‘Time to change’
Advent 3: John the Baptist
Luke 3: 7-18
St James, Taxal 12.12.21
Imagine the scene. A sceptic shouts up to heaven “God! If you’re up there, tell us what to do”. Back comes a voice: “feed the hungry, house the homeless, establish justice”. The sceptic looks alarmed, waits a moment. “Just testing,” he says. “Me too” the voice replies.
I like that jokey little story and I think it’s a good way into understanding what our bible reading is telling us today. In that story, doing God’s will requires real action. We don’t like the thought of that, but God is challenging us to do it. There’s a hint of consequences.
Last week we heard Frances introduce us to the ministry of John the Baptist and she talked about the reality of the sinful nature that we can all sometimes display as ordinary human beings and today we stay with him and go deeper into his message in order to understand what it means for us, here now.
In the reading we’re told that crowds of people have gone out to hear what John has to say. He’s the man of the moment but John is pretty rude to them. He doesn’t like the look of the bunch of hypocrites in front of him.
John goes on to name the consequences if the crowd don’t turn themselves around and they ask him what they should do. John is both practical and big vision in his reply: individuals should feed the hungry, clothe the poor and those in authority should stop abusing their power. It’s a personal and political answer.
John then goes onto set out that he is the preparation for the arrival of Jesus, who will prove to be the true Lord and Master who we all need to turn to in faith.
That word repentance is an old one and I think that we need to understand it properly. Literally, it means ‘turning round’. That is, facing a new direction, changing how we see the world and act. It’s a term that was widely used in the Old Testament to mean turning away from sin on an individual level but also corporately for Israel as a nation. The heart of the meaning is a turn back towards what God wants and it’s at the heart of the call, not just from John the Baptist, but Jesus also.
So John calls those who hear his word to repent, to turn around, to change what we do and how we do it. To reorientate the direction of life onto God. And this isn’t just a story of what happened two thousand years ago. When we read our Bibles, we trust and believe that God still speaks to us in our hearts today through what we hear, so this is very much a message for us here and now.
We hear the words, but do we really take on board their implications? John’s call for us to repent implies that we don’t just hear the words but that we act on what they commit us to. That’s the promise made at baptism or confirmation of course. ‘I repent of my sins’.
The message is clear, really, isn’t it? Yet the changes it demands seem so hard to make. I wonder why that is?
Well, I’ve been involved in managing people, teams and projects for nigh on thirty years now and I have no doubt that changing things is hard!
My experience is that most people like to stick with what they know. People are often suspicious of changing the way they work, the way they do things. Do you think that’s fair? Well, I certainly think it’s true in work. Is it true in church as well?
Well, John is a man who demands change. He wants us to change, to repent, and for that repentance to be real. The key point he makes is to tell the crowd ‘Bear fruits worthy of repentance’ in v. 8. He’s very clear in what he says. ‘Repentance’, turning around, putting our bad old selves behind us, isn’t just about saying sorry, or even feeling sorry for what we have done, who we have been. It’s also about doing what God wants us to do. That is leading lives of compassion and justice. ‘What then should we do?’ asks the crowd in v. 10.
John is very precise in his reply: ‘Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none and whoever has food must do likewise’. That was his instruction to people in the crowd as individuals, but John doesn’t stop there. He then addresses the representatives of authority and government: the tax collectors and Herodian soldiers. ‘Don’t extort money … be satisfied with your wages’ he tells them. That is don’t exploit your power. It’s a message to all with power or responsibilities.
So John has a sharp and pithy explanation of what the word ‘repentance’ means. It’s actions, not words, that count. And let’s remember that this call isn’t just to the crowd two thousand years ago, it’s to us today. My question to you, to myself, today, is how do we answer that call to repentance? John is asking us for concrete and specific changes. We might not feel comfortable with changing what we do, and how we do it, but that’s John’s challenge to us this morning.
Well, you might say, ‘We’re not a bad bunch, why should we change?’ or perhaps ‘That’s easy for you to say. We’re tired. We already do loads of good thing in this church and community. What more do you want?’ Or even ‘This last eighteen months of Covid have been really tough. Get off our backs and let us do a little bit of recuperation’. And I would have to say that these are very fair comments and I recognise the truth in them.
There’s lots of Kingdom building things happening here already. People helping with lunch clubs and the food bank. All the work in schools and with children. New initiatives like ‘Open the Book’ just starting out – well done to everyone who was involved just this last week. The Terracycle recycling project which has been running from Holy Trinity. And all the good things which people do week in and week out to enable us to be the praying, worshipping people of God in Whaley Bridge. So many good things.
And the Parish has proved that, in fact, it can embrace and adapt to change when it has to. Look how quickly you all got on board with Zoom and online services because of Covid. I think you should be pretty proud of that.
And yet, and yet. John’s word is a tough and demanding one. For a lively and committed church like this, I think he shouts out a word of warning to us. ‘Don’t get complacent. Don’t stand on your laurels’.
John invites us to take a hard look at ourselves and, what we do, and to be brave about what we see. ‘Bear fruits worthy of repentance’ he says.
And if we take that hard look it might be that we see that there are new things we should be involved with, or things which should stop doing or change. That’s not to diminish all the good which is done, rather it’s taking John, and indeed Jesus’, challenge seriously. And we might find that some of the changes demanded are hard but perhaps we can take comfort in knowing that we’re not on our own in that. Everyone finds that going through a period of change is a challenge, but we have met challenges like this before and will do again.
I hope very much that, as we emerge from this winter and the current covid restrictions, we are able to see that as an opportunity to take a look at what we do and how we do it and see whether we’re in tune with God’s call to us here in this place. I don’t know yet whether that might mean changes but, if it does, then I hope that we’re able to take confidence from the long history of our creative response to the Gospel’s call in order to find the new paths, make the right changes, if needed.
And if we take that long, hard look prayerfully, thoughtfully, carefully, then we can be confident that God will walk alongside us in whatever new direction we take, even if that does mean change and new horizons.
So may the God of all justice search us out and illuminate our journey of discipleship here in Whaley Bridge. May He fill us with wisdom and insight to see where His Holy Spirit is already active, running ahead of us to build the Kingdom where He will. And may God give us the courage to embrace the changes and challenges which will confront us as disciples of our risen Lord.
Amen