Sermon for the 16 December 2012 - What Should We Do? – Luke 3: 7-18

John the Baptist is a commanding figure who appears twice during every Advent season. On the second and third Sunday of Advent, John appears, dressed as a prophet in his strange outfit of camel hair and leather belt. His speaking style is gruff and blunt, occasionally even insulting.

He issues a call for baptism, repentance, insisting that his fellow Jews start over again and receive the baptism of water normally required only of converts. The crowds come out to be baptised, they are eager for a fresh start, and what does John call them? A brood of viper's - a bunch of baby snakes! That’ll win a few hearts!

But John had a point, though, it’s simply this. They must not rely on what their faithful ancestors did. They must not rely on his baptism of them in the river. If they are repentant, if they have undergone a change of mind, a change in how they live, then that must appear obvious in their behaviour. Just as the owner of an orchard expects the trees to bear fruit, so they also are expected to produce fruit, the glorious fruits of repentance.

What John says produces a response in those who hear him. They ask the obvious question, "What then should we do?" Three groups of people ask this question, and each group gets its answer.

Let's look first at those most deserving of suspicion: the tax collectors. Let’s keep in mind that tax collectors in John's time and place not only represent an imperial occupying power, but are notorious for keeping the difference between what they can extract from the population and what Rome requires of them. Tax collecting is a lucrative racket for those with little or no conscience.

But these tax collectors have undergone a change. "What should we do?" they ask John the Baptist. He tells them, "Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you."

Next some soldiers approach him. These soldiers are Jewish men in the service of the local ruler who governs at the pleasure of imperial Rome. They are in the unenviable position of enforcing the will of an occupying power in their own homeland. Local patriots despise them as traitors.  They ask the same question as the tax collectors, "What shall we do?"

Jesus tells them, "Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages."

But the bulk of the thousands of people who are cut to heart by John's call for works of repentance are neither tax collectors nor soldiers; they are not public figures but private individuals. Like you and I. They also ask about the fruit they must produce. "What are we to do?"  John responds, "Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise."

John the Baptist tells these tax collectors, soldiers, and private citizens that the glorious fruits of repentance include much that is ordinary. They are to cease from extortion, bullying, and grumbling about money. They are to share with the destitute their surplus clothing and food. John does not ask for anything explicitly religious such as fasting or temple sacrifices. He does not demand the extraordinary, such as his own relocation to the wilderness. What he tells these private citizens, soldiers, and tax collectors is that opportunities to bear fruit appear right in front of them every day. He does not lay down an exhaustive program, a complete way to live, for those who have undergone a baptism of repentance. He simply points out the first step they can take in a new direction. By their repentant behaviour - by what they abstain from doing and what they choose to do - they will leave themselves open to wherever God directs them next.

John presumes that those listening to him will keep asking this question as their situations change: "What should we do?" Later the answers they hear may not come from the lips of a prophet, but from their own struggling hearts.

If those newly baptised in the Jordan have the opportunity and obligation to bear fruits of repentance, certainly those who have received the far greater baptism bestowed on them by Jesus with the Spirit and fire, are expected to bear such fruit as well. The opportunity and obligation to do so will appear in the place John indicated: right in front of them and us. The here and now.

In New Testament Greek, the word for repentance is metanoia, which means literally a change of mind that determines how we live. What opportunities for metanoia appear right in front of us now? What do those opportunities ask of us? To raise the question again, this time about ourselves, "What should we do?"

We could look at our lives. Recognise the places where it is broken. With whom do we need to reconcile before the feast of Christmas comes?

We could look at how we use power (not the electric stuff). Do we use it justly, or are we part of the problem?
We could look at what you have, in our wardrobes, our fridge/freezer, our bank accounts. If we own two coats, if we possess food in abundance, is it time for us to share?

Today's gospel identifies John's gruff and blunt demands as good news. These demands are targeted at us too. When we hear them in faith, we also recognise them as good news. They speak of the fruit we can produce. And when our faith produces fruit, then the world becomes different and so do we.

This in itself is good news. So too is other people's realisation that Jesus remains active in the world, a realisation that comes to them, that consoles and challenges them, because they see it in our lives.

Let us pray.

Holy Spirit, you trouble our hearts with the question, "What should we do?"
Help us recognise how answers to that question are near at hand, right in front of our faces.
Help us to act on our faith by daily choices we make for reconciliation, for justice, for sharing, for joy. May we never cease to ask, "What should we do?" and may we never stop trusting that you will give us an answer. Amen.