ADVENT THIRD – SERMON OUTLINE – DECEMBER 12, 2010
I Corinthians 4:1-5; St. Matthew 11:2-10
“Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.”
I. Introduction: Making Preparation for Christ’s Coming
a. How would you like to grow up with your parents constantly reminding you that the only reason you were born was to tell the whole world how great somebody else is and how insignificant you are? You might develop an inferiority complex! Modern psychology would have a field day with this!
i. Yet God’s wisdom/purposes are frequently better than what we can make sense of or devise
ii. Our Gospel tells us this morning that a man once walked this earth who had precisely this identity and this mission; and he would be called the greatest prophet before Messiah
iii. On the day he was named, his father Zechariah sang of him: “And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways.”
iv. And, in fact, even 400 years before this, the prophet Malachi foresaw his destiny. Our Gospel quoted him this morning: “Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.”
v. For all this, John the Baptist is known as “the Forerunner” because his sole purpose in life was to announce Christ’s First Advent to Israel and get the people ready for His ministry.
1. He told them the Kingdom was coming
2. He warned them to repent and be baptized
b. John didn’t fail in his mission: He accomplished God’s plan to make “a straight path through the desert” for the Messiah. Without John, there could have been no Cross, no Resurrection, no Church!
c. But John the Baptist’s work of preparation isn’t over yet.
i. Something happened that Malachi couldn’t see: Christ came, but then left so He could come back again: we’re between two Advents!
ii. This means that God still needs “forerunners” in the world before Jesus’ return. But who? Our Collect tells us this morning. Listen to what we’ve prayed:
“Grant that the ministers and stewards of thy mysteries may likewise so pre pare and make ready thy way, by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just…”
iii. It’s our job as Christians to continue John the Baptist’s work. We’re the forerunners!
iv. The clergy do this especially in Word and Sacrament, but it’s the mission of every Christian to prepare the way for Jesus before His Second Advent
1. John warned Israel that Christ came at Christmas, so they needed to repent
We tell the whole world that He’s coming back again, so it needs to repent
2. John warned Israel that the Kingdom was coming, so they needed to reaffirm their faith
We tell the whole world that the Kingdom is now among us: ‘How is God going to find you living in it—wheat or tare, a sheep or a goat?’
3. It’s not enough to just scream it on a street corner. We have to bring them into the Church; only the Church can prepare a people for the Lord through grace and worship
II. The Appearance and the Nature of John the Baptist’s Work of Preparation
a. Maybe this sounds like more than you bargained for! You say: ‘I just want to go to church on Sunday, do my Anglican thing, and go home.’
b. You might also say, ‘Besides, look at me, I’m not fit to be a forerunner. I’m not fit period! No one looking at me could take me or my message seriously.’
And yet that’s exactly what it means to be like John the Baptist. He didn’t come with great beauty!
i. As Jesus pointed out Himself, John was nothing to look at (no soft raiment)
ii. Nor was John popular with the religious or political elite of his day
iii. Likewise, sometimes Christians don’t look like much: the Church often appears ugly
1. Because of sin, divisions, lack of “political correctness,” the Church is often unappealing; we take on the identity of an outcast
We may not look like much here at Holy Trinity! (Where’s your church?)
2. But, like John, this is what we are also born for!
On the day we’re baptized (as we saw this morning with Adam and Christopher) and the Holy Spirit makes us born again, God consecrates us for this ministry. When we’re marked with the sign of the Cross, He sets us apart to proclaim Christ and do His work.
3. We might not look like much, but that’s the point. If we only become Christians to look “more put together” than anyone else who’s really going to pay attention? People are perfectly content to “have it all” without Jesus and His Kingdom. None of us need to don camel’s hair, but the point is that God will help us to succeed in spite of our appearance. He doesn’t want us to blend in to the world, but point beyond it.
4. The world can only know about Christ by watching us. Words often times aren’t even necessary. But they have to see the difference of a forerunner. How are they going to know that they need to repent and convert if they don’t see us doing it?
c. But there’s a point to taking this part. This isn’t all sin and self-hatred (but it has to start that way). In the end, we have a message that really does prepare people for a glorious future, just like John.
i. Penitence and forgiveness brings a promise of great blessing!
ii. Jesus confirmed this in the Gospel this morning. What was John preparing the people for? Maybe even he was wondering a little bit. But listen to what Jesus said:
“The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.”
iii. This is the blessing of being a forerunner. This is what preparation provides—HEALING.
We dismiss our evil, so Messiah comes to triumph over evil and bring salvation. If the world will only ready itself for Christ, Christ won’t have judgment for it, but great reward.
iv. This is why our tone is a little bit different this morning: rose vestments instead of violet. This Rose Sunday celebrates that even though it might seem like we’re in the desert repenting and being weird, out of the desert a rose blooms.
v. Isaiah spoke of this at Morning Prayer: “The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing….”
vi. You see, as we prepare for Jesus, He is preparing for us, just like he promised. And when He returns the fullness of His Kingdom will blossom out of our sacrifice, like a rose from the sand. As ugly as this world (or we) might be sometimes, the one He is making will be all the more beautiful. On this Rose Sunday, that is something to rejoice about while we prepare.
III. Conclusion: Preparing in Faithfulness
a. We all look for this beautiful new world. But before we conclude, we need to finish our Collect of the Day, “at thy second coming to judge the world we may be found an acceptable people in thy sight.”
b. When Jesus returns looking for faith in His Church, this is how He will judge us:
What kind of forerunners were we? How were we stewards of the truth about Jesus’ Coming?
c. Really, it all begins by how we remember His First Coming. How are we preparing for Christmas?
i. Fundamentally, it’s not our job to spend more on presents or to throw bigger parties.
ii. No, it’s our job to bring the light of Christ to places of darkness.
iii. All the “holidays” this time of year (Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, or just the religion of decorating your house) claim to be about light—so the world just says “they’re all variations of the same theme.” But that’s not true! Ultimately, light is only found in Jesus. Only His light can save. Only the light of Christmas can (again) prepare us for the light of the Second Coming: that light is going to be even brighter, dividing the ready from the unready.
It’s imperative that people know, as we confess in our Creed: “the Light of Light.”
d. We want to be like John the Baptist? Be brave enough to share the light with someone else; then we will truly be found “an acceptable people in [His] sight.” AMEN.
