December 12, 2021 – Luke 3:7-18
Luke 3:7-18
What Then Shall We Do?
Third Sunday of Advent – December 12, 2021
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
I have said it before and I will say it again:
If this is the good news, Luke, I sure don’t want to hear the bad news!
We got the first part of this reading last week, and we noted the deep longing in it.
John has a longing for a whole new world.
A world free from political oppression.
A world free from from abuse.
A world free from greed and a world free from want.
John has a deep longing for change.
And while it is true he is a voice “crying in the wilderness,”
he is certainly not alone in the wilderness.
Out there, by the river, John has attracted many others who similarly long for change.
For sure, there are the crowds of regular folks, people like you and me,
and undoubtedly a good many of the poor who
always bear the brunt of the world’s problems.
But there are people there whose presence also surprises us.
Tax collectors! And Roman soldiers!
What are they doing there?
These too, apparently, long for change.
And that is surprising.
It’s sort of like Warren Buffett calling for tax reform
when he says he should absolutely be taxed more.
It’s not just the have-nots who are longing for change – it’s also the haves.
They all have a deep sense that all is not right with the world.
In his ministry, John tapped into a deep longing for change in his society.
And that creates a lot of energy.
Likely with a big smirk on this face, John looks at them and addresses them:
You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath that is coming?
He knows they are there because they, like him, have a deep longing for change.
And that longing for change is summed up in the word John gives them:
Repent! Have a change of heart! Have a change of mind!
Above all, change what you care about!
And so it is that their longing for change leads them to ask:
What then shall we do?
They know it’s not enough to just have a change of heart or to think differently.
It’s not enough to just be sorry.
In the words of a favourite Thanksgiving at Table, “Words are not enough.”
You have to change what you do as an expression of changing what you care about.
What then shall we do?
What is so interesting to me is how John answers that question.
John is crazy. John is a wild man.
John appears to be a little unstable.
I am sure there were many there who were afraid of how he might answer.
But in the end, he doesn’t tell them to start a revolution.
He doesn’t tell them to make home-made pipe bombs.
And he doesn’t tell them to start a cult community,
move to the desert, and await the end of the world.
No. John doesn’t tell them any of that.
Instead, he simply directs his listeners to turn toward their neighbour.
That’s it.
To the crowds he says, “Share what you have. Share your resources.
If you have two coats, give one to your neighbour who has none.
If you have food and your neighbour does not, share your food with them.
As for tax-collectors, he tells them don’t be greedy!
Don’t collect more than is mandated or than is necessary!
And to the soldiers he says, “Don’t abuse your power.
Don’t use your power to extort money from those who have less power than you.”
Repentance is lived out, John is saying, in everyday life.
No matter what you do: you can be an agent of change.
Moreover, John is saying, “This is how the world is changed.
This is how a longing for change finds expression and
is how change happens:
in everyday interactions turned towards our neighbours.”
Wherever they happened to be in that moment,
they were to turn away from themselves in order to do justice,
to make things right in that moment.
I often say that there are vast forces at work beyond our control as a congregation.
There is nothing we can do about them.
And so we should turn our attention to those things we can control.
We have done a pretty good job of that over the years.
What then shall we do?
Start a food bank.
It’s been going for many many years and has changed the character of this neighbourhood.
Welcome all people.
One of the people we welcomed a long time ago had recently arrived from the Congo and
he and his family have provided leadership to this congregation for years.
Start a kids club free summer drop to provide a safe space for children in the neighbourhood.
This led to our eventual partnership with The Excel Empowerment Centre which is
lifting up the lives of immigrant women and empowering them for positive change.
Sponsor a refugee.
I don’t need to tell you how literally life-changing this ministry has been
for so many over the years and how it is continuing to grow.
I need to remind you of all this because this has been a painful, difficult, and depressing year.
There are – as there always have been – huge societal forces beyond our control.
The pandemic and COVID.
Economic uncertainty.
Political unrest.
Racism, homophobia, transphobia, and misogyny.
It is very paralyzing, I find.
And yet, there is John, this morning, standing among us, smirking, perhaps,
knowing that we long for change, just like him.
And there is he advising us to just keep on turning to our neighbours in need,
as we have done all along because this is how the world is changed.
Share what you have. Don’t be greedy. Don’t abuse your position of privilege.
Use what you’ve been given.
Keep looking to your neighbour.
In the end, John points the people to one who can empower such living.
One who brings a love we cannot even imagine into the world and gives it to us.
A love, John says, that burns.
A love that burns away the chaff in our lives,
the un-nutritious stuff that does not feed us and does not feed anybody.
The lack of confidence inside you.
The hopelessness, the worry, the depression.
The voices inside you that tell you you can’t make a difference.
Jesus’ love has an amazing way of simply burning these things off.
And what does the fire of Jesus’ love leave once it burns away the chaff?
Only what is nutritious, only what feeds others: the wheat.
The wheat that can be made into bread for your neighbour in need.
This is what the fire of love can do.
This is how our longings for change can satisfied.
This is how the world is changed: through the fire of love.
So come to the table and once again become what you receive:
bread for the hungry, loving bread that can change the world.
So together, let us say, Amen.
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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