"Vipers and Vocation" - Sermon for Advent 3 2015

Sermon:

Text: Luke 3:7-18. Luke 3:4-6, Luke 1:79, Mark 12:28-34

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who comes as a gift.

            Last week, we ended by talking about preparation and prayer. To prepare ourselves for Christmas we get our house ready, get presents ready, get baking done, and to get ourselves ready we pray. And of these things the most important part is our prayer, but then working to have our prayers realized. To be prepared, we can’t just wish that things get done, we have to become active participants in God’s work in this world.

            The question I was left with was, Well, how do we become involved? If after prayer we need action, how do we figure out what action is needed? How do we get things done? How do we not just feel that there is too much to do, and so still just do nothing.

            Our Gospel reading from today, is not quite the same situation that we find ourselves in. While we know that we need to become active in bringing God’s kingdom to this world, the people who come to talk to John in the wilderness have no idea what to do. They think that everything is unnecessary for them. Well, we’re children of Abraham, so we don’t need to be active and assist those around us.

            And well, John isn’t too fond of this. “You brood of vipers!”  You people that strike out and kill everyone! Who rely not on work, but on who you are, who spend the rest of your time just laying around with no regard to those nearby. You’re not special just because of who you are. God could make a child of Abraham from a rock. If you want to continue as a people, you can’t just say, well, it will work because of who we are, you have to do things, bear fruits worthy of repentance.

            As is clear, it’s not a nice thing to be called a brood of vipers. It’s pretty much as insulting as we would imagine.

            But, it works! Doesn’t it, it’s almost strange, these people come to John, he insults them, and then they follow it up by asking what to do.

            And here is where our part comes in, we ask what to do.

            How do we put the rough places smooth, the crooked straight, the high low, and be guided into the way of peace. Well, John tells the people then, and tells us now.

            “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.”

            Share what you have in excess, both your goods and your food. We watched a video on Wednesday with the high school group called Open, talking about being open to prayer changing who we are, connecting to our lessons both this week and last week, and in it the presenter, a pastor named Rob Bell, has a powerful statement, “don’t just pray for an end to hunger, when you have food to spare.”

            It’s pretty clear what John asks us and those who are listening to him, to do. But, then he goes a little farther when two other groups come up to him.

“12Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, “Teacher, what should we do?” 13He said to them, “Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.” 14Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what should we do?” He said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.”

            Now, it’s easy to say, well, he’s making sure we’re careful about money, and he’s telling people who would normally be seen as outsiders, hated individuals in society, to change their ways. Telling tax collectors, don’t go to people and tell them to give you more than they owe, and then to the soldiers, who here are little more hired thugs of those tax collectors, don’t use violence and force to get that money from people.

            I think it also goes beyond all that, I think we can look at the concept of vocation with this. Not vacation, but vocation, meaning more than a job, or career, or hobby, but that thing to which God has called you. It could be your job or career, it could be a hobby or outside work passion, it could be as a parent. And God, through John here, calls us to do that as well as we can, to be good Christians not just Sunday morning, but in our daily lives as well, and not just in those times we pray, or read our taking faith home insert, or spend a moment in contemplation of a bible passage, but in every moment of our days. Doing that thing as well as possible to show forth God in the world, and it’s not by being bible thumping people, it’s by doing a good job at it to help serve our neighbors. A favorite quote of mine attributed to Luther is “The Christian shoemaker does his duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship.” And another quote that is definitely from Luther, “If he is a Christian tailor, he will say: I make these clothes because God has bidden me do so, so that I can earn a living, so that I can help and serve my neighbor. When a Christian does not serve the other, God is not present; that is not Christian living.”

            A vocation is a God called thing, showing how we can serve our neighbor through what we do in our daily life. We are good nurses because God calls us to heal those who are sick, we are good grocery store workers, because God calls us to help bring food to where people need to purchase it. We are good manufacturers because God calls us to provide our products for people. And through the livelihood we receive from those jobs we can then also give to food pantry, thrift stores, and homeless shelters to help those who may not have the means to purchase these things needed for life, housing, clothing, and food.

            And we see Christ call us to this as well, when asked “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

            To honor God, we serve our neighbor, to give thanks for Christ coming to be born to us, we love and serve our neighbor, to respond to Christ’s redeeming work on the cross, we love and serve our neighbor. With Christ we see how this is a little different than with John, with Christ we see that this is all a gift. We do all this, not so that Christ will love us, but because Christ does love us.

            Do you remember when you were kids and you would wake up Christmas morning or for me getting back from Christmas Eve service and somehow Santa would have come in the night, or for some reason your parents sent you out to the car early, and then “forgot something” and then Santa would have come while you were gone to service? And you came in and there was a pile of gifts under the tree. Did you have to work to receive those? And having to sit through reading the Christmas story before being allowed to open presents doesn’t count. No, those are gifts, and we respond with love and thanks.

            That’s how vocation works, all of what we do is in response to this grand gift of Christ that God has given us, that we are preparing for once again. Let us this week go, and see what a gift it is that Christ is coming.

            Let us pray,

God of all mercy, help lead us into the way of peace, help lead us to see our vocation in our daily life, help us to see our job not just as a job, but a way that we serve our neighbor, working in daily life to serve those around us, and help those who need assistance. Amen.