Joyful

Joyful

Luke 3:1-18[1]

You may have gathered that today is the Sunday in Advent when we celebrate the joy of the season. That’s why we light a pink candle on this day. It’s meant to be different from the other Sundays in Advent. On the other hand, one of the ironies of Advent is that on this day when we emphasize the joy of the season, the Gospel reading always points us to John the Baptist. If you remember your Bible, you may recall that John the Baptist didn’t exactly have the most cheerful message. In fact, I would say that John’s vision of the kingdom of God was very different from what Jesus preached. It sounds like John believed what God was doing in the world was primarily punishing wrongdoers. When you listen closely to Jesus, while he called people to repent of all the ways they lived that harmed themselves or others, he also forgave them. He offered them God’s unfailing love. Jesus called people to a relationship with God as a loving father.

Our Gospel lesson from Luke for today tells the story of John’s ministry of baptizing the people who came to him. But John responds to them in a strange way in Luke’s Gospel. Luke tells us that when John saw the crowds coming to be baptized by him, he turned them away, calling them a “brood of snakes” (Luke 3:7 NLT)! This is different from what we hear in the other Gospels. Especially in Matthew, where the harsh words we hear John hurling at the crowds are reserved only for the Pharisees and Sadducees (Mt 3:7). At first glance, we might think that John needed to work on his “people skills”! But what seems to be going on is that Luke understood that the call to repentance John made to the Jewish religious leaders applied to everyone.[2] In order for them to experience the salvation of the Lord they would have to “Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God” (Lk. 3:8 NLT). In the words Luke quotes from the prophet Isaiah in our gospel lesson, for the people to experience God’s salvation, what was crooked must first be made straight, and what was rough must be smoothed (Lk 3:5-6 NLT).

The way John defined what that looked like turns out to be very practical. Perhaps even surprisingly so. When the people asked him what they should do, he said simply, “If you have two shirts, give one to the poor. If you have food, share it with those who are hungry” (Lk 3:11). At first glance, that may sound too easy. But I would say there’s a lot behind that statement. Truly sharing what we have with those who are in need is something that comes from the heart. And for us to be willing to share generously, we have to undergo a change of heart. That kind of generosity doesn’t always come naturally to us. It seems to be human nature to be more concerned with our own welfare than someone else’s. Especially someone we don’t even know.

I think those of us who have experienced that kind of change of heart know by experience that it takes the power of God’s love. We cannot truly turn away from a life that is self-centered without the work of the Spirit convicting us that to live that way is not only harmful to others, but also to ourselves. While it’s true that the kind of repentance and change of life that John was talking about is a choice that we all make, not just once but time and time again, it’s also true that for that change to be real, for it to truly make a difference in the way we live, God has to be the one to change our hearts.

That’s where I see the difference between John and Jesus. John called the people out on the ways they were not living generously. Jesus offered them something more. He offered them God’s grace, which means that God accepted them as they were. He offered them God’s love, a love that always had been and always would remain true. What we know by our experience is that when Jesus offers us a relationship with the God who loves us and accepts us completely and unconditionally just as we are, it is something that can and does truly change our hearts. I think that’s why Jesus’ ministry had a more “joyful” tone than John’s.

On the other hand, we shouldn’t be surprised that Jesus and John were on the same page about what they said the people should do. Most of us are familiar with Jesus’ words, “I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me” (Mt 25:35-36, NLT). It’s not hard to see that this is a longer version of what John said. What we might easily miss, however, is what stands behind this way of life. This is a way of life: giving food to the hungry and drink to the thirsty, giving welcome to the stranger, clothing for the naked, and caring for the sick. There’s a lot that lies behind that as a way of life.

In a very real sense, it’s the same thing we find in the Ten Commandments. The very beginning of the Commandments puts it this way: “I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt” (Ex 20:2, NLT). That’s where the whole life of service to God starts. The idea is that God had set the people free from slavery, and the way that they would stay free was by aligning their lives with God’s ways. This is the way they would truly find joy and fulfillment. This is the way they would truly find life![3] The same remains true for us today. We offer our lives in service to others, in obedience to God, seeking to follow Jesus and his way because we’ve experienced God’s love and God’s unconditional welcome, and it has changed our hearts.

Again, I don’t think we should be surprised that Jesus and John the Baptist were on the same page about his. We find that same point of view reflected time and time again in the prophets. The way to live a life that is truly joyful is to surrender our hearts and lives to God and follow his ways to the best of our ability. The way to live a life that is truly joyful is to live generously. But we can only do that with God’s help.

When God welcomes us with open arms, when God accepts us unconditionally, when God’s love embraces us, we cannot help but share that same welcome, acceptance, and love with others. To borrow the metaphor from the hymn, when the warm rays of God’s love truly touch our hearts, we find that our hearts “unfold like flowers” before him. And as we do the “clouds of sadness” and “dark of doubt” are driven away. Then we join with all God’s “works” that call us to join in the great chorus of joy reflected back to him, not only with our words, but also with our lives. When we know that “love divine is reigning o’er us,” we can share love with other people generously, and live a life that is truly joyful.

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[1] © 2024 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 12/15/2024 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] Cf. Joel Green, Theology of the Gospel of Luke, 36-37, where he suggests that Luke wanted to place special emphasis the importance of repentance as a “radical realignment of their lives with God’s purpose” that should be demonstrated in every aspect of their daily lives.

[3] Cf. Perry Yoder, “Liberated by Law,” Sojourners Magazine, September-October 1999  (Vol. 28, No. 5), 46. Cf. also John Shelby Spong, Living Commandments, 14, 15, where he says that the Ten Commandments are the principles through which we find “the fullness of life, the depth of love, and the meaning of our own humanity.”