Written for the 3rd Sunday of Advent and given at the Lynnville (IL) UMC on December 14, 2003.

The Scripture is from the 3rd chapter of Luke, verses 7 – 18…

(NOTE: The ‘Live’ version is posted at the end! 🙂 )

       Sometime during the very-late sixties, the St. Louis Zoo lost a snake… and not just any snake… this was a cobra… one of the most deadly snakes known to man! According to the news report, one of the keepers had been cleaning its’ cage, with it off exhibit of course, and forgot to replace the cover screen over the drain. When the snake had been let back in it eventually found its’ way into the drain and disappeared!

       Now the report had told how numerous traps and screens had been installed throughout the drain system in anticipation of just such an occurrence, but after some days of alternating between tempting with food and back-flushing the system, there was still no snake! The news release stated that they were sure it was still within the system of that building, but…

       Not long after, I was working for our neighbor and helping him do some spring plowing (which was all we did, back then.). I had finished with one land, and as I didn’t know, yet, how to break open a new one, I was waiting for him to come over with his tractor and do it. As I waited beside the creek that ran next to this field I watched as a snake crawled up out of it and headed across in front of me. Deciding to tease it a little, since I was safely on the seat of the tractor, I eased the front wheel towards it until it was directly in its’ path. The snake stopped, raised its’ head about a foot in the air… and hooded… that is, spreading out its’ neck muscles to form a hood, just like every picture you’ve ever seen of a cobra in attack posture!

       A cobra?! “Alright,” I’m thinking… “the zoo is at least thirty miles from here. There is no possible way that that snake could have made it out of the drainage system, across the Mississippi River, and all the way to here to crawl up in front of me!” Like a dummy, I got down off of the tractor for a closer look (though still some feet away!), and sure enough, it turned towards me and did it again, raising the front third of it’s’ body into the air and spreading its’ neck in its defense/threat mode. By the time the neighbor had come up, the snake had settled back down, turned and returned over the edge of the creek bank from whence it came. He never saw it, at had some doubts as to the veracity of my story.

It was about two weeks later that, while telling my story to some classmates at school, someone told me that it was probably a puff-adder, or hog-nosed snake. They are mildly poisonous, and sometimes flare their necks like a cobra, but are more famously known for their ability to roll over and play dead when threatened. Why this one wanted to fight I may never know, but I will never forget thinking that it might have been that escaped cobra.

By the way, IT eventually crawled back out of the same drain that it had disappeared into… the traps had all worked and it had never gotten out of the building… it just didn’t want to come out until it was ready to come out!

I guess, like most people, I just really don’t like snakes. Now, I know their value… I know their true worth in the scheme of things… how they help keep down rats and mice and such… and I will let them alone as long I am aware of their presence. But coming upon one unexpectedly scares me to no end! I don’t doubt that my hair might actually stand on end… I’d bet I look like I have an afro if any one were to be looking at me instead of the snake! And needless to say, I have a whole slew of ‘snake’ stories I could tell besides this one. But let me see if I can briefly tell just one more.

When I was eight or nine, and we were still living in the little town of Hartford, I had two sets of relatives on mom’s side living in Pike County… one on a farm near Nebo, and another in Pittsfield. One weekend, the ones in Pittsfield had brought their boat and put into the Illinois River somewhere south of Kampsville, and we had all spent the day taking turns boat-riding up and down the river. As dusk approached, we had packed up and were driving together back to Pittsfield, when we stopped at where one of the springs came out of the bluffs, back then. Someone had made-up a small basin at the bottom of the bluff where the water could collect, and there was a glass there for anyone who wished to have a drink of clear, cool spring water. (Could you imagine doing that today, in our ‘antiseptic’, ‘don’t-share-anything’, ‘don’t-touch-anything’ society?) There was a small ledge jutting out in front of a small opening in the rockface, and an 8-or-9-year-old Steve was sitting on it when suddenly everybody around me got real quiet. “Steve,” someone said softly. “Stand up real slow and move over this way.” I stood up and turned around to see what was going on. That ‘opening’ in the rock went back about three feet and made a bend. There, looking directly at me, was the head of a copperhead looking around the corner trying to figure out if I was a threat or not! I didn’t run or scream or anything… I kept my cool, walked to the car, got in… and locked the doors! At least I was safe!

