Text: Luke 3:7-18 Revised Standard Version (RSV)
7 He said therefore to the multitudes that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruits that befit repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. 9 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
10 And the multitudes asked him, “What then shall we do?” 11 And he answered them, “He who has two coats, let him share with him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise.” 12 Tax collectors also came to be baptized, and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?” 13 And he said to them, “Collect no more than is appointed you.” 14 Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Rob no one by violence or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.”
15 As the people were in expectation, and all men questioned in their hearts concerning John, whether perhaps he were the Christ, 16 John answered them all, “I baptize you with water; but he who is mightier than I is coming, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor, and to gather the wheat into his granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
18 So, with many other exhortations, he preached good news to the people.
In the Name of God, the Holy and Undivided Trinity. Amen.
“What then shall we do?”
That’s the question for today. And it couldn’t be more timely.
What, do you think, is the most basic, underlying theme of the Bible? That’s an ambitious question, I realize. And there are lots of themes that could be considered basic to the Bible – God’s love is a major one, God’s “in-breaking,” as it’s called, into human history, God’s subsequent interaction with us, His children – all of these are important themes.
But, if I had to say in one sentence what the basic, most fundamental theme of the Bible is, I think it would be that it helps us answer the most vexing question of human existence: How are we to live with each other?
“But,” you might be thinking, “that wasn’t the question. The question was ‘what then shall we do.’” And you’re right. But think about it for a minute. It seems to me that these are two ways to get at the same issue – particularly since John answers the question “what then shall we do” in terms of responding to the needs of others and living your life in a way that honors and doesn’t take advantage of others.
And John’s response has the entirety of Biblical tradition behind it. From the first chapter of Genesis to the last sentence in Revelation, the whole of the Bible is concerned with human relationships, starting right at the beginning with Adam and Eve. God creates them and puts them in a relationship, and they learn how to get along. They make a huge mistake – you know, that whole eating of the forbidden fruit thing – but God doesn’t destroy them – he sends them out into the world, where they must fend for themselves as – well, as adults, for lack of a better word. Their innocence is over, and now they must deal with the repercussions of their own mistake.
God raises Moses up to give His people the Law – why? So they can learn what’s right and what’s wrong. So they can live together in the Promised Land.
God sends prophets – lots and lots of prophets – to His people. Why? To tell them that that have gone astray and that they need to get back on track – so they can live together as God intends. The prophet Micah sums it up best for me:
The Lord has shown you O man what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8)
That’s pretty straightforward, isn’t it? Pretty clear. Easily understood.
But Israel didn’t get it. So, after Micah, God sent at least a half dozen other prophets, some of whom we don’t hear much about, prophets with names like Nahum, and Habakkuk, and Haggai, and Malachi. But they were all important in their day, and they all called to their people Israel to straighten up and fly right. Israel ignored them, too.
And, in the meantime, the people of Israel got into all kinds of problems, many of which came from not knowing – and sometimes not really even caring – how to get along with others. And when God’s own chosen people don’t know how to do that, despite generations of prophets, despite even the direct intervention of God Himself, you know that things are serious.
Then along comes John. And, for a change, people actually listen to him.
Our old friend, William Barclay, tells us the following: “Here we have the message of John to the people. Nowhere does the difference between John and Jesus stand out so clearly because, whatever the message of John was, it was not a gospel. It was not good news; it was news of terror.”[1]
John was like a lumberjack who took an axe to their forest of pretensions – “You think you’re exempt from God’s judgment just because you’re His chosen people? Think again! How you live your lives, not where you come from, is God’s standard of judgment.”
People heard what John had to say, and they were “scared straight.” Not all of them, by any means, but many of them. “If this really is the case,” they must have thought, “then what?”
And they ask the question we began with: “What then shall we do?”
The answers John gives them are really not earth-shattering at all. They’re really not even all that remarkable. In fact, every one of those people in the crowd already knew the answer to that question – but it took someone like John to lay it out for them.
First, he just tells people to share. That’s hardly a surprise – didn’t our parents teach us to share with others when we were small? Didn’t we teach the same thing to our kids? “Sharing is caring,” just as that commercial on TV says. But John needed to remind his listeners of God’s command to share with others. Something so simple had apparently stopped being a common occurrence.
It’s a little harder for the tax collectors, though. John says to them, “Don’t collect more than is appointed you.” Now, tax collectors always collected more than what was actually owed, because the difference is what they lived on. Some tax collectors got very rich that way – and it’s no wonder that tax collectors, as a class of people, were so roundly despised. But what John is saying here is, “don’t overdo it. Don’t get too greedy.”
Then he addresses the Roman soldiers who’ve come out to hear him. He tells them to stop being thugs, to not abuse their authority, which was a widespread practice. If a soldier found himself a little short of coin between paydays, no problem – just find a merchant, or other likely target, work him over a bit, and take his cash. Problem solved. John says that this practice needs to end.
John says that these people simply were to do their jobs as they should be done – if you’re a tax collector, be a fair one. If you’re a soldier, be a soldier who lives with honor and integrity.
Barclay tells us that “John was one of the world’s supremely effective preachers…It is clear that John preached for action and got it. He did not deal in theological subtleties but in life.”[2] Get with the program, he says, or else. It’s the “or else” that tells us that John’s message wasn’t Jesus’ message; it was, again, “news of terror.”
The Gospel – the Good News – that Jesus brought is that God loves us all infinitely and totally, and that there’s nothing that we can do that will either add to, or subtract from, that love.
But, given that, what relevance does this passage have for us? How does this tell us what we are to do and how we are to live with each other? And what difference does it make if we don’t care about anyone else?
