My favorite part of this reading about John the Baptist is this: "So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people." Good News!? Are you kidding me. Here we are just before Christmas and John the Baptist is scaring the children (and the adults!): [In a loud, forceful voice:] "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits worthy of repentance! Do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham! Even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down — and thrown into the fire!"

[Sweet voice:] So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people."

The Episcopal Church has declined 4% in recent years. That’s certainly not good news, but it doesn’t single us out. For a long time, we were slowly increasing while all the other mainline denominations were declining. Lately, we seem to have adopted the larger trend and started declining like the Methodists and Presbyterians and everybody else.

As you can imagine, the Episcopal Church has spent a lot of energy on how we can reverse that trend and grow. And, of course, at St. John’s we want to grow. Not, I hope, just for the sake of growth, but because we are excited about how our faith is understood here and how it is practiced here and we want to share that excitement with people who may never be able to hear the good news any other way, at any other place.

But if what we were interested in were growth no matter what, every Sunday I’d be hollering at you, telling you exactly what to do, calling you a "brood of vipers" and telling you that if you didn’t do right and bear good fruit, the ax would be put to you and you would be cut down and thrown in the fires. And we both know that, while a lot of you might leave, lots of other people would just eat it up. I could pack the house; we could double the budget.

But there is just one teensy problem with preaching the way John the Baptist preached, full of shouts and threats based on a God who wants to destroy those who are evil, or even those who just don’t do right or get it right. Here’s the problem: John was wrong about Jesus (and therefore, about God). John thought that the son of a God who wants to destroy those who don’t bear good fruit would be really something to see. So he said, "One is coming after me who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. And folks, you better hang on, because if you think I was something, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. His winnowing fork is in his hand and he will gather the wheat, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."

And then — Jesus comes. And he messes up John’s tidy "do right or be burned" world. Jesus brings a whole new dimension of God’s love that goes beyond John’s purity codes.

Now, Jesus certainly agrees with John that we need to be ethical. John’s great strength is his call to live an ethical life, and he gives specific, practical ethical advice to the people who come to him. Don’t cheat. Don’t be greedy. Jesus praises him for it. But John says do right because if you don’t, God will burn you. When he says the one who comes after me comes with fire, we know this isn’t a metaphor for enthusiasm or faith. John isn’t at camp singing, "It only takes a spark to get a fire going;" he’s talking about "the unquenchable fire" that will burn the chaff. This is no metaphor; John’s fire is fire!

And then Jesus comes along — and hangs out with the chaff! Tax collectors, prostitutes, Roman soldiers, the people John is sure God is lighting a fire for. And Jesus says things like, "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you;" (Lk. 16: 27-29) "Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven." (Lk. 16: 37) He will even say that God makes the sun to rise on the good and evil alike — even the evil and the unrighteous are God’s children. (Mt. 5: 45).

Jesus left John asking, "Who is this guy? Could God really have sent this kind of Messiah?"

As you prepare to see Jesus in the manger, you have to ask yourself the same question. "Could God really have sent this kind of Messiah?" The messiah John expected has some very appealing aspects. Living an ethical life is very important, and it’s nice to get very clear guidelines. And I believe with all my heart that if I were to start preaching John’s messiah of very clear ethical rules backed up by the threat of hellfire, we’d pack the house and double the budget.

But as you think about what to expect from that baby, ask yourself two questions:

Which messiah is the son of the God who doesn’t just act in a loving way, but actually is love?

And, if you got John’s messiah of unquenchable fire — could you really take the heat?