Is It Good News That the Lord Is Coming? (December 15, 2024)
Zephaniah 3:14-20; Isaiah 12:2-6; Philippians 4:4-7; Luke 3:7-18
“So, with many other exhortations, John proclaimed the good news to the people.”
Luke calls the teaching of John the Baptist “good news,” but it sure sounds more like fire and brimstone than good news, doesn’t it? “You brood of vipers! Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. The Messiah will come, pitchfork in hand, to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” What good news!
Especially since our other readings today are quite clear that the nearness of God is in fact good news for us. The prophet Zephaniah looks to the coming of the Messiah: “The Lord will be in your midst. You will fear disaster no more. He will rejoice over you, he will renew you in love, he will exult over you with loud singing, he will remove disaster from you, save the lame, gather the outcast, bring you home.” The song of Isaiah was the response, “I will trust God and will not be afraid, great in our midst is the Holy One of Israel.” In both of these texts the presence of the Lord among us is straightforward good news, something to celebrate that banishes all fear.
And we can say the same about Paul’s letter to the Philippians. “Rejoice in the Lord always. I say it again, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything. In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
But the tone seems to change when we get to the gospel reading. “John said to the crowds who came out to be baptized: ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?’” Whatever happened to “Let your gentleness be known to everyone,” I wonder.
But maybe in his own way, John in being gentle. After all, when you touch someone or something, you are putting pressure on what you are touching. You are letting it be known that you are there, perhaps moving it in a way that is good for it. Not pushing, not forcing, but in a way that can still be felt.
People have come to John for repentance. They already know, they feel in their bones, that the axe is already at the root of the tree. They know that things in the world are not going they way that they should. They know that matters are coming to a head, and they want to know what to do.
And when John gets specific about what they should do, when John gives advice to specific groups of people, his advice basically comes down to two things. One: share what you have with those who have less than you. Recognize the person who has less than you is just as much a child of God as you are. And the Lord is going to be near. You don’t have to hold onto things, protect yourself at the cost of your neighbor. You can let go, you can share, you can relax.
And two: to anyone who is in a position of power, like tax collectors and soldiers, John’s advice is: Don’t abuse your power. Don’t try to lord it over someone else, don’t try to get something for yourself at the cost of someone else. Recognize that the Lord is near. When the Lord is in our midst, it is the Lord who is in the center of our lives. And when the Lord is in the center, we relate properly to him and to one another. We don’t have to grab everything for ourselves. We don’t have to take advantage of someone else.
And so the way to get ready for the Lord being near is to begin to act with faith that the Lord is already near. To implement that faith in the way that we treat each other. Because if we don’t have that faith, if we don’t really believe that the Lord is in the center, then we think we’re going to have to be in the center. We’re going to have to do everything. We’re going to have to impose order on the world. We’re going to have to swing the axe.
I was struck this week by two events that took place on the very same day this week in New York. One was that someone was arrested in the shooting of Brian Thompson, the CEO of one of the major health insurance companies. When he was killed, many people thought that this was a tragic event – a person who worked hard, came from a modest background, became successful, a family man, had his life taken away from him. What an immense tragedy for him and for his family. And other people said that the business he was in, health insurance, well, dealing with your health insurance company isn’t a lot of fun. Saying no is the way they make money. And we’ve had politicians in both parties who have promised for years to fix it, nothing ever gets done. And they thought, it’s terrible that this happened, but part of me is glad somebody stood up and tried to do something about it.
And on that same day, a jury in New York acquitted a man in the death of Jordan Neely, a homeless man who was mentally ill, who was riding the subway in New York. Where he was loudly complaining that he was homeless, that he was hungry, that he had no place to go and no one to turn to, in a way that was making people uncomfortable. There was a man there with some military training who got up, choked him, and killed him. A lot of people saw that and said, what an immense tragedy. This poor, suffering person, who had no weapons, who wasn’t hurting anybody, and this is how this person’s life ends. How immensely sad. And other people said, you know, there’s a lot of disorder in our world today. People have a lot of stress, and we’ve had politicians in both parties who have promised for years to do something about it, but nothing ever happens. People are upset, people are making scenes in public places, and it’s terrible that this happened, but part of me is glad somebody stood up and did something about it.
I’ll bet that most of us heard both of those stories this week. And that most of probably resonated with one of those stories and not the other – and we didn’t all resonate with the same one. Which one probably says more about our politics than anything else. But the reality is that both of these examples illustrate what happens when we lose faith that the Lord is near, that the Lord is in the center. That each and every person is made in the Lord’s image and we are called to put others first in our lives. When we know that the Lord is near, we put that into practice in the way that we live towards other people.
The good news is that it’s not up to us. It’s not up to us to wield the axe. It’s not up to us to separate the wheat from the chaff. It’s not up to us to impose our will on other people, to decide who lives and who dies. The good news is that the Lord is coming, with a pitchfork to separate the good wheat that exists within each and every one of us while removing all the chaff that needs to be removed from all of us. It’s good news that the Lord is coming, that the Lord will be the judge – who judges with mercy and compassion. It’s good news that the Lord is near, that the Lord is coming.