Not so for those facing John’s words in today’s verses! 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?”

Adam Clarke calls this a “terribly expressive speech. These people were a serpentine brood, from a serpentine stock. As were their fathers, so were they children of the wicked one. This is God’s estimate of a SINNER.”

The Life Application Commentary reminds us that, “John was the first prophet Israel had heard in over four hundred years. When news spread that a prophet was preaching in the wilderness, crowds came out to hear him, and apparently many also believed his message and came for baptism. This baptism represented repentance from sin. This sample of his preaching sounds harsh; Matthew tells us that John spoke these words specifically to “Pharisees and Sadducees,” distinguished men who had come to John not to be baptized but simply to find out what was going on. John called them a brood of snakes (Jesus also used this term, conveying how dangerous and cunning these religious leaders were and suggesting that they were Satan’s offspring). John asked them, “Who warned you to flee God’s coming judgment?” The Jews, and especially their self-righteous religious leaders, applied God’s judgment to the Gentiles; John warned that judgment was coming on them. John’s astonishing frankness made him popular with the people but unpopular with the religious establishment. Anyone, religious leader or member of the crowd, who was open to John’s message, found repentance, baptism, and readiness for the coming Messiah. Those who rejected him faced this stunning accusation for their hard-heartedness.”

You see, most Jews felt like they had the ‘inside track’ on God! God had made His covenant with Abraham, and they were all children of Abraham… “Believing that they inherited the blessing of God through Abraham,” the Wycliffe Bible Commentary points out, “they trusted in their descent from him to bring them salvation. John the Baptist warned them that, if He wanted, God could make the very stones to become descendants of Abraham.” He told them that the ax was, “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.”

Those who listened… those who truly heard what he was saying… understood, and were frightened! “What should we do then?” they asked. His answer to them applies to all of us even today… if you have extra clothes or food, share with those who have none… never try to extort money or collect more than you should from anyone… these should be very obvious to everyone… but do we all do them? Do you know of any children who might need your help this Christmas? Are there people and families who might go hungry? Are there any you know who might be discouraged or ill, or lonely, or frightened, or lost and need a helping hand, or even just some encouragement? Are you doing all that you can to help them in whatever way you can?

And what about you? When you’re feeling lonely or down or overwhelmed, are you seeking God and asking for His help and encouragement? In Philippians 4, starting with verse 4, we read, “Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again — rejoice! Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon.

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. If you do this, you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”

This is the third Sunday of Advent. And as on the last two, we are anticipating the coming of Christ… both as a child born on Christmas Day and as the Savior returning to gather His sheep into the fold. In the last of today’s verses, Luke writes, “The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ. John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”

Just as I mistook the snake that I saw for a cobra because of the way it acted, many back then looked at the words and actions of John the Baptist and mistook him for the promised messiah. We today know that John was not the Christ, but the Messenger… the preparer for the Christ. And just as those people in that time were anticipating the coming of the Messiah, we today are also anticipating Him. But where they were anticipating the start of His ministry, and all that that was to entail, we are anticipating His triumphal return! And as Luke says, “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.”

Are you ready for that coming? Are you ready to be gathered in… to be part of the harvest… or will you be winnowed out as chaff and burned in the unquenchable fire? Are you anticipating the return of the Lord… or are you dreading it? Let us all remember the words that we heard during this mornings’ lighting of the Advent candles… “May the joyful promise of your presence, O God, make us rejoice in our hope of salvation. O come, O come, Emmanuel.”