Advent 3C | Luke 3:7-18
Show Notes
The texts for this week are here.
Megan refers to the work of Ernesto Cardenal and the book Gospel in Solentiname. For many years, the peasants in Solentiname, a remote archipelago in Lake Nicaragua, gathered each Sunday to reflect on the gospel reading. Read more here.
Quote from Thomas Merton: “To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything is to succumb to violence. Frenzy destroys our inner capacity for peace. It destroys the fruitfulness of our work, because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful.” (quoted in A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants, by Rueben P. Job and Norman Shawchuck)
Our Advent prayer this week is from Paul G. Janssen on re:Worship.blogspot.com.
Also, here’s Alicia’s 2021 Advent playlist if you’re looking for a soundtrack for the Advent season.
Other resources on our website: commentaries, discipleship, liturgics, music.
Transcript
Alicia00:10
Hi everyone today, we're reading chapter three for third Sunday of advent preparing the weight free this We light the candle of joy Well John the doctors called people by first So what's that about I'm Alicia McClintic
Megan00:24
and I’m Megan Pardue
Alicia00:26
And this is the A Plain Account podcast.
Megan00:42
today I'm going to read the text for us from the gospel of fluke This is the new international
Luke three seven through 18 John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him You brood of Vipers who warned you to flee from the coming wrath produce fruit in keeping with And do not begin to say to yourselves we have Abraham as our father for I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham
The ax is already at the root of the trees and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire What should we do that
The crowd asked John answered anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none and anyone who has food should do the same Even tax collectors came to be baptized teacher They asked what should we do Don't collect any more than you are And told them then some soldiers asked him and what should we do here Applied don't extort money and don't accuse people falsely be content with your pay Uh people were waiting expectedly and we're all wondering in their hearts If John might possibly be the Messiah John answered them all I baptize you with water but one who is more powerful than I will come The straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie He will baptize you with the holy spirit and fire Cause winnowing fork is in his hand to clear this brushing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire And with many other words John extorted the people and proclaimed the good news to them This is the word of the Lord Thanks
Alicia03:04
Thanks Be to God
Wow Uh thank you for reading us through this passage Um with a slow and meditative pace One of the things I immediately recognized is this question of what should we do Um well in fact the entire passage seems to be um moving through these questions John says like who warned you to fleet Like what are you doing here Um and then the people in several groups in several iterations keep asking him what should we do Um and I find these questions these desires really compelling here
Megan03:52
they are And they feel so contemporary
Alicia03:56
Yes This is still the same thing right Our people our congregants they want to know Okay Like linking us back to our conversation last week and the first part of Luke three Okay There's these huge mountains There's these valleys that need to be filled in every mountain and homemade low the crooked roads she'll become straight and the rough ways smooth Uh what should we do then
And I maybe want to zone in on That like the co the few people who are asking right So we have the crowd that kind of general people what should we do And John responds to them like care for your neighbor those who need clothing those who need food care for them Um but I want to talk about these other two groups that particularly as John what should we do Cause I think they're feeling deeply convicted about the mountains of injustice that they're finding themselves now complicit in we've got tax collectors and we've got soldiers right I mean we we might like reframe that for some more contemporary um phrases right Like Jesus isn't Jesus and John and this message Isn't just for people who are employed by the IRS and the U S military right Like tax collectors and soldiers might also include um those who are like gaining significant wealth Right Or or those right Who have to participate in a system that demands violence from them right Like um are there some other ways we might think about the contemporary analogies here for tax collectors and soldiers or or who these people might feel like or be like for them
Megan05:46
I love this question I mean we I think it could be as broad and I I wouldn't want our preachers to be broad I would want you to be specific you know you know you know your people it's your choice If you want to name their profession explicitly or not but you know anyone these are anyone who's holding a place of power
Alicia06:07
Yep
Megan06:08
Um so in this in this time and place Here we have tax collectors those who are willing power over money um and soldiers but you know we could name so many professions people who are um you you mentioned gaining wealth certainly you know it's easy to to throw out oh those who work in the stock market or those who are exchanging money Are those in But we know that there's so many other professions um that are right in these positions of you said like doing violence Um many of us work in industry that is is doing some kind of violence to the earth to um other people And these things are really hard to talk about but so so important like our captivity to the powers and principalities
Alicia07:02
Yes Yes Um I was reading a quote from Thomas Merton this morning that really speaks to this pervasive form of violence That's not just in particular professions but then is I think encompassing so many of us Thomas Merton repeats a suggestion of Douglas Steere that the absence of this tension between our inner world and our outer world um uh uh connection between our convictions and our actions in the world is Producing the most pervasive form of violence present in contemporary society Merton writes to allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns to surrender to too many demands to commit oneself to too many projects to want to help everyone in everything is to succumb to viral Frenzy destroys our inner capacity for peace It destroys the faithfulness of our work because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful I read that this morning and I thought oh good Lord That's convicting I feel like the voice of John the Baptist through that quote from Thomas Martin kind of calling me out of my multitude of concerns Uh I mean in Merton's perspective are producing a kind of violence um toward self and community because you're you're fragmented You're not integrated You're not able to be fruitful in the way that God calls us to be fruitful like in this work toward justice and wholeness and peace
