Zephaniah
3:14-20
Isaiah
12:2-6
Philippians
4:4-7
Luke
3:7-18
17
DEC 2006
From Crawling Reptiles to Fruitful Agriculture
Today is what is known as
Gaudete Sunday. Gaudete
is Latin for "rejoice." As we
reflected on in our Advent meditation and lit the pink candle representing joy,
we rejoice in the anticipated coming of Christ!
We take this week to rejoice in remembering that Christ has come in the
past, he is currently present through the Holy Spirit, and that he will come again
in final victory. Are these not good
reasons to rejoice? Think about it, we
get to rejoice for an event that has happened (the birth of Jesus), we get to
rejoice for an event that is happening (the presence of the Holy Spirit who is
with us right now), and we get to rejoice for the promised return of Christ
"coming in a cloud" [Luke
Our Old Testament
and epistle readings all call for rejoicing in God. Our act of adoration and praise came from the
book of Zephaniah and it too, appropriately is about rejoicing in God! And then we get to our reading from
Luke... You know, it's funny; in all our
other readings we get words like "rejoice" and "Surely God is my
salvation" [Isaiah 12:2] in the first verse. Yet in our reading from Luke... "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to
come?” [Luke 3:7]. I don't know about you, but for me, getting
chewed-out tends to kill a joyous mood.
Why in the
world would this be the passage to read on a Sunday set aside to celebrate
rejoicing in the anticipated coming of Christ?
Contrary to popular belief, there is a method to the selection of texts
in the lectionary - and since this Sunday was declared "Rejoice"
Sunday before the lectionary was set, there has to be some reason this passage
from Luke was chosen. Maybe the joy of this
passage will be more evident when we study it closer.
This
passage from Luke is one that resonates in the hearts of most Methodists. One of the requirements for membership in the
Methodist Society during the 18th century was "a desire to flee from the
wrath to come" [United Methodist Book of Discipline 2004, pg. 72]. Our heritage is one of people who desire to
flee from this wrath. So, good
Methodists, who told you to flee from the wrath to come? I can list a number of people and events that
all told me in one way or another that there is good reason to flee. Think of your own faith story. No matter how old you consider your faith
story to be, whether it is numbered in decades or minutes, you're here now in
this sanctuary, in the presence of the Holy Spirit, surrounded by the Body of
Christ. What led you here? [Pause for reflection].
Our faith
stories are all different. Some of us
are new to the faith of Jesus Christ; some have been born into the Church, so
to speak. Some may just be visiting. Yet, somehow you found yourselves here, just
as the members of the crowd in Luke's gospel found themselves listening to John
the Baptist preach.
What did
this crowd hear? "Bear fruits
worthy of repentance" [Luke 3:8].
They heard a call to action. They
heard that simply being born into their faith was not what God required. They heard, "Bear fruits worthy of
repentance." The entire crowd was
addressed by John, not just the Jews, not just the gentiles, not just the
sinners, not just the righteous, but all were addressed. The entire crowd was called to "bear
fruits."
But what
fruits are we to bear? After all, I'm a
human being, not an apple tree. It
should come as no surprise that John is using bearing fruit as a metaphor, a metaphor
for reformed, repentant living. But what
does this kind of living look like?
We're not alone when we ask this, because some tax collectors and
soldiers asked the same question. John
told the tax collectors to not take more than what was prescribed for them and
the soldiers not to extort money but "be satisfied with your wages"
[Luke
These
examples of "fruits worthy of repentance" appear pretty straight
forward. They certainly can be taken at
face value today. Yet the suggestions
that John gave are just a few examples.
John was giving just a small sample of the life God is calling us to
live. He was pointing out that our faith
extends throughout our lives... that
there is no such thing as an off-the-clock Christian. So often we think of clergy as being on-call
24 - 7. This is essentially true. But we all must remember that a Christian
life is a life lived in ministry. We
have the belief that ministry is done by all Christians... the ministry of all
believers. Our faith is not a private practice;
it is not an inherited aspect of our lives.
