Second Sunday in Advent
Isaiah 11:1-10 Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19 Romans 15:4-13 Matthew 3:1-12 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the one who comes to transform the world. Amen So we’ve got trees all over our advent readings for today, images of trees and talk of preparing for the coming of the Lord, and while the images seem to be contrasting they both point to the promise that God will come, judge the world and that God’s judgment will transform the world in ways human judgement cannot. First we have Isaiah, and the image of a shoot coming out of the stump of a tree and a branch growing out of its roots. This is an image of hope for a people who feel like they’ve been cut down and all that’s left is a stump, yet new life is possible from that stump. Appearances can be deceiving says the prophet Isaiah, the people of Israel may look like a stump but God will make sure that new life appears, in the form of a leader, one anointed by God “The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.” As Christians, we understand this passage to be referring to Jesus, and the prophet continues, this is what this leader will be like: “He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth” Now this is a very different way of judging than we’re used to as humans, our system of justice is based on proof, what eyes have seen and what ears have heard and this organized system is a step up from the initial way we judge which is based on our gut instinct and prejudices, but whether we’re judging based on intuition or on evidence as humans we only have the smallest amount of understanding of the people and situations about which we are making judgments. The judgment of the anointed of God is judgment through God’s perspective, a perspective ruled by righteousness, which means with the full picture of all that is going on, all the contributing factors including God’s belief in the goodness of creation. And the effects on the world will be astounding, former predators and pray living side by side without anyone getting eaten, children playing with deadly snakes without harm coming to them, knowledge of the Lord filling the earth and the shoot that has become a strong branch signaling to the rest of the nations that God is the true God. The one who will bring this vision to reality is the one for whom John the Baptist is preparing, and he too uses a tree image but from a very different angle, he is recommending some logging take place: “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? Bear fruit worthy of repentance. Do not presume to say to yourselves ‘we have Abraham as an ancestor; for I tell you God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is laying at the root of the trees; every three therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” Where the people Isaiah was preaching to needed comfort, the people John is speaking to are people who need some shaking up, there hasn’t been a prophet for a long time and then John comes onto the scene with the very prophetic message of: Repent! Turn back to God! And the people come flocking to him, they are ready for God to do something new, they are ready for God to judge the injustices of the world and make them right but then the leaders come out, leaders who tend to be more cautious about prophetic change preached from the mouth of a guy dressed in camel’s hair dunking people in the river, and John has a special message for them “don’t think God’s done working and that you have it all figured out” he tells them ‘something new is coming and that means change, and to get ready for that change we need to clear out some of the old ways that aren’t working anymore actually that’s what God is coming to do, to cut off the branches that don’t make for justice or righteousness anymore And It’s my job to get you ready John says “but I can only get you clean on the outside, the one who is coming will clean you up on the inside he will baptize you with the holy spirit and fire.” Now we tend to associate fire with punishment but it can also be an image of purification, cleansing. The purest gold comes from melting it down and getting it so hot that the things that aren’t gold burn away. If we want to clear a section of land for farming or building a house we make a pile of the trees and branches which we burn to get rid of, we have judged those trees and branches unnecessary and we clear them out of the way to create room for something new. This is what Jesus is going to do John says, judge what needs to be cleared out in each of us to create space for new life in God. This is the image of separating the wheat from the chaff, both are part of the same plant but the chaff gets in the way of using the wheat. There is wheat and chaff in each of us, Jesus will judge what needs to go and what needs to stay and will create space for new life in each of us, in a word save us. To meet Jesus is to be judged and saved at the same time, to be seen fully with the eyes of God that see both the sins and imperfections and the worth inherent in all creation, worth so great that Jesus went to the cross to bring Isaiah’s vision to reality and with his resurrection the turning of the ages began but it is not yet complete, Lions still munch on antelope and I don’t intend on going near any rattle snakes any time soon, but our call is to live into the vision that has already begun, this is the work of advent, anticipatory waiting during which we are called to repent, turn toward God and face the judgment and salvation found there, purifying and creating, and then we are sent back into this world in transition to live out the new life we have been given this is the baptismal life, the daily dying to sin and rising to Christ, the continual pruning of our branches so that fruit might grow and the reassurance that fruit will grow, fruit that will turn enemies into friends, violence into peace, fruit that will transform the world in the image of God. Amen
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AboutPastor Emily Johnson preaches weekly at Christ Lutheran. These are manuscripts of her sermons given at Christ Lutheran. Feel free to engage with them in the comments section of the blog. Archives
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