Sunday 15th December – Presence – Pastor Adrian Kitson

15-12-2024, John the Baptist, Luke 3:7-18, pastor adrian kitson, presence

John said to the crowds coming out to be baptised by him, ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? ⁸Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. 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. ⁹The axe has been laid to the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.’

¹⁰‘What should we do then?’ the crowd asked.

¹¹John answered, ‘Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.’

¹²Even tax collectors came to be baptised. ‘Teacher,’ they asked, ‘what should we do?’

¹³‘Don’t collect any more than you are required to,’ he told them.

¹⁴Then some soldiers asked him, ‘And what should we do?’

He replied, ‘Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely – be content with your pay.’

¹⁵The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Messiah. ¹⁶John answered them all, ‘I baptise 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 baptise you with^[^c^] the Holy Spirit and fire. ¹⁷His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing-floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.’ ¹⁸And with many other words John exhorted the people and proclaimed the good news to them.

You are on Greenock Rd on a summer’s day with hundreds of people. Everyone has been gathering for hours waiting for the big thing to happen. In a little while world-class cyclists from all over the world, including our own, will flash by on the Tour Down Under Barossa leg.

You know they are getting close when you hear the sirens of police bikes, then team officials, then the media helicopter overhead. By the time the 12^th siren has blasted past, you are ready for the race to flash by…

That’s John. He is the siren, the chopper, the team official telling you, ‘He’s coming’! But, no nicely paved road here. Just desert sands and Jordan river mud…

John is the bridge between all that God promised to those exiled Jewish people back in Isaiah 40 and all those prophets, priests and kings who had lived and died in this promises – that the exile would be over and home would be sweet and full and final when the Messiah comes to save the day.

John, the first fiery final prophet of the Old Testament for 400 years since Malachi, is an old school preacher.

Out at the Jordan river he makes three points and a poem. It is short, like all those sirens and police bikes…..

Point 1: The end is coming, and there will be wrath of God at work.

Point 2: You need to respond to this.

Point 3: There is a new man, a Saviour coming in all this. He will change the whole game.

Poem: This Coming One will swing his winnowing fork, gather his wheat into his silo and with matches in hand, burn up any chaff….. Very poetic!

And apparently, Luke tells us that this is all ‘good news’?!

¹⁸And with many other words John exhorted the people and proclaimed the good news to them.

Doesn’t sound too good! I think I prefer the ‘soft’ version of Christmas” Little baby lying without crying in soft straw, mooing cows, resting sheep, nice looking shepherds, gleaming Easter star gazers, little donkey,….

But Luke says it is good news. How?

Well, unlike Matthew’s telling of this time out at the river with John, John speaks his points and poem to ‘the crowds’ coming out to see what this is all about. In Matthew and Mark, this conversation is more in-house ; spoken to the Scribes and Pharisees only. But not here. John’s message here is much more expansive.

Even so, John’s message is fairly standard prophetic fare.

Judgement of God is real and near. God’s judgement on your life and on this world will not be centred on your nationality, your genes, your family name or location, but on how you are actually living your life with everyone around you.

And then there is that Messiah stuff. One is coming who will baptise you, initiate your, immerse you into a whole new life in the power of God’s Spirit.

John delivers that last of the great Old Testament oracles of judgement and hope; the salvation of our souls.

Something must be going on in the hearts of those gathered. In Matthew, the Scribes and Pharisees don’t seem to respond at all. But here, there is that three times repeated question from ‘the crowds’ – What should we do then?

Who is the ‘we’? Three groups of people ask this very practical question.

The Crowd
Tax Collectors
Soldiers

Because God’s judgement of you is not based on your ethnicity or family but on how you are actually living among others, there are things anyone can do that line up with God’s intended way of life for us humans:

To the crowds – Share your food and things.

‘Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.’

To the Tax Collectors

¹³‘Don’t collect any more than you are required to,’

To the Soldiers:

Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely – be content with your pay.’ ‘

To the (presumably poor) crowds: “Share.”

To the tax collectors, “Be fair.”

To soldiers, “Don’t bully.”

All pretty mundane, isn’t it. Especially after all the big picture stuff about the end of the world and the coming Saviour with winnowing fork and matches in hand judging the whole world!

