Devotional 12-10-12

Go read Luke 3:17-22, you snake!

This week’s gospel reading confronts us with an uncomfortable scene. Would-be worshipers who go to the Jordan River expecting to be saved from the wrath of God are instead met by a hellfire and brimstone preacher.

When I was growing up in the coalfields of southern West Virginia, it wasn’t uncommon to encounter a street preacher whose message was similar to John’s but without all the charm. There was always a wide swath around them on the otherwise crowded streets and sidewalks when the crowds came to town on the first Saturday of the month.

What surprises me about the crowds who came to be baptized is how acquiescent they are to John’s good news. It’s hard to imagine congregations today putting up with John for very long. Can you imagine your pastor, instead of greeting the Sunday congregation with a welcome and sharing of pastoral concerns, shouting, “Snakes!” and then berating you and your fellow worshipers for your hypocrisy?

Just comfort me with a chorale, remind me that I’m blessed, and make sure that I’m out in an hour, thank you. Judgment? Wrath? Chaff? Moi? That’s about someone else.

Perhaps John recognized that the crowds came expecting the water from the Jordan to magically save them. They came because it was the thing to do. He needed to get their attention and explain that the change God expects is from the inside out. And get their attention, he did.

Surprisingly, they stuck around, even asking “What are we supposed to do, then?” They needed to hear the truth, and so do we.

John’s answer, in stark contrast to the attention-getting, shocking preface, is a surprisingly simple message of what it means to live in unity, focusing on “the other.” He points to Jesus as the one who will show the way. And Jesus did show the way by repeating John’s message using images of sheep and goats, wheat and weeds, good fish and bad fish. True repentance will bear fruit of good works; like ritual washing, works do not “work” either salvation or repentance, but rather follow necessarily from true repentance.

Dear God, thank you for the Incarnation, where you revealed yourself in the person of Jesus Christ and showed us the way to salvation. By the power of the Holy Spirit, give us the grace to repent from our selfish ways and to live fruitful lives worthy of repentance. Amen.

Jeff Taylor