Sermon for the Second Sunday of Advent, 2025
Gospel Text Matthew 3:1-12
Supporting Texts Isaiah 11:1-10
Psalm 72:1-7,18-19
Romans 15:4-13
John has one central theme throughout his entire ministry. Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.
This wasn’t entirely a new theme. For thousands of years, various prophets had called for repentance; but here there is a change – the focus of the repentance is because of something imminent: The Kingdom of Heaven, a phrase found 33 times in Matthew’s Gospel, is near.
By this point in history, the Jewish people have had long, varied and extremely painful experience of being led by other Kingdoms. They’ve been dominated by the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks and now the Romans.
That’s worth keeping in mind, because it would have been much in the minds of John’s hearers. Repentance is always easier when you know something needs to change, and John’s hearers would have known, with every fibre of their being, that something needed to change.
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Further, “In those days” – the phrase used by Matthew to introduce this portion – is a direct reference to Joel and Jeremiah. Again, the Jewish listeners would have known it well. Matthew is saying, this is the time that the prophets spoke of. God will cause a righteous branch to spring up; the land and the people will be saved as God pours out his spirit.
Matthew is making a statement: This is the time of the Lord.
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It seems to me, as someone who came into the Anglican Church from a different tradition, that Anglicans don’t talk much about sin or repentance. And to an extent I think that’s very healthy; it seems to me that a focus on sin and repentance can easily turn into an obsession.
And yet our Gospel reading this morning clearly emphasises a call to repentance; not a feeling sorry so much, although there’s nothing wrong with that; but a realignment, alteration of our path. I find it telling that John didn’t just demand repentance; he called some of them a brood of vipers and wanted to see the “fruit of their repentance”.
In all fairness to the Pharisees and Sadducees, it seems a little hard on them to be called “A brood of vipers”! Now in Luke’s Gospel, where we have the same story, that phrase isn’t just used of the Pharisees and Sadducees; John says it to the whole multitude, and again demands to see the “fruit of repentance”.
Vipers are poisonous of course. But their main danger is that they’re sneaky. They’re ambush predators, who lie in wait for their prey with stealth, camouflage and patience. They tend to lie motionless, and outwardly harmless, until their prey comes within striking distance.
Evil when it’s clearly evil is pretty horrible. But evil dressed up as harmlessness is far more dangerous.
Curiously, we get a completely different take on these creatures in our reading from Isaiah. The Prophet is, on one level, harking back to Eden; but more importantly he’s giving us a picture of the age that the King of Kings will inaugurate. It’s a reign of justice and peace, free from fear.
The weaned child will put its hand out to the adder; the nurseling will play by the asp (adders and asps are just different types of viper). The dangers of hidden evil will be no more, because the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord. But until then, our evil is most dangerous when it’s most hidden.
Repent, says John, and show the fruit of repentance.
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What is the fruit of repentance?
Well, we’re left to think about it. The Gospel doesn’t specify. When I was thinking about repentance, I thought of a woman I know slightly.
This woman goes to Church almost every day. And she says her prayers every day – not just a few moments worth, but about an hour. She is quite concerned about sin, confession and repentance, and when she knows someone else is a Christian, she likes to engage in conversation about it – which can be a little trying!
A while ago, she lost her watch in one of the big Westfield Malls. She let the mall know, and they invited her in to look at the watches they had in “Lost Property”, to see if hers was there. Sadly, it wasn’t. But she looked at the watches on show, chose which she thought was the nicest, and told them that was her watch.
What I found most surprising about all this was that she told the story herself, not seeming at all embarrassed about it. It didn’t seem to fit with the picture of all the prayer, confession, repentance and absolution that is such a big part of her life.
Of course, it’s always easy enough to look at the things other people do, and point an accusing finger. And all of us fall short at times. But still, I’m going to suggest that this incident doesn’t show the “fruit of repentance”.
At its very core, the “fruit of repentance” needs to be change. I think that we can, equally validly, look at it in the negative or the positive sense. With God’s help, we can focus on the thing we want to stop doing, or the thing we want to start doing. Humans often do better when we focus on a positive – on what we know we should do, rather than what we know we shouldn’t do. And on that note, if we stay with the theme of fruit for a moment, we have the fruit of the Holy Spirit – love, joy, peace, forbearance, gentleness and self-control, as Paul wrote to the Galatians. As we turn away from our sinful inclinations – whatever they may be! – towards these fruits, we are absolutely showing the fruits of repentance.
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There’s more to Matthew’s message than just repentance, though. And as I’ve said, I don’t think too much focus on that is necessarily helpful.
Right in the very first sentence, Matthew gives us his really key point.
The Kingdom of Heaven has come near. The Greek is can be translated various ways – it’s arrived, it’s near, it’s at hand; but the meaning is completely clear. It isn’t on its way, or a wee way off, or somewhere around; it’s right here.
Anne van Gend, the Bishop of Dunedin, has a beautiful take on this. She says: Let’s be a Kingdom Spotter!!
Because we know the it’s here. It’s all around us. And I love the concept of being a people who live life constantly seeking out the Kingdom of Heaven, discovering it in likely and unlikely places.
We can spot the Kingdom of Heaven in the Anglican Trust for Women & Children; in Auckland City Mission; in Starlight; in a host of organisations. We can see it in each and every time that we ourselves try, on some level, to make life better for other people – to show God’s love.
We might spot the Kingdom of Heaven in our faith communities – let’s hope we do! Sometimes we’ll see the Kingdom of Heaven in our families, in our workplaces, in the people and situations that we find challenging, yet receive the grace for. The Kingdom of Heaven is in the growth we experience – even the painful growth. And it’s in the moments of exquisite joy we experience.
That isn’t to suggest that we live in some Utopia. The Kingdom of Heaven is here; but for now, we also live in a fallen world, with all its beauty and ugliness. It hasn’t yet come in its entirety; but it has, indeed come.
And so, we pray: Your Kingdom come – and may we have the grace and the will to spot it!
Amen.
Juli Meiklejohn