The Gospel reading from the Revised Common Lectionary for
this coming Third Sunday of Advent (December 13, 2015) reports the preaching of
John the Baptist, which was received by the people as Good News but angered the
politicians, specifically King Herod because of all the evil things he had
done. As I meditated on these 2,000 year
old words, I heard them in the context of the current escalatingly inflammatory
US political season. Listen to John today!
“You brood of
vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do not begin to say to
yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from
these stones to raise up children to Abraham. 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.” … The one coming after
me “will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 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.”
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