“You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits worthy of repentance.” The wild prophet, John the Baptist isn’t quoted much in the gospels but when he is, he’s shouting at the people who came to be baptized1. He insists that repentance requires changed behavior. Share your food and clothes with those who lack food and clothing. Tax collectors and soldiers (people with power over others) are to treat people fairly.
The lectionary gospel readings for the second Sunday of Advent focus on John the Baptist and his uncomfortable message. Also, traditionally this Sunday in Advent is the Sunday of “peace”2. What does John the Baptist’s message and peace have to do with each other? How does calling people a “brood of vipers” make for peace?
Often, too often, we mistake a veneer of civility and an absence of physical violence for peace. Under King Herod and the Roman Empire, people in Jesus’ time experienced the Pax Romana- Roman Peace. This was a time of, as Britannica notes, “a state of comparative tranquillity…”3 Very simply put, it was a time of less war than in the recent past, but also a time of great expansion of the empire and wealth. Conquered peoples could have some measure of local control as long as they accepted the Roman military presence and paid taxes to Rome. “Romans regarded peace not as an absence of war, but as a rare situation which existed when all opponents had been beaten down and lost the ability to resist.”4 This was the peace of Jesus’ time. The Roman emperor was commonly described as the Savior and the one who brings peace.5 The nativity stories, along with the rest of the gospels, claim an alternative Savior and a different kind of peace.6
The Hebrew word for this different kind of peace is Shalom. Shalom is the peace from God, and the peace of God. It is much more than an absence of physical violence. Shalom is the result of justice. Shalom includes harmony, and restored healthy relationships between people and between people and God. Shalom is the wellbeing, the flourishing of all creation.7 This is the peace we long for, and work for, and celebrate on the second Sunday of Advent.
Luke’s nativity story is full of calls for the just peace of shalom where all flourish. Mary8 and Zechariah9 and Simeon10 speak poetically about peace and justice and salvation. (Read what they said using the links in the footnotes.) The angels announce peace to the shepherds. Peace, justice, and salvation are all interrelated. The proud are scattered. The powerful are brought down. The lowly are lifted up. The hungry are filled. God remembers God’s promises. God’s people are redeemed. God’s people are saved from enemies. Mercy and rescue. Righteousness and peace. Salvation and revelation and glory.
John the Baptist tells us, loudly and bluntly, the way to God’s peace. The way to God’s peace involves repentance and justice. The way to God’s peace is to resist all that harms, all that destroys, all that impedes and prevents flourishing. Just as in the time of John the Baptist and Jesus, the people and institutions that benefit from a false peace are not interested in God’s peace. The few who are well off and protected from hardship, the few who benefit from injustice, the few who the current economic and political systems favor; those few will actively oppose God’s peace. And they will try to convince the rest of us that a false peace of injustice and inequality benefit us also.
If peace is resisting all that harms and destroys and prevents the flourishing of all, what is our part in this resistance of peace? Each of us needs to discern what is ours to do, as individuals and as part of our larger communities. When reading Luke’s nativity story, notice that each person does something. Some do more than others. No one does everything. No one brings God’s peace by their individual effort. Everyone cooperates with God to do their part. Luke’s nativity story is, mostly, a story of poor women who act. No one in the story has significant power or wealth. Many in the story are unnamed, but they do their part. When we think about it, we realize that Mary didn’t raise her baby without help from others in her community. Even though she and Joseph were traveling, someone made space for her to deliver her baby. It’s likely some women helped and cared for her as she labored and delivered her child. Elizabeth’s neighbors and relatives rejoice with her. Even Jesus, the Savior, needs to be birthed, cared for, and raised. None of this happens without the support of family and community.
Advent as a church season is just four weeks. But we are, in a sense, in a larger time of Advent as we wait and work for the Kindom of God and God’s peace.
So what is my role? What is your role? Some of us have larger roles. Some of us, most of us, have smaller roles. But we each have something to contribute. I encourage you to spend some time this Advent considering what you are called to do to help God’s peace be more present in the world.
Over the years, I have written about various aspects of Luke’s nativity story. Here is a list of some of them.
The Politics of Advent: Shepherds and Angels
The Politics of Advent: Orienting Us to the Kingdom of God
The Politics of Advent: Christmas Stories as Resistance
Empires, Prophets, and Babies: Jesus’ birth and the Gospel According to Luke
- Read about John the Baptist in Luke 3:1-20. ↩︎
- The traditional Advent weekly themes are Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love. ↩︎
- you can read about it here, at Britannica and here, at Wikipedia. ↩︎
- See the Wikipedia article. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pax_Romana ↩︎
- Borg, Marcus and Crossan, John Dominic, The First Christmas, HarperOne: 2007, pages 153-167 ↩︎
- Read Luke’s nativity story, here. ↩︎
- https://www.umc.org/en/content/ask-the-umc-what-does-the-bible-mean-by-peace ↩︎
- Read the Magnificat here. ↩︎
- Read the Benedictus here ↩︎
- Read the Nunc Dimittis here. ↩︎
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