Advent Pruning!

Read Matthew 3:1-12

One thing that struck me about this scripture from Matthew is the readiness of a fruit bearing plant to produce good fruit – alluding to the need to keep one’s heart and life worthy.

People came from the whole region to hear John the Baptist preach and be baptized, including some Pharisees and Sadducees. John was quick to question their intentions and genuine desire for repentance and change. He called them the offspring of snakes (my term!) 

However, I find it hopeful that the Pharisees and Sadducees came and may have even been baptized following John’s challenge. Were their hearts and lives worthy and able to accept the challenge? One way that challenge could be met is through a pruning of one’s life and heart of things that choke and suffocate the heart and life of bearing real good fruit of faith and devotion.

I recall when Cathy and I had just been married and we moved to our first ministry in Illinois. In the back yard of our manse was a grape vine which had some concord grapes growing. The problem was the vine had not been pruned.  We tried some of the grapes and they had a bad taste! We shared that experience with the clerk of Session of the church. She had a grape vine in her yard, and she said she would come over and take care of the vine. When she did, she cut the branches so far back that it looked like a dead vine with no life whatsoever! We questioned why it had to be so radically cut back. She said to wait, have faith, and watch the vine grow and bear fresh grapes. When the growing season came, the branches did grow back and produced some beautiful concord grapes!

That pruning of the grape vine was a lesson that could relate to what John the Baptist challenged those who listened and were baptized. Were their hearts and lives so pruned so as to bear good fruit of faith and service?

In this season of Advent waiting, I pray we may question our own lives to see if our hearts and lives are bearing good fruit or need a radical pruning. May God grant us to be like a vine that bears good fruit!

Prayer: O Divine Grapevine Dresser and Keeper, open us to the reality of our faith and help us see that our hearts and lives are so pruned and ready for bear good fruit of service and witness for the kingdom of God. We pray in the name of the Coming Christ. Amen

Rev. Dr. John J. Duling, Honorably Retired