Posted on 12/06/2008 2:01:17 PM PST by Charles Henrickson
“An Advent Inventory, Invitation, and Intent” (Mark 1:1-8)
He has been called “the great forerunner of the morn.” He called himself “a voice crying in the wilderness.” Most of us know him as John the Baptist. But coming as he does in the midst of the world’s Christmas season, he might as well be called, “John the Killjoy.” For this is the season of merriment and mirth, office parties, and liquid cheer. We want to put aside any gloom and doom, and it irks us to run into anything or anyone who would ruin our good time. But every year, as predictable as credit-card bills, here comes John the Baptist, the church’s version of the “Grinch who stole Christmas.” A wild sort of man, a little rough around the edges. Ate locusts and wild honey. Wore camel’s hair and a leather belt. John would be out of place at one of our Christmas parties, where everyone is decked out in festive holiday attire. He might even be out of place in church--the ushers might ask him to leave. And if his appearance and diet were not bizarre enough, John’s message seems to be the ultimate killjoy. “Repent!” he cries out. “Change your whole way of thinking, and prepare the way of the Lord.”
How out of sync with the world’s view of Christmas! Yet, ironically, if Christmas is to have its full tidings of comfort and joy, John must be heard first. John the Baptist is the forerunner of the Lord, and he knows that in order to receive aright the blessings Christ would give us, we must first change our whole approach. “Repent! Prepare the way of the Lord.” We need to take inventory and rid ourselves of any sinful barriers to Christ’s coming in our lives. John just won’t let us off the hook. “Repent!” he keeps on crying, because as long as we’re doing “business as usual,” we can ignore the sin within. But in repentance we meet the sinful self, the self we’ve tried to ignore, the self that keeps its distance from God. John would have us confront that sinful self at the banks of the Jordan, before we go to meet the Messiah in Bethlehem. We prepare for the joy of the manger by way of repentance at the river.
The church has long recognized this need for repentance in preparing for the coming of Christ. And so Advent is a kind of “little Lent,” a penitential season that prepares us for Christmas in much the same way that Lent prepares us for Easter. These purple paraments signify repentance. Many Advent hymns have a reflective, yearning quality about them. There even used to be pre-Christmas fasting in preparation for our Lord’s coming. Can you imagine that today--fasting in December in the weeks leading up to Christmas? Many churches have pretty much lost the penitential emphasis in their Advent preparation. They want to jump right to Christmas, without letting Advent be Advent. The church has a hard time fighting a culture that demands joy--even a shallow, superficial joy--at this time of year.
But John--John the Baptist will not let us forget. “Repent,” John demands of us. And so today let me suggest a repentance that takes shape in three ways: “An Advent Inventory, Invitation, and Intent.”
First, repentance means that we take an Advent inventory. Each year, somewhere around this time, families descend to the basement to retrieve their boxes of Christmas decorations. There they find long treasured ornaments, trinkets, and strings of lights that were hastily stuffed away last year, the old pine needles still clinging to the clips. We dig into these boxes, and often we’re surprised by what we find, even if we’ve gone through this routine a dozen times or more. The inventory of our Christmas decorations is new to us every season.
That’s the way it is with an Advent repentance inventory, as well. You see, the problem is, we become so accustomed to living with our sins that we simply pack them away. We tend not to look at them, or we deny them when others point them out to us. But now, during Advent, as we await our Lord’s coming, John insists that we unpack our boxes and examine our sins: the pride by which I lift myself up above others, the insensitivity to the hurts around me, the jealousy and anger that keep me apart from others and build up a wall of resentment toward God. Decorating our lives with anger, jealousy, pride, and resentment--like we decorate our trees with Christmas ornaments--that may seem rather silly, but that’s what we do. An Advent inventory, then, helps us to take stock of ourselves, to take an honest look at our lives, and to clean house.
One way to do an Advent inventory is to use the Ten Commandments as a checklist. As Luther writes in the Catechism: “Consider your place in life according to the Ten Commandments: Are you a father, mother, son, daughter, husband, wife, or worker? Have you been disobedient, unfaithful, or lazy? Have you been hot-tempered, rude, or quarrelsome? Have you hurt someone by your words or deeds? Have you stolen, been negligent, wasted anything, or done any harm?” This kind of honest self-examination will help you to see your sins in the light of God’s law. Poor miserable sinners actually do poor miserable sins, and taking stock of specifics in this way moves our confession out of the abstract and into the concrete.
So repentance means taking that Advent inventory. It means getting out those boxes and unpacking them. But John the Baptist would have us do something else. Remember that John came preaching a baptism of repentance “for the forgiveness of sins.” The forgiveness of sins--that is what repentance prepares us to receive. And so we not only take an Advent inventory, we also receive an Advent invitation. It is an invitation to forgiveness. It is an invitation offered to us by the God who will heal and restore us, who will rescue and redeem us.
The Old Testament reading today captures it well. Isaiah speaks of our God as a restoring, merciful Lord: “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.” Here is comfort for troubled sinners! Here is forgiveness given as a free gift! What a wonderful Advent invitation!
The God we meet in Advent is a gracious God, who yearns to redeem his people. He is a God who lifts up his people and comforts them. What we wait for in Advent, then, is the forgiving grace of God in Jesus Christ. For what began in Bethlehem’s manger was completed on Calvary’s cross and then announced by angels at the empty tomb. The herald of good news has proclaimed this gospel into your ears: “Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation.” Salvation won and bestowed by your coming king, Jesus Christ. You and I were submerged into his cleansing grace in our baptism, where we were clothed with the righteousness of Christ. To be washed anew and afresh in that forgiveness, in that baptismal grace--this is the Advent invitation we receive during this holy season.
