Crossway Bibles<\/a>]<\/p>\n\u201cThe Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.\u201c<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [Philippians 4.5b-6]<\/p>\n
\u00a0 In the Name of Christ + Jesus Our Lord<\/p>\n
Hassled by the rush and crush of December\u2019s four weeks, the Lord\u2019s baptized people may be startled by today\u2019s Gospel, especially with its last sentence \u2013 \u201cwith many other exhortations John preached good news to the people!\u201d\u00a0 For, as we step into the passage, it appears that its message is only adding to the rush and crush we are already experiencing.\u00a0 So let\u2019s see if that is really what is going to happen!<\/p>\n
Much of this Gospel is hard and fierce.\u00a0 We\u2019re seriously tempted to wave it off!\u00a0 It appears that this passage will only add to the hassle we are already experiencing in these December weeks.\u00a0 As we plunge into it, however, we are going to see how it enables the Lord\u2019s baptized people to get ready for the Father\u2019s and the Spirit\u2019s Incarnation of the Son on 25 December.<\/p>\n
Thankfully, during Advent\u2019s four weeks, while the world clamors for us to pay attention to its life, the Holy Trinity is pushing in on us from their Scriptures and Sacraments, enlarging our focus on the approaching Incarnation of the Son.\u00a0 The world is always prompting us to change God, to fit his Life into our own.\u00a0 The reality is that God changes us and he does that by calling his people to a long and deep repentance.\u00a0 Everyone is free to continue doing things their way, but all people are then responsible for the consequences of such doing, a doing which stirs up the Lord\u2019s wrath.<\/p>\n
Today Gospel\u2019s focuses on the reality of the Lord\u2019s wrath and of the Son as they range behind John the Baptizer\u2019s ministry.\u00a0 As we step into the passage, we should notice two things. \u00a0First, the crowds coming to hear John were practicing Jews, much like practicing Christians today.\u00a0 Second, even though Baptism marked us as the Lord\u2019s daughters and sons, through the world\u2019s birth we have been marked (until we die) to be continually wrapped up with ourselves.<\/p>\n
Last Sunday we saw John the Baptizer calling on people to have their lives reconstructed<\/p>\n
as Lord\u2019s holy places churn into their lives.\u00a0 Today we see what goes on in this reconstruction \u2013 it is a collision, one that takes our lives away and then restores them!<\/p>\n
As the crowds surge out to John for his baptism of repentance, he wheels on them harshly, \u201cYou brood of vipers!\u201d\u00a0 Does the image of snakes reflect our native ability to sneak into and slither around the matters of our lives, and is it reflecting Genesis 3 where Satan is shown as a snake, cajoling and persuading the man and woman to let their lives be wrapped up in themselves?<\/p>\n
John goes on, \u201cWho warned you to flee from the wrath to come?\u201d\u00a0 This wrath is the Lord\u2019s, it spills into our lives as his Scriptures and the Sacraments of Baptism, Forgiveness and Eucharist enter them!\u00a0 John urges his listeners to carry out actions that reflect their repentance (recalling how fruit grows, from the inside out).<\/p>\n
He reminds them to not say to themselves, \u201cWe have Abraham as our ancestor!\u201d \u00a0We love to fall back onto the traditions we have created or the families from whom we have emerged!\u00a0 He goes on, \u201cGod is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham,\u201d (stones mind you, not from selected men and women!)<\/p>\n
John goes on, \u201cEven now the axe is lying at the root of trees\u201d (the position of the axe signals this is highly serious work!)\u00a0 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire; if there is no life or growth, then the tree is done and gone!<\/p>\n
What the Baptizer is telling us in the first paragraph is that our problem is the Lord\u2019s attitude towards us, not our attitude toward him!\u00a0 The wrath of God rolls in on us with unbelievably ferocity because he is wearied of all our self-absorbed attempts to surface some good in our lives and then have the nerve to think it pleases him or that it will change him!\u00a0 Because we are so persistent about such attempts, the Lord makes our problems even worse; he, working out of his compassion and mercy, is trying to break through such stubbornness!<\/p>\n
When that happens, we get angry with the Lord, we may even hate him, we do not want<\/p>\n
him to be involved in these collisions with him!\u00a0 So he cuts us down and throws us into a fire that never goes out.\u00a0 He leaves us gasping for life, he leaves us broken down!<\/p>\n
The second paragraph shows the crowds asking John, \u201cWhat then should we do?\u201d\u00a0 John responds with three differing examples \u2013 sharing of coats and food, collecting of taxes, no uses of threat or accusation (all these examples reflect the natural drive for ourselves).\u00a0 Such examples remind us that fruit grows from the inside out and that we ask the Lord to have us stop grasping for ourselves, the attitude given us by birth into this world.\u00a0 Birthed by this world to be concerned only for ourselves, we will not carry the Lord\u2019s actions out willingly or easily \u2013 his actions cut into our native self-assertions and we don\u2019t like that!<\/p>\n
John\u2019s response with these examples points us to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the One who breaks the hold that self-absorption has on us.<\/p>\n
Luke notes that the people coming to see John are filled with expectations: their country is occupied by the Roman Empire, there is a strong desire to be freed of that reality and to be self-governing again.\u00a0 They also are questioning in their hearts and minds whether or not John may be the Messiah.\u00a0 Their expectations are shaped by what they think needs to be done so their lives can get better.<\/p>\n
