sons of Abraham from the very stones.
So John is addressing ALL who gather, and he’s suggesting that those Jews in the crowd have no advantage over anyone else. John’s message is for EVERYONE.
John is offering a baptism of repentance. If you’ve been here at Faith for very long, we’ve talked about repentance before. Repentance isn’t just acknowledging wrongdoing and asking for forgiveness. Here in Luke’s gospel, the Greek word is “metanoia,” meaning to change one’s mind. In John’s Jewish context, his preaching of repentance was probably rooted in the concept of “t’shuva,” understood as a turning around (as in toward the new or correct way of living and being).
So John is offering a chance for people to make a life change, to choose to do their life differently. He suggests that when people repent, they are fruitful and useful to God’s bigger vision of shalom. They contribute to the greater good, and in that fruitfulness, they won’t be cut down as useless or barren trees.
In the listening crowd, there are three subgroups (tax collectors, soldiers, and everyone else), and each group in turn asks, in light of John’s teaching, “what should I do?”
And John has distinct answers for each group about what repentance looks like.
To the general crowd he tells them to share from what they already have. If you have two tunics, give one away.
To the tax collectors, he says take no more than you are owed.
And to the soldiers, he says don’t take advantage of people just because you have power over them. Don’t use your power for illegitimate gain.
None of these answers are very complicated or hard. Repentance, turning around, changing course, being transformed for each of these groups is pretty attainable. No one is being asked to give up their power or their livelihood. Each is being asked to give something or refrain from harm so that others might simply thrive. The call is simply to generosity, justice, and contentment with what we have.
John’s message then is good news – this turning around is available. Accessible. And not to a select few, but to anyone who will listen and do the work. When we turn around, we will bear fruit.
Troy Troftgruben, professor of New Testament and biblical theology at Wartburg Theological Seminary in Iowa says this about this text:
The call to repentance … invites us to take practical steps toward aligning our lives more squarely with God’s purposes—not just in theory, but in practice. It takes the internal and abstract aspects of faith and makes them external and concrete. It gives opportunity for faith to have full expression.[1]
Would you be in the crowd gathered to hear John in the wilderness today? And if you were, would you feel challenged? Comforted? Would you take the opportunity to be changed by what you heard?
Would you do the thing that is your to do?
Throughout Advent, we have explored simple truths each week that are illustrated in the big story of God – and specifically through the story of Jesus who is God with us.
These truths are comforting and beautiful in their simplicity and practicality, kind of like the quilt made up of bits and pieces of cast aside things that we can wrap ourselves in on a cold winter’s night.
In our first week, we visited Mary and Elizabeth and heard the angel Gabriel declare Mary to be blessed among women. It was admittedly a complicated blessing. Unwed, pregnant. Sometimes blessings are complicated. And we are all blessed. You are a blessing. Can you receive that?
Last week, with amazing music as a backdrop, we were reminded of how much better we are when we are doing life with others. Ruth chose to stay with Naomi to form a new kind of family. When voices come together, they create a whole that is so much more than one voice alone. We can’t go alone. Do you know that?
In this third week of Advent, we are reminded of another simple truth. We are called to do the good that is ours to do. And when we do the good that is ours to do, it touches others in some way.
John’s preaching is preparing those who gather for the coming Messiah – for what Jesus will say. And here we are, in a season of preparing for Jesus, too.
So… Like those gathered in the wilderness around John, it is time for us to ask, what should we do?
There is a quote that is often attributed to Torah – to Jewish scripture - but is actually a loose quotation drawn from rabbinic scholars’ commentary on the prophetic work of Micah 6:8.
Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief.
Do justly, now.
Love mercy, now.
Walk humbly, now.
You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.
In this third week of Advent, as we wait, perhaps with JOY for the promise of Emmanuel, God with us in all of the complicated parts of being a human, John the forerunner calls us to prepare. To prepare our hearts by changing our lives SO THAT we are fruitful and part of God’s Kin-dom here on earth.
It is easy to be overwhelmed, I think, by the idea of following Jesus. But what if preparation for that begins with the very good news John offered.
What should we do?
My morning prayer from the Methodist Book of Daily Prayer today was this:
God of love, as I begin a new day, shape me as a person of love. Help me to be attentive to the people you call me to love in the ways you are challenging me to grow in love. Today I name:
· One way that I can grow in love of self,
· One person you are challenging me to love more fully,
· One person whose love I need to receive more fully,
· One way I can grow in loving my neighbor or community.
As love comes down at Christmas to meet us, help me live more fully into that love today.
May it be so.
Beloved, as we prepare our hearts for God with us, may we do the good that is ours to do. Each moment of each day.
Amen.
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