Sunday, December 8, 2024

What Is Our Place in the Great Drama of Life? - Sermon for the Second Sunday in Advent

Second Sunday in Advent, December 8th, A+D 2024
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, South Dakota
What Is Our Place in the Great Drama of Life?  - Luke 3:1 - 20

Audio of the sermon is available HERE. 

   In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness.

    It feels like we’ve witnessed something consequential these last few months.  I’m not actually convinced this is true.  But recent events do seem almost cinematic:  Like the end of the Lord of the Rings, we’ve witnessed the return of the king, or at least of the Donald.  After so much drama, indictments and convictions, assassination attempts and the defenestration of a presidential nominee, podcasts and pollster fails and pardons, we look forward to calmer days…  Well, probably not.    

    The whole world watches our politics, and that’s saying something, since there are no shortage of dumpster fires to attract the concern of our global neighbors.  Did you hear the president of South Korea briefly declared martial law last week?  The war in Ukraine slogs through its third year, unless you’re counting from 2014.  The Middle East is a tinderbox, which isn’t helpful when there are four or more conflicts kicking out sparks, in the north and the south of Israel, civil war in Syria, the Houthi’s attacking whoever they want from Yemen.  The French government has fallen, and China threatens Taiwan.  Important people are doing important things, all over the world. 

   And who are we?  What importance do our efforts have in the grand scheme of things?  We’ve been blessed with some new members over the last few years, (God be praised!).  And as the ears with the best listening post in the Nave, I can attest that your song to the Lord is consistently lovely.  But Our Savior’s and Our Redeemer are just a couple of small congregations in a thinly populated corner of flyover country.  Do we really matter?  Great things seem to be happening all the time, or at least our phones tell us it is so.  What is our place in the Great Drama of Life? 

   At least our obscurity is not so severe as John’s.  The Baptist was set aside by God, before his conception.  Big things were coming, through him; John was to prepare the way for the Messiah, the Christ, God’s anointed Savior.  How did John prepare for this important role?  What was his resume, as he embarked on his life’s work?  He was a strange ascetic recluse, living out by himself in the desert, dressed in clothing made of camel hair, eating locusts and wild honey.  Zechariah and Elizabeth must have been so proud.  

   Then the Word of God came to John.  It’s time.  Time to start preaching, time to start preparing the people for the coming of the Messiah.  So go, preach repentance from sin, that’s always a crowd pleaser.  Tell it like it is, which is to say, call them a brood of vipers, the offspring of snakes, children of Satan is the point.  Tell them to live rightly, but do it in a way that will especially offend the Jews.  First, insult the children of Abraham.  Bear fruit, live rightly, warns John, or God’s axe will chop you down.  And don’t think: 'We have Abraham as our father, so we’re good with God!” For I tell you, God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones.  Many interpreters think John’s words about the Lord raising up children of Abraham from the stones is a reference to the Gentiles, the nations of non-Jews, whom the children of Israel generally despised, and slurred as worthless as dead stones.  If this is the background, then John is hinting that souls whom many Jews thought unredeemable would become objects of divine love, to the shock of many. 

   Whether or not the crowds caught the reference, nobody likes being told their proud Abrahamic family heritage is worthless.  And John’s not done.  He goes on to tell everyone who has enough clothing and food to share with those who do not.  That’s pretty standard stuff, maybe not that frequently seen, but a normal divine expectation.  But then John tells two enemies of God’s people how to rightly do their assigned work, which was to subjugate the people, for the good of Rome. 

   Tax collectors came to John.  These were Jews hired by the Romans to work for the good of the emperor, Tiberius Caesar, squeezing revenue out of God’s people.  These were very unpopular folks.  But, John did not tell them to quit their jobs and find honest work.  He only told them not to over do it.  Only tax as much as Rome says you can tax, no more. 

   Soldiers, Roman warriors who occupied Israel and had the power to abuse the Jews, were not told to lay down their swords and desert from the Legion.  That is what the people would have preferred to hear.  But, no.  John tells them to keep doing their job, keep ruling over the Jews.  Just don’t abuse your power by extorting money from the people.    

   And John baptized them.  For all who came, confessing their sins and seeking God’s mercy, the Baptist washed away their sins in the muddy Jordan River. 

   Now, I think even Kamala’s campaign manager could tell you that John’s approach seems unlikely to succeed.  Most influencers try to build a following by telling the people what they want to hear.  But not John the Baptist.  And yet, John did attract quite a following, people bothered by their sinfulness and seeking something better.  John’s approach produced results, exactly the results that the Lord had promised in His Word.  For it is the Word that makes all the difference.  Whatever Tiberius or Herod or Pilate thought, whatever their plans were, the Word of God had come to John, and so his strange ministry flourished, in just the way that the Lord intended.       

   It’s quite an approach to ministry and life with God.  Preach God’s Word, especially including the unpopular parts.  Proclaim the coming of the Christ, the Savior.  Condemn sin, so that the people be led to confess their sins and seek to live differently.  Then set our minds on producing fruit that is in keeping with the repentance God’s Word has worked in our souls.  Look to share your bounty with those who have less.  And seek to live in your legitimate earthly vocations, whatever they may be, as a child of the heavenly Father. 

