Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ~ Mt 3.9-10
His years living with God in the desert gave John the Baptist a clarity of vision. Ancestry and history meant nothing to him. All that mattered was the fruitfulness of a life lived in the sight of God. Do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your God, as an earlier prophet said.
Churches face the same problem. We are children of John Wesley, they say, or John Calvin, or whoever the ancestor is. Their heritage defines and consumes them. They become merely a historical society, a service club, or a social gathering. They cease to bear fruit — faith, humility, charity, reticence and works of mercy. Their theology atrophies, and they lose the capacity to reproduce themselves in new believers. They no longer appeal to people hungry for God.
Then the ax comes out because God looks for fruit. It’s happening right now to a lot of churches.
