Third Sunday of Advent

Luke 3:7-18

On Tuesday night I went to a yoga class and heard the instructor tell us several times, “Keep your eyes open.” That was new to me, and I thought, “Oh, ok. There must be some deep, philosophical reason we keep our eyes open. Something about remaining alert to movement or body awareness.”

After class, I asked someone, “Why did he tell us to keep our eyes open?” and she said, “Because you’re less likely to fall.” I laughed at myself because I had made it so much more complicated than it was. The teacher’s instruction was simple and practical – “Keep your eyes open so you don’t fall!”

As we hear John the Baptiser proclaiming his message of repentance in today’s gospel, it’s easy to hear his instruction to repent, and then wonder, like the people around him, “What then shall we do?”

After all, repentance is one of those church-y words that we don’t hear other places, so it can sound strange to our ears. It must be complicated, right?

But John’s answer to the crowds, the tax collectors and the soldiers is very simple and practical –
make sure no one is naked or hungry;
don’t exploit or bully people you encounter.

Repentance involves turning away from ourselves and toward others.

I hear John’s instruction echoed in Martin Luther’s explanation of the commandments that he writes in his Small Catechism; there as he explains the seventh commandment not to steal, he writes, “We should fear and love God that we may not take our neighbor's money or property, nor get them by false dealing, but help him to improve and protect his property and business.

Repentance doesn’t earn our salvation, God’s love or relationship with us; it is our response to God’s redeeming love and steadfast presence in our lives.

It is action or activity that is grounded in servanthood or service to others. Turning away from ourselves, our egos and self-interest, we see how we can live in service to others in our everyday lives.

So, a life lived in repentance doesn’t have to mean you are sitting like Jonah in sackcloth and ashes;[i]
it is the caregiver who sleeps lightly, listening for a cry for help or comfort from their charge;
it is the friend who calls to check to make sure you have what you need before the storm;
it is the volunteers working at odd hours and in raw temperatures to get us ready for Sunday morning;
and it is all of you collecting socks to keep our neighbors warm this winter.

On this third Sunday of Advent, John’s words call us to a life of active and vibrant faith that we live out in community. Not with perfection, but with repentance and with the redeeming grace that God provides us all.

Let us pray…[ii]
Holy and Redeeming God,
We give you thanks that you come to baptise us in your Spirit and fire, renewing us in love and banishing our fear,
so that we might praise your name forever
and draw freely from the well of your salvation.
Amen.

[i] Jonah 3:6
[ii] “Short Preface, Third Sunday in Advent”, Laughing Bird Liturgy, http://laughingbird.net/ComingWeeks.html,  accessed 12/15/18