Go!

Rebecca Sheridan
Sunday, December 15, 2025
Luke 3:7-18

    Merry Christmas, you brood of vipers!  Repent!  Not exactly a warm holiday greeting appropriate for your annual Christmas card, is it?!  Today’s gospel reading is a continuation from chapter 3 in Luke that we heard last week, and John the Baptist gives us difficult words to wrestle with in this season of hope, love, joy and peace!  John sounds more like Scrooge or the Grinch than a bearer of the good news that Jesus is coming!  What’s more, traditionally this third week of Advent is known as Gaudete or “Joy” Sunday – which is why we light the pink candle, and I’m wearing pink.  Where is the JOY in John’s message?!  Luke insists that John proclaimed good news to the people, and the people will filled with expectation, whether John might be the Messiah, even though these words seem harsh to us today, at least at first.  But the good news for Advent continues to be that Christ is coming, Christ is coming soon!  
    The last few weeks we’ve talked about getting ready not just for Christmas celebrations but for Jesus’ second coming, and preparing not only for ourselves but also paving a smooth way for others to know Christ’s salvation.  I’ve been using the example of preparing for the start of a race:  we get ready, we get set, and today, we go.  It’s probably not difficult to think about “going” or “being on the go” this time of year.  Maybe some of us are just ready to STOP a little bit and enjoy time off from work and school and the busy preparations for the season.  We are very good at keeping busy, but are we keeping busy with the right things?  When it comes to our faith, WHERE do we go and how do we get there?  
The repentance that John calls us to involves going in a different direction.  The word “repent” literally means to turn around or change direction.  It’s hard to believe, but long ago Advent used to be considered a penitential season of fasting and preparation for adults to be baptized on Epiphany, January 6, NOT on Christmas.  In fact, Christmas is a newer church holiday, relatively speaking, and was not as big a deal as it is today.  Can you imagine trying to fast right now? There’s a reason why people wait until January to start their New Year’s resolutions!  But even if it is completely unrealistic to fast this time of year, we can take time to consider what God wants us to turn FROM so that we can turn TOWARD the way of Christ, and where God might be leading us into this new year that is fast-approaching.  God calls us to turn and follow in Christ’s way, living by his teachings and serving him.  We remember that Jesus is the reason for the season, as they say!
    As we reflect on our scripture readings today and look for this good news that God is calling us toward, we hear how God calls us to turn away from the cultural values of greed, selfishness, scarcity and complacency.  Jesus’ birth at Christmas and the promise of his coming again means something new is coming.  The Lord is near, Paul assures us in Philippians!  The winnowing fork of the Lord that John the Baptist talks about in the gospel is a tool to separate the chaff, the inedible parts of the wheat, from the fruit of the grain, the most nutritious, best parts.  What within ourselves might be “chaff” that we need to let go from our lives?  Anger and resentment, self-blame or blaming others for our problems without forgiveness, worrying more about what other people think of us than what God thinks?  Could it be that even in this busy time of Christmas preparations that God in Christ is clearing out old, unhelpful habits and fears to make way for Jesus’ new way of life?  What is the “wheat”  or the best part in our lives that nourishes our faith and helps us bear good fruit like the hope, peace, love, and joy we focus on in Advent?  John the Baptist’s message of repentance asks us to turn or go away from the old self and turn toward God.  God leads us not in the materialistic, self-centered, hedonistic ways of the world but in a way of true hope, peace, love, and joy.  Jesus is for us, in other words, but not just for us, and John reminds us of this so well by pointing away from himself and TO Christ.
    So, even though John the Baptist sounds a bit threatening to our 2024 ears, when the crowd asks him what they should do, the answer he gives is quite simple, really.  If you have two coats, give someone one who doesn’t have a coat.  If you have food, share your food with someone who doesn’t have any.  Be fair in your work and business dealings.  Be satisfied with what you have.  In this darkest and coldest time of year, it seems difficult to think about bearing fruit, but when we look at what that fruit is, the good works that John calls us to, it’s not that difficult, really.  We might be busy with plenty of other things, but are we remembering to keep active in our love and concern for others, both spiritually and physically?  Our reading from Isaiah 12 for the day adds the encouragement to sing praises to the Lord and make his deeds known among the nations.  In our service and with our words, our faith turns us from our own self-centered wants to meeting the basic needs of others and sharing the good news about Jesus.  It’s as simple as that.  This Christmas, we not only focus on gathering with the people we know who love us, our families and friends, but we love the ones who may otherwise be forgotten or overlooked – with Christmas Angel presents, with food pantry donations, with an invitation to a neighbor to join us for worship or another church event, sending cards or singing carols to those who are lonely or isolated.  
    Just as John encourages us to turn from ourselves out to others so that we will be ready for Christ, we hear this good news:  as we are going towards Jesus on his way, this path that leads to him that we are called to prepare, Jesus is coming to us.  Remember, this is what Advent means, after all. Jesus is coming.  And, he is already here because he is Emmanuel, which means, God is with us.  The Lord promises us in Zephaniah today that he will bring us home, he will restore us, he will renew us with his love and rejoice over us with gladness.  This truly is good news!  Thanks be to God.