John Warns Us To Produce the Fruit of Repentance (Advent 3)

John the Baptist is an exciting figure. He is the last of the Prophets. The Prophets have a long history - two thousand years of warning the Hebrew People that God would come to them again and that they must be ready. There would be a time of divine judgement and justice. The poor and the oppressed would be able to celebrate. John the Baptist calls the religious teachers and clergy of his time “snakes”.  He calls on them to show the fruit of repentance if they really want to be saved from the coming judgement. As we prepare for the coming of Jesus at Christmas it is a good time to examine our lives and be sure we have produced the ‘fruit of repentance? 

1. We are called to repent our failure to love God more

Of course we think we love God. We know that is what we are supposed to be doing. The problem is, like the Pharisees, we often make up our own version of what loving God means:

Prophecy Calls Us Into Right Relationship - Righteousness (Advent 3, Year B)

In the Gospel Reading (John 1.6-8, 19-28) we see a situation that is happening in our own lifetime. We have representatives of a corrupted religion investigating a genuine prophet. He tells them God is about to fulfill the Isaiah Prophecy. He tells them that the one “…you do not know.” (v. 26) is in their midst. This was a stinging rebuke to the religious leadership and a wake-up call to the Jews. It is also a wake-up call to us now. The question is what should we do to "make the way straight" or get into a right relationship with God  and "make righteousness and praise spring up" (v. 11) in our time?

1. The Baptist proclaimed the fulfillment of the Isaiah Prophecy

This was a prophecy that God would intervene in human affairs once again to "... make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations" (Isaiah 61.11). Water baptism is the first step in spiritual life.