Hello, my friends,

I have been reflecting a lot lately on the nature of repentance and what can cause us Christians to be so resistant from collectively doing so ourselves, even while we call for repentance from our culture and our world. So today, I want to invite us to look at a short passage from John the Baptist, where he is preaching a message of repentance and what a repentant life should look like. All while contrasting his message with a view of the gospel that has been really popular among Christians in America.

But before we get into that, here are some resources to consider:
​

​-Tim Mackie on the Gospel of Jesus. Tim Mackie is the founder of the Bible Project and gave this wonderful presentation on the Gospel of Jesus in contrast to what many perceive to be Christian beliefs. I continue to go back to this presentation and send it to folks who are trying to navigate what they believe about the gospel of Jesus today. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it.

​-Money, Lies, and God: Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy by Katherine Stewart. The incredible investigative journalist and author of the highly acclaimed book "The Power Worshipers" has a new book set to be released February 18th, 2025. I count Katherine as a friend and was fortunate enough to get an early copy of her forthcoming book. Needless to say, it is one that you will want to read when you are able. You can pre-order the book through the link above.

-Idaho pastor’s perspective: Why separation of church and state matters for Christians. A local paper here in Idaho, the Idaho Statesmen, published my article on the separation of church and state as an op-ed. I thought I would share it here as well.

​-Our Outrage as Christians Is a Window Into Who We Are I was also made aware that Adventist Today published one of my pieces. Thought I would share this one as well.

​-Why Christians Should't Find "Happy Holidays" Offensive. I recently wrote this brief post on the history and meaning behind the phrase "happy holidays" as well as "X-mas." Both tend to come under fire this time of year, so I wanted to add some clarity to the conversation. I hope you find it useful.

Okay, Onto today’s content.

​
Merry Christmas, You Brood Of Vipers.

​

As someone who grew up in the 90s, Home Alone 2 was one of my favorite Christmas Movies for awhile. In it, the main character Kevin uses a movie with a 1940s gangster firing an old Tommy Gun to give the "bad guys" the scare of their lives. After he fires the gun laughing, he says that now iconic phrase: "Merry Christmas, ya filthy animal."

That phrase always pops up for me during Advent when I read John the Baptist's fiery words about the coming of Jesus. The season of cozy Christmas lights and gentle caroling interrupted by the phrase "you brood of vipers!"

John the Baptist's sermon is always heard by millions of Christians around the world who follow the Lectionary as it is an assigned scripture reading during the Advent season. So with it being an assigned reading for many in the church today, I thought I would reflect on it with you here as well.

Compare and Contrast

One of the most important practices I learned in seminary when it comes to studying the Bible is to compare the narratives about the gospel within Christianity, especially those narratives that have become normal to me, to what the text of the gospels is actually saying. So, I want to invite you to do that practice with me today.

Let me give you an example. The narrative of the gospel I learned growing up in Fundamentalist and Evangelical Christianity was a heavy emphasis on “saving souls.” This narrative framed any focus on other things than someone’s “eternal salvation” as distracting from or even being a threat to the gospel.

Just yesterday in fact, the seminary I graduated from posted online that they had been awarded a grant to integrate climate science into theological education! They then shared the news on Facebook. I was proud to see my seminary continuing to uphold the Wesleyan tradition of seeing science and theology as companions to one another rather than opponents.

Yet many in the comments told a different story. Unfortunately, a story with which I am all too familiar. Even those from the very denomination the seminary represented were very critical of this initiative. One commenter who spoke up on one of my friend’s posts who shared about it captured the animosity of many in the comments by saying, “this is a distraction from the gospel and an adherence to woke, leftist ideology. The weather is and always has been controlled by God. The planet is not our responsibility. Our responsibility is to save souls!”

That could have easily been me who said that in my past.

This hyper focus on other people’s soul and eternal salvation is very much in line with what I fervently believed for much of my life as a Christian. People must believe the gospel of Jesus in order to be saved from the fires of hell. “Believing” meant having the right ideas about God in their mind and “saved” meant that their immortal soul was ensured entry into heaven. This couldn’t be achieved through “works” but could only be believed through personal faith. That was my primary and only mission as a Christian. Nothing else could compare to that responsibility. Not even people's or the planet's current well-being compared to the importance of this mission. That was how I defined sin, repentance, and salvation.

So, with that in mind, I want you to compare that narrative of the gospel with what you hear John the Baptist peaching in Luke 3:7-20. Pay close attention to how John describes what repentance looks like and what he is calling for from those who are listening to him.

