| Monday, December 14, 2009
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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A brood of vipers has a nasty ring to it. However, what is at stake here are issues of growth, not strength of venom.
Religious traditions are consistently attempting to mold people into their shape and size (“their” here is the mold the tradition has become, not a picture of what the people might yet become). Religious reformers are usually quite clear about the changes people need to make to measure up to their standards. Therefore they are constantly calling for skin changes and, it turns out, no state of being is quite good enough to measure up Having seen that there are consequences for actions, an easy response is to change religions, skins, to molt. John doesn’t spend a moment on skin changes. No amount of waiting for the right appearance, for more room for accumulation of resources or any other state of being is to be done before paying attention to justice issues. Who warned the crowd to come out to John and get changed? John ultimately doesn’t care, he dives right into what is available in the stage of life currently available - live now - “bear fruits”. “Well,” asks the crowd, “if we are not here to get an acceptable molt or maintenance oil change, What, then, should we do?” Simple kindness and everyday justice, is John’s response. He uses economic justice examples, because they can quickly clarify human values we were created with that are always available to be expressed in our current life. Economic justice is a worthy fruit to bear. In today’s economy it is particularly evident that healthcare dollars are swallowed whole by military spending and corporations trump people at every turn. Economic justice in our day, with our love of capitalism, is no easier than it was in the days of occupation that John was dealing with. Our “good news” proclamation is our engagement with economic justice in our time. |