An Advent inventory, an Advent invitation--third, an Advent intent. Our final response to John’s cry for repentance is a holy intent to live the new life that is ours in Christ.
Sometime over the course of the holiday season you can bet we’ll hear the wish that the “spirit of Christmas” would extend beyond this season. It’s a noble wish. Yet we seem to know better. We know that the warm cheer of December will yield to the cold, gray reality of January.
It doesn’t have to be that way for Christ’s repentant people. The Messiah who comes to us at Christmas will not go away, he will not abandon us. Jesus promises to be with us always, to abide with us, his forgiving and restoring presence a constant in our lives. What remains for us, then, is to remember who we are. We are God’s holy people. Therefore, let us turn away from sin. We are God’s forgiven people. Therefore, let us forgive. We are God’s loved ones. Therefore, let us love. We are those blessed by God. Therefore, let us be a blessing to others. Make this your intent, your Advent intent this year. God is faithful, and he will help you do it.
A bumper sticker in a gift shop read, “Repent!” Underneath, in small letters, it said, “If you have already repented, please disregard this notice.” Well, the fact is, we poor sinners are always in need of repenting. That is the ongoing life of God’s baptized people. Dying and rising, daily. Always taking inventory of our sins. Always receiving God’s invitation to forgiveness. Always being renewed by the Holy Spirit in our intent to live as God’s children. “An Advent Inventory, Invitation, and Intent.”
Today we can say, “Killjoy was here”--John the Killjoy, that is, better known as John the Baptist. John the Party-pooper, the old sourpuss, comes this way every Advent, it seems, crying in the wilderness, preaching repentance, calling us to confess our sins at the banks of the Jordan. But rather than being a killjoy, John is actually a “filljoy”--calling us to empty out the junk in our souls so they can then be filled with the joy of Jesus. John is preparing us to receive the joy to come--the joy that comes in the person of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry
Announces that the Lord is nigh;
Awake and hearken, for he brings
Glad tidings of the King of kings!
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
As it is written in Isaiah the prophet,
“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,’”
John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
1. Hark, a thrilling voice is sounding!
“Christ is nigh!” we hear it say;
“Cast away the works of darkness,
O ye children of the day!”
2. Startled at the solemn warning,
Let the earth-bound soul arise;
Christ, her Sun, all sloth dispelling,
Shines upon the morning skies.
3. Lo, the Lamb, so long expected,
Comes with pardon down from heaven.
Let us haste, with tears of sorrow,
One and all, to be forgiven,
4. That, when next He comes with glory
And the world is wrapped in fear,
He may shield us with His mercy
And with words of love draw near.
5. Honor, glory, might, dominion,
To the Father and the Son,
With the everlasting Spirit,
While eternal ages run!
The Lutheran Hymnal
Hymn #60
Text: Rom. 13:11
Author: unknown, c. 900
Translated by: Edward Caswall, 1849
Titled: “Vox clara ecce intonat”
Tune: “O der alles”
1st Published in: _Neues geistreiches Gesangbuch_
Town: Halle, 1705
“Comfort, Comfort, Ye My People”
by Johann Olearius, 1635-1711
Translated by Catherine Winkworth, 1829-1878
1. Comfort, comfort, ye My people,
Speak ye peace, thus saith our God;
Comfort those who sit in darkness,
Mourning ‘neath their sorrows’ load.
Speak ye to Jerusalem
Of the peace that waits for them;
Tell her that her sins I cover
And her warfare now is over.
2. Yea, her sins our God will pardon,
Blotting out each dark misdeed;
All that well deserved His anger
He no more will see or heed.
She hath suffered many a day,
Now her griefs have passed away;
God will change her pining sadness
Into ever-springing gladness.
3. Hark, the Herald's voice is crying
In the desert far and near,
Bidding all men to repentance
Since the Kingdom now is here.
Oh, that warning cry obey!
Now prepare for God a way;
Let the valleys rise to meet Him
And the hills bow down to greet Him.
4. Make ye straight what long was crooked,
Make the rougher places plain;
Let your hearts be true and humble,
As befits His holy reign.
For the glory of the Lord
Now o'er earth is shed abroad,
And all flesh shall see the token
That His Word is never broken.
The Lutheran Hymnal
Hymn #61
Text: Is. 40:1-8
Author: Johann Olearius, 1671
Translated by: Catherine Winkworth, 1863, alt.
Titled: “Troestet, troestet meine Lieben”
Tune: “
I just finished listening to the Lutheran Hour and this was the main theme. "After me comes he who is mightier than I......"
Your sermon really fits the Advent Season and makes us think about the future.
Prepare the Royal Highway (LSB 343)
Comfort, Comfort Ye My People (LSB 347)
On Jordan's Bank the Baptist's Cry (LSB 344)
I've got "Hark! A Thrilling Voice Is Sounding" (LSB 345) scheduled for next Sunday. BTW, I like the tune LSB has for that hymn, Merton, better than the tune in TLH (60), O der alles, or in LW (18), Freuen wir uns all in ein.
I have yet to find a Hymnal setting for that text that I really like. The most singable version is from the Eugene Butler Cantata "Wondrous Night".
This Sunday:
Prepare the Royal Highway LBW # 26
Comfort, Comfort Now my People LBW # 29
Next Sunday:
Savior, of the Nations Come LBW # 28
On Jordan's Banks LBW # 36
Joy to the World LBW # 39 (for Gaudete Sunday)
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