Third Sunday in Advent
December 13, 2009
Text: Luke 3: 7-18
Counting today, there are twelve days until Christmas. We do not usually make much of the twelve days before Christmas. We make much more of the twelve days of Christmas from December 25 through January 5. The popular Christmas carol “The Twelve Days of Christmas” tells us what our true love should buy for us. Every year we get a price list of all the things that a true love can buy for his/her love – from a partridge in a pear tree to twelve drummers drumming.
However, on these twelve days prior to Christmas, John the Baptist has us thinking of what we should do as children of God while we wait for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to come. John has been calling on us to repent – to examine our lives, asking, “Is Christ the center of my life, or am I? How am I living my life? How do I need to turn it around? How do I need to change my heart and mind toward my relationships with God and others? Just twelve days before Christmas, is my preparation for Christmas more about me than it is about Christ and others?
John’s preaching was heard by his first century listeners. They changed their hearts and minds about themselves, and their relationships with God and others. They wanted to turn their lives around. John then challenges them, “Bear fruit worthy of repentance.” Their reply was, “What should we do?”
Repentance, the change of heart, comes first; then comes the bearing of good fruit. The converted heart produces the change of life. Bearing fruit does not make one repentant; but true repentance has us producing proper fruit. Having our minds, hearts and lives changed puts this question before us, “What fruit should we bear?”
John is not telling the people what they should do, as if it were a something oppressive. We all have heard the “shoulds” that have come our way – “You should do this” or “You shouldn’t do that.” This is sometimes described as “being should on.”
The people are not asking John for more shoulds to follow. They are asking for guidance in living their new lives. The people’s question is not, “What should we do that we might repent?” Their question is, “Now that we have repented – now that our minds and hearts are changed – how should we live our lives?” Or to put it in other terms, we can ask, “Now that I am saved – now that I am forgiven – now that I am adopted by God – what should I do?” Having a repentant heart, we want to do what God would have us to do.
Using John’s responses to the crowds, the tax collectors and the soldiers, I have come up with twelve things that God would have us do in these next twelve days leading up to Christmas.
On the twelfth day before Christmas, let us bear the fruit of praying for and financially supporting our ministry to Lutheran World Relief. They share coats and blankets to those who have none. They provide health kits to refugees and school kits to children. Having our hearts and minds changed this is what we should do.
On the eleventh day before Christmas, let us bear the fruit of praying for and financially supporting our denomination’s World Hunger Appeal, our local Project SHARE, Meals on Wheels and other agencies and groups sharing food with those who have none. Having our hearts and minds changed this is what we should do.
On the tenth day before Christmas, let us bear the fruit of praying for and financially supporting the ministries of Samaritan Fellowship, Safe Harbor, and Habitat for Humanity. They provide emergency shelter and housing for the homeless; financial assistance and other help to families in time of crisis. What the Good Samaritan did, so we are to do for those in need. Having our hearts and minds changed this is what we should do
On the ninth day before Christmas, let us bear the fruit of praying for and financially supporting our sister congregation Divine Redeemer in San Miguel, El Salvador and our sister synod, the Konde Diocese in Tanzania. Out of the abundance God has given us, we help others in their needs. Having our hearts and minds changed this is what we should do
On the next six days before Christmas, let us bear the fruit of diligently obeying and submitting to the Ten Commandments concerning our love of neighbor. On the eighth day let us honor, serve, obey, love and respect our parents and others in authority. On the seventh day let us not endanger or harm the lives of others, but instead help and support them in all of life’s needs. On the sixth day let us lead pure and decent lives in word and deed, and let us love and honor our spouses. On the fifth day let us not steal our neighbor’s money or property nor acquire them by shoddy merchandise or crooked deal, but instead help them to improve and protect their property and income. On the fourth day let us not tell lies about our neighbors, betray or slander them, or destroy their reputations. Instead, let us come to their defense, speak well of them, and interpret everything they do in the best possible light. On the third day, let us not try to trick our neighbors out of their inheritance or property, or try to entice, force or steal away from our neighbors their spouses, household workers or livestock, but instead be of help and serve to them in keeping what is theirs. Having our hearts and minds changed this is what we should do
On the second day before Christmas, let us bear the fruit of diligently obeying and submitting to the Ten Commandments concerning our love of God. Let us fear, love and trust God above all things, by not misusing his Name and by gladly hearing and learning God’s Word. Having our minds and hearts changed this is what we should do
On the night of Christmas Eve, and the morning of Christmas Day, let us drive away the temptations of the world – its greed, self-absorption, self-centeredness, recklessness, prejudice and violence. Let us put aside our worries, fears, anxieties, insecurities, even our guilt and shame. Imagine yourself with nothing – no coat, no food. Imagine yourself as being nothing. Imagine yourself as being before the judgment seat of God.
And yet there with you is a child, lying in a humble manger. Not just any child, rather the child of God born for you. The good news of Jesus’ birth will be all that you need. Having your hearts and minds changed, you have opened yourselves to the God who comes to turn your lives around – to transform your sin into forgiveness, your fear and despair into courage and hope, and finally your death into everlasting life.
I’ll close with the words of St. Paul from our second reading,
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.
The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything,
but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving
let your requests be made known to God.
And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,
will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
Amen.