John is laying some serious truth on his hearers in this sermon. He calls them a brood of vipers and tells them that they will need to repent in order to participate in the kingdom of God. But what is he asking them to do? Nothing too hard: His words can be summed up as, “Share, be fair, don’t bully” - not exactly revolutionary concepts for anyone who’s been through Kindergarten.
And yet, those words resonate for us in a society that profits on the misery of so many. But John does not call on us to be overwhelmed or try to change everything. He calls on us to be fierce bearers of fruit worthy of repentance, of hope for a world that seems hopelessly broken. He asks us to look around ourselves and do what we actually can do to make our world - this world - a better, more compassionate, more human, more dignified place, right now.
Luke 3:7-18
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