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.
No comments:
Post a Comment