As one commentator noted – all this sounds like kindergarten more than apocalypse!

Is that the point this Advent day, friends? Faithfulness to our God does not take a superhero. You don’t have to be some super-clean, super-spiritual, super busy hero to be ready and included in the good news of new life as a baptised person in the coming Jesus.

Just the opposite, I think.

I note that it is a pretty hotch-potch group of people John includes in his vision of God’s coming life: ordinary towns-folk, tax collectors and soldiers are included in this coming new baptised life.

Not only that, their ordinary life is not to be shied away from so they ‘get a real job’, or be ‘real Christians’.

No, John does not say to the crowds – stop being poor, or to the tax collectors, stop collecting tax, or to the soldiers, stop serving Rome. He actually says keep doing what you are doing but live it fairly, rightly, justly.

“Share, be fair and don’t bully.”

This is apparently how we line up with what Jesus will be doing in the world.

So, ordinary people with ordinary lives and ordinary jobs are counted worthy of this new life coming. They can participate in this new life with the Saviour right where they are – their towns and farms and villages and cities.

Beginning to sound more like ‘good’ news to you now?

We the ordinary people living God’s ordinary lives know this Coming One of whom John speaks.

We know he is not ordinary but enters into all of our ordinary to get us in line with his vision and his promises to this world in which he has placed us.

He will share everything the Father has with us – even his own blood and his own life and death and rising.

He will execute perfect justice on all the sin, darkness, wrong, pain and injustice of the world and the Evil one who propagates it all by that blood and the death and that rising.

He won’t bully you into believing via guilt and fear and punishment and despair, even if we feel these things sometimes.

He will win us over with love – pure love – undeserved kindness; unearned favour; baptising us into his life before we could know much about life, reaching out to us in words and friends and events and a community, before we knew him or could even find him; entering the muck of the cow shed in the dead cold of night, via a confused man and scared young girl, surrounded by the underclass, spooked by easterners, all mesmerised by angels singing and light shining, for a moment.

So, what do we do as the truth of judgment hits us again this Christmas?

Be ordinary, and happily so! It is where the Messiah stays, and where John calls us to. It is where this Saviour is fulfilling his grand plans for his world through everyday you and me.

What needs to be burnt off? What needs to be cut away? What needs to be cut back? He will do it, for love.

This Saving God is present. Live it fairly and carefully and with love, friend.

And it is OK because this extraordinary Saviour of the ordinary is present in it your ordinary, everyday.

“So with many other exhortations, John proclaimed the good news to the people.”

Here is the kindness of the Lord for you: The purpose of divine judgment is not to punish but to prepare. He see it all, knows it all and yet, chooses to prepare you not punish you.

The Spirit tells you again this morning that the purpose of God’s rightful accounting, his aim to finally judge the world, hold us all accountable is not to punish you but prepare you.

Prepare you for what? For the incomparable kindness of full forgiveness, restoration, belonging and hope.

Any terror you feel, any consequences you accumulate because of wrong done, promises broken, other people damaged at your hand is to bring restoration and renewed life into your life.

God is always training you in obedience to the covenant; in following his Word, so that in the end there is joyous relief and high praise for this kindness undeserved but fully given.

Friend, is God punishing you or preparing you at the moment? Do you trust that he always about preparing you way above punishing you? Not everyone does. Sometimes we all feel like he is punishing us more than preparing us for the good.

I have heard so many people and have sometimes felt myself that God is punishing me. The costs go north and the prices go south, the business is shaky, the conflict grows, the car wont start, the little ones are sick, the loved one gone, the marriage over, the career in tatters….. “Pastor, God is punishing me”.

Not according to Malachi. Not today, friend.

He is preparing you.

There is his kindness. In all you face, that is what is going on in all the trouble and trembling, friend. Washing and purifying of you, not punishing. No, this Messenger is also Messiah/Saviour.

This messenger of the covenant relationship between God and us does not seem to be bent on punishing you but is actually bent on preparing you, so you are ready for all his goodness.

John the Baptists knows his Malachi! John himself lives his calling as Malachi and all the prophets did – actually embodying God’s kindness;

‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him … (Luke 3:4)

Good news, indeed.