“You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it” – The Talmud

John’s exhortations are actually the outline of how we participate in God’s great leveling. He sounds mighty unpleasant at first, but his message is one of grace as well as grit.

Luke 3:7-18

⁷John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? ⁸Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. ⁹Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” ¹⁰And the crowds asked him, “What then should we do?” ¹¹In reply he said to them, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.” ¹²Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, “Teacher, what should we do?” ¹³He said to them, “Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.” ¹⁴Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what should we do?” He said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.”

¹⁵As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, ¹⁶John answered all of them by saying, “I baptize you with water; 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. ¹⁷His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” ¹⁸So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people.

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Dear beloved of God, grace to you and peace from God who loves us through Christ, whose Advent is near.  Amen.

We continue last week’s introduction to John the Baptist, who has left conventional ways of living and to whom God’s Word has come.  This week, he further abandons convention by telling it like it is.

No one could EVER accuse John the Baptist of “Minnesota Nice” – that attitude where the person seems nice but it’s just a front.  With John, what you see is what you get.  No pretense.

Remember, he’s been preaching repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  Not exactly a message that’s guaranteed to rack up the ratings.

But somehow, it IS.

Folks are heading out of the city to hear this wild man of the desert.  Something moves them.  And we hear a clue to that something, in their question to John after he seems to insult them to their core.

“What should we do?”

This is not the question of people who have it all together; who have plenty of means and plenty of power.  No, this is a question posed by folks who are at the end of the road or rope or whatever metaphor you want to use.

To quote the film “An Officer and A Gentleman” – they got nowhere else to go.

As we explored last week, the people coming to John have lost their faith and trust in that list of political and religious leaders.  This was likely a group made up of people who were seeking solace for their weary souls, would-be revolutionaries, and a few regular-Army types who were equally disenchanted with the status quo but were assigned to keep an eye on the rabble-rousers.

And if we are really honest with ourselves, isn’t it the question WE have asked these last several months or years?  About any number of topics?

“What should we do?”

And that’s why I find John’s instructions to the people so compelling.  Because what he tells them to do is the backbone of any decent, functional society: if you have more than you need, give some away.  Don’t cheat people; conduct your business honestly.  If your job forces you to cheat or swindle folks, you need to find another line of work.

It’s also fascinating that John doesn’t ask people to give it ALL away.  That’s for Jesus to do, at another time and in another manner.

John, rather, lays out the framework for how equity among people can be achieved without the use of force – other than, that is, SOUL force.  It is SOUL force that compels us to think in new ways about the whole way the world functions.  That urges us to stand in our closets, perhaps, and take a good long look.

During the pandemic, thrift stores reported an onslaught of donations.  Faced with long days of isolation, many people turned to those tasks that we’d put off for years, including doing a full-scale closet purge.  If we needed either guidance or motivation, Marie Kondo was no further away than an internet search.

But as many people can tell you, it’s one thing to take a carload of clothing to a thrift store – and it’s another thing entirely to add to that the spark of relationship.

Many years ago, my home congregation took a unique approach to stewardship: one of experience.  In early September, everyone received a McDonald’s gift card, donated by a member.  The idea was that by the end of the year, you had to give that card away.

Well, by mid-December, yours truly had not given her card away.  While rummaging through my wallet, I found the card and put it on my car console to make sure I gave it away.

The next morning, I pulled into a shopping center to get a coffee and saw someone with a sign, asking for money.  I thought “perfect!  I’ll give him the McDonald’s card!”  I got my coffee and drove out towards where the young man was standing, feeling rather proud of myself.

Suddenly the car in front of me stopped.  Annoyed, I looked to see what the driver could possibly be doing.  Checking their phone, maybe?  So annoying.

No.  He was not checking their phone.  The driver was taking off his jacket.  He rolled down the window and handed it to the young man standing in the rain, asking for money, with no jacket.

The car in front of me was a rather valuable one, and as I pulled forward, I could see that the jacket the driver had given away was of good quality.  I could also see the gratitude on the young man’s face.  I was almost embarrassed to offer him my gift card, but I did.  “You can get something to eat with this, right over at that McDonald’s,” I told him.  He thanked me profusely, as much as he had the driver in front of me.

I wished him a Merry Christmas, and drove forward.  But that whole experience was seared forever in my memory.

Dear friends, God is not in some faraway place, unconcerned with our daily lives.  The reign of God is breaking in upon us NOW.  Instead of waiting for some kind of holy someday that is entirely the stuff of our imaginations, God calls us to inhabit the stuff of our lives instead.  Inhabit it as deeply and as generously as you are able.  NOW.

There is a beautiful saying about the Talmud, the Jewish set of documents that comment and expand upon the first work of rabbinic law.  It reads:

“The Talmud states, “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.”

We are not free to abandon it, because the holy ground that matters most in the ground beneath our feet.

In this story, John makes the point that holiness is not the ethereal and mysterious thing we might make it out to be, or that someone in charge has tried to convince us it is.  Nothing in our lives is too mundane or secular for God, right?  So then it stands to reason that God infuses our entire lives with holiness.  We need not look “out there” for it; the kingdom of God is here.  Within us, and among us.

The things that John suggests people do are all actions that suggest the inbreaking of the peaceable realm of God.  They are things that move the heart, both of giver and recipient.  And they are things that are participatory in God’s great leveling that we heard about last week:  valleys filled and mountains made low.

John didn’t miss his chance to comment on the peoples’ habit of being “fair weather fans” but he didn’t slam God’s door closed on them either.  He is both devastatingly honest AND deeply encouraging.

There are many people, both inside and outside religious circles, who say that the wilderness is where human need and providence can meet.  Those inside might say it is God’s providence.  Those outside, that it is a combination of field expediency, good preparation, and luck that brings the traveler what they need.

But the wilderness IS absolutely a place where we can get to the heart of the matter.  Where we can be away from distractions and fully immersed in the moment.  Where the whole idea of repentance can begin.

For repentance is not simply “to be sorry.”  That is only one aspect of repentance.  True repentance, metanoia, turning and going a new way, is lived out in the practices of daily life.  It doesn’t matter what one does all day – parenting, job, retirement, whatever – each point in life invites us to live out our understanding of God’s lavish grace and forgiveness in relationship with God and with one another.  It’s not about separating the so-called “saved” and “unsaved.”  Rather, John’s words are about our own lives: separating the chaff within us that needs to be burned away, so that the wheat may remain.

Ultimately, we do well to remember that John’s mission in the wilderness is a call to repentance AND to waiting.  A call to looking for and living towards Messiah.  Were John’s message the end of the story, then the lives of his hearers would be no more than a to-do list.

And we know that is definitely NOT enough to sustain us on any journey.

The good news is that God sends One who is more powerful than John, with gifts greater than the crowd can imagine. This Messiah brings a baptism of spirit and of fire: the very breath and power of God to change everything. That is very good news, indeed.

And so, we repent.  We watch.  And we wait.

Come, Lord Jesus.

Amen.