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Who is the One that is Coming? Third Sunday in Advent
Luke 3:7-18; Zephaniah 3:14-20; Isaiah 12:2-6; Philippians 4:4-7
These readings for the third Sunday in Advent provide two views of the nature of God: violent and non-violent. If God is just, and the world belongs to God, but the world is not just, then will God rectify the situation with violence – retributive consequences – or nonviolence – compassionate fairness?
John the Baptist is clearly on the side of violence: “Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. . . one who is more powerful than I is coming. . .” He blasts his hearers, calls them a nest of snakes, says don’t hide behind the fact that you are the children of Abraham. God is perfectly capable of raising up new children of Abraham out of the very stones, so he doesn’t need you. Then finally, when he has terrorized the crowds into asking what can they possibly do to save themselves from God’s wrath, the Baptizer suggests justice: “Whoever has two coats must share them with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.” He tells the tax collectors not to cheat, and the military not to extort money, and to be satisfied with their wages.
John is not preaching to the oppressed poor. He is preaching to those who have two coats, to the rich tax collectors, and to members of the military-industrial-government elite, who extort payment from everyone with threats and false accusations. And they love it – especially the part where John says he’s not the messiah. The messiah who is coming will bring even more violence down upon the heads of those who do not change their ways. “His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” It’s cathartic. We who repent will be saved, and the bad guys will definitely pay.
We’ve heard all this before – every three years, in fact, when the lectionary gets around to Year C. Most of us think we are off the hook. “Bear fruits worthy of repentance,” says John. And we do. We bundle up our unwanted clothing and call Purple Heart to come and get it. We give money to the church soup kitchen project, and we may even go help serve turkey to the homeless, or do a stint at a shelter for a few hours during the holidays. So what do we have to repent or feel regret or shame about? We certainly don’t extort money from anyone. The Congress is quite capable of that, and we have the tax payments to prove it. So, “Come O come, Emmanuel,” we sing, “and ransom captive Israel.” It is a military metaphor of forced exile. The Baptizer’s violent God punishes the people with political and military oppression for turning away from God’s law, and requires a price to be paid before justice and peace can be restored.
Likewise, the readings from the prophets Zephaniah and Isaiah promise violent deliverance for the exiled people of Israel, who shall return home once their enemies have been thoroughly vanquished. Isaiah promises a great king from the lineage of David, who will restore the people to their own land. “You will say in that day: I will give thanks to you, O Lord, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, and you comforted me. ... With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. And you will say in that day: Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name; make known his deeds among the nations. . . Shout aloud and sing for joy, O royal Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.” Zephaniah prophesies judgment against Jerusalem as well as the ones carried off into exile. God says, “in the fire of my passion all the earth shall be consumed.” Then and only then will the people be restored, and will no longer need to be afraid. “The Lord has taken away the judgments against you, he has turned away your enemies. . . On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: Do not fear, O Zion; The Lord your God is in your midst; . . . At that time I will bring you home . . . I will make you renowned and praised among all the peoples of the earth when I restore your fortunes before your eyes, says the Lord.”
However a people define their gods determines their definition of justice. If god is violent, uncompromising, requiring payment (an eye for an eye), then justice will be retributive, and revenge or self-interest (what’s in it for me?) will be what governs interactions between people. The law of the land in the United States is that one is innocent of wrongdoing until proven guilty. Yet the prevailing attitude among the people toward those accused or even suspected is the opposite. The ones who have borne bad fruit – a local drug dealer or bank robber, or Saddam Hussein, or the so-called “enemy combatants” plucked off the battlefields in Afghanistan and Iraq – are either on trial for their lives, or are safely shut up in prisons.
Traditional Christian dogma claims Jesus’ life as the price for salvation, which usually means winning eternity in heaven instead of hell. But Jesus, whom John the Baptist recognized as the messiah, early in his ministry rejected John’s retributive apocalypticism and John’s violent God. Jesus invited his followers to look within to find the kingdom of God, and to open eyes and ears and choose to participate in that kingdom now, not in some heaven at the end of time. In Philippians 4:4-7, Paul makes it clear that neither Jesus nor Jesus’ God is violent. He advises the followers of Jesus way to “Let your gentleness be known to everyone. 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 your minds in Christ Jesus.”
In The Christian Science Monitor of Monday, December 11, 2006, there was a story about the three surviving members of the Christian Peacemaker Team who had been held captive in Iraq from November 2005 through March 2006. On Friday, December 8, in a public hearing in London, Norman Kember, James Loney, and Harmeet Singh Sooden said they did not want “punitive” justice for their suspected captors. James Loney said, “Justice is about restoring relationships that have been broken. We are very, very concerned about the death penalty. It would be the worst possible outcome for us if they were to be sentenced to death. To lock them up and throw away the key is not justice. Punishment comes from the same mind-set that is behind the escalating spiral of violence that we see in Iraq that is being fueled by the governments in Washington and London. If they are punishing them on my behalf, that doesn’t do anything for me.” The story goes on to report that if the three men do not testify against their captors, either by identifying the suspects in photographs or by giving video evidence, the case could unravel. Loney says: “We were told there would be a possibility that they could walk away from this if we don’t testify. Not to excuse what they were doing, but there was a rationale for it. They saw themselves being part of a fight to defend their country.”
This extraordinary stand for compassion could result in no justice in a retributive system. In the Kingdom of God, however, where the rain falls on the just and the unjust, understanding the other, suffering with the other, restores relationship, and brings reconciliation and true peace. What is most important to Mr. Loney is to return to Iraq and meet with his former captors, to talk with them about what they did and what it meant to them then, and what it means to them now.
Those who love their enemies have no enemies. Perhaps even the crazed Baptizer, screaming out his frustration at the edge of town, realized that nonviolence is more powerful than violence, and that the fruits of his work didn’t even qualify him to be a slave to God’s anointed one. “I baptize you with water,” John says, “but one who is more powerful than I is coming; [and] I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals.”