Spiritual Hiccups - This Is Good News?

Today's reading from Luke continues the story of John the Baptist's ministry.  Yesterday we heard John call those who came to be baptized "a brood of vipers."  He warned them that the ax was poised to chop down trees that don't bear good fruit, and he said that whoever had two coats must share with anyone who has none; the same with food. 

Today John says he is not the Messiah, but the Messiah is coming who will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire.  Also, "His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his  threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the  chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."  And after all these uplifting words about vipers, axes, winnowing forks, and unquenchable fire comes this, "So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people."

This is good news?  The Messiah is coming, and he's ready to separate wheat from chaff, to chop down every tree that doesn't bear good fruit.  This is something to get excited about?

Now one possibility is that Jesus is not exactly who John expected.  He was hoping Jesus would give everyone their due but Jesus did a lot more forgiving than John foresaw.  That's possible.  But I think the reason Luke calls John's message good news is because it is the language of the coming day of the Lord, of God's Kingdom arriving. 

The good news here is that God is about to inaugurate the new age.  God is beginning the process of setting creation right, of lifting up the poor and freeing the oppressed.  God has begun the work of transforming creation into what it was meant to be.  Mary has already told us in her Magnificat that this will involve a leveling, a lifting up of some and pulling down of others.  And John now uses traditional prophetic language to say this moment has arrived.

But still, I wonder how many of us with a lot more than two coats find this good news.  When the inequalities of this world are in our favor, does a leveling sound like good news?  I don't know about you, but I would prefer that people get lifted up to where I am rather than my being pulled down.

I wonder if welcoming the Kingdom doesn't require a radical sort of trust, trust that the things we count on for security are illusions, trust that letting go of what we have opens us to life that cannot be found in clinging to it, trust that I do not need to rise above others but need to move toward them.  None of this is prosperity gospel type good news.  But it seems to be good news in the eyes of God. 

Now if I can just see it that way.

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