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This Week's Sermon THE SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT 06 December 2009 "Alert! Urgent Action Needed!" Luke 3:1-20 LSB Series C Pastor Philip G. Meyer Soli Deo Gloria!

For people living in Southern California, the late fall and early winter are sometimes called the "fire season" because strong winds blow small fires into catastrophic events. Many alerts will be issued, telling people that urgent action is needed to avoid being killed in such fires. People living along the southern coast of the United States know hurricane alerts well, too. Urgent action is often needed to avoid death in one of these storms. The beginning of the Advent season is like that, too, because of John the Baptizer. He is the messenger sent by God to issue the alert, to urge people to urgent action, so that they may avoid the consuming fire of God's judgment.

What shall we make of John's preaching of Isaiah, the preparation of the way of the Lord, the straightening of paths, the valleys being filled in, the mountains being leveled, the crooked made straight, and the rough places made smooth? These all describe repentance. Repentance is removing obstacles, getting rid of the defenses that keep God out. God will arrive in his holiness, his "consuming fire," says the writer to the Hebrews [12.29]. John proclaimed,

"Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire." (Luke 3:9, ESV)

And,

"His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire." (Luke 3:17, ESV)

Repentance is made in view of the coming wrath, v. 7, the arrival of the Messiah who has his winnowing fork in his hand. With it he will separate the chaff and the wheat. The chaff will be burned with unquenchable fire while he will gather the wheat into his barn. The call to repentance is urgent since the ax is laid to the root of the tree that does not bear good fruit. The fruit is the result of repentance, a change, metanoia. Instead of selfishness there is love for the neighbor by sharing in the neighbor's need. The opposite is living only for self, of getting what one's lustful thoughts desire. Herod is a bad example because not only has he stolen his brother's wife, committing adultery, but he has flaunted it in the eyes of the people. If that were not bad enough, he put John in prison for condemning his sin. He exhibits no repentance.

These days our society no longer speaks of sinfulness. That's too harsh a word for most. Instead, sins are now "mistakes," mere errors in judgment, bad choices. A mistake is washing whites and colors together, mistyping your email address, calling one of your children by the wrong name, buying smooth peanut butter instead of crunchy. Mistakes do not convey the cancer that threatens all of life. Too many refuse to own up to the depth of sin in their hearts, calling them merely mistakes or misjudgments. Mistakes are not fatal errors. They can be overlooked and usually are. But when kidnapping and rape, murder, and other actions are called "mistakes" by those who commit them, we have gotten on to a slippery slope sliding right into judgment. They are in denial, as was Herod. He ignored God's judgment.

All sins are fatal errors, not just the so-called "big" ones. Sins of omission are as fatal as sins of commission, even if the world doesn't think so. To fail to help the neighbor in his physical need is as fatal as putting your hands around his neck. To defraud your neighbor without his knowledge is as fatal as robbing him at gunpoint. To fail to defend your neighbor's reputation is the same as speaking evil of him. Sin is doing wrong, failing to do right because your heart is desperately wicked. We call it natural concupiscence, the tendency always to go wrong and being unable to stop it, always making the bad choice.

Sin, as famed psychiatrist Karl Menninger once said, "does carry an implication of cost, of penalty, of answerability" [Whatever Became of Sin. Hawthorn Books, Inc. New York 1973. p. 180]. That's judgment. Penalty. Sin implies further action. The Bible calls that repentance. John tells us to flee from God's wrath over our sin by repenting and being cleansed by Christ.

