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Just Do Your Job!                        Luke 3:7-18                   December 13, 2009

Did you ever wonder what it must have been like to be the author of one of the books of the Bible? Talk about pressure. These men - and they were all men; which is an unfortunate fact, in my opinion, and possibly a mistake on the part of the folks who decided which books would be in the Canon, but that's another subject for another day - these men were just ordinary people. Yet they were inspired, somehow, to write down words that, centuries later, would be read by folks like you and me and believed to be the words of God.

Yikes!

Now, the truth is the authors of the books of the Bible probably had no clue that they were writing the Bible. For example, Paul, the most prolific of the New Testament authors, clearly wrote his letters to First Century Romans, Ephesians, Philippians and so forth without any thought for the future. But while there is obviously no way to know for sure, it is still interesting to think about what Paul might have written had he known that we would be reading his stuff two thousand years later.

Our text for this morning is a familiar passage about the teaching of John the Baptist, taken from the Gospel According to St. Luke.

Like the other Gospel writers, Luke is an evangelist. He tells the story of Jesus, portraying him as a Savior who came to seek and save the lost.

Luke's Gospel contains a number of stories that can be found nowhere else. He's the only one, for example, who writes about the twelve year-old Jesus sitting among the teachers in the Temple. And he's the only one who records the dialog between John the Baptist and the crowds of people whom he had just called a "brood of vipers."

"The crowds asked him," Luke writes, "'What, then, should we do?' In reply he said to them, 'Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.'

Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, 'Teacher, what should we do?' He said to them, 'Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.'

Soldiers also asked him, 'And we, what should we do?' He said to them, 'Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.'"

I wonder how the Spirit of God inspired Luke to include this particular piece of dialog in his Gospel - or any other piece, for that matter.

So I ask, on this morning in Advent, and invite you to ask with me, "Just how did the Spirit inspire ordinary people like Luke?"

And even more importantly, if you believe, as I do, that God didn't stop inspiring ordinary people in the First Century, I invite you to also ask, with me, "How does the Spirit go about inspiring us today?"

Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of the bestselling memoir Eat, Pray, Love, is now in great demand on the lecture circuit. Thanks to YouTube, I listened to one of her talks the other day - a twenty-minute presentation on creativity. She talks a lot about inspiration - about the force outside of herself that inspires her in her writing.

"When I was in the middle of writing Eat Pray Love," she says, "and I fell into one of those pits of despair that we will fall into when we're working on something that's not coming and we think is going to be a disaster . . . I just lifted my face up from the manuscript and I directed my comments to an empty corner of the room and I said aloud ' Listen you! You and I both know that if this book isn't brilliant that is not entirely my fault, right? Because you can see I am putting everything I have into this, I don't have any more than this, so if you want it to be better then you've got to show up and do your part of the deal, OK? But you know what? If you don't do that then I'm going to keep writing because that's my job and I would please like the record to reflect today that I showed up and did my part of the job!'"

I think Gilbert is on to something, and I think John the Baptist would agree with her.

The crowd that gathers around John, looking to be baptized, clearly believes in his message. They believe that he is the Messenger that Isaiah and the other Prophets talked about. They are convinced that the time is short, and that the Kingdom of God is close at hand.

So they ask John for direction. "What shall we do?" they say.

These believers want to be ready for the Lord's arrival. They are just not quite sure how to go about it.

Notice, first, what John does not say. He does not give them a ceremonial answer. He does not ask them to do more "religious" stuff. He does not say that they are to bathe in the river seven times, or light so many candles with so many prayers. He does not tell them to walk up the temple steps on their knees, or stick Bible verses to the bumpers of their cars, or to their refrigerators. He doesn't even tell them to go to church more often, or join a new Bible study group.

Instead, John tells them this: "Repent. Turn your life in a new direction right here and now," he says. "Prepare the way of the Lord in your own neighborhood and among your own family."

And while you are at it, do your job.

Instead of putting on white robes, he says, put coats on your neighbors who do not have any. Instead of worrying about what you are to wear when you meet the messiah, he tells them, think about what your neighbors have to wear everyday and what they have to eat.

He doesn't tell the tax collectors to stop collecting taxes. He tells them to quit cheating people out of money. He doesn't tell the soldiers to stop being soldiers, he tells them not to use their power to shake people down for personal gain.

"You want to know what to do?" he says, "Do your job."

Love your neighbor as yourself, and do your job. Look around your community, and see who needs a friend. And do your job. Quit making money and power the center of all life, and do your job.

I said a few minutes ago that I believe God did not stop inspiring people in the First Century. Let me say it again more positively: God is still in the inspiration business. God still inspires writers to write, God still inspires teachers to teach, God still inspires people in the healing professions to heal. God still inspires ordinary people to do extraordinary things.

If we believe that the Kingdom of Heaven is close at hand; if we actually believe what we are saying and singing when we pray our Advent prayers and sing our Advent hymns, then we must also do what the people who believed in the message of John the Baptist did in response to his proclamation of the truth. If we, like them, want to be ready for the coming King but are not sure just how to act, we must ask the same simple question that they asked.

"What can I do?"

John's response to that simple question provides us with very good news this morning.

When we ask, "What can I do?" We can expect God's response to us to be similar to the response God has always delivered, through the Prophets and through John the Baptizer. We can expect God to tell us to show up and do our job.

Do you have a neighbor who is in need? Do your job. Do you have a family member who is hurting? Do your job. Is there a coworker or a client - or maybe even a boss - who needs to be comforted? Do your job.

The Evangelists who wrote the Gospels and the letters that make up the holiest book ever to be compiled were sinners like you and me. Most were not as well educated as you and me and none enjoyed the freedom you and I enjoy. And still, 2000 years later, millions of Christians throughout the world call them Saints.

Because they showed up and did their jobs. And discovered that inspiration happened when they did so.

Elizabeth Gilbert closes her presentation on creativity - the one I watched on YouTube - with the following advice to her audience:

"Don't be afraid," she says. "Don't be daunted. Just do your job. Continue to show up for your piece of it, whatever that might be. If your job is to dance, do your dance. If the divine . . . decides to let some sort of wonderment be glimpsed, for just one moment through your efforts, then "Bravo!"

And if not, do your dance anyhow. And "Bravo!" to you, nonetheless, just for having the sheer human love and stubbornness to keep showing up."

And to that inspiration, my only response is Amen.

                                                                             AMEN

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