The Fruit of Jesse, First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 12/05/2010

The Fruit of Jesse’s Root
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 12-5-2010
Based on Isaiah 11:1-10 & Matthew 3:1-12

As I first read this morning’s lection reading, the first images that came to my mind were that of the Star Trek series. Between 1966 and 2005, there has been a total of five differing Television series of Star Trek. The first known as: The Original and concluding with Star Trek: Enterprise. Four out of the five series in general depicted the “Federation”, a collection of life forms who have banned together, as the good guys who were about the business of: Exploring strange new worlds, seeking out new life and new civilizations in an expanding vast universe. The mandate was, never interfere in the culture of a newly discovered civilization when possible.
This sounds all good and well, yet in any good story line you have to have an adversary in order to have a good plot. Generally in most of the series, the Federation were the good guys and other civilizations were the adversaries. With one exception, in the second Television series of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the adversary generally was nature, or the struggle to survive and live in harmony with the elements of the universe in general, which was a major shift from the first series as well as those that followed after the Next Generation, where there was always a bad guy or a bad civilization. It was the general idea of good versus evil, with the “evil” being cultures that existed differently from that of the “Federation”.
In the series, The Next Generation, I see the story line, tended to mimic the concept that Isaiah used as the ending of this week’s reading, “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling[a] together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox.” It is a concept that states implicitly that there is no longer “us” against “them”, but rather a statement of a world that is “All inclusive”, of a world living in harmony.
Yet this vision doesn’t come out of life that continues doing what it has been doing. Isaiah starts off with the image of a stump. This means that a tree has had to be cut down, for there to be a stump. In fact, in the previous chapter, Isaiah speaks where God has cut down the whole forest. The message that we are reading today is, that in order for there to be this time of peace and harmony, there has to first be a complete change from what the normal order of things has been, in other words, there must be a “new” normal.
Matthew, in his story of John the Baptist, says it in this way, as the Pharisees and Sadducees were coming down to be baptized: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father. 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.” The basic message is: it doesn’t matter who you say you are, it is in the actions that tell what is in your heart. You might say you are a Christian, a follower of the teachings of Jesus, but if there is darkness in your heart, your actions will betray you. It doesn’t matter that you’ve been raised in this church and that your parents were members, but if all you do is just sit in the pew on Sunday, occupying space, maybe give a tithe to the offering, this does not make you a follower of the Messiah; what makes you a follower of Christ is the fruit in your life. You know what happens to fruit that just sits around, it eventually draws nats and spoils.
Yesterday, a group of folks gathered to discuss what it means to be a member of this church. At the very onset one of the basic statements about what membership looked like was in ones behavior. It was determined that there should be expected from each member to be “gentle in word” and “respectful” of one another. In other words, we as members should be expected to be nice to one another and not be viscous in our language or actions, especially during periods when we do not see eye to eye with one another. At the close of our four hour workshop, I found it interesting that several folks were wondering “why” if we call ourselves Christians, “we would have to put in writing such a statement;” shouldn’t we just assume that as Christians we would treat each other with respect and be gentle with each other’s hearts, and let me say, this is an issue with many churches, not just First Congregational UCC. The answer comes with John’s accusations to the religious leaders that the fruit of their actions were not consistent with a repentant heart. They were fruit from a system that had spoiled on the tree.
Isaiah gives us an idea of what the fruit of Jesse’s root is going to look like. The first fruit that comes is the “spirit of wisdom and understanding. In the Message, it translates as, the spirit of direction and builds strength.
The second type of fruit is the spirit of counsel and might, and the third fruit that is identified is the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. These of course are attributes that over 2,000 years we have assigned to Jesus of Nazareth, but as his disciples, these are also attributes that we through the gift of the Holy Spirits guidance should be striving for ourselves.
John was telling the religious that they were in need of repentance. The fact is, “Even now, each one of us stands in need of repentance, of conversion, not just once in our lives, but every day of our lives. When I can sit in a family’s home and have the patriarch of that family, choking back the tears as he shares his discovery that change for the church first comes with the change in his own heart that is a confession of “repentance”. Of course, we don't experience conversion or repentance in order to make God love us. No, we turn toward God and away from everything that keeps us from God, so that we can come closer to experiencing the breadth and height and depth of God's love for us, of God's amazing grace at work in our lives.
I wish I could say I came up with this, but image the credit card commercial as a way of saying it, in this way: our possessions, our toys, our stuff – worth a lot; our careers, our schedules, our agendas – really important; our power and place and security – very valuable; pushing all those things aside and making a way through the wilderness, a straight, clear path for God to come into our lives – priceless. Rev Kate Huey, UCC Resource
As we focus this Advent season on the birth of Jesus, we come today to the Table of Christ, which tells us the story of the salvation that comes through a repentant heart. It is the fruit of Jesse’s root that has yet to be completed. We are still waiting for the Lion to lay down with the lamb. We are waiting for the birth of the New Jerusalem, the kin-dom of God here in this creation. Only when we let our ego’s, our greed, and self-interests, be chopped down with the ax of the Holy Spirit, we are then able to let the new branch that God has promised start to grow out of our stump. It starts here, today, at this table, if you let it. Let this be the day that you open the gate of your heart to God’s spirit and through you, the fruit of Jesse’s root will grow and be nurtured! Amen