Brent Kuhlman

+ Jesu Juva +

Did you hear what the preacher John said?  Called you a brood of vipers!  Got to give him credit.  He didn’t say it behind your back.  He preaches it right to your face.  “Brood of vipers!”  Wow!  That’s pretty harsh. 

But there’s more.  The wrath of God is coming.  Produce the fruit of repentance.  Quit banking on your family history for salvation.  “The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” 

Maybe we should have listened to the church supervisor's advice last week and dropped John from the call list.  Brood of vipers!  Come on!  Really!

Yes, brood of vipers.  Certainly got your attention, didn’t he?

Do you have ears that hear?  Preacher John is very concerned about you.  The Christ is coming.  He is more powerful than unworthy John.  He’ll baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire.  The winnowing fork is in His hand.  Gathering the wheat into His barn.  Burning up the chaff.  So John preaches a your-salvation-is-at-stake sermon.  He wants you to be ready for Christ’s coming.  He’s giving you high pastoral care so that you don’t end up being thrown into the eternal fire of hell.

What should you do?  It’s a six-letter word.  A dirty six-letter word for some.  Is it a dirty word for you too?  The life that God wants is for you to REPENT.  That’s why He’s sent you preacher John this morning.   

You are to repent.  Right of the bat, that means that you receive the name he called you as the truth about you.  “Brood of vipers.”  In other words, confess that you’re sinners.  Real ones.  Not make believe ones.  Poor miserable sinners who deserve nothing but the punishment of forevermore hell-fire.  But that’s only the first part of repentance.     

Then comes the most important part of repentance.  That’s faith.  To believe.  To trust.  Not in John.  He’s not the Christ.  Believe in the One John proclaims:  Jesus.  Jesus is the Christ.  Jesus is the Savior.  The Crib Christ.  The Cross Christ.  The Risen and Ascended Christ Jesus.  The Christ Jesus in your Holy Spirit filled Baptism.  The Christ Jesus in the bread and wine of Holy Communion.  Believe in that Jesus.  There is no other.

In faith use Jesus against your sin.  No matter what sin it is.  Why?  Because He’s died for it.  Good Friday-ed it.  Forgiven it.  All of it.  No matter how naughty.  Believe Jesus.  Trust that in Him you are forgiven.  Because you are.  He gave His life into death for you.  He baptized you into His Good Friday death.

So that you can now live a new life.  And that’s a third part of repentance.  It’s a faith that gives birth to works.  Preacher John put it this way:  “Produce fruits in keeping with repentance.”  God expects good fruit from you.  You are His good trees because you’ve been grafted on to the Good Friday Tree of Life. 

What do these fruits of faith look like?  It is the life of living sacrificially for others.  It is the life of love for those who need it.  Do you have two coats?  Share one with someone who doesn’t have one.  Look at your pantry and freezers.  Share your food with those who are hungry.  The youth group has tubs for you to fill by the front door.  They’re collecting coats and food for the poor and needy.  There’s an opportunity for you to live freely for others.

What if you’re baptized and work for the IRS?  What if you’re baptized and you’re a soldier, sailor, airman, or marine?  Do you have to quit being a tax collector?  Do you have to get out of the military?  No.  Stay in your vocations.  The answer for the taxman is:  be honest.  Don’t cheat people by charging them more than what is required.  The answer for the armed forces folks is:  Don’t use your vocation to extort money from people who’d be intimidated by you.  Don’t accuse people falsely.  Be content with your pay even if it’s not so hot.  You live not for yourself.  You live for the benefit of others.  Serve people by doing your vocation honestly and with integrity as a taxman or a soldier. 

Most of you don’t work for the IRS and you’re not in the armed forces.  But all of you are citizens.  And as citizens this is what your new life or the fruit of repentance is to be like.  In Romans 13 it says:  “Everyone must submit to the governing authorities . . . for he is God’s servant to do you good . . . This is why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing.  Give everyone what you owe him:  If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.”   

All of you live in families too.  And everyone knows that family life gets into trouble and can end in disaster when members of the family live only for themselves.  God has put you into a family.  For the good of each another.  Children are to honor their parents.  And parents are to take care of the children. 

And yet there are hurts.  Harm.  Sin.  Fathers exasperate their children.  Children rebel.  Relatives who refuse to speak to one another for whatever reason.  The healing salve is the love of forgiveness.  With no conditions.  No strings attached.  Just as God in Christ loves you.    Go ahead.  Justify yourself and your sinful actions.  Keep playing the endless blame games and grudge holding matches. Withhold forgiveness.  But I warn you.  That’s not a life.  It is a prison.

And that brings us back to the preacher God sent us last week and today with his sermon of repentance.  For all of us who make up this brood of vipers.  In whom there is the poison of sin. 

Every day you are given to repent.  Death to the old Adam!  Life for the new man in Christ’s forgiveness!  Always baptismally starting over every day in faith.  Faith in Jesus the Christ who died for you.  Use Him against your sin.

Why?  Because He’s taken care of it all in His dying and rising.  And now there is the life of love for the neighbor.  God doesn’t need your love.  He wants your trust.  And that frees you to serve your neighbor as good trees that bear good fruit.  Provide your neighbor with coats, food, taxes, obedience, respect, honor, love and forgiveness. 

Preacher John should be invited back.  His divine call to preach never revoked.  After all, today he gave you what you needed.  Showed you your sin.  And then most of all preached Christ Jesus who saves you from getting the axe and being burned up in hell.  He preached Jesus who will gather you into His barn on the Last Day.   So when preacher John shows up again in the lectionary, let’s welcome his exhortation and preaching of the good news of the Savior. 

In the Name of Jesus.  Amen.