​
​Luke 3:7-20

(The Message Translation)

​
​7-9 When crowds of people came out for baptism because it was the popular thing to do, John exploded: “Brood of snakes! 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. And don’t think you can pull rank by claiming Abraham as ‘father.’ God can make children from stones if he wants. What counts is your life. Is it green and flourishing? Because if it’s deadwood, it goes on the fire.”

10 The crowd asked him, “Then what are we supposed to do?”

11 “If you have two coats, give one away,” he said. “Do the same with your food.”

12 Tax men also came to be baptized and said, “Teacher, what should we do?”

13 He told them, “No more extortion—collect only what is required by law.”

14 Soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?”

He told them, “No harassment, no blackmail—and be content with your rations.”

15 The interest of the people by now was building. They were all beginning to wonder, “Could this John be the Messiah?”

16-17 But John intervened: “I’m baptizing you here in the river. The main character in this drama, to whom I’m a mere stagehand, will ignite the kingdom life, a fire, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out. He’s going to clean house—make a clean sweep of your lives. He’ll place everything true in its proper place before God; everything false he’ll put out with the trash to be burned.”

18-20 There was a lot more of this—words that gave strength to the people, words that put heart in them. The Message! But Herod, the ruler, stung by John’s rebuke in the matter of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, capped his long string of evil deeds with this outrage: He put John in jail.

​
What did you notice as you read? Were there differences between what John preached here and the popular narrative of the gospel I explained above? What differences did you notice?

One of the differences I noticed right away was John’s emphasis on what the fruit of a repentant life looked like. In each response John gave to the questions he was asked, it didn’t center around their souls or where they might “spend eternity” but on their social ethics towards others. His responses centered around corporate generosity, justice, and contentment. Even when it came to tax collectors and soldiers, John put the focus on how other people were to be impacted by the way they lived their lives as those who have “repented.” Their lives were to bear the fruit of repentance and that repentance was supposed to positively impact the lives of others.

I then imagined John posting this on social media today. I imagined he would get far too many responses from fellow Christians similar to my seminary’s climate science post.

They might sound along the lines of something like this: “John, I love you brother, but you are way off base here. You want us all to collectively share our resources? That is socialism! You want the wealthiest among us to be more generous? How about you talk about personal responsibility instead of encouraging a culture of dependency! You want those who enforce the law to be less harsh? That's woke! How about you tell people that they need to just obey the law instead! What you are saying is a political agenda and a distraction from from the gospel! Focus on saving souls instead!”

Unfortunately, I actually don’t have to imagine those comments would sound like because those are the kinds of messages and comments I receive all the time from fellow Christians online who disprove of the “message” I share. I believe I am preaching the gospel and calling my fellow Christians to live out the fruits of our repentance in the world, yet I constantly get told by Christians that I "have an agenda" and need to “focus on saving souls instead.”

I believe this is a very similar dynamic that John was encountering in his time as well, which is made clear in our passage.

Some Context

John was skillfully fusing together a few old things for something new in his ministry. Baptism was a traditional purification ritual in Judaism, which resulted in a clean physical body before God. John was fusing this custom with another well-known requirement for Jewish converts: repentance. What was "new" about this was that John was emphasizing that the ritual purity that was achieved by the use of water must then be shown by the ethical imperative of repentance in how those baptized lived their lives.

To add to this deep meaning is that John isn’t preaching to potential converts here who knew nothing of God. John was preaching to his own people in his own religious group of Judaism.

This is why John explodes in anger as he does. This water purification ritual and claiming to be "sons of Abraham" were not things that Gentiles or outsiders did. No, these were things done by people in his own faith tradition of Judaism. John is prophetically holding them accountable to the roots of their faith.

In light of this, I want to share something to put this in better context. This is a short excerpt written by New Testament Scholar David A. Neale on this passage from his commentary on Luke’s Gospel:

The Primacy of Faith in Judaism

Faith has always been central to the proper practice of Judaism. In Luke's extensive use of the Samuel tradition, faithfulness of the heart is crucial to the story. David was acceptable to God because of the state of his heart, not because of his position as king within the nation or his scrupulous observation of the Law.

This emphasis on interior faith is at the center of the Deuteronomistic tradition of the OT. What one does indicates the condition of the heart. In the NT, James is well-known for its emphasis on this idea; but the Gospels identify the same principle as pivotal in the teaching of Jesus. Inward faith is evidenced in outward action; anything less is hypocrisy.

Paul traces the roots of justification by faith back to Abraham, who was justified not because he fulfilled the external requirement of circumcision, but because of his faithful heart (Rom 4:9-12; Gal 5:6).

In emphasizing the importance of ethical action, John speaks as a reformer, one who calls Jews back to the roots of their tradition of faith and right practice.

