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sadvent204
Make Straight the
Way
Text:
Matthew 3:1-12
Date: The Second Sunday in Advent
12/5/04 apache V90
Every
Sunday we gather here and the first thing we hear and the first
thing that happens is the remembrance of our Holy Baptism “in the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” It is
because we are baptized and only because we are baptized that we
have any claim of right or privilege to come into the Presence of
God. We then exercise or “do” our baptism when we repent, that is,
confess our sins and receive holy absolution or forgiveness “in
the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” It
would be far better if we could reclaim the oldest Lutheran practice
(which disappeared from regular practice only in the late 1800s
in The Missouri Synod in The United States of America), that being
individual or “private” confession and absolution. We teach it to
our children and new members in the catechism, and then we don't
do it except in a very few situations. But how much more comforting
to personally confess my sin and need of God and his forgiveness
and then to personally receive that forgiveness spoken by the man
called and ordained to speak God's Word and distribute His gifts.
The
season of Advent begins with the clarion warning of the impending
Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ on the Last Day of Judgment.
The second and third Sundays of Advent have John the Baptist making
his annual visitation calling us to repentance. Yes, us! Unless,
of course, we, like the Pharisees and Sadducees, are offended thinking
we're “the in crowd” that needs no repentance! But because we continue
to carry around the old, sinful, fallen nature, we need daily to
repent, which is nothing other than to return to the dangerous tsunami
of the continual drowning of our old nature in the promise of our
Baptism and the rising again of the new nature which is ours as
a gift in Christ.
John
the Baptist says, “Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.”
And we sing in the Hymn of the Day, “Then cleansed be ev'ry life
from sin; Make straight the way for God within, And let us all our
hearts prepare For Christ to come and enter there.”
There
is only one cleansing agent for sin. It is not in adjusting our
best intentions, it is not in straightening up and flying right,
not by any works we can do, certainly not by making excuses or covering
up. The only cleansing agent for sin is the blood of Jesus. So when
every life is urged to be cleansed from sin, we mean that every
person is to come into contact with the blood of Jesus.
This,
of course, happens “within,” as the hymn says, “Make straight the
way for God within,” on the inside, in our heart, mind and soul.
And again it “happens” only if and when we are given that gift of
faith in the crucified One. Yet, this faith is not some emotion
or decision originating from within myself. While faith is “within”
it comes to us from outside of ourselves, it comes from God. Lutherans
believe what the scriptures say so clearly, as Luther wrote about
it in the Smalcald Articles, “we should and must insist that God
does not want to deal with us human beings, except by means of his
external Word and sacrament. Everything that boasts of being from
the Spirit apart from such a Word and sacrament is of the devil”
[Smalcald Articles, “8. Concerning Confession,” Kolb-Wengert 323:10].
So it is the external Word of the Law that convicts and convinces
us that we are sinners, and it is the external Word of the Gospel
that then gives us the saving faith that grasps the forgiveness
won for us by the blood of Christ shed on the Cross.
John
brought the external Word of the Law convicting of sin. "Repent,
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Under the gift and inspiration
of the Holy Spirit through this Word, gentle, honest, weary souls
who know their need are glad to repent, to admit and confess their
sin and turn to God for forgiveness and salvation and life. Those
with the harder crust of hypocrisy and self-righteousness, on the
other hand, need a little harder hammer of the Law. "You brood
of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit
in keeping with 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 for 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.” In these
words the prophet judges the inner defense systems of hypocrisy,
pride and presumption. The New Testament records that a few of these
were drawn to repentance and faith. But unbelief runs deep, even
in us, and every person has the awesome and disastrous so-called
“freedom” to say “No,” to reject God's warning, to reject God's
gift.
Repentance
has to do with emptying yourself of yourself. We even use the phrase
to describe the proud and self-righteous as being “full of himself.”
The point is that only an empty vessel can be filled. When our hymn
continues to say, “And let us all our hearts prepare For Christ
to come and enter there,” it means, first, the emptying of our hearts
of any trust or confidence in ourselves or anything else, literally
to despair of ourselves and anything else, and then to turn to Jesus
to come and enter and give the gift of saving faith in his blood.
When was the last time you despaired of yourself and of everything
else? Or have you ever? Have you ever seriously considered that
upon which you place your trust, your steadiness, your reputation,
whether it is The Firm Foundation according to God's Word, or merely
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