Matthew 3:1-12 Pastor Stephen “Tig” Intagliata
Summary: With the actions of our government that are abusing power and disrespecting human life, it’s easy to get discouraged and feel like we are powerless to bring about any positive change in the world. But one thing we CAN change is ourselves–we can respond to John the Baptist’s call to repent and bear the fruit of the Spirit in our lives.
Friends, I’ll be honest with you. It seems like by the end of every week lately, I’m angry and exhausted, mostly because of attitudes and actions of our current government—
its recklessness, its greed, abuse of power, its cruelty and its disrespect for human life. In light of all this, and specifically the murder of Renee Good by an ICE agent this past week, it’s hard to make a case that our “pro-life” government is actually for life.
I don’t think I’m being partisan here—it’s not a matter of Republican vs. Democrat right now—as I see it, it’s more democracy vs. authoritarianism and fascism.
Now I don’t want my sermons and our worship services to turn into political rallies; that’s not what we’re here for, nor what we’re allowed to do as a church.
But I believe the Church IS here to speak truth to power; as Dr. King said in his speech “A Knock at Midnight”, “the church isn’t called to be the master or the servant of the state, but the conscience of the state.”
I see Pope Leo in the Catholic church and Pope Francis before him as doing a good job of doing this—their words have been a prophetic voice in society.
I want me as a pastor and us as a church to also be a prophetic voice—a witness for the truth and justice and compassion that Jesus embodied with his life, which are cornerstones of his Kingdom, and which are sorely needed in our world.
Our witness as followers of Jesus to the world around us is important. But one of the realities we face is that it can feel overwhelming and hopeless at times.
I don’t know about you, but sometimes I feel powerless in the midst of all the unrest, and with the other forces at work in the world. Can our efforts make a difference and bring about any real change in society?
I felt that way this week, and God in his infinite goodness led me to just what I needed to hear. It came in the form of something that singer Amy Grant said in an interview about her new song that just came out.
The song is called “the 6th of January”, and you guessed it–it was released on January 6. And yes, the song has to do with what happened on January 6, 2021, when a mob stormed the Capitol with the goal of overturning the 2020 election.
The song was actually written by a friend of Amy’s, and it harkens back to the turbulent years of the 1960’s and 70’s. There’s a reference to the song “Imagine” by John Lennon, and also asks the question “all that wide-eyed hope, were we so naïve?”
And she talks about one of the defining events of that era, the Woodstock gathering in New York. And she sees what happened on January 6 as a defining event of the era we’re living in now.
Even so, they were very different events; Woodstock was largely peaceful, though not something you’d want to take your children to. And January 6 was violent, illegal, and undermining of our very Constitution.
In The 6th of January, Amy Grant is addressing the unrest happening in society during both Woodstock and January 6, 2021.
In the interview, I like what she says about what we can do in light of all the unrest and the forces at work in the world. She says:
“I think sitting with unrest is where we ask important questions….
Unrest is the invitation to say, What do I have control over, and what choices can I make in the world we live in? We have so much power and influence in our own lives.”
I don’t know about you, but I’ll admit that sometimes in my focus on wanting everything around me wanting to change, I forget that there is something that I DO have control over—and that’s what’s inside me—my choices and how I live my own life.
The great Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy hit it on the head when he said “Everyone thinks about changing the world, but no one thinks about changing themselves.”
It reminds me of classic song about peace that I and many of you have known since the days of our youth—“let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.”
So it begins right here inside us folks. And that’s where our scripture for this morning comes in. Last Sunday I talked about John the Baptist and repentance in the first of 5 “C’s” of the effects of Epiphanies.
The first “C” is conversion, the decision or choice to follow Jesus and submit to his Lordship in our life. That’s the first step in the journey of repentance.
But it goes deeper than simply making a decision and believing some things, and then going on with “business as usual” in life. It’s about change that happens deep down here, that then leads to producing good fruit in the way we live our lives.
Here’s how various versions of the Bible interpret what John the Baptist was saying (Matt. 3:8):
“Bear fruit worthy of repentance.”
“Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.”
“Produce fruit that shows you have changed your hearts and lives.”
“Do the things that show you really have changed your hearts and lives.”
“Do those things that prove you have turned to God and have changed the way you think and act.”
True repentance is not for the faint of heart, because it gets at the core of what’s IN our heart, and forces us to lower our defenses and take a hard, honest look at inside ourselves, and how we interact with the world around us.
Here’s an example. Last October Karen and I joined some of my old high school friends for a week in Croatia. It was my first time in Croatia so I didn’t know much about the language or the culture.
One day we drove to a place where we were going to take a hike and hopefully see a waterfall. It was cold and damp and we wanted to get a cup of coffee before we took the hike, so we stopped at a coffee shop.