His words are not a criticism of Judaism per se, but a "prophetic critique" of Judaism. This is a vital distinction (Evans and Sanders 1993, 8; see Taylor 1952, 127-32). The main figures of the Gospels, John and Jesus, do not oppose Judaism but call into question the corrupt practices of then contemporary Judaism.”

What About Contemporary Christianity?

This context feels so relevant to a lot of contemporary Christianity in the United States today. The gospel narrative of just “saving souls” has taken such deep root that many Christians see it as their task to “save our country” by all possible means, yet all these means predominantly focus on controlling beliefs, ideas, and behaviors many Christians disprove of, Means such as changing the beliefs that are taught in our schools, to the kind of beliefs that are promoted by those in power, to the kind of beliefs that involve other people's healthcare decisions. Even political action for many Christians has become centered on controlling what ideas are promoted and believed, because in this kind of theological perspective, what people believe in their head ties directly to the fate of their soul. If you can control what beliefs are taught and what beliefs control our nation, you can "save the soul of our country."

In the midst of these goals, any Christian who focus their theological or political action on wanting to ensure people have shelter, clothing, clean water, clean air, education, healthcare, a living wage, equity, justice, and a healthy planet to call home, no matter their personal religious beliefs, is seen as secondary, or a distraction, or even a threat to the “true gospel.”

What is more, those Christians who dare to raise their prophetic voice like John the Baptist, to call into question and critique the corrupt practices of contemporary Christianity in America, they are seen as opposing Christianity rather than calling it to repentance and to embody the teachings of Jesus.

There is a stark divide on how repentance is being defined. It is between Christians who define repentance as something everyone else in or nation needs to do and Christians who seek to have their lives bear the fruit of repentance in how they treat everyone else in our nation. It is the difference between working to control everyone else and working towards self control. Only one of these forms of control is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).

This stark divide can be seen so starkly by the end of our scripture reading today. While many Christians have made memes go super viral about how we just shouldn’t question if God can use a "wealthy, filthy minded adulterer, like King David, to do good things in the world," Luke tells us that King Herod threw John the Baptist in prison for daring to call out his adulterous relationship with his brother’s wife. The meme tries to emphasize how God can use someone who isn't repentant, as long as they are on "our side" and against the same people we are while John is thrown in prison for telling the Hebrew King to repent from his sins.

The Fruit of Repentance

This stark divide reveals a dynamic as old as time itself. It is so much easier to demand that those outside your religious group should repent from their sins. It is so much more difficult and potentially dangerous to call those within your own religious group to repent from their sins and corrupt practices.

John the Baptist’s ministry is carried out in the wilderness near the Jordan River. The wilderness is a constant juxtaposition to imperial power throughout the Bible. It is where Israel wandered after being liberated from Egypt and it is where Jesus was tested and tempted with the granting of all imperial power from Satan.

The wilderness is the location between who God’s people were and who they will become. Between their broken past and their future filled with promise.

John the Baptist is the prophet who comes in the wilderness to make clear the trajectory of Jesus to God's people before he arrives, which is why it is a common narrative that is heard in the church during Advent before Christmas.

John’s message is so important for the church in America to hear this Christmas as we head into a new political reality for our nation. One that has been explicitly championed by Christians and for Christians.

John emboldens us Christians to never stop calling for repentance among and within the church.

John emboldens us Christians to not stay silent when it comes to the corrupt practices we see within our religious group that harm the poor and the powerless the most.

John emboldens us Christians to fully take hold of the social implications of the gospel of Jesus and that our message is not just one of individual eternal salvation. It is a message that results in people being clothed and cared for, wealth being equitably distributed, and justice being carried out fairly and mercifully.

John emboldens us Christians to make it clear that if we stay within a definition of the gospel that only cares about other people’s souls going to heaven but not about the hell they may be living through here on earth, we are abandoning the teeth of the gospel.

John emboldens us Christians to make it clear that we can’t just claim to be “saved” and call it good, for according to John, God can raise “saved” people out of stones. Our lives must reveal the fruit of the salvation we claim, through our individual and collective actions, otherwise we are just like a dead tree.

No matter what the future holds, John invites us to continue faithfully speaking truth to power, calling into question the corruption within our religious group, and pointing out that our lives must bear the fruit of the repentance, which reveals itself through things like generosity, justice, and equity towards others.

We may not have a lot of fellow Christians respond with “what are we supposed to do?” as John did, but we must continue to raise our prophetic voice nonetheless and strive to produce the fruit of repentance in our lives, and trust that the way of Jesus will continue to transform us and our world for the better.

We must always live, work, and hope for the better.

Note: I dive deeper into the meaning of the Greek word we translate as "repentance" from the Bible in this article here: Why Changing Your Mind Is Good News.​