John answers their expectations and questions by saying, \u201cI baptize you with water; but One who is more powerful than I is coming.\u201d John is pointing to the Lord who will be crucified and resurrected for his people.\u00a0 He comments that he is \u201cnot worthy to untie the thong of his sandals.\u201d\u00a0 The two men are not on the same level.<\/p>\n
John states that the Lord \u201cwill baptize you with the Holy Spirit.\u201d\u00a0 In the Greek, the literal translation of the Lord\u2019s push is withering and consuming. It is a fire that makes holy!<\/p>\n
He goes on to describe how the Son will go about his restoring work.\u00a0 John uses agricultural language to describe how wheat is harvested.\u00a0 In the harvesting, it is struck, beaten or crushed to loosen the grain from its husk.\u00a0 Winnowing, with a basket or a fork, throws the mixture into the air.\u00a0 The wind blows the lighter chaff away, the heavier grain falls to the floor (in modern farming today this work is done by a combine).<\/p>\n
The Son\u2019s restoring work separates those who are trying to save themselves from those who recognize they can be saved only by him.\u00a0 Those attempting to save themselves will be consumed by him!\u00a0 The passage then closes with its last sentence, \u201cwith many other exhortations, John proclaimed good news to people!\u201d<\/p>\n
As John points to Jesus, describing his activity that saves us, it is very clear that the Lord is saving us, not just from bad behavior or from bad attitudes, but from the world\u2019s arrogant, self-centered and destructive life.\u00a0 The Father, along with the Spirit and the Son, are raging into our lives so we can be pulled away from the life given us at birth!<\/p>\n
So the Lord baptizes us with his Spirit and fire, marking us as his own daughters and sons, saving us from the anger and wrath of the LORD God!\u00a0 This is the collision, then, between the world\u2019s life and the Life of Baptism.\u00a0 It reminds us that the baptismal Life is primary \u2013 there we were actually drawn into the Life of the Holy Trinity!\u00a0 This means that realities of the world\u2019s life are secondary.\u00a0 The realities of Baptism center, sustain and steady our entire lives, carrying us through the rush and crush of these December weeks.<\/p>\n
The realities of this collision between the Lord\u2019s Life and the world explain why we often come into the Lord\u2019s presence weekend after weekend with so many things on our minds that we barely know who we are or where we are headed. These things include \u2013 \u00a0dispiritedness about the illness that is gripping a friend; wondering if national, state and local politics in this country can rise to higher levels; anxious about the Church\u2019s ministry and the parishes which ignore the Lord\u2019s guidance; worry about a friend who is dangerously self-absorbed; dismay over the people who walk away from their Baptisms; shuddering at the ignorance and vulgarity which pervade this culture\u2019s life.<\/p>\n
The world\u2019s life is always insisting that it comes first, that everything is about me, myself and I.\u00a0 Such an emphasis, though, is what generates the rush and crush of December\u2019s weeks.\u00a0 The Lord\u2019s baptized people, on the other hand, get relief in these weeks by remembering that it is the realities of their Baptisms which come first.\u00a0 Thus, when we see our lives colliding with the Lord\u2019s holy places on a weekly basis, we are grateful.\u00a0 We recognize it is the Lord\u2019s way of preparing us for the full impact of the Son\u2019s Incarnation on 25 December.\u00a0 Let these Advent weeks, then, with their collisions wrap themselves fully around our lives!<\/p>\n
Now may the peace of the LORD God, which is beyond all understanding, keep our<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0 hearts and minds through Christ + Jesus Our Lord<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
Pr. Carl A. Voges, STS, Columbia, SC; carl.voges4@icloud.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Advent Three (Revised Common Lectionary) | 12.15.24 | Luke 3.7-18 | Pr. Carl A. Voges | The Passage He (John) said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, \u201cYou brood of vipers!\u00a0 Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?\u00a0 Bear fruits in keeping with repentance.\u00a0 And do […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6354,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,616,157,853,173,108,110,824,349,3,109],"tags":[],"beitragende":[],"predigtform":[],"predigtreihe":[],"bibelstelle":[],"class_list":["post-20526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lukas","category-3-advent","category-beitragende","category-bibel","category-carl-a-voges","category-current","category-engl","category-kapitel-03-chapter-03-lukas","category-kasus","category-nt","category-predigten"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20526"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20527,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20526\/revisions\/20527"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20526"},{"taxonomy":"beitragende","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/beitragende?post=20526"},{"taxonomy":"predigtform","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtform?post=20526"},{"taxonomy":"predigtreihe","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtreihe?post=20526"},{"taxonomy":"bibelstelle","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bibelstelle?post=20526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}