Matthew 3:1-12

“You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance.”

Worshipers looking for a Hallmark Christmas (I mean Advent) season, might want to skip this Sunday. While many of us light the candle of peace on our wreaths this week, joining the soft glow of hope, this lectionary text from Matthew might be a bit jarring. The temptation to stray from the Gospel reading this week is real!

Peace in the Greek New Testament is often defined as joining together as a whole; wholeness in the sense of completion or setting things right. Its absence implies a disjointed world that needs fixing. We desire peace in the world: a harmony that implies a lack of fighting, exchanged for healthy conversation, compromise, and justice. We desire peace in our nation: an ethos that decries violence and hatred, urging compassion and care for the other. We desire peace for our families, where old problems may wash from our memories so we can finally live into our elders’ pleas, “Can’t we all just get along?” We desire peace for ourselves, living in such a way that our consciences are clear, actions just, and habits healthy. We look at calm nativity scenes, peer into the Christ child’s eyes and wonder why we can’t just stop all the evil nonsense and have that kind of innocent, pure peace.

But John the Baptist, in this week’s text, reminds us that peace is hard work! Achieving this kind of wholeness and harmony is painstakingly hard work. We can’t just wish it all away, forget about the past, or pretend everything is fine so just keep quiet. At the heart of this work lies the baptizer’s cry for repentance, a thorough look inside ourselves to face the darkest parts: the fear, the selfishness, the longings, the insecurities. Only when we dig deep and confront our own demons head-on, as individuals, as a church, as a nation, as a world, can the work of peace begin.

Toward the Light by Ann Weems

Too often our answer to the darkness
is not running toward Bethlehem but running away.
We ought to know by now that we can’t see
where we’re going in the dark.
Running away is rampant…
separation is stylish:
separation from mates, from friends, from self.
Run and tranquilize,
don’t talk about it,
avoid.
Run away and join the army
of those who have already run away.
When are we going to learn that Christmas Peace
comes only when we turn and face the darkness?
Only then will we be able to see
the Light of the World.