It's our very being. True faith
is lived out in each breath we take.
This past Friday, I went into Winston
Salem and stopped by a Greek Orthodox bookstore. The Greek Orthodox is Christian tradition that
can trace their history directly back to the Apostles. As United Methodist, we trace our history
through the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church back to the Apostles. Anyways, I got into a conversation with an
older gentleman named George. He didn't
realize that I had a theological education and was a pastor and so started to
teach me the Orthodox understanding of Christianity. Despite my background and his apologies for
trying to instruct me once he realized what I do, he did nonetheless teach me
some new things. He explained to me the
Greek Orthodox understanding of what it means to be a Christian and their
understanding of what religion is. Don't
worry, the Greek Orthodox understanding of what a Christian is, is essentially
the same as the Methodist understanding.
But the way he explained it is worth mentioning.
The Greek Orthodox Church understands
religion to be the search of God. But
Christianity is not a religion to the Greek Orthodox Church. The reason being is that Christians need not search
for God because we've already found God through Jesus Christ. Our search for God is over! To the Greek Orthodox, Christianity is not a
religion… it’s a lifestyle. It’s a way
of living that informs every aspect of a person's life. Look what John gives as an example of bearing
fruits worthy of repentance. Each
example takes place away from the temple, away from places of worship… and
instead occurs on the streets and in our work places. It's not limited to the spiritual realm, but also
influences our physical being. Care for
your neighbor with clothing and food.
See to it that their needs are taken care of. Don't take more than you are permitted so that
our neighbors may have the resources to care for themselves as well.
John goes beyond describing what a
faithful life looks like… he also describes the coming Messiah and how he will
separate the righteous from the wicked… those who are bearing fruit and those
who are not. He describes how Christ
will separate the wheat from the chaff. So
often we are tempted to ask ourselves if we are wheat or chaff. Sometimes we're tempted to go so far as to
try to determine who's wheat and who's chaff.
The funny thing about any crop of grain is that it's made up of both
wheat and chaff. Each stalk of grain is
wheat and chaff together. When grains
are harvested, the wheat and chaff are harvested together. One of the images of the Church is that of a
harvest. This image of the wheat and
chaff may not simply be the separation of individuals - some of whom are wheat
and the other chaff. It could also be
that Christ will separate the wheat and the chaff that are in each of us. Think about it... scriptures tell us that everyone
falls short of the glory of God [Romans
John's proclamation of Christ clearing
the threshing floor is not simply prophesy of the end-times, it's prophesy that
is happening right now within each us.
As we grow in faith, Christ is actively separating our wheat from our
chaff. We call this sanctification. This sanctification comes through God's grace. We receive this grace through what John
Wesley called the means of grace. He states that there are six
"ordinary" means of grace.
That is, there are six typical ways in which God imparts his grace to
us: Holy Communion, public worship, prayer - both public and private, studying
the scripture, hearing scripture proclaimed - both read aloud and preached upon,
and fasting. But as the
"ordinary" part of their name implies, these are not the only means
by which God grants us his grace.
John Wesley also said that there were
two categories of these means of grace.
The first are called acts of piety.
These are the means of grace that I've just mentioned. The other kind is called acts of mercy. What are these? Well, they're actions like the ones John the
Baptist mentions in our Gospel reading.
We are sanctified - made more Christ like - as we practice these acts of
mercy and acts of piety. As we live our
faith out in our everyday lives, practicing the means of grace, Christ is actively
separating the wheat from the chaff in our lives.
This is reason to rejoice. Even as we go through our everyday lives, God
presents us with opportunities to practice acts of piety and mercy… acts like
Holy Communion, prayer, and worship as well as acts that care for the needs of
our neighbors and show love to all those around us. And through these means of grace, God is
perfecting us… making us more Christ-like… preparing us for Heaven. No matter where we go, no matter what day or
time, we can always practice a means of grace, both those acts of piety and
acts of mercy. This is certainly reason
to "Rejoice in the Lord always!
Again, I say Rejoice!"
SDG