Read the Lectionary Texts

I hate snakes. Always have. Always will.

For the life of me, I cannot understand people like the late Steve Irwin, the Australian Crocodile Hunter. Steve traveled all around the world simply for the pleasure of picking up the most poisonous reptiles, holding them close to his face and saying, “Crimey! Ain’t she a beauty?”

No!!!! It’s a snake!!!!!

I don’t understand people like Steve Irwin.

Neither do I understand George Hensley. George claimed to be the founder of the religious snake-handling movement that still exists today in parts of Appalachia. He traveled around the south during the early 1900’s, spreading snake-handling religion throughout the region. George died in 1955. Of a snakebite.

I don’t understand people like George Hensley. Or Steve Irwin.

Or for that matter…John the Baptist!

Did you catch his “snake-handling” act in the reading from Luke 3?

John, if you remember, was Jesus’ older cousin. When the time was right for Jesus to begin his ministry, John went on ahead of him, calling people to prepare the way of the Lord! He was like one of the prophets of old, and people flocked to hear his message. They were waiting and looking for a Messiah to come and free them from the yoke of the Roman occupation and bring them into a new day of God’s reign. And here was John, like the voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare ye the way of the Lord!”

But first, he had to handle some snakes.

As people came to John, looking for the beginning of the kingdom of God, John stopped them in their tracks as he greeted them.

“You brood of vipers!” he said. “Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?”

Not exactly a warm welcome was it? Surely not a Tellico Village Community Church, “Good morning! The Lord be with you!” kind of welcome! And definitely not something we’d expect to hear as we come to the third Sunday of Advent – Joy Sunday! – and closer to Christmas Day!

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

Suddenly, we realize that this coming of Christ that we celebrate at Christmas is no holiday! There is danger in the coming of Christ. There is conflict in the coming of Christ. There is, in the coming of Christ the Light of the world, a complete exposure of darkness wherever it is found.

Even when it is found in you and me as we come looking for Christ this Advent.

“You brood of vipers!” John greets us today

Well, happy Advent and merry Christmas to you, too!

Where do you suppose John got such a cockamamie idea – that the beautiful mothers and fathers and boys and girls who came to him looking for the kingdom of God were really – underneath all their outward appearances – poisonous snakes? Where’d he get such a crazy idea?

Well, John probably got the idea from his cousin Jesus!

That’s right, from Jesus!

You know, during the course of his ministry, Jesus used that very same phrase on several occasions. Mind you, Jesus never called anyone a “sinner.” But he didn’t have any qualms about describing people as a brood of vipers.

The term “brood of vipers” simply means snake babies! And what both John and Jesus were trying to get across is that we human beings have been born and bred in a venomous world where we cannot help but take on the genetic disposition of that world. Because the world is poisoned with sin, we ourselves are full of sin’s venom. And we’re pretty good at baring our fangs and biting!

But you can’t build God’s new world with poison! And that’s why Jesus needs to confront us with our reptilian behavior.

Let’s take a look at how this works.

In Matthew 12:34, Jesus uses “brood of vipers” to describe how people poison the world with their words. He says that good people speak good things out of the good that is found within them. And evil people speak evil things out of the evil within. And then Jesus says something really important: “People will have to give account on judgment day for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words, you will be acquitted, and by your words, you will be condemned.”

You see, how we talk reveals how we truly are!

What do you think about the way people talk in the sphere of American politics today? Do we use the language of healing, or the language of poison? The language of building up, or the language of tearing down? I don’t think Jesus cares whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat – or like me, a Republicrat. But he does care about how we speak to each other and to the world. Poison? Or antidote? Do we speak as the children of God building a new world? Or as a brood of vipers inflicting snakebites that preserves the old?

And what about you and me in our personal conversations – with spouses, children, grandchildren, neighbors? What kind of words do we use as we engage with the people around us – the people who are building our houses, or waiting on us in restaurants, or serving us on the POA Board?

Every careless word, Jesus says, will be judged

Why? Because words can heal, or words can poison.

And you can’t build a new world of beauty and justice while inflicting verbal snakebites. So as we come to the beauty of Christmas, Jesus asks us to take a fearless moral inventory of our words. Would you be willing to do that in this Advent season?

Then, in Matthew 23:33, Jesus uses the term “brood of vipers” again. This time, he pins it directly on religious institutions. Oh, there’s a lot of poisonous religion in the world.

