Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord, Jesus Christ.

        The text of this mornings meditation is that particular piece of the gospel which we read just a few minutes ago. Permit me to refresh your memory with these "kind and gentle" words of John the Baptist. "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For 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."

        Whew! Now, that’s some strong words! If I said that to you, you’d probably make this the last day of employ with the church! And yet, it seems to me, that there is something quite remarkable about these words of the forerunner of Christ. For in school we learn, for instance, that there are two very different forms of things in this world; organic and inorganic. And one is alive and the other is not, as we demonstrated to the children with that rock which was so terribly interesting.

        Science, by the way, has tried in vain to make inorganic life show some form of life, and although a few enzymes have been produced, nothing even approaching real living organism can ever, or in my opinion, will ever be produced by science.

        And now along comes John the Baptist! Now I’ve got to tell you that it seems obvious to me that John’s purpose in life, at least as far as he saw it and as far as God knew it, was not to win friends and influence people! In fact, he seemed to insult just about everybody he came across.

        As a matter of fact, he told Herod, the great king of Israel, scurrilous man that he was, and yet powerful, that his lifestyle was immoral and he had to divorce his wife. For after all he had married his brother’s wife and that was obviously against the word of God. Well, so much for winning friends in the political realm.

        And then these words in the text are not addressed to the crowds in general, but rather to the Sadducees and the Pharisees, normally people who don’t even like each other, but found common cause to be against Christ. And he speaks these words to them, and he upbraids them one end to the other, and we’ll explain why in just a minute. Well, now he’s insulted the religious leaders.

        That takes care of the political realm and the religious realm, all in one fell swoop.

        But just to make sure that everybody is equally insulted, then he says to all the Jews there assembled, but especially the Pharisees and Sadducees, "Oh, by the way, your genetic connection with Abraham our Father means absolutely nothing in the sight of God. In fact, if God wants to, He doesn’t need you. He can raise up children of Abraham from the stones", that are everywhere present in Israel, and undoubtably motioned to them as he spoke.

        Well, I would suggest that John is doing what even modern science can’t do. He’s saying that God make inorganic things come alive. God does not abandon His people Israel when He says these outrageous things in the ears of His hearers. In fact, I would submit to you that God has been remarkably patient, remarkably gracious, and remarkably always faithful to the promises He made to His people. We see it all throughout the Old Testament. Time and time again, even when the children of Israel are unfaithful, God remains faithful to them.

        For God to speak at all, when He makes a promise is of course, for whatever He promises to actually come to be. God, I’m fond of saying, cannot engage in small talk, for whatever He says has to happen. So when God makes a promise, there is no possibility that He could not keep it. What He speaks, must come to be.

        Now, sometimes His timing isn’t all that we would expect. Indeed, when Abraham is promised a son from whom all nations would be blessed, it didn’t happen right away. In fact, it didn’t happen for a long time. In fact, Abraham was 95, and his wife not much younger, when of course, the pregnancy finally occurred. And this was naturally so that it would be evident to all that it was God who was doing it. For God often does things in such fashion.

        And then, the promise made about that child didn’t happen. Not for a little while. Not for a long while! Indeed, not for 2000 years! We find that the one who was promised, the seed who would come from Abraham who would finally conquer sin, death, and hell, and repair the damage done by the fall of humankind into sin in the garden of Eden, finally now comes 2000 years later.

        Now, God didn’t have to wait that long. But He did.

        Now virtually everyone in this room is a gentile. And I suggest to you that we ought to be particularly grateful for His patient waiting and for His long-delayed deliverance. He did a number of things by the wait.

        First of all, God desires to be truly loved by His people. And He truly wanted His children Israel to truly love Him. And it’s not as if they didn’t have a choice. Anybody can reject God and walk away from Him and do what they jolly well pleased. We know because we seem to do that on a regular basis - we call that "sin".

        God does not arm-twist anybody into heaven. But He does graciously extend His gospel call to us through His son.

