SUNDAY SERMON: The Naughty List

By Rev. Stephen Baldwin 

Isaiah 12.2-6

Luke 3.7-18

On Tuesday, I was at the elementary school doing Read Aloud. A kid asked me if I was on the nice list or the naughty list? 

“It depends on who you ask,” I told her. 

For centuries, parents have used the naughty and nice list as a bargaining chip. “Apologize to your sister right now, Johnny, or you might just get a lump of coal for Christmas…”  or, “Make a good decision, Suzie, so you don’t end up on the naughty list.” 

Which of course is the ultimate double whammy threatened against every kid at Christmas–being on the naughty list and getting a lump of coal in your stocking. How many of you have heard that before? 

Well, I’ve got bad news. For everyone. Actually, it will sound worse than it is, but it’s really not that bad. It’s the truth. And once you think about it for a while, it’s actually good news. But it’s going to sound bad at first. If any kids are listening to this sermon right now, close your ears. Here goes…

You’re all on the naughty list. We’re all on the naughty list. 

John Calvin, father of the Presbyterian Church and one of the most influential Christian theologians since Biblical times, who some people think is a bit of a scrooge or a grinch, says we are all on the naughty list. Three years ago during COVID, I wore a Calvin t-shirt during a sermon about the naughty list, but I couldn’t find it this week. 

Why does Calvin think that we’re all on the naughty list? Because he believes that sin is so much a part of our nature that we can’t escape it. There is a corruption in our nature that simply exists, and he calls it sin. It began with Adam, and it continues in every one of us today. 

Calvin does NOT believe we are all bad people constantly doing bad things because we are evil. Instead, we are limited beings who make a lot of mistakes. We tell white lies. We hold grudges. We get greedy. We care more about ourselves than others. We’ve all done things this year that we wish we hadn’t. That we know we shouldn’t. 

John the Baptist seems to agree, calling the crowds in today’s reading a brood of vipers. Not exactly something you say to people you think are on the nice list. John was the one going around baptizing people and handing out forgiveness like Santa Claus, and he even called us a brood of vipers. 

Remember I said it sounds like bad news…but it actually isn’t? Let me tell you why. Because even though we’re all on the naughty list, we still get the present. The child in the manger, born to Mary and Joseph, was sent by God to usher in a new reality. Where there are no naughty and nice lists based on the things we do. Where there is joy for everyone! 

We can’t do anything to earn God’s love. No matter how good we’ve been this year, we can’t achieve our way to the nice list. Only God’s grace can do that. Only the Christ child can bridge the gap between us and our maker. 

This is a counter-cultural idea. Christianity is counter-cultural. Christmas is counter-cultural. The rules of our culture teach us that we earn rewards with good behavior. 

Didn’t pay attention in class? No worries, get extra credit. Broke the law? No worries, do better now and get out early. Betray a loved one? No worries, just say you’re sorry and it all goes away. But it doesn’t work in this world and Calvin says it doesn’t work in the next world either. 

If something as trivial as Christmas presents or something as consequential as salvation was determined by our actions, then we would lose every time. We would always be on the naughty list, brood of vipers that we are, and never make it to eternal life. 

Calvin teaches that when the child is born, we die. When the child is born, we die. Our old sinful nature dies, and we are reborn not by our own good deeds but by the grace of God made known in a baby boy brave enough to sit between a lion and a lamb, strong enough to face down an empire, and kind enough to feed the hungry. 

We all love presents and joking about who is naughty and who is nice, but the real gift is the lowly infant, the innocent babe, Emmanuel, God with us, born so that we might be reborn. The gift is Jesus. 

Christmas is about accepting the gift. Accepting Jesus. Not just once in a moment of zeal, but over and over, each day of our lives, each Advent, each Christmas, when we’ve been naughty and when we’ve been nice. 

When someone gives you a gift, it’s not polite to question it. It’s not nice to reject it. When someone gives you a gift, when they’ve made the effort to do something for you, accept it. You say thanks, and accept it. 

God sent the baby for you. Say thanks, and accept the gift. Every single day. Amen.