In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
By nature we all want our Christianity to be comfortable. We don’t mind if it makes some demands on us–we expect that. But we don’t want it to rock the boat too much or get in the way of our dreams and desires. Our old Adam inevitably tries to domesticate the faith, to make it something manageable and under our control, something that fits into our designs rather something that places us into God’s greater design. And so we go to church, we know the right answers, but we grow numb to the sin in our life, resistant to our need to change. Religion just becomes part of the routine instead of a life-altering reality.
But in today’s Gospel John the Baptizer teaches us that Christianity cannot be domesticated and tamed. He calls out to us with uncompromising words, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” He won’t let us settle in to this world and be comfortable with our lives. He’s always calling us to turn away from our sins and worldly loves, to prepare for the coming kingdom of Christ and to have no other allegiance but to Jesus. If you are to be a Christian, you can never be entirely settled or comfortable in this world. For repentance is not just a one-time action but a way of life, daily dying to sin and self and rising to live the new life of Christ.
John calls us out of our comfort zones into the wilderness, away from the supposedly civilized world with its illusions and lies. He preaches to us: “No longer live for yourself. No longer live controlled by your fears, or your appetites, or your notions of what’s best. No longer live pushing your agenda, making things happen, and acting as if it all depends on you. Instead, live for the kingdom of heaven. Live for unending communion with God. For nothing else matters. Everything else is expendable. So discipline your body, reform your habits, kill your inborn tendencies, change your hopes and prayers, and abandon the things you think matter so much. For you don’t want to miss this. You don’t want to miss out on the kingdom of God, which is so close you can taste it.”
It is written that the people went out to be baptized by John in the Jordan, “confessing their sins.” We do something like that here each week, “I, a poor miserable sinner, confess to you all my sins and iniquities.” And yet, it’s not exactly the same, is it? For they were confessing specific things. The problem with general confession is that we then become just general sinners. Generalities are safe. What’s the threat in admitting you’re a sinner, just like everyone else in the world? But what is it specifically that you do that is wrong? What is it that you don’t do that you should? Where in your life have you set yourself against God and against others by your words and deeds, by your thoughts and desires? The Law says that we all are guilty, each in our own perverse and destructive way.
This is no small matter; this is no game. For John says, “Even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” You are to bear fruits worthy of repentance, humble deeds of love which demonstrate that you rely not on yourself and your own spiritual pedigree but on Christ alone and His coming salvation.
“Prepare the way of the Lord.” Repent. The Lord wants everything that stands between you and Him to be demolished and taken away. John’s preaching of the Law is the wrecking ball and the bulldozer that begins to accomplish that. Every low place will be raised up. Every high place will be laid low. Everyone must become completely other than they are. For it is written, “All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades.” Everything we are, everything that we have, is only temporary. Take a look in the mirror and hear the voice, “The grass withers, the flower fades.” John’s message sounds a bit Scrooge-like, especially in a church newly decorated for Christmas. But he doesn’t want us to count on things that don’t last, that break down and get used up and die. Only the Word of our God stands forever. And it is upon His Word, and not what we do, that our eternal life rests. Only what comes from the mouth of the Lord is sure and lasting.
Hear, then, what the Word says, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand!” The King is coming! Jesus is near! He’s about to arrive! And that’s good news! For He comes to save and help those who have been brought to repentance by John’s preaching of the Law.
This is the message of comfort which was spoken of in the Old Testament reading, “Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.” Do you see? The hand of the Lord is not a closed fist waiting to pound you but an open hand giving you the free gift of mercy and forgiveness. And not just barely enough forgiveness, but double forgiveness, overflowing forgiveness, twice as much as you need, and then some. See, God doesn’t first measure your sin and then measure out a limited amount of forgiveness to cover it. Instead, He gives you everything He’s got, without limit, without measure, all of Jesus, so that you may never doubt that you have truly been made right with God, that there’s no sin of yours bigger or more powerful than His forgiveness, that it’s all been answered for and taken away.
Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. However, there is another tree that stands in the place of our own, the tree of the cross. Though the wood was dry and lifeless, yet it bore the most precious fruit on its limbs, the very body of Christ sacrificed for the sins of the whole world. Though He was entirely without sin, yet Jesus was chopped down in death for us. He was thrown into the fiery judgment we deserved so that we would be spared and forgiven. We are not worthy even to carry his sandals, yet He stooped down and carried us out of death through His resurrection. He has arisen from the earth as a fruitful Vine, and we have been grafted into Him so that we may share in His life forever and bear fruit by His Spirit.
The message of Advent is to repent and believe this. Over
and over again the Lord calls out to you. He is slow to give up on
you. That’s why He keeps calling out. So don’t insist on holding
on to your sins. If you try to run with both Him and your sins, He
will finally put an end to that game. He tells you so. Your
sins are either with Jesus or with you. It is only the sins you hold
onto and keep away from Him that can damn you. Jesus has already
answered for your sins. You have to take them back from Him to be
damned by them. So let them go; let Him have them.
“The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God
stands forever.” That Word of God has been applied to you.
In the water you were joined to Jesus, the Word made flesh, and so you
will stand forever in Him. God has raised you up as children of Abraham,
turning your stony hearts to faith. It is written in I Peter, “You
have been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through
the word of God which lives and abides forever.” Just as a lily dies
but then comes forth to life again from the bulb, so also you who are mortal
will rise again from the grave when Christ your risen Savior comes.
Only in Jesus is there real life, full life. For He is the One who
baptizes you with the enlightening fire of His Holy Spirit. For now the
life of Christ is found out in the untamed wilderness, at the Jordan waters,
where the Voice of repentance and forgiveness is heard. But in the
end when Christ returns, “the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and
all flesh shall see it together.”
Brothers and sisters of Christ, hear the voice of John today: The kingdom of heaven is at hand, for Jesus is at hand, the Jesus who was willing to be numbered with sinners, to break bread with outcasts and losers, to forgive those who tortured and killed him, to embrace the world in His death. The Jesus who will appear on the last day atoned for every sin, redeemed every sinner. He is coming even now, not with an ax in His hands, but with nail marks in His hands, giving you His own true body and blood in the supper for your forgiveness. The Messiah is near. Repent and believe.
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
(With thanks to Chad Bird, Bill Cwirla, and Normal Nagel)