Advent and Justice Toward One Another

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Advent and Justice Toward One Another

Herb Montgomery, December 13, 2024

If you’d like to listen to this week’s article in podcast version click on the image below:

Our reading this third weekend of Advent is again from the gospel of Luke:

John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”

“What should we do then?” the crowd asked.

John answered, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.”

Even tax collectors came to be baptized. “Teacher,” they asked, “what should we do?”

“Don’t collect any more than you are required to,” he told them.

Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?”

He replied, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely—be content with your pay.”

The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Messiah. John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” And with many other words John exhorted the people and proclaimed the good news to them.  (Luke 3:7-18)

In our reading, John calls the people to bear fruit worthy of their claim to have changed. Repentance involves change. Socially, this bears out. For us as a society to repent of past wrongs, we must change the parts of society that are still participating in those wrongs. To fail to bring about change is to act in a way that contradicts repentance. 

Later in Luke’s gospel, Jesus tells us that we can assess whether someone seeking to influence our communities is a “good tree” or a “bad tree,” and the test is simple: what kind of fruit does the “tree” produce? 

“No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thorn bushes, or grapes from briers. A good person brings good things out of the good stored up in their heart, and an evil person brings evil things out of the evil stored up in their heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. (Luke 6:43-45)

Character matters. Years ago I read part of Mohandas Gandhi’s autobiography where Gandhi rejects a Christian salvation that is only concerned with a “penalty for sin.” What Gandhi was questioning is whether Christianity offered any wisdom for how to bear different fruit in our lives. He was in dialogue with a Plymouth Christian who told him that change was impossible and the only hope was to be freed from the consequences of our actions. I agree with Gandhi that this is unacceptable:

‘If this be the Christianity acknowledged by all Christians, I cannot accept it. I do not seek redemption from the consequences of my sin. I seek to be redeemed from sin itself, or rather from the very thought of sin. Until I have attained that end, I shall be content to be restless.’  To which the Plymouth Brother rejoined: ‘I assure you, your attempt is fruitless. Think again over what I have said.’ (Mohandas K Gandhi; Mahadev Desai, An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments With Truth, p. 64)

In our reading this week, John the Baptist isn’t concerned with consequences as much as change. He calls his listeners to bear different fruit in their lives.

Justice Toward One Another

In our reading this week, the fruit that John calls his listeners to bear is what we would call social justice. This term has an interesting history:

“Jesuit priest Luigi Taparelli D’Azeglio coined the term in the 1840s and based the concept on the teachings of Thomas Aquinas. Taparelli used the term to refer to the ordinary and traditional conception of justice applied to the constitutional arrangements of society. At the time, Taparelli’s concept was considered a significant contribution to conservative political philosophy… It wasn’t until the 1970s and the publication of John Rawls’s A Theory of Justice that the term became widely associated with liberal secular political philosophy, particularly with changing social institutions.” (Stephen Mattson, On Love and Mercy: A Social Justice Devotional, p. 9-10)

In our reading from Luke, John is calling for change in the social institutions of his day.

He called the crowd to distribute resources:

“Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none”

He called tax collectors not to “collect any more than you are required to.” 

And he told soldiers, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely.”

With these teachings, he was critiquing the social institutions of his time and calling for justice. Josephus corroborates Luke’s account:

“Now some of the Jews thought that the destruction of Herod’s army came from God, and was a very just punishment for what he did against John called the Baptist. For Herod had him killed, although he was a good man and had urged the Jews to exert themselves to virtue, both as to justice toward one another and reverence towards God . . .” (Antiquities 18.5.2 116-119)

Josephus told us that John’s call of renewing reverence for God was tied to the virtue of the people also practicing justice toward one another. Justice toward one another is “social” justice. Social justice is merely applying the ethic of loving your neighbor. 

In response, the people question if John could be the coming messiah they expected to put right all violence, injustice, and oppression. John response is telling.

Advent and Justice

John says, “I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

The one they looked was still to come, and would plunge them in the Spirit. Luke’s gospel characterizes the what that would look like in terms of social justice: good news to the poor, freedom and sight for those imprisoned, freedom for the oppressed, and the year of the Lord’s favor when all debts would be cancelled, all slaves set free, and all lands retuned to their original owners and/or their descendants.  

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

because he has anointed me 

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners 

and recovery of sight for the blind,

to set the oppressed free,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19)

Referencing language from the Hebrew, prophetic, justice tradition (see Jeremiah 15:7), John states that the coming one wouldn’t only bring justice and liberation, he would also come to clear the threshing floor, separate the wheat from the chaff, gather the wheat into his barn, and bring the chaff with unquenchable fire. 

Chaff was also a politically and socially loaded term at the time. The apocalyptic book of Daniel describes a socially just world that turns all unjust and oppressive empires into chaff.

“Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were all broken to pieces and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth.” (Daniel 2:35)

This imagery resonated with the oppressed masses John spoke to, because it characterized Rome and its extensions such as Herod in Galilee and the complicit Temple State in Judea as the chaff. Systemic injustice would be burned up with fire that no human effort could halt or extinguish. And all just social elements would be like wheat to be gathered and kept, just like the wheat farmers gathered into their barns.  

