Mark 1:1-8
2nd Sunday in Advent
December 7, 2008 “Series B”
Are You Excited to Repent?
What gets you excited with anticipation? I am talking about the sort of excitement that keeps you up at night. You used to own tons of examples of this sort of excitement when you were all kids. You had anticipation of a birthday party and Christmas with presents under the tree. You had excitement as you prepared for your first date and when you went to get your first drivers license. Do you remember how you felt during those moments? Excitement with anticipation continued into adulthood when you could not wait to pop the question to the woman you love or you could not wait to receive the offer from the man who captured your heart. So as I reflected upon my own question, I was able to come up with a whole slew of personal examples of excitement with anticipation right up to and including the day I became a daddy but, after that I had a very hard time coming up with further examples. And no, get that out of your mind, my children are not the reason why my sleepless nights of anticipated excitement have all but subsided. I think the real reason I can provide fewer examples today is because there are fewer things around me that are new. Those words out of Ecclesiastes, the ones that say, “there is nothing new under the sun” become more and more evident. And when nothing seems new, or fresh in your life, anticipation with eager excitement will not be too evident in your life or your faith.
So, unless you plan on taking a two week cruise to all sorts of exotic and warm locations today, I would like to offer you an opportunity to regain that sort of excitement and fresh adventure that comes with something new. But in order to do that I have to take you back in time, oh about 2000 years ago, to somewhere in Jerusalem. You work hard to make ends meet and you also hold in your heart the seemingly recent restoration of your homeland after the Babylonian captivity. It was 400 years earlier but is fresh in your heart. You recall the Grace given to your people but you also treasure the words in Malachi 3:1 that says, “See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come, says the Lord Almighty” You treasure these words and for generations the Lord’s Words excited your family with anticipation. Then one day, news came telling about a person baptizing in the desert region. This man was also preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As you and your family reflected upon this news, you suddenly remembered these words spoken by Isaiah,
“Comfort, comfort my people says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. A voice of one calling: “in the desert prepare the way for the Lord.” You then wonder if what you have heard taking place in the desert region is the fulfillment of what Isaiah spoke of so long ago. After prayer, you try to go to sleep but, you cannot. Excitement overwhelms you as you decide that upon daybreak you and your family will walk the twenty-five mile trek to reach the Jordan, where this preacher resides.
Upon daybreak you soon realize that you are not the only family traveling to the Jordan river because walking in the same direction is the entire Judean countryside and apparently the entire population of Jerusalem. Your excitement explodes within you and joy fills your heart as you quickly realize that your insight from Isaiah the night before was obviously experienced by all your people.
The journey was long and your camel only could manage 2 miles to the gallon but, tired hungry and quite thirsty you arrive and you are surrounded by a sea of humanity longing to hear what this preacher had to say. You wait and soon the man, who you hear whispered by others is called John, raises his arms to silence the crowd. The pause is deafening! In that brief moment you imagine what might be said. Possibly, this John will tell you that your hard life is now over or maybe that God will soon bless you with many fine things but, you quickly dismiss that idea after you notice that the preacher is wearing clothing made out of camel’s hair. You also heard through the grapevine that he eats locusts and wild honey. Suddenly, the Baptizer speaks. “Repent! For the Kingdom of heaven is near.” After listening to his call for repentance, you and your family run to him and find yourselves confessing your sins. All your sins that you could recall were confessed with eagerness because with even greater expectation you wanted to be Baptized. You stood before the Baptizer and he speaks to you saying, “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandles I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” As you walk away you again recall the words of Isaiah, “Comfort, comfort my people…her sin has been paid for.”
Folks, if you could imagine yourself in that story, a story founded upon the word of God, then you hopefully could have imagined the sort of joyful, eager anticipation that came with talking about God’s Word at home, going where you need to go to hear God’s Word proclaimed, willingly and passionately confessing your sins before God and expectantly waiting for the Messiah. Such eager anticipation happened to an entire region of people over 2000 years ago and that excitement is still alive today. It’s alive right here, right now.
Today, you and I are on a journey. It’s a journey of faith and it began that day when Christ Jesus our Lord brought us into his family and it continues each day. Why can’t we have eager anticipation of how our relationship with Jesus can increase today? Why don’t we ALWAYS have a passion upon our spirit to serve God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength both at home, here at church and out there in the mission field? Why? Because we live in a world of sin, where our inborn nature is to do everything contrary to the Will of God and this sin of ours along with the devil, both would be happy if we just allowed any sort of eager anticipation in the service of the Lord God Almighty to simply fade away with time. How happy the devil would be if we simply saw nothing new in Christ Jesus and if what we already learned no longer motivated or excited us, well then all the better. It sounds as if through those concerns, the only reason we can lose sight of the newness and continuing joy that comes with a relationship in Christ Jesus, is because our need for repentance has suffered and sin that so easily entangles is controlling our life.
