Wednesday 5 December 2018

Sermon 9th December 2018 - Year C - 2nd Sunday in Advent - Text Luke 3:1-6 - Repenting preparedness


Sermon 9th December 2018
Text: Luke 3:1-6 – Repenting preparedness

When preparing for an interview a couple questions you know you’re going to get are – what are your strengths – what are your weaknesses.
If you’re like most people you have no problem with the first question.
We are pretty good at looking at our lives and the things we’re good at.
In fact many are probably now getting their Christmas letters ready to tell all their friends and relatives about all the great things that have happened this year and all the great things they and their children have been up to.
But it’s the 2nd part that we’re not that good at.
We’re not that good at admitting our weaknesses.
In fact sometimes we’re not even comfortable calling them our “weaknesses” and will refer to them as our “work areas”.
Maybe it’s our human nature that doesn’t like to think of where we are deficient.
Like a boxer looking for that opening in his opponent’s defence to strike that blow, maybe we are worried about losing that reputation or character that we have that everyone admires that we have been protecting.
Are we afraid that people will think less of us if they really knew that we are not that perfect?
Imperfections or weaknesses, whatever you want to call them, make us feel uncomfortable.
We don’t like to discuss them with each other.
Husbands and wives don’t like to hear that their relationship is not that perfect and often refuse counselling because it is an admission that things aren’t right.
John the Baptist’s message today was also a hard message for the people to hear.
He came preaching a message of repentance.
Repentance is an acknowledgement that things are not perfect in our lives before God.
And even though we know that God forgives sins, sometimes it’s hard to confess our sins.
We like to either ignore them – make excuses for them – justify them – compare them to worse things that other people are doing.
We are much more comfortable confessing our sins in a group situation, as we did this morning by confessing our sins along with everyone else.
We use the same words and feel some safety among numbers – we’re all in the same boat together.
But don’t ask me to do private confession – that’s not the Lutheran thing to do – or is it just too painful to hear our own failings.
Think of Adam and Eve.
Instead of repenting their own failure they pointed the finger:
Adam blamed Eve and God – the woman YOU gave me.
Eve blamed the snake – he tricked me!
Likewise Judas was unable to face up to his betrayal of Jesus and took his own life. (Matthew 27:1-5)
St Peter couldn’t bear the pain of having Jesus seeing his failures when Jesus called him to be one of his disciples - “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!”  (Luke 5:8).
John comes today to remind us of our own failings before God – to confront us – to afflict us – to discomfort us.
But this is good!
This is the whole reason that we celebrate Christmas.
The bible reminds us that it was while we were yet sinners that God sent Jesus into the world for us (Romans 5:8).
Repentance is to help us to reflect on our lives and see we are going the wrong way – not to bring us down but to rebuild our lives by turning back to God.
The message of John is not to make us feel unworthy in any way but to give us hope.
The purpose of John’s message was not to highlight our deficiencies but to prepare our lives to receive the love of God in all its fullness.
John did that through Baptism.
When we are baptised it is there for 2 services.
First to remove the sin that we are born with because of our humanity.
It is an acknowledgment that our lives are not perfect from the beginning as Psalm 51 reminds us:
Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. (Psalm 51:5).
The 2nd service it provides is as something we can continually go back to.
When we are weighed down by guilt – when we have doubts about our relationship with God – when we feel as if we have little or no worth – we remind ourselves that “I am a baptised child of God”.
And even if the whole world is against me – I know that God – the one to whom all the world will bow down to – loves me.
When the whole world tells me I am not good enough – my baptism reminds me that I am so valued by God that he sacrificed his own son just for me.
Repentance is not the fear of God.
Repentance is not conviction of sin.
Every day is a day of repentance.
Every day is a day of turning to God.
We can’t live in moral perfection, but we can live a continual personal relationship with God; whereby we continually repent of our sins and turn toward him every day.
God has not given up on us because of our failures and never will.
When we repent wonderful things happen:
God restores us to life, he restores us to spiritual health, he restores us to a relationship with him and with others, and he clears the air.
The greatest joy in life is to be forgiven and to walk in grace and mercy knowing that God loves and cares for you.
The Bible says that there is more joy in heaven over one sinner's repentance than over 99 people who have no need to repent. (Luke 15:7)
Repentance is a gift from God that we can use in everyday life.
Not just in our relationship with God but also with one another.
Husbands and wives can use repentance to strengthen their relationship.
Communities where people resort to road rage and violence when they are hurt can learn to repent and forgive.
Even God repents.
When God was going to destroy Nineveh because of their evil he saw how sorry they were for their wrongdoing and it says that: God saw that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do to them. (Jonah 3:10 KJV).
We live in a world that has forgotten how to forgive and be forgiven.
Let us show the world how to repent and be forgiven and then extend that same forgiveness to one another.
Let us be the messenger to prepare the way for Jesus to come into the lives of others so all will see the love of God in us and in them.

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