In the name of Jesus. Amen.
“You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath
to come? Bear fruits worthy of repentance.”
I am so tempted to give you a ‘fire and brimstone’ sermon
this morning. With a proclamation like John the Baptist gives, who could
resist? After all, are we not the same crowd of unlikely sinners, gathered
around baptismal waters?
I sometimes think that church should be just like this scene
we read this morning: a group of unlikely sinners gathered around baptismal
waters. We should think of ourselves as that group tax collectors and soldiers
trying hard to serve God, yet slaves to a Roman lord telling them to steal and
kill from God’s own people.
And then we should hear those words of rebuke and they
should make our ears tingle, “you brood of vipers!” In the middle of a world of
sin, tempted and giving in to temptation, we are that brood of vipers, guilty
of stealing and killing and wanting more that we deserve all the while.
And let’s not be confused, John the Baptist is not talking
about stealing and killing in some metaphorical sense, but real stealing and
killing that hurts the neighbor, that spreads the sin around.
This lazy crowd gathered around him has begun to think that
their heritage, being an ancestor of Abraham has saved them. That if they just
had the right type of blood, the correct skin color, the right kind of hair,
the proper traditions, if they ate enough lutefisk, and spoke Norwegian until
the day they died, they were children of Abraham. But God can make children of
Abraham out of the rocks, John the Baptist proclaims. Your salvation, your
being a child of Abraham, your being a child of God, is not whether you’ve been
born into the right family, but if God has been at work in your life.
And when God is at work in your life the fruits of that work
look like sharing one of your two coats with one who has none, sharing your
food with one who has none, not extorting money from someone, being content and
satisfied with what you’ve been blessed with. In other words, the fruits worthy
of repentance look a lot like when you follow God’s commandments. When God is
at work in your life, when you have been given the gift of salvation, your good
works follow.
Salvation belongs to our God and the fruits of salvation
look like caring for one another. Which is why John proclaims his message to a
lazy bunch of sinners gathered around the waters of baptism. He does this
because Christ is about to do a new thing. “I baptize you with water,” John
says, “but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie
the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
One is coming, John says, who will clear the chaff and
gather in the grain, one is coming who will sort the corn from the husk; and
this one who is coming will keep that which is pleasing in his sight. Prepare
his way, make his paths straight. He will come to fill every valley and make
low every mountain, he will make the crooked straight, and the rough smooth. He
is bringing salvation to all flesh.
This poor crowd of sinners gathered around the baptismal
waters had no idea what was coming. In fact, they didn’t even know that they
needed the kind of salvation Christ was bringing them. Much like us. None of
us, I think, know how much we truly need the kind of salvation Christ brings.
None of us hardly have a clue that the salvation which belongs to our God is
the forgiveness of sin.
We like to think we’re relatively good people, with
relatively good lifestyles and that we make moral, righteous decisions as much
as we can. And yet, those prideful thoughts get us stuck in the same laziness
of the crowd who thinks they are just fine because they are children of Abraham
by blood.
You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath
that is to come! Nothing you do can make you righteous. In fact, you are a lazy
bunch of sinners just like the rest of ‘em! This fire and brimstone sermon is
going pretty well so far, don’t you think?
While the fire and brimstone is a very appealing way to
preach, it doesn’t quite do the job. Because not only will you hate me by the
time you walk out the doors this morning, but you won’t do what I tell you
anyway. It’s just the way we sinners work.
So, that is why John the Baptist says there is one more
powerful coming. There is someone coming who will do what he cannot: he will
forgive sins and judge his people by his own righteousness, not by their
unrighteousness. It is why the voice from heaven responds to Jesus being
baptized, saying, “You are my Son, the beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
God looks at the world of lazy sinners and only sees his
beloved Son. God’s view of the world is the view that Christ gives, a world
that he died for. It is the world that he loves and cares for by being born,
living, dying and being raised for your sake. God’s eyes see differently than
our own. There is work to be done, sinners to be saved, needy people to care
for.
God looks at each one of you and instead of the fire and
brimstone, he gives you his only, beloved Son. He hands him over on the cross
so that you might know the depths and the heights and the lengths of God’s love
for you. God hands Christ over in the waters of your own baptism; you remember
that one? The one were water dripped on your forehead and God said, “you are
mine, you belong to me.” God hands Christ over in bread and wine, too; and in
confession and absolution. And sometimes God hands over Christ in all the
places you’d never expect, but are there, charged like electricity with the
beauty and grace of a God who loves this sinful world so darn much that he gave
his Son to save you.
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