Lk 3:7-18
14 December 2003
3rd Sunday of Advent
“What Then Must We Do?”
I’m calling this one a “meditation” instead of a “sermon,” since my intention is to take less time presenting the message this morning, knowing that we’ve also had the children’s Christmas program. That’s my intention. So we’ll see how that goes!
When I was at seminary in Philadelphia, I knew a guy named Dwight Ozard, who’s from the other side of the lake, in London, Ontario. He introduced me to a movie that I tend to think of now every time I read today’s gospel text about John the Baptist. It’s called The Year of Living Dangerously, and it won an Academy Award in 1983 for Best Supporting Actress. It was Linda Hunt’s role as the dwarfish young man, Billy Kwan, that garnered the award. Mel Gibson as Guy Hamilton and Sigourney Weaver as Jill Bryant had the starring roles.
Billy Kwan is a photographer, born of Australian and Chinese parents, who introduces Guy Hamilton, an Australian journalist on his first foreign assignment, to the Indonesia of 1965. The political setting involves the president, Sukarno, who’s struggling to stay in control, while both right-wing military generals and communist insurgents make a push for power.
Early in the movie, Billy walks with Guy down the street into one of Jakarta’s many slums. Billy suddenly says, half to himself and half to Guy, “The people asked him then, ‘What shall we do?’ What then must we do?” Guy responds, “What’s that?” It’s then that Billy Kwan tells him that he’s quoting John the Baptist in Luke 3.
He goes on and tells how Tolstoy, the Russian novelist, got so upset over the fate of the poor in Moscow that one night he went into the poorest section and gave away all his money. “You could do that now,” Billy says to Guy. “Five American dollars would be a fortune to these people.” Guy responds, “Wouldn't do any good, just be a drop in the ocean.” Billy acknowledges that he may be naïve, but this is his outlook: “You just don’t think about the major issues. You do whatever you can about the misery in front of you. Add your light to the sum of light.”
Later in the movie, after visiting the mother of a very sick child, he writes in his journal, “In another country, she would be a decent woman. Here she begs, and perhaps sells herself. Her tragedy is repeated a million times in this city. What then must we do? We must give with love to whomever God has placed in our path.”
Billy Kwan is haunted by the question that the crowds ask John the Baptist after he issues his warning—his warning that just going through the motion of baptism is meaningless. What then must we do? “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise” (v. 11). When tax collectors ask the question, they’re told to watch their greed—collect no more than necessary. Soldiers ask the question, and they’re warned about some age-old temptations for men with weapons—avoid bullying, avoid extortion.
People have presented themselves to John for baptism. There’s been a lot of debate about the meaning of John’s baptism. There tends to be general agreement that the ministry of John the Baptist is unique. He’s a prophet, but one with a special purpose. As we see later in the scripture reading, John tells the crowds that he isn’t the Messiah; he’s the one preparing the way for him. More than any other figure in scripture, John’s role is about the advent of Jesus Christ.
Prophets don’t usually make good diplomats. John’s reference to the people as a “brood of vipers” is a good case in point (v. 7). In his somewhat less than amiable way, John is letting them know that merely being a descendant of Abraham doesn’t amount to much.
Or, as I suggested already, simply letting the Baptizer do his thing won’t cut it. They must “bear fruits worthy of repentance,” as verse 8 puts it. In his version called The Message, Peterson picks up on the image of vipers when he has John say, “What do you think you're doing slithering down here to the river? Do you think a little water on your snakeskins is going to deflect God's judgment? It's your life that must change, not your skin.”
Blunt he may be, John gives the people a valuable lesson about their faith. Both Judaism, and Christianity which developed from it, are ethical faiths. That is, ethics matters in being a Jew or a Christian. In fact, all the major world religions have evolved in that way. Right belief needs to have right practice, right action. Attending the ceremony, participating in worship, is but the first step.
And the warning of John the Baptist applies to us. As we watch the kids’ Christmas program, and listen to the music and song, we may well ask, “What then must we do?” Do we take the advice of Billy Kwan? Do we add our light to the sum of light? Do we give with love to whomever God has placed in our path?
All of us are pressured to let these words go in one ear and out the other: to forget or ignore the transformation that comes with the advent of Christ into our world. But there are reminders all around us, and we’ll be getting one sooner than we think.
What then must we do?