All of this speaks deeply to me this year. Advent isn’t about escaping to somewhere else or about escaping inward either. Advent is about the arrival of justice where we are.And that’s what I want to be about. I have deep anxiety over what the next four years is going to bring, and I’m choosing to focus on what I can do about it. Some of us can do precious little while others, closer to the powerbrokers of our society, can do a lot. Wherever we find ourselves on that spectrum we are called to do what we can. 

Advent is about establishing justice on Earth and shaping our world into a just, safe, compassionate home for everyone. I want to be a part of the advent community, the people who bring about the arrival of that kind of world. This year, during our Advent season, I’m not looking for someone or something else to show up. I’m rededicating my commitment to show up myself in whatever ways possible for the sake of justice. 

Discussion Group Questions

1. Share something that spoke to you from this week’s Podcast episode with your discussion group.

2. Consider how is Advent could be connected to the arrival of Justice for you? Share and discuss with your group.

3. What can you do this week, big or small, to continue setting in motion the work of shaping our world into a safe, compassionate, just home for everyone? 

Thanks for checking in with us, today.

I want to say a special thank you to all of our supporters out there. And if you would like to join them in supporting Renewed Heart Ministries’ work you can do so by going to renewedheartministries.com and clicking donate. 

My latest book Finding Jesus: A Fundamentalist Preacher Discovers the Socio-Political and Economic Teachings of the Gospels is available now on Amazon in paperback, Kindle and also on Audible in audio book format.

As always, you can find Renewed Heart Ministries each week on X (or Twitter), Facebook, Instagram and Meta’s Threads. If you haven’t done so already, please follow us on your chosen social media platforms for our daily posts. 

Thank you for listening to The Social Jesus Podcast. If you enjoyed this podcast please take a moment to like and subscribe and if the podcast platform you’re using offers this option, please leave us a positive review. This helps others find our podcast as well.

You can watch our YouTube show each week called “Just Talking”. Each week, Todd Leonard and I take a moment to talk about the gospel lectionary reading for the upcoming weekend. We’ll be talking about each reading in the context of love, inclusion, and social justice. Our hope is that our talking will be just talking (as in justice) and that during our brief conversations each week you’ll be inspired to also do more than just talking. If you teach from the lectionary each week, or if you’re just looking for some thoughts on the Jesus story from a more progressive perspective within the context of social justice, check it out, you might like it. You can find JustTalking each week on YouTube at youtube.com/@herbandtoddjusttalking. Please Like, Subscribe, hit the Notification button, and leave us a comment.

And if you’d like to reach us here at Renewed Heart Ministries through email, you can reach us at info@renewedheartministries.com.

Right where you are, keep living in love, choosing compassion, taking action, and working toward justice.

I love each of you dearly,

I’ll see you next week.

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New Episode of “Just Talking” Now Online!

Season 2, Episode 40: Luke 3.7-18. Lectionary C, Advent 3

Each week, we’ll be talking about the gospel lectionary reading for the upcoming weekend in the context of love, inclusion, and social justice. Our hope is that our talking will be “just” talking (as in justice) and that during our brief conversations each week we’ll be inspired to do more than just talking.

If you teach from the lectionary each week, or if you’re just looking for some thoughts on the Jesus story from a more progressive perspective within the context of social justice, check it out at:

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New Episode of The Social Jesus Podcast

A podcast where we talk about the intersection of faith and social justice and what a first century, prophet of the poor from Galilee might have to offer us today in our work of love, compassion and justice. 

This week:

Season 1 Episode 35: Advent and Justice Toward One Another

Luke 3:7-18

“Advent isn’t about escaping to somewhere else or about escaping inward either. Advent is about the arrival of justice where we are. And that’s what we want to be about. We may have deep anxiety over what the next four years is going to bring, still we can choose to focus on what we can do about it. Some of us can do precious little while others, closer to the powerbrokers of our society, can do a lot. Wherever we find ourselves on that spectrum we are called to do what we can. Advent is about establishing justice on Earth and shaping our world into a just, safe, compassionate home for everyone. Let’s be a part of that kind of advent community, the people who bring about the arrival of that kind of world. This year, during our Advent season, let’s stop  looking for someone or something else to show up. Let’s rededicate our commitment to showing up in whatever ways possible for each of us for the sake of justice.”

Available on all major podcast carriers and at:

https://the-social-jesus-podcast.simplecast.com/episodes/advent-and-justice-toward-one-another

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Now Available on Audible!

 

Finding Jesus: A Fundamentalist Preacher Discovers the Socio-Political & Economic Teachings of the Gospels.

by Herb Montgomery, Narrated by Jeff Moon

Available now on Audible!

After two successful decades of preaching a gospel of love within the Christian faith tradition Herb felt like something was missing. He went back to the gospels and began reading them through the interpretive lenses of various marginalized communities and what he found radically changed his life forever. The teachings of the Jesus in the gospel stories express a profound concern for justice, compassion, and the well-being of those in marginalized communities. This book navigates the intersections between faith and societal justice, and presents a compelling argument for a more socially compassionate and just expression of Christianity. Herb’s findings in his latest book are shared in the hopes that it will dramatically impact how you practice your Christianity, too.

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