You Brood of Vipers! (Luke 3:7-18)
Forgive me, I couldn’t resist.
You’d be forgiven for hoping that the natural direction for a monthly piece on generosity, in its December instalment, would be to head directly for Christmas and gifts and the joy of generosity, and yet here we are talking about vipers, wrath, and repentance - just the ticket to stir us from our mince pie stupor! After all, salvation is an urgent business.
In the Gospel passage, people are seeking John throughout the countryside where he has gone preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. His welcome to them is fairly blunt, to say the least, but at first glance the message doesn’t seem too challenging; don’t let people go hungry or naked, and don’t rip people off – quite a low bar. Maybe though, the fact that this is John’s prescription for bearing fruit worthy of repentance speaks volumes about our human nature and our propensity for promoting our own interests over those of others.
A timely reminder then of just how easy it is for us to fall into the trap of selfishness, and how, actually, it is almost super-human to bear the hallmarks of the generous living we aspire to. As we proceed through Advent and Christmas, might we use this reminder to examine our own motives and desires, and to try to bear worthy fruit?
Fortunately, for the human creature striving towards super-human generosity, help is at hand. My prayer for each of us this month is that the same Holy Spirit who dwells in our hearts would transform us daily to be more and more Christ-like in our own generosity.
As ever, all that remains is to thank you, and thank God for all that you are and do in His service.
Dan
