Advent: Life Change

BEAR FRUIT WORTHY OF A LOVING GOD

Matthew 3:1-12

Sermon preached by Dr. Mark Smutny

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Pasadena Presbyterian Church

Matthew 3:1 In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, 2 "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." 3 This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, "The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.'" 4 Now John wore clothing of camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. 5 Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, 6 and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 7 But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruit worthy of repentance. 9 Do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our ancestor'; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. 10 Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 11 "I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."

Every congregation I have served has been populated to a large degree by Christians recovering from “Christian” judgment:

Christians who have divorced recovering from churches that provide unbending interpretations of Mark 10:11-12, equating divorce with adultery.

Gay and lesbian Christians recovering from churches that cherry pick passages from Leviticus condemning them as immoral while other sections of Leviticus are patently ignored.

Christians with inquiring minds recovering from churches that insist on a literal interpretation of Scripture.

Christians recovering from religion rooted in a fear of hell rather than the love of God.

Then here comes John the Baptist: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? . . . [Jesus’] winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and . . . the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

The paradox is that many in John’s audience experience his message not as judgment at all, but as pure grace and acceptance and as a means to get free, a way to begin a new life. The Pharisees and Sadducees get ripped apart by judgment while the people flock by the hundreds to receive his message and baptism as a gift of grace.

How are we to sort the different responses? We can be sure that John, and the Jesus he announces, will arrive in our religious imagination with the most astonishing combination of acceptance and admonition, freedom and responsibility and thereby keep us on our toes.

“Look around,” John the Baptist says, “Seems like we got some bad trees around here that couldn’t grow an avocado in Altadena. Cut them down. Throw them in the fire. Seems like we got some folks around here: Pharisees and Sadducees, accomplished, respectable, pedigreed, self-important people. A brood of vipers! Bear fruit worthy of repentance. Otherwise take an axe. Lay it at the root of the tree. Cut them down. Burn them.”

“What should we do?” the people ask John the Baptist. John responds, “Repent. Turn your life around. Be baptized and start your life over. God will forgive your sins and give you a new slate, a new page, a new hard drive on which to write a new life. The past is over and gone, everything is fresh and new.”

Imagine joining the crowd gathering at the Jordan River seeking a new life. What a collection of humanity they are. Over there is a tax collector who has collaborated with the Roman enemy just as some people, centuries later, would collaborate with the Nazis. He’s stopped walling off from his conscience how miserable he makes life for others. He doesn’t want to be despised anymore. He doesn’t want to despise himself. He’s in line to get clean.

Over there is a man who squandered all that he had: his inheritance, his honor, the people who loved him most. He’s lived a life that brought shame on his family and himself. He hit bottom and with fear and trembling he’s returned home. Love found him and he needs to get clean.

Over there is a woman whom society boxed and packaged, gussied up and molded until she thought she was supposed to sell her body like it seemed they all wanted her to do, but she went over the edge. No one told her where the edge was, but she crossed it. Now everyone thought she was dirt. She thought she was dirt. She’s come to the river to get clean.

Over there is a centurion soldier. He’s a good man, a loyal man, a soldier, a man of honor. Years ago he went to war. He did things he couldn’t talk about even to his wife. Under orders from Herod he had taken a Hebrew baby, a baby boy, and with his own sword cleaved that baby in two. He now had a baby--a little girl. When he held his own little girl in his arms it was as if the face of the dead baby he killed was superimposed on the sweet face of his own flesh and blood. Now he needed to get clean of the blood and the guilt and the nightmares. He needed to get clean, for his daughter’s sake, for his sake. So he stood in line, hoping and praying that if plunged down into the waters, down deep into the waters, he could get free and that maybe God could forgive him and then he could forgive himself.

There were others joining the long line snaking down to the Jordan River, lining up to make their pathways straight, preparing the way of the Lord, in their countless wildernesses, lining up to meet John in the deserts of their need. Some had lost loved ones and the gaping hole inside was so huge that they didn’t know where else to turn. Some had had judgmental religion forced down their throats and they had given up on the whole religious enterprise, but inside they had a deep gnawing, a spiritual nudging that led them to seek and yearn for something more. Some had made serious mistakes: failed relationships, broken promises, poor choices. They were in line for the same reason—different stories—same reason--to get clean. Some had been abused decades ago and they had kept their secret all to themselves out of sheer terror. Their abusers had made them feel dirty. They weren’t dirty but they had been made to feel that way. They needed to get free, to be healed, to sprout wings, to wash clean, to become powerful instead of scared. Some were simply ready to give their lives to love, to the Lord of love and they were ready.

All gather at the Jordan River: a broken, yet courageous collection of humanity who understood what John was saying. “Repent, turn around, for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near.” It was a thin place: where transcendence and humanity touched in the waters of baptism and new life.

Today is a new beginning–it’s in the turning. They and we flock to the Jordan River and to John to plunge our bodies and souls down, down, down deep into the forgiving and cleansing waters of God’s own acceptance and grace and belonging; up, up, up, preparing themselves for the coming of the Messiah and the new age dawning: into hope, into peace, into a love that will never let us go.

We are tax collectors and soldiers, women who sell their bodies, the grieving, the confused, the excluded, the doubters, the abused, those discovering a power we never knew we had, light being kindled, seekers, courageous people, those in the desert, those not afraid to search for something more, for a promise of new life, those ready to begin anew, to be born from above. With the waters streaming from our renewed bodies and souls, “What should we do?” we ask.

“Bear fruit worthy of repentance,” says John.

To one he says “Only charge what is fair and legal. Don’t extort or intimidate. God loves you. God forgives you. You can start over. This is a new day.”