+ Advent 2 – December 7, 2014 +
Redeemer
Lutheran, HB
Series B:
Isaiah 40:1-11; 2 Peter 3:8-14; Mark 1:1-8
In the Name
of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The church year begins anew.
Christ begins to prepare us for his advent by repentance,
forgiveness, and joy. “Prepare the way of
the Lord.”
John’s baptism points forward to Jesus’ greater baptism for
you by water, word, and the Holy Spirit, the beginning of your new life in
Christ.
Advent is about beginnings.
It’s the beginning of the end-times. The King has landed. His
reign has begun.
It’s the beginning of Jesus’ journey to the cross. The road
goes ever on and on, from Bethlehem to the Jordan River, through Galilee to
Jerusalem.
And it’s the beginning of
the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
So St. Mark begins his Gospel. Mark does not record the birth of
Jesus; no angels or shepherds, no dreaming Joseph or pondering Mary, simply: the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ,
the Son of God.
In Mark’s Gospel, you won’t hear the proclamation “Son of God”
spoken again until Jesus is on the cross. Jesus is most clearly the “Son of
God” when he’s suffering and dying for you.
That’s the Gospel. Jesus crucified for you. Gospel means Good
News. John’s advent good news is the coming Savior. Everything John says and
does points to Jesus’ advent and our new beginning in him.
“Behold,
I send my messenger before your face,
who will prepare your way,
the voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight,’”
who will prepare your way,
the voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight,’”
What does that say about Jesus? Is he descendant of
Abraham, Israel’s son? Or is he the Son of God, God almighty in human flesh
come to save? Yes! Jesus is true God and true man. Jesus is the perfect substitute
for Israel and for you; like you in all respects yet without sin.
John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
Location is everything for John. The wilderness is his church;
the Jordan River his pulpit. These locations are no accident. They mirror the
message. The wilderness recalls Israel’s wandering. 40 years of waiting for the
Promised Land. Wanting to find the home promised to them by YHWH. Testing.
Sinning. Dying. That’s life in the wilderness. A wasteland.
But the wilderness isn’t just
“out there” in the world. No, the wilderness is in each of us too. Like an
arid, hot wind, our words and deeds scorch our fellow members, spouses, friends,
and even people we don’t know. Our tongues are a raging wild fire against God
and neighbor. Our inward thoughts are a sandstorm of sin, sticking to us like
particles of sand; everything we say and do is gritty with our sin. We are
quick to anger and slow to repent. We live as if God does not matter and as if
we matter most of all. Our conscience is parched by death and stained with
guilt. Repent. The Kingdom of God is near.
Like Israel, we’re looking
forward to coming home but we know we’re not home yet. We’re in lonely exile.
John prepares the way. His
preaching hits us like 80 grit sand paper: smooth the rough places of our
arrogance and stubbornness of sin. John, the one man road crew, bull-dozes our
mountains of pride and levels our hypocrisy. John is sent to make us
uncomfortable in our sin and if you’re not, well that should make us all the
more uncomfortable. For try as you might, you cannot live in the wilderness. Left
on your own, you will surely die.
What you need is an oasis in the
desert. In the wilderness you need the Jordan River, a new beginning.
The Jordan River, where Namaan
washed 7 times and was cleansed of leprosy; where Joshua led Israel into the
promised land; where Elijah’s cloak parted the waters. Jesus comes to the same
river and parts enters the waters with a new Elijah. Jesus – the greater Joshua
– opens the way to a greater promised land. Jesus stands in solidarity with
sinners to soak up the leprosy of our sin, and give you a new beginning in Holy
Baptism.
Jesus comes into our wilderness.
Jesus joins us in our humanity – our human family - so that through and in
Baptism you are joined to God’s family. He is born into the holy family so that
you become part of the most holy of families, Christ’s bride, the Church. Jesus
joins you in the wasteland in order to bring you home. Jesus is captive in our
exile of sin in order to ransom, redeem, and rescue you.
Jesus goes into the wilderness and he comes back out again
with you on his shoulders. Jesus overcame temptation. Jesus was tested and
found faithful. Jesus did not sin. And he did this all for you. Jesus even dies
for you, not in the wilderness of Judea, but the wasteland of Calvary. Jesus’
crucified is your oasis in the wilderness. His wounds and scars are your safe
haven from the scorching heat of God’s wrath.
For you, Jesus was slow to anger and patient, not wanting us
to perish. For you, Jesus lived and died because you mattered most of all to
him. For you, Jesus was left alone, forsaken on the cross, so that you will not
die. For you, Jesus sends John to prepare his way.
John prepares by preaching baptism; a baptism of repentance
for the forgiveness of sins. This was not yet the full baptism. That comes later
when Jesus instituted Baptism after his resurrection. But it has all the right
signs of the real thing. There’s repentance, water, washing and cleansing, and forgiveness
of sins.
John’s baptism was good, but it wasn’t
enough. He was not the Christ. He was only the beginning. Everything he said
and did was to prepare the way of the Lord, even his clothing…
Now John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist
and ate locusts and wild honey.
John reminds me a bit of Doc from
Back to the Future – looks a little
crazy, a bit off-putting at first, but it turns out he has something important
to say. There’s more to John than meets the eye. The camel hair, locusts, and
wild honey are clues that John is a second Elijah. When Elijah came again, so
would the Messiah. John is the last of the prophets proclaiming that Jesus’
saving work was beginning.
“After me comes he who is mightier than I, the
strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.”
When John the Baptizer speaks, I
can’t help but think of Wayne’s World:
“We’re not worthy.” John gets it though: “I’m not worthy,” he says. “I am
insufficient before the Lord.” This is the heart of Christianity. We must
decrease. Jesus must increase. John’s words teach us that repentance is God’s
work in us, not something we contrive. In repentance we echo John’s words: “I
am not worthy. I am insufficient.”
This is why Jesus was born: to
take our insufficiency upon himself; to make our unworthiness his own, and give
you his worthiness in return. He birth and death are both in humility because
that’s the kind of Savior he is. In his humility you are exalted. In Jesus’
death the unworthy are made worthy. Through Jesus’ cross you are made
sufficient to stand before the Father today and on the Last Day.
Jesus is the stronger one, the
Lion of the Tribe of Judah. Jesus is stronger than John, stronger than the
devil, stronger than your sin, stronger than even death itself. Your strength rests
– not in you- but in Jesus’ weakness and suffering for you. Just as your
beginning is found in his death and resurrection for you.
Jesus’ advent is a new beginning
for you. It all begins in Baptism.
I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
Baptism is your beginning.
Holy Baptism is your entrance into the Promised Land. Holy
Baptism is the Advent of the Triune God upon you, the Holy Spirit enters in.
Holy Baptism washes you not just 7 times, but 7 x 70: you are cleansed of the
leprosy of sin. Jesus leads you through the waters in a new exodus. Sin and
death are drowned. Life in Christ washes over you. You are adopted, brought
home. Your exile is over. The Lamb of God is your safe harbor. You have a clean
conscience. A new, and pure heart. All of that wilderness dust is washed away. You
are bathed in forgiveness. You are a new creation. A new birth from above. A
new spirit. New life in Christ, this Advent, and at Jesus final advent.
Jesus’ Advent is about beginnings.
In the Name of the Father and of
the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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