Advent 3 - St John The Baptist: There's a Lot in a Name.
Preached on the 12th of December 2021 by Rev. Joshua Taylor
As a church we are named after St John the Baptist.
We are St John the Baptist Anglican Church – I believe the only reason that “the Baptist” part isn’t on the sign is that a vestry several years ago were worried people would be confused about whether we were a Baptist or Anglican church.
Confusing signs aside – over the past several years this name has become important to me.
I feel that there is something significant about this name for us here as a church community.
This will be one of the final sermons I preach here at St John’s and so as we gather this morning, I want to offer some reflections on what I feel God has been calling us to as a church, and I hope to inspire and encourage you on your journey forward together as a community here at St John’s.
St John the Baptist is the Saint after whom we are named and there is something in his charisma and giftings which I think can shape and inform our ministry in beautiful ways – so this is what I want to consider today.
Setting and context of John the Baptist
In Luke 3 we meet John the Baptist.
In the first few verses of chapter 3 we hear the setting and context:
“In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness.”
Luke introduces us here to the time and place and the people he mentions give us clues about what was going on.
We hear of Tiberius Caesar, famous for deporting Jews from Rome; we hear of Pilate, who was administration was known for its corruption and brutality, we hear of Herod of Antipas, known as self-aggrandizing and immoral, a Jewish king under the thumb of the Emperor. We hear of the High Priesthood – privileged and powerful.
The opening scene is a picture of power, tension, and corruption.
Israel once more finds itself in a place of captivity and slavery – there was Egypt, then Babylon, and now Rome.
And we hear in the midst of this that a voice cries out from the wilderness – the word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah here.
This wilderness image gives us clues about what is about to happen. The wilderness is the space in the story of God’s people where God took the people on a journey when he delivered them from oppression.
John, a voice from the wilderness, cries out that God is about to do the same again.
Repentance and broods of vipers!
The crowds gather in anticipation to hear what John might say.
He says to them “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits in keeping with repentance.”
Happy advent everyone!
John’s message is a bracing one for sure – Luke tells us he came proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
John’s message is a clarion call to turn back to God.
The metaphor of vipers is a picture in scripture that alludes to the devil. The image connects with the temptation of Adam and Eve in Genesis.
The image paints a picture of a life hostile to God.
John doesn’t hold back.
He names the reality that God’s people have become lost, like sheep without a shepherd. The story of the Old Testament is one of God’s people constantly being reminded to be faithful to God and one of God’s ongoing commitment and fidelity to his people even when they reject him.
And so, John stands in a long line of prophets sent by God, whose job it was to remind the people of who God is, what God is doing, and how to respond faithfully.
John reminds the people that simply because they are children of Abraham is not enough. They can’t presume that because of their heritage or simply by being the people of Israel that because of this they are righteous.
John says – that God is able to raise up even stones as children to praise him.
John uses another image. He says the axe is at the root of the tree. In other words – the moment of crisis has come.
Any tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down.
John’s message is an urgent message to the people to repent, to turn to God in faith, to heed his voice, to trust him, and as John says in the following verses – to bear fruits worthy of repentance.
Bear good fruit! Repentance! (v8-9)
John calls the people to bear fruits or repentance.
This image of “bearing fruit” will be used throughout Luke’s gospel.
In Luke chapter 6 Jesus himself will say:
For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. (Luke 6:43-45)
In Luke 8 Jesus will refer to the good soil that receives the word of God and “bears fruit with patience” (Luke 8:15)
In Luke 13 Jesus will use the image of a barren fig tree as a warning to repent.
This language of bearing fruit is used throughout other parts of Scripture. Psalm 1 gives a picture of the flourishing life of a person who hears and does God’s word as a tree that produces lots of good fruit.
The prophet Jeremiah uses the image too – contrasting a shrub in the desert with a tree planted by water which bears fruit as a contrast between one who trusts only in themselves vs the one who trusts in God.
All of this talk of fruit makes the point that repentance and baptism is a radical realignment of life. Jesus, echoing John’s message comes preaching the kingdom of God and calling people to repent and believe and to do so is to have ones who life transformed in such a way that we bear fruit – outward and visible signs of a life turned toward love of God and neighbour, a life rescued and renewed by Him.
Spiritual formation and the call of everyday transformation (v10-14)
Hearing this call, the crowds respond to John – what do we do, they say. What does this look like?
John then gives a list of ethical instructions to the crowds. He addresses the crowds generally, then tax collectors, and then soldiers.
What does repentance look like? What fruit does it bear?
