Sermon for December 15, Third Sunday of Advent

Sermon for December 15, 2024 Third Sunday of Advent

Luke 3:7-18 You Brood of Vipers

Y’know, I’ve been preaching for over 25 years now and one of the things I pride myself in is a good hook, y’know, a good intro. A personal story or who doesn’t love a good movie reference, right? But try as I might, this week I just couldn’t outdo John in today’s sermon, I mean John’s sermon-intro really takes the cake, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee the wrath to come!” I mean, I might’ve gone with some witty story or an example from a Disney movie, but you have to admit, this is an attention-grabber. Happy Advent, you brood of vipers!

This is rightly offensive to anybody, really, but for a people like the Israelites who claimed Abraham as their father, to call them all sons of snakes, might be the most offensive thing John could say. Are any of you into genealogy? I haven’t done that much work on my family history, and yet I know that my grandfather was the Reverend Peter Mohr serving Lutheran parishes in Alberta, Canada, and what more, that my family celebrates their ancestry back to the famed Joseph Mohr who wrote the Christmas carol “Silent Night.” Do you have any cool genealogy stories??? And so to know your important stories and how they shape you and then call you all a brood of vipers, sired by a bunch of snakes, you get how offensive this would have been, right? And so the Jews in the crowd as John is preaching on the banks of the Jordan River, they’re right to protest, “But we have Abraham as our ancestor! We’re the chosen people!” To which John replies, “God is able from these very stones to raise up children of Abraham. You ought bear fruits worthy of repentance otherwise the axe is already at the root of the tree.” Who doesn’t love a good wrath and judgment sermon? And then my favorite part at the end of the reading where Luke records, “With many other exhortations John proclaimed the good news to the people.” 

As a general rule, people don’t like having their sins pointed out to them. I know in me it triggers defensiveness and I’m likely to fight back, and maybe not very fairly. And yet, what is amazing about this text, is the people knew exactly what to expect from John’s sermons out in the wilderness…and they went anyway. John was preaching the wrath of God, really nailing them with their sins and… they flocked to him. Why? Just because I don’t like you pointing out my sins doesn’t mean you’re wrong. And in these days of alternative facts, perhaps we could all use a little more truth-telling. The people clamor to John, even tax-collectors and soldiers for crying-out-loud, “Tell us, what must we do?!” And so you see how even good preaching, truth-telling about sin and the wrath of God, is itself liberating and what we call good news. Take, for example, the confession and forgiveness we do at the beginning of each service. As you confess your sins, do you do so reluctantly? Are you afraid of God? Do you try and hide anything from Him? Or, is there a sense of refreshment as you lay it all bare before God hearing the best news you could ever hear, “For the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ, God forgives you all of your sins. Amen.”

This is why this third Sunday of Advent is almost ironically called “Gaudete” or Joy Sunday (the Latin for joy). The word joy and rejoice is all over our other readings, but the Gospel reading itself at first blush feels the farthest thing from joy. You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee the wrath to come! The axe is already at the root! These aren’t texts that we generally associate with joy! And yet, in the forgiveness of Christ, in the truth-telling of our confession, God’s axe is at our root, this refiner’s fire burns away all impurities and chaff and leaves us only holy and righteous and forgiven before the throne of God. Tell me, is that good news or bad news? It’s both, really, isn’t it? Bad news for the old sinner, the selfish, greedy little whore in each of us, bad news for him as he is only good for chaff for the everlasting fire. But that is good news for you and me. Good news that the old sinner has no place in the Kingdom, that God will one day burn him out of us like a refiner’s fire once for all declaring us righteous and pure. Might that even be cause for joy? I like to think so. I like to think Paul set Philippians 4:4 to music, “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice.”

John the Baptist thoroughly understands that there is only one way to deal with the old sinner, you have to preach him to death. You don’t reason with him, cajole him, train him or expect better of him. The nature of sin is that it always chooses self. Apart from the power of the Holy Spirit you will never and can never choose God. And so while we might expect John to offer grandiose plans to the people who come asking, his call to death is just as basic as it sounds today. “What must we do?” the people ask. “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none,” John answers. “Whoever has food must do likewise.” John doesn’t give the old sinner elaborate remodeling projects to work on, but calls us all to a simple death, “Put aside your greed and selfish ways and take care of your neighbor.” Death and resurrection. Same with the tax-collectors and soldiers who come to John, “Do not steal or extort money from people.” After John’s bombastic sermon-intro, we might expect more explosive ideas, but John’s prescription to the people is pretty much basic caring and sharing. Put that old greedy self to death and help your neighbor. What is a damning indictment is that John’s prescription still sounds revolutionary today. We are living in an age of unparalleled greed. Did you know that the three richest Americans: Bezos, Musk and Larry Ellison of Oracle, have more money than the bottom 50% of Americans? Three people! Have more wealth than 170 million! Don’t you find that to be the most grossly immoral thing you’ve ever heard? And the richest 1% have more wealth than the bottom 90%! Our politicians are all bought and paid for. Corporate profits are soaring while homelessness climbed 12% last year. What do you think John the Baptist would have to say if he could preach today? The call to repent is a call to put the old greedy self in each of us to death and to help our neighbor, especially those most vulnerable and weak.

With that being said, I could make a laundry list of my own sins, let alone the 60 or 70 of us here today. But I want to end the sermon looking at ways this congregation is already following John’s instructions. Ways that we are already caught up in God’s revolutionary act of sharing our coat or sharing our food. Have you ever been here on Thanksgiving Day or Christmas Day when we are serving Holiday meals? Literally sharing our food and our space and our time to feed those who are needy or lonely. What are other ways this congregation is caught up in God’s revolutionary act? (Kid’s Kloset, Apartment Team, RIC/Social Justice, Quilters, 10% tithe, etc.)

I wanted to end this sermon on that positive note. Sure, we need to let John the Baptist go off like a grenade and have the “brood of vipers” cut us down and throw us in the refiner’s fire. But the church wouldn’t be the church if we were not joyfully living out this revolutionary act of God, sharing what we have, refusing greed, putting to death selfishness, being caught up in all this good trouble that God’s Kingdom is working in the world. Amen.