Grace and peace to you from God, our creator and sustainer, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit that abides in each of us.

A couple of weeks ago, the main headline on the front page of the Kansas City Star read “The Spirit of Giving is the Essence of Living.”  This was a story about how, even in these difficult economic times, there are still many ways all of us can give of ourselves.  So often people think that when we speak about giving to the poor or being charitable that it takes money to be charitable.  Yet, as this article pointed out, the giving of ourselves and our time is often the best way we can be charitable and make a real difference in this world.  In one case, the article spoke about a woman who discovered that taking her two dogs to an assisted living facility every Saturday providing therapy and joy for the people living there.  When asked why she did this every week, the woman responded, “Because of the joy” her dogs would bring to those patients.  As I read through the five different stories in the article, it became very clear that there are many people in this world, even right here in Kansas City, who have discovered that serving others is truly a great joy.

Believe it or not, our Gospel lesson this morning does speak about this. I think it is just difficult to hear this message when John begins by calling the people that have gathered a “brood of vipers.”  That doesn’t seem like a very nice way of welcoming all of these people, or “the crowds,” as Luke calls them.  In the text just before this from last Sunday, we are told that the people flocked out to listen to John seeking to be baptized, but now, the minute they get there, John insults them.  But what we do not understand in this text is something that John apparently knows.  He knows that these crowds of people are, as one scholar calls them, “non-committed people.”  These are people who are just kind of “fishing” for information, and John wants to know why they want to be baptized.  He suspects that they are there because someone else told them to come or that they are there because they heard if they receive this baptism that they will receive some kind of reward.  He is pretty sure that none of them are prepared for the kind of “radical discipleship” that will be required of all those who seek this baptism of repentance.  If John were here today, it would be like him saying to a parent bringing their child for baptism, Are you here because Grandma wants this child baptized because it is the thing all Christians do or are you here because you want to help your child become a radical disciple of Christ?  John wants the people who are coming to know that if they are coming to be baptized into this baptism of repentance, they must prepare themselves for the messiah who is coming, they must begin to bear the fruit worthy of repentance.  That is, just because you repent doesn’t mean you are finished.  In other words, you can’t simply repent and then live as you always have.  We can’t live on the fact that, “I am a child of Abraham,” or for a Christian today, “I am a Christian”; we must live our faith, and when we do we will discover great joy.  Just because the Jews have Abraham as their “father” or you and I have Jesus as our Lord and Savior, that does not give either of us the right to not partake in God’s healing mission in this world.  In fact, if we make these claims, then we should be living the faith by offering our very lives to the rest of the world.  As John understands it, when the messiah comes, he will demand complete obedience, not out of fear, but out of the joy of knowing that the messiah already saved the world.  For John, our motives for all of our actions are critical.  Bearing good fruit is not just about doing good things; more importantly, it is about doing them for the right reasons.

Back to our Gospel, I am fascinated by the response of the crowd.  John has called them a terrible name, a “brood of vipers.”  Today that would be like being called a bunch of “SOBs.”  He has accused them of relying on their history, believing as children of Abraham that they do not have to live differently than the rest of the world, and he has threatened them by saying that every tree that does not bear fruit will be cut down and burned (3:9).  After all of these harsh words, the crowd says (3:10), “What then should we do?”  I love this question.  For me, this is one of the great questions of faith.  It is a question that implies that we want to be part of God’s mission, so how do we get signed up?  These “non-committed” people want to commit, but they do not know how.  The word we translate as “do” in this question in Greek is poieo, which literally means “to bear.”  So the crowd is asking “What should we bear?  That is b-e-a-r, not b-a-r-e!  This isn’t a question of how much skin they should bare as they streak across the wilderness.  In all seriousness, it appears these people have had a change of heart (metenoia), and now they want guidance, they want to know how they can bear the fruit that John is speaking of.  Notice what John does not tell them.  He does not say, Go to your synagogue and pray, He does not say, Go to worship every Sunday morning, and he does not say, Read your bible more.  These are all very important things to do, but John is not focused on the traditional “religious” actions we always want to associate with discipleship.  John says to be a “radical disciple,” to go and live the life you are living differently.  He is not talking to rich people here.  To have two “coats” was something even the very poor had.  The term we translate as “coat” is referring to a shirt worn next to the skin, not an outer coat, and even the poor usually only had two such “coats”, one for everyday and one for the Sabbath.  John is saying even if you have nothing, if you have two shirts, you have more than others, so give one away.  You may be poor, but you can share what you do have.  To the tax collectors and soldiers, John says just because the system we live in allows you to take advantage of people doesn’t mean you should.  In fact, God says never take advantage of others!  Only take what is fair and be happy with what you have, “be satisfied with your wages.”  Wow, how many of us can say, “Okay, Lord, I will be satisfied with my wages and I will discover all of the ways I can serve in this world with what I have.”  To sum up John’s response, in each case he is telling us not to be greedy with the gifts God has provided, even if what we have is minimal. 

So the question of the day is, “What then should we do?  Well, isn’t this the question we have been asking now for a couple of years as we have journeyed through the Partnership for Missional Church (PMC) process?  We have been trying to discover who we are, what we have, and what we should do.  And John says to all of that, Be happy with who you are, be happy with what you have, and share that with the world.  A few weeks ago, the PMC team created a statement of who we, at Salem Lutheran Church, are.  The team gathered comments from many leaders in this community, over 30 of them if my numbers are correct, and then took those statements about Salem and came up with this sentence:  Salem Lutheran Church is a thriving faith community of all ages with a rich musical heritage and a growing desire to share the love of Christ by serving others.  This is the first time I have shared this statement with anyone, not because I did not like it, but because I have been praying about it.  And the more I pray about this statement, the more I believe this statement does describe who we are.  This is a faith community that is asking, "What should we do?"  People at Salem do desire to share their gifts, but like the crowds in the desert, we do not always know how.  I have had individuals say to me, "Pastor, I can do this," or "I can do that, so please, if you know of anyone that needs what I can do, let me know I will be happy to help." 

As we once again await the coming of our Lord, I pray that we never stop asking, “What then should we do?"  I pray that as we enter this New Year, all of us, as one faith community, discover the joy of serving the Lord, and in so doing, serving our brothers and sisters.   Amen