Maybe this is the reason why Mark started off his book of the Bible not with stories of angels visiting shepherds or of the baby Jesus being born in a manger but with the call for repentance and the clear message of excitement in confessing one’s sins before the Lord. Maybe Mark wanted his readers to never forget that the power and effectiveness of God’s Word does not rest with one’s surroundings or wealth or success. When you think of John, you think of a guy who wore camel’s hair and ate locusts. His church was a desert and a river and he was but one man, called by God to call his people into repentance. He did not have tons of money, just the call and passion to serve. He did not wait until his circumstances improved either, he simply did what God wanted him to do and was blessed for it. And even though he felt himself totally unworthy to baptize Jesus, he still served the Lord. He offered no excuses that kept him from serving the Lord. Even what he wore and what he ate reminded others of repentance and the preparation and sacrifice that often goes with it. John’s simple food, clothing and way of living reminded those around him of what matters most in life; not personal indulgence but, the sure and certain hope that comes with knowing and living for Christ Jesus our Lord.
Mark summarizes the Baptist’s message for us today when he wrote, “there came John, the one baptizing in the wilderness and heralding a baptism of repentance for remission of sins.” Think about those words and why so many people responded to them. You and I can be sorry for the things we have done. You and I might even be motivated to change our ways, which is a true sign of genuine repentance. Yet if there was not someone around willing to forgive, no matter how genuine our repentance might be, it would all be for naught. Sometimes that old song that says, “you never really know what you’ve got until its gone” rings true with our loss of excitement over our relationship with God. It is so easy to take God for granted. We simply remind ourselves that God loves us and we go on with our life, doing whatever we want to do, and often forsaking our purpose as Christians. But imagine if God suddenly said to us, the window of forgiveness is closing. How quickly we would run to the Lord, with sorrowful hearts, seeking His Grace and Mercy. Maybe God’s people back in the day of John the Baptist were eagerly waiting for the window of Gods Grace to open. They certainly were in the Word, which is how they came to seek out John the Baptist. Maybe as they reflected upon the promises of a Messiah and the forgiveness of sins, the passion to be set free grew and grew within them all those years that they waiting for the Christ. Then when they heard about John the Baptist and his ministry, they moved quickly, in their anticipated excitement, to receive their baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of their sins. What a weight that must have been lifted from them, as they knew that God was providing a means by which to convey his Mercy upon them.
Does that eagerness ever need to stop? Should our eagerness to repent and receive the Mercy of God be anything other than our primary focus, next to our Worship and Service to Almighty God? Should not our desire to receive the forgiveness of our sins, so excite our spirit that we can make it through one day without talking to God and listening to his Voice?
I said earlier that we can own excitement in confessing our sins. Let me explain that just a bit. You see we can own excitement in confessing our sins because we know that God himself motivates in us a desire to come to Him and to cast aside with is contrary to His Will. We can have excitement in knowing that our Father loves us so very much, that he sent his One and Only Son to die for us. The fact that Jesus took away the deadly and eternal consequences of our sins, moves us all the more to say, Lord, here, take this away from me, cleanse me, make me whole and excite my spirit to serve you with as much eagerness and anticipation as I had when I was a little child looking forward to Christmas Day!
2nd Peter 3:14 guides us to”make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him.” Hear those words, “Make Every Effort”. Now we know that repentance is not a work. You don’t simply say the magic words and then and only then do you receive God’s Mercy. For we know that when Christ died upon the cross, his sacrifice covered all our sins and that our repentance just reminds us that we still want that Mercy, we still desire to do God’s Will and we still long to meet the resurrected Jesus.
So making every effort to be spotless, blameless and at peace with God is how we are to live, joyously, willingly, passionately and eagerly. Living in such a way as that says, “I am not going to be one those people who takes God’s Mercy for granted.” It also says, “By remaining passionate with joyous anticipation of all things Christ, He is made new in our hearts and minds each day.
Now what does this excitement look like? It looks like a people who can’t wait to Worship the Lord. It looks like a people who walked over 25 miles to repent of their sins and to receive forgiveness. If you could translate that excitement today, It might look like those shoppers on black Friday, wanted to get the best deals. Or maybe it looks like something that you can relate to in your own Christian walk. Maybe it looks like driving a homebound member to church or regularly finding ways to serve the poor. Maybe it looks like the eagerness to find new ways to serve God and His people; an eagerness to ask the question, “why am I here in this place and what can I do?”
Most importantly, this excitement comes from our renewed and refreshed connection to Jesus Christ. Today we have been reminded of the passion that comes with wanting to confess our sins and to look to Jesus to be restored. We were reminded that the Baptism we have received in Christ always remains new and always remains a means to receive God’s Mercy and Grace. We are reminded that during this Advent Season as we look upon an old Gospel lesson, heard at least once each year of our life, that the promise of the birth of our Savior is indeed something new and exciting. Therefore, consider yourselves restored by the word of God. He has excited us this day once again with eager anticipation to confess our sins, to receive his Grace and Mercy and to live for Him in Peace and Joy. Amen!
Lutheran’s believe, teach and confess that Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are Means by which God conveys His Grace. This is not an addition to the work of Jesus Christ, as if the work of Christ was somehow inefficient. Instead the Lord wants to provide different ways to convey the same gift. Remember if you can believe that looking upon the bronze serpent could heal those who were bitten by the snakes, then you can believe that whatever God says can come to pass, whereby even a man made bronze serpent on a pole can heal you if God makes it so. Thus with Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, the Lord says, "for the forgiveness of your sins" and therefore we must believe in the Words of God. Thank you for your interest in today’s message.