Repentance is broken down into two parts, contrition and faith. Understanding that contrition is necessary, the Apology of the Augsburg Confession states:

We say that contrition is the genuine terror of a conscience that feels God's wrath against sin and is sorry that it has sinned. This contrition takes place when the Word of God denounces sin. For the sum of the proclamation of the Gospel is to denounce sin, to offer the forgiveness of sins and righteousness for Christ's sake, to grant the Holy Spirit and eternal life, and to lead us as regenerated men to do good. 30 Christ gives this summary of the Gospel in the last chapter of Luke (24:47), "That penitence and forgiveness of sins should be preached in my name to all nations."¹

Repentance owns up to the reality of sin. It recognizes sins as sins against God. You do not minimize the damage by calling them mistakes. To put it in today's vernacular, we might say that it is time to "man up," that is, be a man, take courage, confess your sin, and take your punishment. Repentance recognizes these failures as sins deserving of God's eternal wrath. Excusing them as mistakes does not take away the eternal fatality of them. What is more, they keep God far away. He cannot come to one who refuses to admit that he is filled with sin, that his instincts are always full of sin and death. Repentance means, first of all, owning up to one's sin, confessing it. We say that we believe this, but how many of you actually do it? If you really believe that Luther was right in saying that repentance is the core of the Christian life [Thesis #1 of the 95 theses], then why don't you repent? Why is there no confession? Or do you presume upon the grace of God?

Repentance always means drastic changes, like the picture Isaiah gives us of a completely changed topography. Maybe that's the reason we don't want to confess, because we don't like change. We're comfortable with our sins. They don't disturb us. They're like old friends. These old friends, however, keep us separated from God and bring us his wrath. Without Christ you cannot produce the fruits that please God and serve the neighbor.

Winnowing is a picture of judgment, separation. The ax laid to the root of the tree is also a picture of judgment. Both have destruction by fire as the result. They are good for nothing. Christians, however, are to be good for something, that is, good works which serve the neighbor.

The prophet Jeremiah warned Israel:

"Circumcise yourselves to the Lord; remove the foreskin of your hearts, O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn with none to quench it, because of the evil of your deeds." (Jeremiah 4:4, ESV)

God's holiness means that he is dangerous, that he is not safe to meet in a sinful condition. But his holiness means that he is also good. He has provided the way to meet him without dying. The coming of Christ means that God will set things right. Sin will be dealt with. God's full anger and fury over it will be unleashed. It was unleashed in the death of Jesus who is your substitute. Either you find safety in the wounds of Christ or you face God's judgment on your own.

How shall man escape because man is sinful? "Repent!" cries John. Own up, man up to your sins. Then, be washed clean in the cleansing that God himself provides, Holy Baptism. Here in Holy Baptism you are washed clean with the blood of Christ. To Holy Baptism you must return daily to be cleansed because you cannot cleanse yourself. You must find your refuge in this heavenly washing. As Peter preached to the crowds on the first Pentecost,

"Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." (Acts 2:38, ESV)

You have already been baptized. You have been cleansed by the blood of Christ, yet you still sin. What shall you do? In his Large Catechism Luther explains:

Here you see that baptism, both by its power and by its signification, comprehends also the third sacrament, formerly called penance,?? which is really nothing else than baptism. What is repentance but an earnest attack on the old creature and an entering into a new life? If you live in repentance, therefore, you are walking in baptism, which not only announces this new life but also produces, begins, and exercises it. In baptism we are given the grace, Spirit, and strength to suppress the old creature so that the new may come forth and grow strong.
Therefore baptism remains forever. Even though someone falls from it and sins, we always have access to it so that we may again subdue the old creature. But we need not have the water poured over us again. Even if we were immersed in water a hundred times, it would nevertheless not be more than one baptism, and the effect and significance would continue and remain. Repentance, therefore, is nothing else than a return and approach to baptism, to resume and practice what has earlier been begun but abandoned.²

John's urgent call goes out again to you. He calls on you to repent, to find cleansing again in confession and absolution, in a return to this cleansing which God himself provides so that you escape the wrath that is to be revealed on the last day. The call remains urgent in every age. It is for you! It is your call to action, to confess and to find cleansing in Christ.

In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

¹Theodore G. Tappert, The Book of Concord : The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, 185 (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 2000, c1959).
²Robert Kolb, Timothy J. Wengert and Charles P. Arand, The Book of Concord : The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, 465 (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000).