Megan08:48
Which is brings us back to verse eight um produce fruit in keeping with repentance Do you not begin to say to yourselves We have Abraham as our father and I read I tried to read that with a tone of sarcasm or because
Alicia09:06
I heard it I heard it
Megan09:08
I mean this is We can we can do a lot of work in our preaching and teaching just in the way that we read scripture Um right I I don't and you you might disagree with me You might ha you might read John here in a very pastoral and do not begin to say to yourselves we have Abraham as our father Right But I I it seems because you know he's just called them a brood of Vipers that perhaps a more uh sarcastic or aggressive reading Feels fitting So I love that the Merton reading literally points to this fruit this repentance Do you not begin to say to yourselves We're all good We have Abraham as our father um because the ax is already at the root of the tree
Alicia09:57
Yeah I love that Um that John keeps pointing to this idea of fruit and fruitfulness that when you have been transformed by God's love and peace and justice then you are Producing that fruit not only in your own life but in your community Right All of the directions that John gives to the people who say like okay but like what do we do about this are all about the way that we treat other people right They're all like really practical aren't they just like
Megan10:30
they're so material
Alicia10:33
Yeah Yeah If you have extra shirts if you have extra food give it to folks who need them like don't extort other people um be content with your own pay they're super material
Megan10:45
in this season That is It can be over spiritualized uh whether that is our broader cultural narratives around what happens at the holidays you know these warm feelings and this week being the week of joy um it's you know Emotional joy as often Like it's supposed to be a feeling It seems um in place of that in place of these kind of spiritual which is not to say that the material realities are not spiritual spiritual is not material I don't mean that I don't want to bracket them out more than they need to be What I want to point us to as you've just said is these are like practical concrete material things So for those of us who are Congregations that have been formed to think about the work of following Christ as spiritual work here John is pushing against that No this is not like this is not just like my you know private prayer time or devotional life This has to do with your money how you spend your money
Alicia11:58
It's absolutely about money
Megan12:00
It's about money again you know And so you even started with this question about the tax collectors and um And soldiers these people who will power but but really regardless of your profession or not so many of us contain power um as a results of money and what we choose to do with
Alicia12:26
Yep Yeah Yes absolutely Um and I think the more I really carefully read Jesus's words and I it's not like I'm new to Jesus's words but the more I keep pulling back a layer after layer then the more I realize it's almost always about Very concrete material resources that are deeply tied into our spiritual wellbeing and wholeness right Who who has power and wealth influence Um all of these things deeply impact who we are in the world how we behave toward others how um We bear God's image in the world Right And so I'm deeply convicted by this idea that to bear the fruit of repentance to show for the fruit of repentance in your life has very concretely like to do with financial practices
Megan13:30
Yes I mean this is not you know I'm kind of chuckling because this is like not nobody wants to preach this sermon and advent
Alicia13:39
I know I know
Megan13:41
but why haven't like why isn't and you know we're going to get to this um next week as we move into Mary's song Um but why not Like why aren't we talking about money in a season of rampant consumerism and waste You know why aren't we talking about money Um In when this is what the lectionary gives us what should we do What should we do What should we do And all of the answers you know have to do with money um or at least the first one with you know material possessions food and clothes
Alicia14:22
Yeah Yes I mean and I mean why why not Like if we can't if we can't talk about this at advent when can we talk about this Like this posture of untangling like you said that tingling from that system of consumerism right Man when you were reading I double underlined be content with your pay How many of us are overextending at Christmas time Because we long to be generous with onto give good gifts We we enjoy the process of gift-giving None of those are bad things but how many of us have um overextended or gone into debt or I mean statistics show that this is this is a huge a huge reality for the for the average Family in the United States right That like that they get caught up in in the consumerism And not necessarily for bad reasons I guess is what I'm trying to say is that we can find ourselves tangled up in these systems that are really bad for us that we need to repent from And we don't always know that we're Doing it wrong Like we don't always we don't always know that we've um that we've wandered into a wrong path And so if we can't issue the call to repentance to come out from those old systems and to lean into a more faithful way of living if we can't do that I've been when
Megan15:48
Well as you're talking I love this that you said you know we've wandered into this path as again this is this reading is connected to our reading from last week prepare the way of the Lord make straight paths for him but so much of that over spending and the consumption Um so much of that people will say things like and I know I've said them too like oh it just gives me Joel Um just makes me feel good And so here we have this advent theme This is the candle of joy that the rose colored candle the pink candle week three Here we we're SU you know doing this uh this frenzy to use Martin's word um this frenzy towards joy and actually what should we do then What should we do then What should we do then You know it John has a really different vision for what the path towards joy looks like
Alicia16:54
Yes Oh my gosh Thanks for helping us build that bridge Right The Clarion call to somebody like me I won't speak for anybody else but this is confessions from Alicia The Clarion call for me during this season is treat yourself right Like like offer uh like find find a sweet treat for the For the Christmas holiday season like lean lean in like it brings you joy Like self-care all of these sorts of things like that that kind of call of treat yourself is directly combated by John Call and his advice is like no not true yourself Share with share with those who need it Right Like um it's it's the exact opposite of what our culture says will bring us joy And this is the paradox of fruitful kingdom living that the the things that we think might be Joy from like our cultu