We must not forget just how radical the first part of John’s
message would sound to a Jewish audience accustomed to thinking of themselves
as the “chosen people” or the “people of the covenant”. John the Baptist
basically says that just because you were born Jewish doesn’t entitle you to
any special relationship with God or any special status in God’s eyes. Wow, a radical message indeed. The Jews’ claim to
be the “chosen people” is blown apart by John who insists that a true follower
of God is known by his or her deeds and not who your ancestors were or whether
you were Bar Mitsva’d or not.
For John a Jew is as a Jew does. The direct application of
this today for us is the same. A Christian is as a Christian does – in perfect
accord with the message of Jesus who said “It is by our fruits that we will be
known” – not by how many times we go to church or re-state what we say we
believe, but for Christians – how much we love.
Jesus’ brother James in his letter in the New Testament puts
it even more boldly when he writes “Faith without works is dead”.
The principle here is that what we believe will be pretty
accurately reflected in what we say and do.
Quite justifiably the people in the crowd are curious to
know what a person’s life may look like if lived in accordance with a deep
knowledge of God and so the crowd
questions John. “What then should we do?”
John answers this general question with an answer that could
only be described as “redistribution of wealth” or more generally as “Justice
for the poor”. And this would be in full accordance with everything the Old
Testament says about God. If you have two coats give one away – if you have a
surplus of food, share it. In fact, a
concern for Justice, and dismay at exploitation of the poor is the overriding
concern of the prophets in the Hebrew scriptures. John’s answers if put into action would have
a huge impact on the way society organises itself of course but also has a
personal component. In fact all three
answers John gives are centred on Justice.
So to the tax collectors he implores them not to exploit
people and to the soldiers, instead of a treatise on the morality of war or
bearing arms which you might expect, John tells them not to extort money using
force. Justice and fairness are uppermost, especially in relation to money.
The general spiritual principle undergirding this sense of
Justice is an important one;
It is this: We are all made in the image of God, and none of
us is any more deserving of the fruits of the earth than anyone else. None of
us are more blessed by God than anyone else. In God there is no partiality.
These are concepts that trip off the tongue so easily yet in real life, where
the rubber hits the road it is just so difficult. God may show no partiality,
but we certainly do. We sort out in our minds who we think is more deserving and who isn’t. The invitation to all would be
followers of the Jesus way is to show more of the indiscriminate grace of God in our interactions with people and not to
judge them.
I remember being what many will call a soft touch with the
tramps that used to inhabit the churchyard in Margate, and sometimes when I
used to give them money people would say. “You know that’ll just get spent on
drink, don’t you?” “That’s funny I used
to think to myself. That’s exactly what I was going to spend it on as well!
But life is so complex it is truly difficult. Don’t be too
hard on others, but equally don’t be too hard on yourself either. It is also too
easy to judge yourself and think you are
a terrible person when you are not. You are a simple enfleshed human being
trying your hardest in a complex world.
Sometimes you just have to exhibit a couple of other divine qualities we
could all do with more of – wisdom and discernment.
So, rather surprisingly perhaps, or perhaps it isn’t
surprising knowing what the prophets were always prophesying is that true
repentance (reorienting your life) would be seen in a concern for fairness and
justice. The use of money and the way
society is organised economically are
spiritual issues that were close to John the Baptist’s heart. And when you read
the Hebrew scriptures you see that it was the central concern of all the
prophets and one can discern from that – that to be living in accordance with
God one needs to be just and fair.
But the reason we need to be just and fair expressed in
Christian language – is that we are all children of God – we all share one
Father so to hurt another is to hurt yourself and God, which ultimately is one
and the same thing.
We do live in a complex and confusing world, which often
seems all too eager to swindle and deceive us; a world where seeing everyone as
a child of God takes a superhuman effort on our part – a huge act of faith to
continue to trust when that trust is abused, to continue to treat impartially
when there is pressure to discriminate, to risk being thought of as a gullible
idiot in a dog eat dog world.
But this is the central practical application of a spiritual
truth that all are loved equally and that everyone really is our brother and
sister.
If we can hold that belief whilst keeping ourselves and our
conduct informed by a discernment and wisdom that is also divine then we are on
the way, the path set by Jesus. We may fall off that path quite a lot but with
practice and without reproach, ( by which I mean prayer and meditation and
forgiveness of yourself) just dust ourselves down and trust that nevertheless
this path – the path of Love of God and loving your neighbour - is the right
one that is in accordance with the will of God.
All of this – a concern for justice and fairness, equality
in God, discernment and wisdom will be gained according to Paul in our other
reading today by living out of the innate central peace and understanding
gained from a relationship with God, whose qualities we are trying to manifest,
to make known in our lives. Centreing
our lives in God’s grace produces good fruit in our lives.
