2nd Sunday Advent
Matthew 3:1-12
"Look, Jesus is Coming"
"In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair, and a leather girdle around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then went out to him Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit that befits repentance, and do not presume to say to yourselves, ’We have Abraham as our father’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. "I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire." Matthew 3:1-12, RSV.
Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Saviour, Jesus who is the Christ. Amen
There is a purely American art form that has been lost to the American scene over the last 20 to 15 years. It is the Circus Poster. Some of you can remember those colorful posters that were hung about a month before the circus would come to your area announcing the greatest show on earth. These posters would announce the glory, the "thrills, the glamor and the excitement of the most magical of worlds SOON to arrive for one day and one day only.
The life of the bill poster was tedious and hard work, never accompanied by applause or any sign of appreciation. Few people even noticed him at work, but when he was done, the results of his hard work were seen on barn sides, wooden fences and store windows. It was not at all his job to call attention to himself; his job was to leave a visible sign, a visible proclamation of the greater than himself that was yet to come.
The Circus was coming to town!!
So, our text for this morning from Matthew’s gospel, tells of another whose job was not to point attention to himself, but to one who was coming who was greater than I." John was not the big show, but he came to proclaim that the big show was coming. Jesus was coming.
Yes, this is the season to get ready, to prepare for one who is coming. We light the Advent candles on the wreath this morning as a signal that someone.is coming and we have the next 3 weeks to get ready. But ready for who?? Who is coming? Beginning today and continuing the next weeks of Advent, we will answer that question, who is coming. We will answer the question posed.by our .hymn of the day,"What child is this, who laid to rest, on Mary’s lap is sleeping?"
What child is this? Who is coming? Does he get confused with another who is coming this season? I would imagine if we asked our children who is coming they might answer with another song that is sung during this season: "You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout, I’m telling you why, Santa Claus is coming to town! He knows when you’ve been sleeping, he knows when you’re awake, he knows when you’ve been bad or good. So be good for goodness sake!
Yes, this is the season to get ready. Ready for the Christ child in our, lives. 4John the Baptist gives us a hint this morning about how we are to get ready for the Christ
child in our lives. .John brought and still brings into our lives a message for personal repentance. This message that told and tells people they need get out of the ruts, the grooves they are in, to change, to turn around from the kind of lives they are living to repent to .change to make 180 degree, turn. Advent is the time for us to look at; our: lives to note the changes that need to be made then to make them.
This term repentance can be defined. as a- change of"soul as found in Matt. 27: 3 &.. IICor. 7.: 9,10. Repentance means turning one soul, one’s life around, changing direction. Repentance is a human possibility, because it is the result of divine redemption in: our lives. Repentance is at once man’s. responsibility and the gift of God through the Spirit.
Repentance is not done in fear but in love. It is done because one is motivated:by, the grace of God. John"s message was one .of escape to repent’ because one would escape the terrible consequences of hell.
Jesus came with another kind of message of repentance a positive message. Jesus says, take those steps of, repentance that will allow you to seize the opportunity to claim .your status as a son or daughter of God. Jesus .message was and still is life affirming. We repent, we change because we want a better quality of life.
Repentance is a returning to God which is now no longer a response to law, but a response to a person to Jesus Christ it is discipleship; There can be no genuine repentance which is not also the acceptance of the divine promises spoken in .Jesus of Nazareth: Repentance is linked with faith in that once a per:son accepts the promises of God in Jesus, one is then led to see ’ones life illuminated by grace as a sinner in rebellion against God. It is in this illumination that one then comes to the acceptance that life would be a better quality in and through the life or" Jesus ’who helps us turn away from self and sin and live in and through ’him.
A wife.tells about her Friday afternoon when she starts preparing ’for her husband’s return after a week of traveling. "When I start shopping and cleaning and arranging flowers, it is,like having him already here. There is some thing special in the cooking on Friday because I know we will share it. It is as if he were already with me."
That is the way we find ourselves in our journey in Christ. We await for his coming again. We prepare in repentance,we sense the nearness of the kingdom and yet we wait for its consummation. When we wait for something, we, in a sense already possess it.
Now I would suppose that many of you; are wondering why we would need to talk about repentance letting Jesus change our lives giving us his grace to accept our short comings so that we deal with them, change and then life a better quality of life in our rural middle class church, when we don’t really think of ourselves as doing things that are so awful/ Surely pastor, you might think, you are talking to someone else, not me. Maybe the person next to me in the pew, or maybe those who are here they really need to hear a message of repentance, but not me.
A poem says:
Preach about the other man Preacher
the man we all can see
The man of oaths, the man of strife, the man who drinks and beast his wife, but helps his mates to fret and shirk when all they need is to keep at work --
Preach about the other man, Preacher! Not about me!
But it is when we, you and I realize that the message of repentance is directed at us. When we realize that before God we are indeed sinners, it is only then that the message, the miracle, the greatness and glory of this Christmas season will come alive in our hearts. When we see that we truly need Jesus, that we are totally dependent on him for our salvation, will the impact of the incarnation be that spacial even in our hearts.
A man was watching a marble cutter with chisel and hammer clanging a stone into a beautiful status. He said o the cutter, "I wish I could change my life like that. I wish I could deal such clanging blows on my story heart".
Maybe you could if you worked like me, upon your knees."
Repentance means you are truly sorry and seek the forgiveness of Christ. But do we take this forgiveness and this repentance not very seriously. Do we tell God we want tot repent but then do that act again and again. How seriously do we take repentance and the forgiveness that it brings. How sorry are we?
Christopher D. Green writes:
"You could say that it was part of the environment surrounding our house. It was an unwritten code held sacred to all in the family. From the time I can remember being able to remember things, I grew up understanding what it meant to say, ’I’m sorry. From childhood, I recall my parents instilling in me and my sister that if we were truly
sorry for something we had done, we could always ask for forgiveness and we would be forgiven. It was a mutual obligation both parties (the inflicter and the inflicted) had to accept. Through the realization we had wronged another member of the family, unity could be restored with those simple words, ’I’m sorry.’
"I remember a time when this worked amazingly well, until I abused the system. I still remember breaking my sister’s baton over my knee when I was about eight years old. It was then I learned about the power of repentance. As I forced the midpoint of that lightweight baton over my knee, I remember thinking, ’Saying "I’m sorry" will fix this!’
Repeated ’I’m sorry’s were declared in my defense, but Mom saw through the veil of charade. I had abused the right to say ’I’m sorry’! Finally, after a long discussion, I was forgiven. Not for breaking the baton as much as I was forgiven of abusing the ability to repent and say I was sorry.
"There are times now when I think of how I have abused the repentance God has provided through Christ. Have I taken advantage of our relationship?"
Have you or I abused the repentance God has provided through Christ have we taken advantage of that relationship and come to Christ with half hearted requests for forgiveness?
A closing story about two brothers one who felt the forgiving power of repentance in his life and one who didn’t.
There is a story bout two brothers who were convicted of sheep stealing. The brutal custom of their time demanded that their foreheads be branded with ST standing for Sheep Thief.
One of the brothers tried to run from his past sin, but some one would always ask that the ST stood for and the truth would come out. He fled from place to place. His life became unbearable and he died a biter and despised man.
But the other brother repented of his misdeed, lived in the power of Christ, stayed at his home, worked hard to recapture the respect of his neighbors and established a reputation for integrity and goodness. One day a stranger in town saw the old man with the ST branded on his forehead and asked a native what it meant. After thin for a long time, the man replied, " it all happened so long ago but I think the letters are a abbreviation for SAINT."
Amen
Written by Pastor Tim Zingale December 3, 2007 You