   The same Word of the Lord that came to John has also come to us.  John baptized, and we baptize.  Even more, we are the Baptized.  We have been baptized, and not only with water, as John did.  We have received Christ’s baptism, water combined with the Triune God’s Holy Name.  Baptism has now been transformed and empowered, because the Messiah passed through His baptism by fire on the Cross.   John’s baptism made people ready to receive the Savior.  Now, Christ’s baptism regenerates repentant sinners, giving them new birth as living stones in the new Temple of God.  Baptism has brought us into the New Testament Church, each forgiven sinner made a member of Christ, made truly alive and useful, by the Word of God, who took on flesh and came to John, to be baptized in the Jordan.   

   What God is doing in our midst is the most important thing in the world.  Roman emperors and American presidents come and go.  Campaigns and great political and social movements sweep across history.  But all these things, as important as they are for a time, are passing away.  What God is doing in our midst is the most important thing happening in the world, because the Word of the Lord endures forever.  Jesus’ sin-confronting and life-giving Word will never pass away. 

   Now, it is not that we are more important than any other faithful Christian congregation.  There is nothing particularly special about you and me.  In fact, I suspect we all have room to bear more fruit in keeping with repentance.  We all have more than enough, so we could all share more with others.  We could stop abusing others.  We do not wield taxation power or a sword to enforce the authority of Rome.  But we do sometimes wield sharp tongues that cut and injure.  As forgiven sinners, blessed by the Word of God, we should always use our words to bless, not to injure. 

   We are not more important than any other faithful Christian congregation.  But we are not less important, either, because the Word of the Lord has come to us, is heard among us, goes out from us.  The same Holy Spirit, who alone works true repentance and faith, is working in our midst.  Since He is at work in our midst, then our ministry is important, the most important thing there is.  Even though our churches may not look impressive from the outside, and even less if one looks inside at us, still, glory and power belong to the Christ of God.   And the Christ is with us, in our midst, as we the Baptized gather in His Name and around His Word and around His Meal.  What may seem routine to our eyes and foolish to the world is, in the eyes of God, the grandest activity in all the earth.  

   What is our place in the great Drama of Life?  Our place, our significance, is precisely the place and importance that God intends for us.  We may be small, but that doesn’t detract from what God is doing.  We all would like to see more souls gathered, and we should work to grow.  But we shouldn’t worry about the top-line numbers.  Remember that Jesus, having completed His three-year ministry on earth, still at the time of His Ascension only seems to have had about 120 followers.  Just 120 believers in the entire world.  But the Word of God was with them, so they were infinite, the root of a mighty tree of faith that continues to grow toward heaven today. 

    We shouldn’t worry about numbers, or the survival of institutions.  No, we should worry about souls.  We should worry about getting the Word of God into peoples’ ears.  Numbers will come and institutions will continue, as God provides.  But we have been given to worry about human souls, every one of which needs to hear of Jesus and His forgiving love.  Following the Lord’s lead, it is enough even to worry about just one person.  Like Jesus did with the woman at the well.  The Lord God Almighty, Savior of the world, for a good long while, focused His entire attention on one sinful woman.  We can dare to follow our Savior’s lead, and worry about just one soul, if that is who God puts in front of us.  And then, we can expect great things, because the Holy Spirit will do what He does. 

    One woman at the well, estranged from God, living in a foolish series of broken relationships, is brought to faith and used to draw others to Jesus.  Her whole village came out, to hear and believe the Word of the Lord, from the mouth of God’s Son.  We can check the details when we get to heaven, but it seems this narrowly focused effort by Jesus might have set up the subsequent mission of Philip the deacon, who some four or five years later was driven out of Jerusalem by violence, and so carried the Gospel to the Samaritans, some of whom had already heard Good News from the mouth of Jesus.   

 


   We have a calling as God’s living stones in this place, to extend His Word farther.  We do not have a guarantee that we will get to see the fruit of our efforts.  But, we do have a rock solid guarantee that Jesus desires for all people to hear His Word and be brought to repentance and faith.  And so we are free to pray for the mission, free to be bold, to speak God’s life-giving Truth into a dying world.  We are free to invite, to encourage, to share what we have been given, in our day to day lives.  And we are free, we are privileged, to gather together again, to receive the Word of the Lord, again, to bring Him our struggles and failures and concerns, and exchange them for His strength and mercy and forgiveness.  Jesus being present to serve His Body, the Church, is what makes all the difference for us, and for our neighbors, day by day, and forever.

    What is our place in the Drama of Life?  No matter what is happening in the great halls of power on this earth, our place is the place of undeserved blessing, today, and forever.  God’s desire to save has come to us.  Our sins, your sins, and my sins, are forgiven, washed away by the blood of the Lamb.  The Word of God is with us.  The Lord, who does not change, has committed Himself to you.  Therefore, O children of the New Israel, you are not consumed.  Safe in the love of God, you are free, strong, and beloved, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.   

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