Religion that places a higher value on getting your own soul to heaven than on loving your neighbor here and now; religion that judges and condemns people, denying them the same grace and forgiveness we ourselves have received; religion that places a premium on personal piety, but neglects justice and mercy; religion that tells people not to think and that values religious nonsense more highly than scientific fact. I mean, do you REALLY believe – in light of all that science can show us – that the earth is only 6,000 years old? Or that God could not use some evolutionary process as the means of creating the world? Or that, if the King James version of the Bible was good enough for Jesus, it should be good enough for me? Religion can poison not only peoples’ hearts, but also peoples’ minds to the point where it seems like a sin just to think and ask questions! That’s why so many people today reject the Christianity being practiced in so many of our churches. It has become a faith of selfish personal fulfillment, almost complete apathy toward the suffering of the world, and so much mindless drivel that cannot hold it’s own in today’s arena of competing ideas.

Why are so many of the world’s wars provoked by religion? How many women have been beaten, how many children have been abused, how many gay people have been killed, how many blacks have been enslaved, how many lepers have been banished, how many people with AIDS have been left to die while religious people quote some passage of Scripture to justify it all?

Oh, there’s lots of poisonous religion in our world.

And you can’t build a new world of beauty and justice by practicing it. So as we come to the beauty of Christmas, Jesus asks us to take a fearless moral inventory of our religion. Would you be willing to do that this Advent season?

And then we come to John’s encounter with the people in the desert in Luke 3.

You know, they are really no different than us. They’ve come in search of the meaning of life. That’s what we’re looking for too. They’ve come seeking healing for the broken things of their lives. And we seek healing too. They’ve come in hopes of finding God, and the life they’ve always dreamed of. That sounds just like you and me!

So when John brings them up short with his snake-handling speech, the people ask one of the most important questions you can ask in your search for spiritual wholeness.

“What should we do?” they ask.

What should we do to neutralize the venom within? What should we do to prepare the way of the Lord and make it possible for God to come sweeping into our lives and our world?

Well, here’s what John says:

 “If you have two coats, share one with someone who doesn’t have a coat.”

 “If you have food, share it with someone who doesn’t.”

 “If you’re in business, don’t gouge your customers.”

 “If you’re a soldier or someone in a position of authority, don’t take bribes, or falsely accuse others, and be content with what you’re paid.”

In other words, clothe the naked, feed the hungry, in your dealings be honest and have integrity, and be responsible and ethical in your work.

Another way to say it is this: the way to neutralize the poison of sin, and to prepare the way of the Lord to come into your life and into the world, is by committing yourself to building a life of GOODNESS!

Build a GOOD vocabulary! Build a GOOD religion! Build a GOOD way of living!.

I love Brian McLaren’s book, “A New Kind Of Christian.” What a great title! I think we need a new kind of Christian in our world today, don’t you? Well, one of the many great points that Brian McLaren raises in the book is that this new kind of Christian that the world so desperately needs is a person who understands that when the Bible calls us to be righteous, it does not mean to be “right”.

Did you hear that? To be righteous is NOT to be RIGHT!

In fact, a lot of the poison we send into the world is injected through the needle of the need to think we are “right.” My religion is “right” and your religion is “wrong.” My politics are “right” and your politics are “wrong.” My church is “right”, your church is “wrong.” My lifestyle is “right”, your lifestyle is “wrong.”

And all over the world, people go about the task of trying to be “right” and finding where others are “wrong.” And then the two sides inject venom into the other, trying to kill it. That’s the classic battle of religion, isn’t it?

But, McLaren says, somewhere along the line, we’ve forgotten what righteousness really means in the Bible.

It is not to be “right.”

It is to be GOOD – good in the eyes of God, and good in the eyes of our neighbors!

So how can you prepare the way of the Lord into your own heart? How can you prepare the way of the Lord to come to others and into our world?

Well, by becoming a new kind of Christian! And by taking up a new kind of religion – one that centers itself on clothing the naked, and feeding the hungry, and living with honesty and integrity, and being responsible and ethical in all we do, and say, and believe.

And then trusting that God will come – to you – and to the world!

Are you willing to become that new kind of Christian?

Are we willing to become that new kind of church?

Today, God invites us to new words, new faith, and the new life of Jesus’ coming!

JOY…to the world!