Bearing good fruit

Our little congregation IS a sign of the kingdom. Read on ...

Advent 2 A Dec. 9, 2007 St. Paul’s
Isaiah 11:1-10 Romans 15:4-13 Matthew 3:1-12 Psalm 72

The shoot growing out of the stock of Jesse is not just some ordinary sapling. It is a tree growing right out of ruin and destruction. The vision of Isaiah which we read in each of today’s lessons is not just a story of regeneration, the return of spring growth or something that happens with the dose of a good fertilizer. This vision is nothing short of a signal to people the world over that God acts. God is in charge.

These Advent prophecies speak of a world of abundance and beauty – so much so that it is tempting to think that they are about a return to an idyllic past, to the Garden of Eden even, before the perfect world God created got all messed up. Wolves lying down with lambs, cows and bears, young and old, children playing with snakes – none of that is natural.

Go back to the original creation story. What did God do? What was there before God created anything? It was chaos, a void, nothingness. And what did God begin to do? To give this formlessness some form, to order the chaos, to bring sense out of the senselessness of nature.

This Isaiah passage comes from a time of destruction in Israel. Nothing is left of the glories of their kingdom but some burned out, torn up stumps. What Isaiah is saying is that despite all this destruction, God is still creating, God is still acting, God is still bringing order out of chaos, meaning out of senselessness. In the natural order – in Eden, even – the predators are surely after their prey: wolves, leopards, lions and bears have to eat, after all, and they eat by killing. But when this new shoot arises from the destruction of the old, a new order will be established, a holy order, marked by justice and mercy. What this prophecy is saying is that God continues to order the world. If new and marvelous trees grow from dead stumps, and if ferocious predators lie down in peace with their prey, then imagine what glorious things will happen to us. How will God order our lives – with wisdom and understanding, with counsel and might, with knowledge and delight in God.

Paul, in this piece of his letter to the church in Rome, quotes Isaiah – this same passage of the shoot arising from the stump of Jesse. Out of the past order comes a vision for the new order. “May the God of steadfastness and encouragement, the God of patience and consolation,” Paul writes, “grant you to live in harmony with one another.” Paul is then very specific about who is not in harmony with each other: people like him, faithful Jews, on the one hand; and people not Jews, Gentiles, who have nonetheless heard about Jesus and think this Good News about this new way of life is a pretty good thing. How can people who for generations were at enmity now live together? How do these cows and bears graze together, these wolves and lambs not continue their deadly dance? Out of even this disorder, these old enemies, Paul says, God in his mercy is pulling you together. And as you live together, this is a sign of the coming reign of God, a sign of God at working still, bringing order – divine order – out of the chaos of broken relationships.

It’s great to be in this chapel during Advent, right here with the main man, John the Baptist – who also quotes the prophet Isaiah, who mentions the root of Jesse, but in a harsh and frightening way. For John the Baptist, this past is worthless without repentance. For John the Baptist, those who rest on the laurels of the past will reap the wrath of God. For John the Baptist, this is the deciding moment. For all those who for generations heard the prophets, heard their story of God acting and continually ordering the chaos of the world, now is the time. Choose. Choose this adventure God has in store for all of us, this adventure of justice and mercy and peace – this order which tames the chaos – or fall before the ax. Bear good fruit, or be cut down and thrown into the fire.

John the Baptist came from a tiny group of faithful Jews waiting for many years for the establishment of a just society. You can hear his pent-up fury, his righteous anger, his confidence in the promises of God. His prophecy is that the religious establishment of his day has moved so far from God’s expectations of justice and mercy that they will be mown down when that one more powerful than him comes. Like us, also a tiny group, that tiny group held out great hope for the future, because they – like us – live out God’s promises in the present. We are a motley crew, a diverse crew; in this tiny group we represent many cultures, many backgrounds, many walks of life. In this tiny group, with all our problems and differences, we live out the vision God has for the world. We are an Advent people, year round: listening for the prophets to give us a word of hope, watching for signs of the kingdom, and practicing, in our community life, for what it will be like when the whole world thrives under the reign of God.