And we did what most people in the US do when they go to coffee shop when they’re on the way somewhere—we asked for it “to go”, or “take away” as they say in Europe.
The guy at the counter gave us a puzzling look, and he had to go to the back room to find some little paper cups. He begrudgingly poured coffee into them, we paid for them, and we walked out the door.
We were just about to get into our car when the guy came running out, and in his broken English he said, “In our country we never get coffee to take away. We always take time to sit and enjoy it with other people in the coffee shop. What you did was very rude.”
Have you ever felt like the ugly American in your travels outside the US? Well, in that moment we felt as ugly and ashamed as you could feel. But as hard as it was to hear, we needed to hear it, and see how our American values of time and relationships clash with Croatian culture.
Now in the same way, so many of the values in our culture are at odds with the countercultural values of Jesus and his kingdom.
The way of Jesus is the way of forgiveness rather than revenge; the way of peace rather than violence; of showing grace rather than harboring resentment; of loving enemies rather than hating them; of seeing each person as a beloved child of God rather than dehumanizing and demonizing people who aren’t like us.
The journey of bearing fruit of repentance involves confessing how we don’t align with Jesus’ way, and then learning his way of seeing and living in the world in our relationships with God and other people. It’s hard and humbling work.
But there’s a silver lining in it all. As Matt Woodley says in his commentary on Matthew, true repentance leads to hope.
John’s call for repentance leads to hope. Repentance really is sweet relief. We try so hard to hide and justify our sins, blaming and projecting them onto others. We play games with God, others, and ourselves. Repentance means we remove these defensive shields—our blaming and excusing. We stop playing games and come home to the God who is with us, and we also come home to our true selves.
When we do the hard work of repentance, it’s like fertilizer that feeds our soul and allows us to become the true person God created us to be, and to produce good fruit in our lives, what the apostle Paul calls the fruit of the Spirit. He lists some of the fruit in his letter to the Galatians (5:22-23):
Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
Now it’s not a complete list; there are many other good things, good fruit our lives produce that aren’t mentioned here.
Friends, if we are living a life a life marked by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, that’s a powerful witness to the world around us.
And it’s a sign that we have an authentic and genuine faith in Jesus. “You will know them by their fruit” as Jesus himself said in his Sermon on the Mount.
Now let’s look at the second part of the Galatians passage, vs. 24-25:
And those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.
Ah, we don’t do this repentance work on our own. It’s the fruit OF THE SPIRIT, right? There’s this part of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, who is at work inside us, convicting us of our sin, molding us, empowering us, and guiding us toward living like Jesus and bearing fruit worthy of repentance.
The Holy Spirit is the presence of Jesus with us which he promised to give his followers after he left this earth. Later in the gospel of John, in chapter 15, Jesus gives a metaphor of a grapevine to describe his relationship with his followers.
Here are some excerpts from that passage in John 15:
I am the vine, and you are the branches. If you stay joined to me, and I stay joined to you, then you will produce lots of fruit. But you cannot do anything without me.
Stay joined to me and let my teachings become part of you…When you become fruitful disciples of mine, my Father will be honored. I have loved you, just as my Father has loved me. So remain faithful to my love for you.
So that’s the key to bearing fruit worthy of repentance—staying connected to the vine, abiding with him as other versions say, nurturing our relationship with Jesus, growing deeper and closer to him.
Jesus is our lifeblood, our source of life, like a deep well. When we drink from that deep well, it can help prevent burnout in our witness and working for peace and justice in the world.
So how do we stay joined to Jesus, drink from his well, abide in him so we can produce fruit that is worthy of repentance?
One way I try to stay connected to Jesus is through reading and re-reading through the gospels to learn as much as I can about Jesus.
Sometimes when I read a familiar passage slowly and prayerfully, I see something new that I hadn’t seen before. I expand my understanding of him, which is a way of getting to know him better.
Another thing that I have found helpful is spending time in prayer—not just talking to God with my requests, but being silent before God, enjoying his presence and listening for his still, small voice.
Another way that helps me live in communion with Jesus has to do with something I alluded to last week—since he knows everything I’m going through, I try to be honest with him and not try to hide anything from him.
Just like other relationships we have that go deeper the more we open up to each other, the more I reveal to Jesus, the more honest I am with him, the more I will stay connected to him and the stronger our relationship will be.
So those are a few things. I wonder what some things are that you do to stay connected to the Jesus, the vine. It’s time well spent, and it’s the key to bearing fruit that is worthy of repentance.
Prayer: Jesus, thank you for the people in our lives who help us along on our journey of repentance, a journey where we grow through bearing good fruit for the sake of bearing witness to you and your kingdom. Thank you for your Holy Spirit, which has the power to soften our hard hearts and shape them so we can become more loving and joyful and peaceful and kind and generous and faithful. Open us up to a closer relationship with you so you do your work of transformation in our lives. Amen.
