December 8, 2019

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