Our Christmas Guest: Repentance
We Must Clean the House
Luke 3:7-18
Rev. Tim Callow
Preached Sun. December 12th, 2021
I am not compulsively neat. I get lazy. Books pile around the house. Clothes remain on the floor. Dishes lay in the sink. Food stays in the refrigerator a little too long. But I swear I’m not a slob. I’ll get around to it. I may not be able to pass a white glove inspection, but I can make it look good for an eye test. Few things provoke me more into cleaning, however, than news that guests are arriving.
I hate to have guests over with the house not up to par. There’s something embarrassing if people see me in my natural habitat. I think we all feel this way. We’d all rather our guests not see an unswept floor or a dining room table piled with junk mail. We want to be presentable. Most of the time I get an apology for the state of someone’s house I think to myself “it looks a lot better than my own.”
But as much as I enjoy a clean house, I do not enjoy cleaning the house. It is something I will put off until I can’t put it off anymore. It’s boring, mindless, work. There’s all sorts of things I’d rather be doing. There’s a reason kids don’t want to clean their room. But it’s necessary work, and we all feel better once it’s done.
This Advent I’ve been preaching with an emphasis on hospitality. Many of us will be inviting guests in our homes this year. They may be friends, they may be family. But all of us ought to be extending that invitation to Jesus to stay with us. And Christmas is the celebration of his arrival. But if we are waiting on Jesus’ arrival that means there is work that needs to get done. We need to prepare a place for the King. And that means cleaning.
John the Baptist is Jesus’ RSVP. He comes to prepare a place for the Lord, he announces God’s arrival to us. And that announcement comes in the form of some hellfire and brimstone preaching. When John the Baptist came to town the local synagogue did not have to worry about the heating bill. He lit a fire wherever he showed up. We get a taste of his old time religion this morning. “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” No one could accuse John of being seeker sensitive.
He tells them to “bear fruits worthy of repentance” and not to consider themselves worthy because they count Abraham as their ancestor. God can raise up ancestors of Abraham from stones. And in the course of the gospel we will see that. In the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man the Rich Man may have counted himself an ancestor of Abraham but it is Lazarus who rests in his bosom. God is no respecter of persons. God looks into the heart.
So how do we prepare ourselves for the King’s visit? We clean our homes through repentance, and bearing fruits worthy of repentance.
John calls the people to repentance. Those who lie, those who cheat, those who hate their neighbor, those who waste their time, those who worship idols, those who fail to follow God’s law, are all called to change their hearts and their minds. See that they are like vipers, see that they have walked down the path of sin and of death. And then turn away. Walk down a new path.
Repentance is first that change of heart, that resolution to walk in a new way. But what good is repentance if nothing comes of it? I think we’ve all known someone who apologized, said they’d change, and then didn’t. As grateful as we may be for the apology, what we really hope for is the change. Repentance is more than a New Years resolution. Repentance bears fruit.
We have a few examples of what this fruit worthy of repentance might look like as different people come up to John asking him what they should do. To the crowds he says that if they have two cloaks they should give one away, and if they have extra food they should give the food away too (is this a bad time to make a plug for our food pantry?).
When the tax collectors ask he tells them to collect no more than what is prescribed. Back in those days there was no IRS, kings would hire out their tax collection. And people who collected taxes were seen as unsavory, because everyone expected they were demanding more than necessary and skimming off the top. John tells them they don’t need to give up their jobs, but they ought to be honest in it.
Then the soldiers arrive and ask what they should do. John doesn’t tell them they need to give up their jobs either, but they are not to extort anyone with threats, but be content with their wages. The soldiers are not likely Roman soldiers, but soldiers of Herod. And if Herod had a bad reputation so did his soldiers.
I notice a pattern here in what John demands of those repenting. There is a common thread to the fruit everyone is expected to show. John is not expecting that those who repent flee their jobs and responsibilities. There were some who would say that, the Essenes for instance were a sect of Jews back in those days who did say everyone should run off into the desert with them and wait for the end of days. John tells them they can stay right there and live their lives. But they are supposed to live their lives justly.
Giving our excess to others is an act of justice. It’s giving people what is due to them. Everyone deserves to be clothed, everyone deserves to be fed. And if we have extra resources we ought to help our neighbors who are in need. Tax Collectors collecting no more than prescribed are acting honestly and going about their jobs in justice. Not taking what does not belong to them. Same goes for the soldiers. They are expected to act with justice, content in their wages, not extorting from others.
What does it mean to bear fruits worthy of repentance then? It means to anticipate life in the Kingdom of God by living with justice now. If, by justice we mean giving people what is due to them. Justice as a verb, not as a noun. Justice that is within our own ability. If we have wronged others, we seek to put it right. If we have stolen, we return. If we have lied, we tell the truth. If we have hurt, we seek to make amends. These are the fruits worthy of repentance. And it is with such fruits that we adorn the house as we clean. These fruits are our ornaments, our ivy and our holly, our lights, our elf on a shelf. By repentance and the fruit of repentance we prepare a place for the Lord, who may lodge in our hearts.