Sunday, January 6, 2013

Epiphany 1 :: Jan 6, 2013 :: Luke 3:1-22


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.

Thanks be to God, in the name of Jesus. Amen. 

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