Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

So, let me ask you: do you ever think of yourself as a viper? Well, I certainly do. No, I don’t mean I think of you as a viper, but I have occasionally thought of myself as a viper! Not necessarily as a snake in the grass, or as a “slimy character,” but instead as one who because of the nature of sin, I liken to a viper. Let me explain… Some vipers, pit vipers such as rattlesnakes, have retractable fangs. When the fangs aren’t in use, they fit in grooves in the roof of the viper’s mouth. If one of those fangs were to break off, maybe on the boot of someone bitten, well, another fang will move in to replace the one broken off. Sin is like that. Just about the time I repent and think I have a sin, or sins, put away, another sin moves in and replaces it.

Now I doubt that John had much knowledge of vipers, their biology and dentition, but here we have him calling whole crowds of people a “brood of vipers.” Kind of interesting because in the parallel account in the Gospel of Matthew, John is talking to the Sadducees and the Pharisees who were coming out to see him. At any rate, for them, Pharisees, Sadducees, and indeed, whole crowds of people, it was a repentance thing. And John calls upon them to “bear fruits worthy of repentance.” He tells them they cannot stand on their ancestry, because it is God who does it all. It is God who can raise up “children to Abraham” from stones. It is the one coming, John tells them, who is more powerful than I. It is that one who is coming, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.

The people ask him: “What should we do?” What a good question! It is the same question that perhaps we should be asking! What should we do?!?  Is it a repentance thing for us? If you were here last week, you heard me say that we do not repent to be forgiven, we repent because we are forgiven. So then, what should we do? What can we do? Why should we do it, whatever it is?

Good questions, all of them. The answer is: because we are forgiven. God, who can raise children to Abraham from stones, can produce the fruits of repentance in us, because that is what God wants. God wants the chaff to quit being chaff! God has done the work of producing his children in us. In other words, because Christ died for us, rose again from the dead, gives us grace through faith, the means of grace – preaching, baptism and communion, God has made us his children, brothers and sisters to Christ, with one another. He is our Father! God does it all, from salvation to even simple virtue. He transforms us, if we let him! He calls us to step out in faith and helps us to do just that. He does not call us to cut back because times are tough, to not trust in him or those he has chosen and called to preach his Word and administer the sacraments. God did it, does it, and will do it, in the hearts of believers!

It is time for us to let go of the things that keep us from knowing God in every moment! It is time for us to realize that not only does God want the chaff to stop being chaff, but that he is more concerned about saving the wheat than he is about burning the chaff. It is time to realize that he uses “fire” to refine those who repent, who know that they are forgiven and act accordingly, that he uses fire for destruction of the unrepentant.

It is time for us to realize that God expects the repentant to respond to him, to love him, and to love neighbors, to treat them justly. It is time for us to realize that God’s children are not born through the process of a physical birth but are transformed from the heart through God’s power and work.

What should we do, you ask? We should let God. Let God transform us, refine us, enable us to step out in faith, in trust of him and his Word. What should we do, you ask? We need to do his work and “this is the work of God, that you believe on him whom he has sent," and do what Christ commands: Love God, love neighbor.

AMEN.