Göttinger Predigten im Internet
ed. by U. Nembach, J. Neukirch, R. Schmidt-Rost

Third Sunday in Advent, December 14, 2003
Sermon on Luke 3: 7-18 (RCL) by Walter W. Harms

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Rejoice in the Warning

Two years ago, a barge hit a support beam on the causeway going from Port Isabel to South Padre Island in far south Texas. As a result a portion of the causeway plunged into the Laguna Madre. This all happened during the very early morning hours. Before any indication of this accident was conveyed to anybody, several, I think it was 7 or 8 automobiles drove through the opening, plummeted into the water several hundred feet below and were killed. Every person in those cars died.

It took several hours before authorities on both ends of the causeway were notified and all traffic warned of the disaster and the tragedy. It was a horrible event. Even worse business on the island suffered greatly as this was the only way for trucks, cars, for vacationers to reach the island. Many were angry that plans needed to be canceled, businesses shut down, and only ferries could be used to enter and exit the island.

Now if it was you heading for South Padre Island that morning, would you not have rejoiced that the warning was there and glad you had been warned and not let to discover, tragically, the emptiness of the broken causeway?

In our Words from God for today written by St. Luke, this character John is warning a "brood of vipers" that there was a coming wrath. This crowd of people did not come to be anything more than perhaps entertained by this "new" preacher on the block. John sees them as vipers, snakes who scuttle to avoid injury, who can inflict terrible harm on people. "Who warned you?" asked this John.

Do we need this warning? It's so close to Christmas! We who've been scurrying like moths who have but hours to live, to get all the preparations done for the big holiday this week, do we need a warning? And about "wrath" coming? And we should "rejoice" in that? Well, now....

We don't need a warning, do we? Why, we've been Christians, Lutherans, baptized, confirmed and married in the church people. We've been faithful in prayer, in giving, in following the rules. And who here has not been, at least, trying to be a good person? Do we who are here and not out there shopping like the others need a warning?

A warning? Yes! A warning that wrath is coming and the old ways of doing things, of behaving, of carrying on have to be changed! Disaster is ahead for us if we don't change. God doesn't need us. If God wanted, he could take every single stone out there and there are lots of them around here, and make them into praising children of the promise.

What's coming? It's like the man sharpening his axe, his saw, his pruning shears. He is going out as we soon here in Texas will, to see what the trees have done. We all may be bare of leaf and flower, but he knows. He knows. He knows the tree that is pretty, but pretty bad because it's a peach tree and doesn't produce any fruit. It's going to be cut down and thrown into the fire. It has missed its purpose in this world. There will be severe pruning, sawing off limbs which are useless. Fruit, fruit--that's the name of this game. Without it, it's the brush fire for you!

What fruit does this axe-man want? So ask the crowd, the tax collectors, the soldiers. This John's answers seem so ordinary, so common, so much of what we are doing. Right? I hardly think so.

At this time of year we share, the poor are laden with turkeys, cast off clothes, tinned goods, candy, and toys, that you could actually begin to believe that there is a Santa Claus. Many are helped, well, at least once a year.

John says, "You want to avoid the axe? Then if you've got two shirts give the other away. You've got food to share, share it." This is no one time a year giving and helping and feeling good. This is a life-style change that for most of us (all of us?) requires a kind of fruit we have never thought was necessary.

We say that Jesus was kidding, wasn't he? When he told the rich man to see all he had and give it to the poor, and then he could come and follow him and in that way have eternal life. It isn't true, is it, that "the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs (1 Timothy 6:10)? You know people like this? Has that happened to you?

How true this is: "Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income (Ecclesiastes 5:10). Do you complain about your wages? Never satisfied? Try to get every penney out of every deal or you feel cheated? You young people, ever complain about how cheap, and I mean cheap, the parents are?

Fruit-- that is in keeping with a person who has a changed heart. The result in a person who has been warned about the coming wrath. So ordinary, so common, so mundane the behavior, but who of us doesn't want to best bargain and would be willing to stretch the truth to get the better of another?

Not the crowds now, but the people, the laity were eagerly waiting for the Christ. What were they waiting for? The Christ? Who is that?

The Christ, the Anointed One, the King who would set every thing, every situation, right again. The Expected One who would bring justice for all. This Christ would be the mighty One who would wash his people with the Spirit of God and with fire. This Figure of Promise and Hope would cleanse with fire the lives of all who were expecting him and would expose the emptiness of others and blow them away like empty chaff, worthless, faithless, ruthless and senseless.

What are you expecting this year? A smooth ride to heaven on the basis of what you have done? A smooth ride in this world because you have discovered all by yourself the way, the truth and life in this world?

I have presided over a number of people's funerals in my ministry. Some just stand out. One was eulogized and asked the Lord to give him what he deserved. Well, he drank a bottle of Jack Daniels (whiskey) every day and ruined his marriage, children and grandchildren. Another who was never able to hold a job and had to be supported by his wife who had a PhD and was an international lecturer was praised as being a good family man. Before he drank himself to death, she finally found that the way to keep him from spending all the family money was by having him go to school full time.

This coming Christ will bring justice and fairness. He will see through our shabby good deeds as being a sham. I am reminded of the story Jesus told about the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man feasted every day, dress in the latest fashions (you all do know what they are, don't you?), and subscribed to every charity that was around. He permitted this scum-bag Lazarus to hang around the garbage cans. There Lazarus could eat the rolls that got too hard, the tough pieces of the filet mignon, the chocolate cake that wasn't appetizing anymore. He hobnobbed with the best, and couldn't figure out why that bum Lazarus wouldn't help him in hell. And after what he had done for him. Here was justice. Here was a warning. Here is where we live.

Will the Christ who is so near be fair with you. His fairness is better than you ever imagined. He wants every injustice paid for and he pays for it. He takes our fruits which are so small they could have been raised on the bonsai tree and makes them into perfect fruits through his life. He destroys our anxiety about how it will all turn out, how we will get to the island of paradise where we can rest and becomes the only bridge and it's a free bridge, no toll required bridge to be in his presence.

In everything after praying about it, after thanking God for how good he is and has been and will continue to be, and knowing that Jesus didn't stand far off and tell you with a terrifying voice that he loved you, but comes to us, in a shape and form we can understand, and who comes to us today in that same form in Bread and Wine in the Blessed Sacrament, then give it over to him to be your care taker.

That's tough for men who want to solve every problem by themselves, but you just drive over that causeway that isn't there. See how far your self designed car will go. Well, actually don't do that. Rather, the peace of God which transcends all your understanding of how things should be, that peace, better than any lock or bolt, better than anything we can create will guard your heart, your emotions, and your mind, your thought. Because that peace is through this Christ, this Savior, this Lord Jesus Christ.

I have passed over that causeway to South Padre Island many times since it has been repaired. I always think of those who had no warning.

I think daily of you, and of those who know what's coming. Why don't we rejoice more, worry less, give ourselves to serve others? Why worry about what's going to happen, when he has already scooped you up and taken you into his house.
Why don't we tell people why we rejoice? That we want them to have joy as we have joy? Why don't we warn others so they to may rejoice?

And rejoice in the Lord always. I'll say it again. Rejoice! Rejoice in the warning and change by being gentle to all. What a fruit of repentance that would be! Amen.

Walter W. Harms, Retired Pastor
waltpast@AOL.com



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