Third Sunday of Advent; 12 December 2021; Advent 3C (RCL); Zephaniah 3:14-20; Canticle 9; Philippians 4:4-7; Luke 3:7-18.
Zephaniah, like so many of the prophets of the exile, imagines the restoration of Jerusalem and the return of the captives. A common theme in all the songs of restoration is the presence of God in the midst of God’s people. Even Canticle 9, a poem from the period before the exile, imagines God present in the midst of God’s people. Both imagine God as a warrior protecting the people. Canticle 9 picks up the theme of security (draw water with rejoicing from the springs of salvation — the wells are inside the walls).
It is the restored presence of God in the midst of the people that characterizes the vision of the ideal community of righteousness. No longer do we need a king to execute justice; God will be in our midst, and we will live God’s righteousness as a matter of course.
John the Baptist is out at the Jordan River, bringing a new people across the Jordan into the holy land. Jesus, the new Joshua, joins him on the fringes of the land, part of the new conquest. This, of course, was a politically dangerous statement to make, casting the Jerusalem authorities in the role of the Canaanites, whom God will drive out of the land to make room for God’s people.
But John’s message comes with a twist (not that certain prophets before him, like the latter part of Isaiah, hadn’t already seen this new vision). No longer is it just the captives who return, but a newly constituted people. And John couples this restoration, this new conquest of the land, with the wrath to come. Without repentance, the wrath will consume the illegitimate occupants of the land.
After John has addressed his audience as a brood of vipers, he warns them not to claim descent from Abraham as sufficient protection from this new conquest. This would be particularly threatening to the Jerusalem authorities. God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. We are no special class of people. Instead, the trees that bear fruit will be saved, presumably the fruit of righteousness (this seems to be an echo of Psalm 1).
And then Luke inserts some of his own unique material. His audience ask what they must do, presumably to be bearing fruit. And John’s instructions are incredibly simply. Anyone with two coats should share with those who have none, and likewise food. And tax collectors, those ultimate collaborators, should collect no more than the appointed amount. So, collecting taxes does not automatically rule one out of court in this new people.
And even soldiers ask what they must do and are given instruction; don’t extort and be satisfied with what you have got. Apparently, Roman soldiers will be included in this new people by the act of baptism in the Jordan.
Ever since the crisis of the exile, the question of who belonged to the people of God had faced those people and been fiercely contested. The book of Numbers gives one answer — all twelve tribes, not just the two of the southern kingdom (Judah and Benjamin). Leviticus gave another answer — anyone who sacrifices at the altar. Ezra gave another — only those who could show descent from those families that went into exile. And Ruth another — anyone who demonstrates covenant loyalty, even a Moabite widow.
Luke, in the mouth of John, gives his own answer — those who live in such a way as to produce the fruits of righteousness. Human categories will no longer matter (children of Abraham). And this new people will be a completely restored humanity. John baptizes with water (for identity); the one coming after him baptizes with holy breath and fire. I see the first part of this sentence as a reference to creation, both the wind of God blowing over the waters of creation and the breath of God in Adam’s nostrils. And the fire is the refiners fire referenced in Malachai and other prophets, purifying this people, burning away all impurities, not just sinners out of the collective, but the defects of human nature brought on by Adam’s sin. Luke’s John the Baptist is Malachai’s Elijah the forerunner, turning the hearts of children to their parents and the hearts of parents to their children.
And Jesus is the new Joshua, leading us into the promised land to celebrate a meal for the renewal of the covenant of righteousness.