        And to sharpen that faith, that faith given to the people Israel, it is necessary to cultivate faith and trust. And so, the normally two-week walk between Egypt and Canaan became a 40-year trek. That happened because of the faithlessness of the people who came at the beginning. So they did a u-turn and went out into the desert, and there received lesson after lesson in patience, in faith, and in trust.

        And then, throughout the the kingdom of Israel, both in its united state and its divided state, God send prophet after prophet after prophet to tell them that when they were unfaithful they had to repent and return to God. Listen to the word this God of ours graciously speaks in Jeremiah chapter 2. The word of the LORD came to me:

        "Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem: "'I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the desert, through a land not sown. Israel was holy to the LORD, the firstfruits of his harvest; all who devoured her were held guilty, and disaster overtook them,'" declares the LORD.... Has a nation ever changed its gods? (Yet they are not gods at all.) But my people have exchanged their Glory for worthless idols. Be appalled at this, O heavens, and shudder with great horror," declares the LORD. "My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

        Any of us who have been earthly fathers know the pain and discomfort when our children turn aside to self-destructive behaviors. And we correct them, and we try to show them the right way, but sometimes our children do not listen to us. You have notice that! And they go off and do their own thing, often to their great harm.

        Listen to the words of our God as He watches His children Israel go astray. For on the one hand He says, you have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water, but on the other hand He says, graciously, "'Return, faithless Israel,' declares the LORD, 'I will frown on you no longer, for I am merciful,' declares the LORD, 'I will not be angry forever. Only acknowledge your guilt-- you have rebelled against the LORD your God, you have scattered your favors to foreign gods under every spreading tree, and have not obeyed me,'" declares the LORD. '"Return, faithless people," declares the LORD, "for I am your husband..."

        This is not some "big man upstairs" who is far away, and removed, and aloof. No, this is one who cries out as a father for His children to return, and to be loved by His children, and to have His children get to Him through repentance, by the acknowledgement of sin. And then, forgiveness, of course, will be theirs.

        As we look at this text, time and time again we see the mercy of God being offered. And time and time again, we see the children of Israel walking away from it. Gentile Christians should take heart in God’s timing. For God had us in mind, together with all the Jews, to be His people from the very beginning. And He wasn’t going to rush it in any way, shape or form, because every last one of His creatures is beloved by Him, even though we are not faithful to Him, more often than not. And God would not leave any of us behind for the sake of being hasty.

        And so His deliverance tarried, as indeed His final coming tarries now. For He will not bring the curtain of this world’s history down until every last soul He will call His own will be His own. And then the end will come.

        Let it be known, dear friends, that God has loved His gentile children every bit as much as the children of Israel upon whom He showed His favor. The Jews had the honor of being the very instrument of God to bring the salvation not only to themselves, but to us.

        True repentance then, and John very clearly points out, is the mark of God’s faithful people. And is the proper preparation for the receiving of the Lord. John was announcing that the Kingdom of God was at hand. Prepare the way as we sang in our sermon hymn just a few moments ago!

        But he wasn’t welcoming everyone to his baptism, did you notice? To the Pharisees and the Sadduccees he issues these words, You brood of vipers! Why would he do that? Well, you see, they thought that coming to baptism would be just one more outward sign to men of their own righteousness, that this would be the complicity and compliance with yet one more ordinance, or more requirement of God, and by doing this they would earn God’s favor.

        But God does not redeem us because we behave well. He does not redeem us because we look righteous. Indeed, I would suggest to you, that this preparation of repentance is the only way to gain the threshold of faith. For, beyond all reason, it must be understood that God will not accept pride in His presence. That anything that even begins to smack of self-righteousness is not welcome before the cross of calvary.

        Sometimes we’re just like the Scribes and the Pharisees, I must tell you. For sometimes we do our religious activities so that others will think us good people, or perhaps somewhat better than others, if you want to be comparing. Sometimes we give of our time, our talents, and our treasures to the house of God and unto the work of His kingdom for all the wrong reasons. We do it out of a sense of obligation, or guilt, or a desire for recognition, rather than doing it out of the heartfelt thanksgiving for all the God has done for us. And in vain do we try to earn brownie points with God.

