Loving God, you invite us to come to you in repentance and faith, that you might make us whole.  Help us to see and to experience your salvation this day, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

            “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (Mt. 3:2).  Thus begins the ministry of John the Baptist, whose singular mission is to prepare the way for the coming Messiah.  But do we really know what that means?  Would we know how to repent if we wanted to do so?

         In one sense, repenting is kind of like making a U-turn.  You are turning around and going in a totally new direction.  You are turning away from sin and self-centeredness and are turning toward Jesus and his way of loving service.  You are changing your mind in the best way possible.  You are preparing yourself to be in the presence of the Holy One, for now is the day of salvation.

         However, should you be among those who are perfectly content with the way that things are right now, repentance will be a lot more difficult (workingpreacher.org).  We see this with the Pharisees and the Sadducees, who hold places of honour among the people, have as much or more than they need, and believe themselves to be on the right side of things when it comes to worshiping God.  They had not come to the Jordan River to take John’s message seriously, but in order to observe and evaluate what was going on.  Were they sincere, John may not have referred to them as a “brood of vipers” (Mt. 3:7).

         As to our own attitude when it comes to repentance, would we be among those who took John’s message seriously?  Or, would we be the ones who are perfectly content with the way things are and have no need of repentance, thank you very much?  Of course, those of us who have already been baptized have no need to do so again.  However, were we to follow Luther’s example, we would remember our baptism every day, confess our sinfulness and receive God’s forgiveness.  As people who are both saints and sinners, we can be fully forgiven and in need of repentance, all at the same time.  We are never fully grown when it comes to growing up into Christ.

         You may have noticed in our readings today that there are a number of images involving trees and growth (or the lack thereof).  It actually can be a spiritual exercise to ask what kind of a tree you imagine yourself to be at the present time.  Are you feeling like a stump, where the growth that you once had has been cut off and the future looks bleak?  Are you feeling like a barren fruit tree that is on the way out?  Are you feeling like a healthy tree that is close to water and drinks deeply through the roots?  Or, are you feeling rooted in Christ and ready for new life to spring forth even though you might look like a stump?

         All of these are images that come from the Scriptures that can help us in our spiritual journey.  You may have wondered, however, what “the root of Jesse” and a shoot “from the stump of Jesse” are all about (Is. 11:1, 10).  In a sense, these are references to King David’s family tree.

         Jesse was David’s father, and, in spite of God’s promise to David that one of his descendants would always rule on the throne of Israel, the last of the kings was carried off to Babylon and died there.  Thus, it seemed as though only a stump was left.  However, the line of David’s descendants continued, even though none of them ruled in Israel, and eventually Jesus was born, who was also counted as a descendant of David.  Unlike any others, Jesus can be both the root and the shoot from the stump of Jesse, having been the Son of God from the beginning of time (Jn. 1).

         And then there is the Spirit of the Lord, who is described as living water in the gospel of John (7:37-39) – surely what every tree needs in order to be able to bear good fruit!  The Holy Spirit is also what sets Jesus apart from the baptism of John.  John baptizes “with water for repentance,” but Jesus will baptize “with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Mt. 3:11).  There are both redemption and judgment that are coming near, and so we hear John’s urgent words to “bear fruit worthy of repentance” (Mt. 3:8).  This is not a cause for us to be fearful, but to be filled with the love of Jesus and with the Holy Spirit.  For, it is the Holy Spirit who produces fruit in and through us.

         While some people might have trouble imagining what this might mean, Paul’s letter to the Galatians gives us a list of what kind of fruit the Spirit produces: “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Gal. 5:22-23).  These are the things that you will see in people when the Holy Spirit is at work, and may it be so also among us!

         Meanwhile, we are invited today to drink deeply of the water of life, knowing that God is quite likely to be at work – even in stumps that we have given up for dead.  And “may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 15:13), through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Advent 2A                                         Matthew 3:1-12

December 4, 2022                           Isaiah 11:1-10

St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church

Pastor Lynne Hutchison

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