Brood of Vipers?!
Upon first reading the lessons appointed for today, I was struck by the joyful language of the first three readings, all the positive nouns and verbs: sing, rejoice, exult, joy, gladness, gentleness, thanksgiving, peace. Truly wonderful, inspiring and uplifting! Now contrast that with the language of the gospel passage coming from the mouth of John the Baptist: ‘You brood of vipers,’ wrath to come, repentance, ax, cut down, throw into fire, Spirit of fire, burn in unquenchable fire. What do we make of that language? Who would be drawn to a man who used such harsh language? Such judgement? Well, apparently, the people around John were, they came to him to be baptised, to be cleansed of sins through ritual purification. The passage ends with this sentence: ‘So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people.’ What good news? Those “exhortations” sound more like damnation than salvation.
Indeed, it is the God in whom we choose to believe that determines the rest of life for us. In our conception of the nature of God lies the kernel of the spiritual life.
Let’s back up and get some context: consider Luke’s developing themes—in the preceding chapter, we read the beautiful Magnificat, and before that the announcement to the shepherds of the birth of the Christ child’s, of peace and goodwill toward all. Luke’s good news is to the poor and marginalized, of the mighty brought down and the lowly lifted up. This theme is actually reflected in John’s directions to the people who asked what they should do, and it’s important to note that the questions come from the oppressors—tax-collectors and Roman soldiers. In answer, John tells them to share, not to be greedy, not to cheat, or extort, or lie—in short, stop oppressing the people. Soldiers and tax-collectors kept 99% of the populace of Judea, that is, the workers, very poor, at a subsistence level, by forcibly taking far more than they were supposed to for their own gain. So, John’s answers are consistent with Luke’s message. The people saw John as a potential Messiah because he was speaking truth to power.
Still, the language is pretty rough, as, I guess, John was too, a wild man from the wilderness. There are a lot of wild people around us today who would be attracted to a man like John and his exhortations, people on the Christian evangelical right, who are yelling and protesting, holding up signs with Biblical passages scrawled on them to support their particular opinion. Often their religious zeal is misdirected and they distort the Bible to bolster their angry views. Some send hate-filled text and emails to decent people working for positive outcomes in our world—for example, death threats against doctors and nurses advocating vaccination against Covid or protesting as parents take their children into a vaccination clinic. They aren’t researching context when they quote scripture. They prefer the wrathful tone of the Ten Commandments, Thou shalt not, over against the beauty of the Beatitudes, Blessed are. All four Gospel writers were at pains to distinguish between John and Jesus. John was not the Messiah, the expected fierce warrior who would liberate Israel from Roman occupation, but Jesus, who taught there was another way to defeat Rome, through love and care for one another. John was a brave man, a true prophet, speaking truth to power, denouncing the Romans and those Jews who collaborated with them to oppress his people. His courage and truth cost him his life.
What I’m reacting to here is the language of the scripture passages and the corresponding image of God they reveal. A person’s image of God affects behaviour. The Church through the ages bears some responsibility here. People are acting out what they were taught, that God is a God of judgement and exclusion; consequently, the church has excommunicated, withheld communion, threatened damnation to eternal hell, even for an unbaptised baby. All wrong and wrong-headed. Once Christianity became the official religion of Rome it aligned itself with empire and power, and the threat of hell and excommunication became the means of controlling the masses. Guilt and fear and shame don’t produce good people. Goodness produces goodness. In Genesis 1, God created and “behold it was very good.” There is nothing of original sin in the creation story; that’s something dreamed up centuries later, for which the church must now atone. Gratitude, thanksgiving, gentleness, joy, sharing, loving, helping others, especially those less fortunate: this is the good news, and it’s been there in scripture all along. Humanity is made in the image of God, so one’s image of God affects self-knowledge and behaviour. However, if God is Love, then we are made by and of and for Love. We are Love. That’s our true and essential nature and identity. We are not “a brood of vipers.” We are “become children of God.” (Jn. 1)
I conclude with Richard Rohr’s reflection on this topic:
In the long light of human history, then, it is not belief in God that sets us apart. It is the kind of God in which we choose to believe that in the end makes all the difference. Some believe in a God of wrath and become wrathful with others as a result. Some believe in a God who is indifferent to the world and, when they find themselves alone, as all of us do at some time or another, shrivel up and die inside from the indifference they feel in the world around them. Some believe in a God who makes traffic lights turn green and so become the children of magical coincidence . . . . Some believe in a God of laws and crumble in spirit and psyche when they themselves break them or else become even more stern in demanding from others standards they themselves cannot keep. They conceive of God as the manipulator of the universe, rather than its blessing-Maker. . . .
Indeed, it is the God in whom we choose to believe that determines the rest of life for us. In our conception of the nature of God lies the kernel of the spiritual life. Made in the image of God, we grow in the image of the God we make for ourselves. . . . If my God is life and hope, I will live my life in fullness overflowing forever.
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