Sermon for 12/4/11 "The Beginning of the Gospel"

SERMON “The Beginning of the Gospel” Audio Link http://dl.dropbox.com/u/23575548/111204Mark1.mp3 Grace and Peace to you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Prepare the way for the Lord! That’s our call through this season of Advent. And as we prepare the way for the Lord we realize that there’s a certain amount of house cleaning to be done. We hear the voice of John the Baptizer calling out to us, calling us to repentance. We realize that nobody except those who have been cleansed of sin may stand before the Lord. And he is coming. He is coming soon. John calls us to repentance. And we have great need for repentance. How have we sinned against our Lord today? How have we sinned against our Lord in this very hour? We were called in our epistle reading to try as hard as we could to be found blameless. Peter tells us to live a holy life. When God comes he will destroy all that is unholy. This kind of call to repentance ought to leave us shaking in our boots. It proclaims boldly our worst fears. When our Lord comes nobody can stand before him. We are all unholy. We have all sinned. We have all come short of our Lord’s perfection. How have we come short of God’s perfection? There may be a few people here who would like to ask that. There may be a lot more people in our community who would have the same question. What have we read in our catechism segments for last week and this week? We looked at the first commandment – have no other gods. We are to fear, love, and trust in God above all things. Have we done that? Or have we looked in hope and trust to something or someone other than the triune God revealed in the Scripture? And we are not to misuse the Lord’s name. How do we try to use his name and authority? How do we try to use God’s blessing? Do we assume that something is all right with our Lord because we happen to want it? Do we deny our Lord or hope to use his authority to bring down curses upon people he would bless? We have surely come short of God’s perfection. I could go on, and you know that. But those few examples should be enough for now. Whatever God has said, whatever he has commanded in the Bible is his command for you and for me. And he expects perfect obedience, all the time, no ifs, ands, or buts. Our obedience on one occasion doesn’t make up for any failures in the past or in the future. He demands perfection. Yes, we have failed. We have sinned before our Lord. If he were to treat us as we deserve we would be consumed by his wrath. There is no doubt about it. So this doesn’t sound very much like the sermon title, does it? I’m supposed to be talking about the beginning of the Gospel. Yet all I’ve done so far is to condemn myself and everyone else. There’s no good news there, none at all. There’s only a call to repentance. But look what the forerunner, John the Baptizer, did when he called people to repentance. He washed them. He called them to the water and he washed them of their sins as they confessed to God. Maybe you are a parent and you know the gentle washing that you will give to your injured child’s knee. You know it hurts. You already pulled a bunch of gravel out of the wound. Surely there’s more sand in there, but you’ve been kicked enough times. But you want to get some of the dirt off, so you hold the ankle firmly and wash the skinned place gently with water. And as you wash it with water you realize that our Lord washes you with water, but it is a water of forgiveness, for it is done in accordance with his word. You wash your child tenderly. “It’s all right that you tore the knees out of your new jeans. It’s all right that your bicycle is twisted. It’s all right that you landed in my favorite flower bed. It doesn’t matter that your glasses are broken. It’s fine that you got blood on my clothes and that we tracked dirt into the kitchen. Right now it’s time to wash you.” This is the way our Lord washes us. He brings us comfort. He speaks to us tenderly. He cleanses us from sin, preparing us for his coming. And he is the one who must do it, because we will not be able to cleanse ourselves from sin. We are like grass. We are like lost sheep. We are helpless when the Lord comes in his glory. So he gathers us to wash us in baptism, creating repentance and faith in our hearts. He gathers us to sprinkle us with his blood, the blood of the sacrificial lamb who cleanses us from sin. He comes, the one after John the Baptizer, the one who is greater than John, the one who baptizes us with the Holy Spirit. And when he has poured out his Holy Spirit upon us, as he has washed us in the water and in the blood, as he has anointed us with the oil of the Spirit, we have been prepared for his coming. Have you been baptized into Christ? Then he has washed you. He has cleansed you. He has purified you. He has made you ready to live a life worthy of him, a life of repentance and faith in his forgiving grace. Have you been a partaker of the Lord’s Supper? Then he has promised you forgiveness, life, and salvation, as he delivers his forgiveness. He has made you a partaker of Christ, a participant in his life, his death, and his resurrection. And just as he delivers us his grace in baptism once, he also delivers us his grace in communion time after time, as many times as we come, feeding our faith, nourishing us to eternal life. Has our Lord set you apart for his service? Then trusting in your Lord’s ability to impart faith to you in baptism and in communion, as well as through the hearing of the Word of God, walk in the righteousness he has placed upon you. He has begun the Gospel in you and he will continue working out his Gospel, his good news of grace, mercy and peace throughout your life. So now, as we are celebrating communion on this second Sunday of Advent, we see that he has begun the work of the Gospel and that he is continuing it. At the same time we look forward to our Lord’s coming and we pray that he would come soon, that he would find us faithful, and that he would see us as his people, prepared for his coming. Now may “he who began a good work in you...carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1.6, NIV), in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.