According to John it transforms our every day life and existence
One preacher and commentator puts it so well that I want to share his words with you. David Lose says:
“After announcing impending judgment with some vim and vigor, John’s counsel seems fairly ordinary, even mundane. To the (presumably poor) crowds: “Share.” To the tax collectors, “Be fair.” To soldiers, “Don’t bully.” This feels more like the stuff of Kindergarten than Apocalypse. Which may be Luke’s point. Fidelity does not have to be heroic. There are opportunities to do God’s will, to be God’s people, all around us. These opportunities are shaped by our context: the roles in which we find ourselves and the needs of the neighbour with which we are confronted. But make no mistake, opportunities abound. John may have come from the wilderness, but the crowds — and we — live in the towns, villages, and marketplace, and these, too, can be places of testing and the arenas in which we offer our fidelity to God through service to neighbour.”[1]
John gets to the grassroots of faithfulness to God – it manifests itself in the mundane, in the very ordinary and pedestrian reality of our life at work, at home, out and about in the town we live.
Thinking about this a little more I want to draw your eye for a minute to our stained glass window.
It’s a picture of Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist.
I’m sure many of you have enjoyed looking at it and contemplating it over years.
One thing I hadn’t noticed, that a friend pointed out recently was that the Jesus in our stained glass window doesn’t have any hands. This friend said “that’s a cool symbol, I like what that says about the role of the church – that we are the hands of Jesus in the world, sharing his love and compassion.”
I’d never noticed this in the window. Since I have, I can’t stop noticing it.
St Theresa of Avila, a Spanish mystic from the 16th century once said this:
Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.
Theresa makes the point that lines up with John’s invitation to bear fruit in the world – to practically love and serve the world as we minister in Jesus’ name.
John preaches his powerful message of repentance and the people wonder if he is the Messiah, they ask him the question. But what I love about John is his quickness to point away from himself to Jesus. He knows that there is one coming who is far greater and who will make fruitfulness and flourishing possible by his life, death, and resurrection.
John the Baptists’ entire role is to call the people to repentance – to invite them to turn toward God and be ready for Jesus.
John cries out from the wilderness in a chaotic, broken, and messy world and reminds people of a God who rescues and heals the broken and hurting. A God who hasn’t given up on this world, no matter how bad it gets.
Don’t we need to hear that message today too? Doesn’t our world need John the Baptists who cry out this message!
John’s ministry is a mission which was of course unique historically, and yet at the same time a mission we can share in.
One biblical scholar, Joel Green says:
“Luke, however, in no way distinguishes John’s mission as qualitatively distinct from that of the Christian movement, as though John’s were somehow provisional or belonged to a different age in salvation history. Indeed, the fundamental elements of John’s ministry—proclaim + repentance + forgiveness of sins—are paralleled in the ministry to which Jesus’ followers are commissioned in 24:47.”[2]
In the times in which we live, our Bishop has called us as a Diocese to be committed to regeneration. John the Baptist has a prophetic ministry of renewal, calling the people back to God and I think is a great mentor for us in our shared mission as a Diocese, and especially here as God’s people in this place, named after this wonderful desert dwelling prophet.
Like John, the church is increasingly on the margins of society, occupying the desert. Like John, we need fresh courage, clarity, and conviction – I’m convinced of that. Like John, we need to get beyond political divides, theological controversy, and technical theories of church growth and simply point to Jesus.
I believe that as we hear John the Baptist preaching in the desert we hear the basics of the Christian life in such a fresh and helpful way.
As I finish there are three invitations from John that I want to emphasize this morning…
Follow Jesus (repent and believe)
Preach Jesus (proclaim and share the good news)
Bear fruit for Jesus (love and serve Him in the world)
We are called to follow Jesus – to repent and believe. Our lives are to be submitted to him and transformed by Him. We are apprentices to Jesus in a school of spiritual formation as we learn what it means to follow.
We are called to preach Jesus. Words are absolutely necessary. How will anyone hear the call to follow unless we share the good news? How will anyone know the gospel, unless we proclaim it? John is a model of one who consistently points to Jesus. We hear that “with many other exhortations he preached good news to the people.”
We are called to bear fruit for Jesus. John shows us what this looks like as we learn to love and serve Jesus in the world in our everyday life – at work, at home, at school, wherever we might be.
I feel that over the past few years here at St John’s I have learned a lot about what it means to follow Jesus. This community, named after John the Baptist has been for me a great encouragement as I’ve seen people follow Jesus, preach Jesus, and bear fruit for Jesus. My prayer, my hope and my encouragement is that you continue to do so and following the example of John that you always keep your eyes firmly fixed on Jesus – the author and perfecter of our faith. Amen.
[1] David Lose - https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/third-sunday-of-advent-3/commentary-on-luke-37-18-2
[2] Green, Joel B. 1997. The Gospel of Luke. The New International Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.