I think it comes down to this: We have the choice – every second of our lives – to accept God’s invitation to care for those around us in the same way He cares for us, or not. If we choose not to, God still loves us, just as He continued to love Adam and Eve, even though they disobeyed Him; but He is disappointed. More to the point, we make our a world a harder, colder, crueler place; and, worse yet, we diminish ourselves, we throw away opportunities for joy and for happiness that are ours only when we open our hearts to others in compassion, in friendship, and in a love that reflects the great Love God showed us through Jesus Christ. We fail, in short, to live up to the image of God that is in us.
We don’t have to look too far to see examples of people who are doing anything but try to live in that way. I think of people like Martin Shkreli, the 32-year-old former hedge fund manager who’s the founder and CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals. Shkreli’s net worth is somewhere around $100 million. Turing bought the rights to a generic drug called Daraprim, which has been around since 1953, and costs about $1.00 to make. This is a drug that AIDS patients have been using for years to prevent infections, and without this drug, they die. Shkreli jacked up the price of a single pill from $13.50 (already too high, in my opinion, if it only costs a buck to make!) to $750.00 per pill! That is a 5,500% increase! And he’s proud of himself for doing it! He sees absolutely nothing wrong with his action; he doesn’t care that people who can’t pay the price will die. In fact, he wonders why he’s been getting so much negative attention! Shkreli makes John’s tax collectors look like pikers!
You have to wonder how it can be that such incredible selfishness and greed can not only exist, not only be tolerated, but even be extolled and praised – because, yes, believe it or not, there are people who defend Shkreli for doing what he did! And he’s not even the only one who’s hiked up the price of a vital drug!
So, yes, the question “How are we to live together” is as burning an issue today as it has ever been.
But, I am very happy to say that that’s not the end of the story. For every Martin Shkreli there are hundreds, if not thousands, of people who do have a conscience, and who do treat others with compassion.
People like Elizabeth Holmes. Dr. Mariappan Jawaharlal writes in an article in the “Huffington Post”: “Elizabeth Holmes dropped out of Stanford at 19 to build a company, Theranos, to save lives. After 12 years of hard work, she is very close to achieving her goal by making blood test procedures simple, less painful and inexpensive. So inexpensive that you can get a cholesterol test for $2.99, which is cheaper than a Grande Coffee Frappuccino. A basic HIV test can be done for $15.40…Holmes’ opinion ‘the premise that you’re going to run a business, and that if someone is in need, I’m going to charge them a ton of money, is completely wrong,’ speaks volumes about her approach to business and compassion.”
But you don’t have to be the CEO of a major (or even minor) corporation to show compassion and do what John exhorted his listeners to do.
You can be what David Lose calls “ordinary saints.”
Ordinary saints, like my nephews Ty and Maxx, who helped to pack 9,000 sandwiches yesterday for homeless people in the Twin Cities. And you can be ordinary saints like their parents, who were packing right along with the boys!
And out there in San Bernardino, still reeling from the shock of the terrorist act at the government center there, ordinary saints who happen to be American Muslims collected nearly $200,000.00 to help the victims of that shooting and their families.
You can be an ordinary saint like Officer Michael Kotsonis, of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, who was called to a local store to investigate a shoplifting incident. Surveillance tape made it easy to identify the woman who had stolen the items, and he went to her house to retrieve the goods.
He found out that the woman had stolen a box of cake mix, some shortening, and a can of frosting. She wanted to make a birthday cake for her young child. Nonetheless, Officer Kotsonis collected the stolen items and brought them back to the store.
Then he bought them himself. “I’m not going to take away a kid’s birthday cake,” he told the Herald. “I ended up bringing it back to the mother.”
Then there’s David Rosenman, whose daughter begged him to spend a Sunday morning with her. So the two of them went to a local coffee shop and hung for a while. At one point, Rosenman had to leave the table for a moment, and when he got back, he found a note from a teacher that read: “I work at a school where many daughters don’t have fathers, and those who do have never in their lives had him watch and listen and devote 100% of his attention to her for as long as you did on one Sunday morning. You have no idea what a gift you are giving to all the teachers who are responsible for educating her from now until she graduates.” Rosenman posted about the experience on Facebook, and has this to say to all other parents: “Choose to be present today – even for just a little while – for someone you love.”[3]
Ordinary saints.
I don’t even need to ask, but I know that all of you ordinary saints have done, are doing, and will continue to do gracious, loving, caring acts for the people around you, those you know, and those you don’t. Nine times out of ten, these acts don’t cost a penny, but they make you feel like a millionaire and those who receive your kindness like they are the most important people on earth.
David Lose goes on to say, “But it seems like one of the chief ways through which we can witness to God’s coming kingdom is to actually live like it’s here, like we believe it’s really coming, like we think it actually matters.
“Which means that we have opportunities all around us to be the ordinary saints John calls us to be… But let’s not stop there. Let’s get more personal: … What if we determined to seek out such opportunities because we’ve heard that extraordinary acts of grace are within the reach of ordinary people. What if we believed – and acted on the belief – that being honest, kind, and hardworking in a culture that is impatient, immature, and fearful really makes a difference[?]”[4]
What if indeed?
What then shall we do? We shall make the choice to accept God’s invitation to care for others. We shall live with kindness and compassion. We shall live as though even the smallest act is not wasted or lost. We shall live as though God’s Kingdom were already here. We shall live with hope, and joy, and courage, and confidence!
Let us live that way always!
In the Name of God, the Holy and Undivided Trinity. Amen.
[1] Barclay, William, The Gospel of Luke, Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, Kentucky, 2001, p. 40
[2] Ibid., p. 42
[3] Guff, Samantha, “This Dad Received A Heartfelt Note From A Stranger At Breakfast,” Huffington Post, 11/24/2015
[4] Lose, David, “Advent 3 C: Ordinary Saints,” …in the Meantime, davidlose.net, December 7th, 2015