Third Sunday of Advent - Decmeber 16

Rejoice, You Brood of Vipers
Zephaniah 3:14-20
Philippians 4:4-7
Luke 3:7-18

On this Third Sunday of Advent, as we look forward to Christmas, we are still in the wilderness with John the Baptist. John, of course, is one of the main figures of Advent. John, who helped prepare the way for Jesus’ coming.

On the whole, John the Baptist seems to have been a glass half empty sort of guy.

“You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” Repent!

If he had been more of a glass half full sort of guy, he might have said, “Rejoice, you brood of vipers, your salvation is drawing near.” Rejoice, you brood of vipers.

The other readings appointed for this Sunday are full of rejoicing. Rejoice in the Lord always, Paul says to the Philippians. And Zephaniah, not necessarily known for his cheerful disposition, can hardly contain himself: “Sing aloud O daughter Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem.”

Rejoice, you brood of vipers. The people John is calling vipers are people who had come to him for baptism! It’s a mixed group. Crowds of people coming out from Jerusalem to the wilderness… Matthew’s account suggests Pharisees and Sadducees were among them, the religious elite of the day. Luke mentions soldiers and tax collectors, the social scum of that day. I tend to smile at John’s hyperbole… brood of vipers. But I imagine he was pretty serious. John say all of the people gathered were, in the words of today’s collect, “sorely hindered by their sins.”

And to those sinners, he says, do not flee. John perceives the people trying to escape judgment by fleeing. The image he has is of snakes or other wildlife trying to flee from a spreading wildfire.  The fire of judgment.  And he says, you cannot escape judgment by fleeing. It’s a futile effort. Impossible. Neither can you expect a pass on judgment just because you have Abraham for an ancestor. Your only hope is repentance. Repent, because there is forgiveness. Repentance is not a solution to sin in and of itself. The reason to repent is because God forgives.

And that is something to rejoice about. Rejoice, God will forgive. Even you. You brood of vipers. Our repentance and God’s forgiveness lead to a new world. Zephaniah is talking about that world on the other side of God’s forgiveness. The Lord has taken away the judgments against you. The Lord is in your midst. He will renew you in his love.

John preached repentance, but promised forgiveness. The Greek word translated repentance is metanoia. Metanoia, which means a course correction. In addition to an acknowledgement of regret for past sins, metanoia carries with it the promise of a new and better path. Rejoice, on the other side of repentance is forgiveness. Renewal in God’s love.

The horrible shooting Friday in Newtown, Connecticut, is before us all today. Over the course of the day on Friday as I heard more about the tragedy, I was reminded of this prayer. It’s in the Rite 1 burial service in the Book of Common Prayer.

"Help us, we pray, in the midst of things we cannot understand, to believe and trust in the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, and the resurrection to life everlasting. Amen."

Help us to believe in the forgiveness of sins. John the Baptist brings the promise of God’s forgiveness of sins. Help us to believe and trust in the proclamation that John brings of forgiveness. The communion or fellowship of saints and the resurrection to life everlasting are things we come to understand after John, from Jesus.

In this wilderness in which we still find ourselves, in the midst of things we cannot understand, stir up your power O Lord, and help us. Help us to believe and trust and even rejoice in the promise that John brings of forgiveness, the promise that God will be with us and renew us in his love. And help us, too, beyond John’s proclamation, to believe and trust and even rejoice the communion of saints and in the resurrection hope made known to us through the one whose coming John foretold, Jesus.

You brood of vipers, rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.