        True repentance, dear friends, is not something we decide to do! But rather, it is something that God works in us, by the power of His word through the power of His sacraments. David the psalmist said in quite rightly in Psalm 51, when he said A broken and contrite spirit God will not despise.

        And then Christ said it again, underlining what the psalmist had written, in the sermon on the mount when He said, Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God. What does this mean? Very clearly, it is the work of God’s law, His unyielding, unrelenting law, that smashes us into bits, that destroys every last thing that we think we might bring before the throne of God that He would find admirable.

        So that when He forgives our sins it is not in the least because we have earned it, or deserved it, or merited it. But rather, we are forgiven simply by the grace of God, for grace cannot be earned. Grace cannot be deserved. Grace cannot be merited, because it is grace. And forgiveness is a free gift, given to us by His Son.

        And this is the threshold of faith. To stand before a holy and righteous God guilty and without excuse, for then and then alone, will the kingdom of God come to us, and has. For any who dare to stand in any other posture before God must hear the words which were spoken by John. 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."

        Strong words? Yes. Harsh words? Absolutely. Words of Law? Without question. And that is why we so desperately need God. We cannot redeem ourselves. We cannot save ourselves. We cannot raise ourselves out of this condition. We cannot scrub off the stain of sin which so permeates our lives. That can only be done by someone else. And someone else has a name. And His name is Jesus, the Christ, of Nazareth. This is one whom God has sent that we might know faith, and know that even this dark stain of our own sins, and that of the sins of all mankind, might be washed away, and cleansed, in the blood of Him who died on the cross so that the payment for our sin might be rendered in full, with every bit of it covered.

        Christ has done all things well. He is the fulfillment of the promise to Father Abraham and to all the children of Israel, and He is the promise also of the forgiveness of sins to every gentile in this world.

        Dear friends in Christ, as it was for the genetic children of Abraham, so it is for us. We were like unbelieving stones which God has graciously called to life. Think of an individual, if you will, as that rock that I showed the children. If you picture then faith as water, and you pour water on the rock it will simply bounce off. It won’t soak in (at least not in a good, solid rock.. all analogies fall short now and again!) But I tell you this. Now picture faith as sand, and if you pour water into sand, it will simply soak it up. Sand is like belief. And what the law does, what John the Baptist is doing with his harsh words is he is applying the law to the rock. And he is crushing it, and he is smashing it so that it becomes receptive to the gospel and the salvation of God. And that God has done for us. And he has made us ready to receive the kingdom of God, and has given it.

        Every last one of us was a life-less spiritual stone, impervious to God, unreceptive to Him. But God is in the business of calling life out of death. And so God has called us from our stoney existence of unbelief into the gracious kingdom that He has given to us, and that He brings to us.

        For this reason Christ has come to redeem those dead in trespasses and sin.

        For this very reason Christ must fulfill every last detail of the law for us as a man under the law, for we couldn’t, and wouldn’t, and didn’t want to.

        For this reason Christ our Lord will suffer and die, expending His last breath, and knowing the eternal punishment which was due us, so that eternal punishment would not be conveyed to us. For it was received fully by Him.

        For this very reason, we who were spiritually inorganic have been called to life, now and forever, to be with God in heaven.

        John the Baptist, as we’ve discovered over the last few weeks, has spoken the truth. God calls children of Abraham from the very stones, and if you don’t mind, I’ll refer to you all as "Rocky". And I’ll refer to myself as the same way. God has crushed us with the law and given us forgiveness of our sins, without any exceptions of any kind. He graciously offers us His life, His perfect obedience, His perfect death, and His perfect victory over sin, death and the grave.

        We knew it first at our baptism, and He has continued to feed us, to refine us, and make us more solidly His own through His words of grace and His sacraments of grace. And we are His now and we are His forever. In Jesus’ name, Amen.