The advent, or early beginnings of the Christmas story, tells of John the Baptist calling the people of Jerusalem to repent of their sins, to turn from wicked ways, and to begin to bear fruit worthy of repentance." The phrase "bear fruit worthy of repentance" is an intriguing statement, which becomes our invitation this morning.
John the Baptist had dropped out of society. He was not on the social register of Jerusalem. He lived in the Judean desert and is portrayed by all of the gospel writers in our New Testament, as a prophet in a role like that of Elijah. He is not the expected one, but is the one who announces the Messiah’s coming and that the people should prepare, get ready!
You prepare, he said, by repenting from your sins, by turning from evil, and by returning to a former faithfulness to God through allegiance to Torah, which had been eclipsed by a pale reflection characterized by a casualness of faith. John's was a call to return to a former reality of faithfulness. And furthermore, he called upon the people to, “bear fruit worthy of repentance." To "bear fruit worthy of repentance" is to put your money where your mouth is, it is to walk your talk. It is to get your actions and your inner image together.
Now, John the prophet was not among the ten most popular nor influential persons of Jerusalem. He would not have made the "Ten most rich and famous list of the Mid East." He was a renegade. He lived a hermit's life in the hills and caves of Judea. He ate locus and wild honey. Matthew records that he was a distant cousin of Jesus, being the son of Zechariah and Elizabeth, which would have placed him as one of the priestly descent of the tribe of Aaron. I don't know that it is really important for you to know that, except that when you read his words calling the Pharisees and Sadducees "a brood of vipers", he was speaking of something he would have known something about. You have heard the old statement: "It takes one to know one." Well, that was John.
He has apparently matured to the point that he saw the incongruent ways of the Jewish leaders and when he was baptizing in the Jordan river, and the representatives of the Jewish religious and secular establishment, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, came before him, he called upon them to return to a former faithfulness. To lead a life of integrity. "You brood of vipers,” Jesus would later describe them as, "White washed tombs, pretty on the outside, but filled with dead men's bones."
Said John, “Bear fruit worthy of your religion."
In searching the scriptures looking for what John might have had in mind when he used this intriguing string of words: "fruit worthy of repentance," you discover hints in the Old Testament writings of the prophets, but Jesus and the Apostle Paul go into great detail as to what "Fruit worthy of repentance" really means.
First, in the Old Testament, there is a consistency of expectation found in the Ten Commandments and the hundreds of dialogue requirements (laws), don't do this and that, don't eat this nor that, but the essence of the law is captured in the words of the prophet Micah and echoed by Hosea: "What does the Lord require of you? But to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God."
This "Fruit worthy of repentance" as seen as justice, kindness, humility, was demonstrated by the government of South Africa under Nelson Mandela’s leadership, when the people were given a year of amnesty. This was how it would work. If you had done something that could be considered a criminal act, say you had killed someone, and you confessed your crime to the new government during the year of amnesty, then you would be forgiven and free, if not, you would be open for prosecution. It was a way of revealing the awful story of racial prejudice under Apartheid. What I feared, and I think most of the people of the world feared, was that after that year of amnesty the people and the new black government would take justice in their own hands and Africa would once again witness a blood bath. It didn't happen. It was truly a time of national repentance.
If today, the Taliban in Afghanistan humbly surrender their weapons, and the clerics begin to teach a new and modern way of respect for male and female, Jew, Christian and Muslin alike, then peace and prosperity will come to their land, or at least it will have a possibility. If not, then God save the children.
Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God, that's what "Fruit worthy of repentance" looks like. It is as important what you do after you get off of your knees, as it is what you do on your knees in prayer.
The essence of this "fruit worthy of Repentance" was further explored and carefully delineated by Jesus in his teachings:
With Jesus and his teachings, you begin to see clearly the picture of "fruits worthy of repentance."
The Apostle Paul helps even more, when he writes to the early churches developing after the resurrection of Jesus, about what he calls "fruits of the spirit.”
For example, to the church in Galatia (5:22-23) he writes of the "Fruits of the Spirit” are these: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness and goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
To the church in Ephesus (4:1-6) he writes encouraging these new Christians to lead a life worthy of their calling, and again he has a long list of what such a life might look like: Patience, forbearing one another in love, eager to maintain the spirit of unity, lowliness and meekness, humility and gentleness.
Pick any of these desirable human characteristics, work on them during this advent season, and you will do yourself a great favor to say nothing about how you will impact for good your family and your school or work place.
Benjamin Franklin, one of the founders of our country, in his personal journal noted that one year, each week, he focused himself on a new desired human characteristic and worked real hard to claim it for his own, without forgetting the others of weeks past.
So when John the prophet encourages us on this second Sunday in advent to "bear fruit worthy of repentance", think about it, focus yourself, step up to your full humanity and accomplish true greatness and this Christmas will become a memorable event in you life.
Summary: You see, when you come to Christ, it is not so much a conversion from certain things as it is a conversion to a new way of life. Now I guess if you have this negative attitude, you could see your conversion as a conversion from that which is bad. The apostle Paul, liking to make lists, made a list of things you turn away from: selfishness, back biting, ugly gossip, impurity, dishonesty, jealousy, anger, dissension, envy, drunkenness."
I am so uncomfortable looking at life from the negative side of the ledger, don't do it, can't do it, and will not do it, and don't like being around people who do, so I would encourage you to consider what God calls you to rather than what he calls you from: A new life which can be characterized with such wonderful words as: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness and goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
Jesus said to the disciples of John: "Go and tell John what you hear and see. This is what they would have told John. "You won't believe this…
John would have recognized the Messianic visions of the old Prophet Isaiah. Isaiah had envisioned in the 11th chapter: "the wolf shall dwell with the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the kid and a little child shall lead them." Isaiah 35: "the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf unstopped, and the tongue of the dumb will sing for joy. Behold, your God will come with vengeance. He will come and save you."
But they would have had a difficult time and probably hesitated to let John know that Jesus was also using Isaiah 53-"He was despised and rejected, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief…Surely he has borne our grief’s and carried our sorrows, for we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted, wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities and upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed." What does this mean? They would have asked John their teacher and John probably kept still and quiet and like Mary, Jesus' mother at his birth: "pondered these things in his heart."
Go and tell John what you hear and what you see. Perhaps the best we can do for one another this Christmas is not to try to figure it all out or to take it all in, or to eat the whole thing, but to simply, in our own unique ways, to share with others what we "see and hear."
Christmas was a "grace moment" and there are such moments all about us at Christmas. A moment of divine grace.
Somewhere I read this statement: "The problem with most of us is that our net income doesn't keep up with our gross habits." A church pledge is a matter of priorities and is made in response to the question: "What is important to our family is: and you fill in the blank
Go and tell one another what you see and what you hear, and catch the joy as it flies. Christmas is definitely a time of hearing and seeing, not doing and rushing. 'Tis the season for hearing and seeing.