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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Many of us may be concerned about or may actually be preparing for Christmas. Cards, decorations, parties, and presents—does that sound like your and my “to do” lists? Where on those lists is repentance? The preparation of repentance is the focus of our Church Year’s current season of Advent, especially when Christmas and its season are still weeks away. Repentance prepares for all three of Christ’s “comings” to us—comings that give us the name for this season of Advent: His past coming at His birth, His present coming in His Word and Sacraments, and His future coming with glory to judge both the living and the dead. As we this morning reflect on today’s Gospel Reading from St. Mark’s Divinely‑inspired account, we realize that, as John the Baptizer preached, so with repentance and faith we are prepared for Christ’s comings. Thus the theme for this sermon: “Prepared for Christ’s Comings”.
Today’s Gospel Reading is the very beginning of St. Mark’s account, which account is at the center of this Church Year’s appointed Gospel Readings, and today’s Reading makes clear that the gospel (or “good news”) of Jesus Christ the Son of God begins in the Old Testament and its prophecy of the messenger who would come before the Messiah (or “Christ”) in order to prepare His way. As it was written in the prophets Malachi and Isaiah, so it was done: John the Baptizer appeared, preparing people for the Christ’s coming by proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
Repentance is something you and I always need. By nature we are not only unable truly to fear, love, and trust in God above all things, but by nature we are also hostile to God. There are many things that hinder the “way” of the Lord. In one place, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther lists among them “human reason, self‑love, one’s own wisdom, one’s own righteousness,” and the like (Luther, ad loc Malachi 3:2, AE 18:408). How well do we do remove such things? Removing those things are like what today’s Old Testament Reading (Isaiah 40:1-11) describes as valleys to be lifted up, mountains and hills to be made low, uneven ground to become level, and rough places made into plains. We are incapable of doing such things on our own. Even we who believe experience our own inability both to stop sinning and to effect the changes we need to make in our lives. Truly, as God says through Isaiah in the Old Testament Reading, we are like grass and flowers that wither and fade. For our sin we deserve to perish now and for eternity.
As today’s Epistle Reading (2 Peter 3:8-14) reminds us, the Lord is patient toward us, not wishing that any should perish but instead wishing that all should reach repentance. The day of the Lord in time will come with its judgment and its consequences, and we are to be found without spot or blemish and at peace. The way for us to be found without spot or blemish is repentance: turning in sorrow from our sin, trusting in God to forgive our sin, and wanting to do better than to keep sinning. John the Baptizer not only preached the law that condemns our sin, but he also preached the Gospel and administered a Sacrament that forgives our sin for the sake of the One mightier than Him Who was coming after him. When we so repent, believe, and are baptized, then we are “Prepared for Christ’s Comings”. With repentance and faith we are prepared to celebrate His past coming at His birth, to receive His present coming in His Word and Sacraments, and to withstand His future coming with glory to judge both the living and the dead.
Truly God was born into human flesh in Jesus in order to save us from our sin. John the Baptizer, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, comforted God’s people by tenderly telling them that their iniquity was pardoned, and that message also applies to us. Your and my iniquities are also pardoned, our sins are forgiven, not because of the quality of our repentance, but our sins are forgiven by grace on account of Jesus Christ’s death on the cross. Jesus Christ is the One not only mightier (or stronger) than John the Baptizer but also stronger than the devil, whom Jesus conquered on the cross in order to rescue us. In His ministry Jesus even described His victory over the devil as a stronger-man’s entering a strong man’s house and plundering his goods (Mark 3:23‑27; Luke 11:21-22). Jesus’s death on the cross and resurrection from the grave are the central focus of St. Mark’s Gospel account, the beginning of which we heard in today’s Gospel Reading, and Jesus virtually identifies Himself with the account of His death and resurrection for us (Mark 8:35; 10:29), so closely are Jesus and the Gospel in all its forms related. We do not find Him apart from His Word and Sacraments.
Would you believe that in our time people can buy chocolate‑covered locusts? They made the news a year ago when locusts were taking Israel by swarm. Some Jews can even keep Kosher when eating them, whether covered in chocolate or breaded with chili‑powder and fried. John the Baptizer may have cleansed his locusts with water or fire, but how he ate them is not as important as that he ate them. His food and his clothing, his camel’s hair and leather belt, marked him as a prophet, as did his preaching of repentance and his giving forgiveness of sins in baptism. John’s baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins is a central focus of today’s Gospel Reading, and we should not miss the fact that it was, as our baptisms are, a Means of Grace: God actually gave grace, the forgiveness of sins, by way of baptism. All those from the country of Judea and all Jerusalem going out to John and being baptized by him, young and old, were forgiven, as are we when we are baptized and receive baptisms gifts in faith.
Now, there is an interesting difference in the Greek forms of the commands that the voice in the wilderness cries out, which difference could be taken to suggest a one-time preparing the way of the Lord and repeatedly making His paths straight. We could liken the one‑time preparing the way to our being baptized once and the repeated making His paths straight to our frequently having our sins forgiven by the pastor in individual Holy Absolution or in his giving us Holy Communion. Most especially in bread that is His body and wine that is His blood does Christ come to us now, and we who are baptized are worthy and well prepared to receive Him here by faith in His words, “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” With Word and Sacraments, the Lord, as we heard in the Old Testament Reading, tends His flock like a shepherd and gathers the lambs in His arms, carries them in His bosom, and gently leads those that are with young. He is, as we addressed Him in the Introit (from Psalm 80), the Shepherd of Israel, Who leads Joseph like a flock. Yet, the Lord, our Good Shepherd, works through under‑shepherds, such as John the Baptizer and pastors today, those unworthy to perform for the Lord even the lowest function of a household slave, untying the strap of the His sandal, yet sufficient for their tasks by God’s enabling call and ordination.
A few Christmas cards have come to me in the mail, my mom this week put out my little Christmas tree, Kilgore’s Rotary Club last night had its Christmas party, and a few Christmas presents have also arrived. Some of those kind of preparations may well be necessary even only one week into Advent, and there is nothing inherently wrong with them, if we are not overlooking Advent’s preparation of repentance and faith in the forgiveness of sins through Word and Sacrament. That repentance and faith in the forgiveness of sins through Word and Sacrament makes us “Prepared for Christ’s Comings”. Let us live each day with that repentance and faith so that, when Christ comes the final time, all that has been written may be done for us.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +