Grafted – sermon on December 4, 2016
atthew 3: 1-12 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: “A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’” John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
Sermon: Grafted by Rev. Doreen Oughton
I bet I made quite the picture in my simulated camel’s hair and leather belt. Sorry, but I was not going to smear my chin with honey, or pull out any locusts. I will only go so far channeling John the Baptist, that fiery one sent to prepare the way of the Lord. In Luke’s gospel, it is the whole gathered crowd that John calls a brood of vipers, or children of snakes, but here his ire is reserved for the Sadducees and Pharisees – the former being the Temple elite and the latter being the reforming purifiers of the faith. Of all the crowds of people, these are the ones targeted by John about walking the walk of repentance – not just getting dunked in the Jordan, but living lives – “bearing fruit” in keeping with repentance. I’m surprised that they were there, though I suppose John had credentials that would draw people. His father, Zechariah had been a priest, and when it was his turn to enter the holy of holies, the angel Gabriel appeared to him and promised a son to him. Zech’s wife Elizabeth had been barren and was now “getting on in years.” Gabriel said the child would be filled with the holy spirit even before his birth, and would turn many people of Israel to God. Then Zechariah was struck mute until the birth because he dared challenge the news. So there may have been stories about him long before he took up his wild honey and locusts diety.
What struck me about this reading were John’s metaphors about bearing good fruit and about chopping down trees. And then we had the unison reading from Isaiah that starts with a stump – “there shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse.” The tree of Jesse is the Jewish lineage of David – the king chosen by God. Matthew’s gospel begins with the genealogy of Jesus, tracing it even further back than Jesse and David, all the way to Abraham. The begats lead us to Joseph, husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born.
So Isaiah talks about a stump of Jesse, not the tree of Jesse, implying, I would say, that the tree has been chopped down, just as John the Baptist also talks about. Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be chopped down and thrown into the fire. The tree of Jesse has not been bearing good fruit. The prophet Isaiah cries out about the rebellion of Israel against God, about how Jerusalem the city that had been full of justice is now corrupt – wine mixed with water, silver that’s become dross. It can’t stand.
The message of this morning’s gospel is clear – repent, be a good-fruit-bearing tree, or else you can’t stand. What does it mean to bear good fruit? I’m not sure, but other parts of scripture talk about the fruits of the spirit, which are love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Do people see these things in you? Do you nurture others through these qualities? Are these things increasing in you? Notice that John says nothing about bad fruit – there’s no talk of sinners or the unrighteous going into the fire. What goes is anything that is not bearing good fruit.
I like the understanding of sayings like this that is that they are descriptive rather than threatening. I lean towards an interpretation that it is not people who will be cut down and thrown into the fire, but the characteristics we carry that are not Godly. I like to think that in the kindom to come, hatred, despair, chaos, impatience, meanness, betrayal and impulsiveness will not be allowed to stand. Those things are chaff – meant for the unquenchable fire. What kind of kindom would it be if those things took root?
I was also thinking about this stump of Jesse, from which a shoot springs up. And I thought about that axe at the trees, ready to cut down what is not good. The roots are still there, planted deep into the ground of God’s being. How do we get back? How can we reconnect with those roots, become part of the good kindom, begin to produce good fruit?
Does anyone know anything about fruit trees – apple trees in particular? I did a little research. Now did you know that if you take the seeds from a particular apple – say a honeycrisp apple – and plant it, you won’t get a tree that sprouts honeycrisp apples. The apples on it may be similar to honeycrisps, but they could also be something completely different. The trees are not self-fertilizing, you see. There’s a cross-pollenization that occurs between 2 different types of trees, and the seeds of these honeycrisp apples carry all the history from past generations of the two trees involved in the pollenization. So when you plant the seeds, what springs up is not a true honeycrisp tree, and the fruit, not honeycrisp apples.
So I think about the tree of Jesse, and all the cross-pollenization if you will, of all God’s people, all the generations of living with some degree of separation from God. The history that is passed on to all in this lineage, so that we are no longer the pure creatures God created. Good fruit getting harder and harder to produce, replaced by those characteristics that will never stand in the kindom.
But still, we get honeycrisp apples, don’t we? How does that happen? Through grafting. You choose a tree with good roots, and take a good, fruit-bearing shoot or bud – a good upper part, and join it to the root part. Jesus was that first good scion that connected back to the roots of God. We can join him there. We can allow ourselves to be grafted along with him, taking on those Godly qualities – joy, love, peace, kindness. The chaff may go to the fire, the wheat to the barn, but we, God’s beloved creation can be grafted onto the vine of eternal life and love. The loving hand of God will do this, Christ will winnow away all that is not worthy of him, of us. In this advent season of preparation, will you let him? May it be so.
