December 8, 2002
A sermon by Rev. Dr. John K. Luoma
So, you want to honor the stable-born king! Well, in order to do that you need to make a journey to Bethlehem. Now, I’m not talking geography here. I’m talking about a spiritual journey. And, if you want to go to Bethlehem, you will have to make a stop along the Jordan River and visit with a man named John the Baptist. He is the one who can tell you how to honor the stable-born king.
You already know something about John because we read about him today. He is a no-nonsense sort of guy -- serious, not given to a whole lot of words. In just eleven words he tells us how to honor the stable-born king. He says, “Repent and believe for the kingdom of God is at hand.” You can’t put it any briefer than that. The way we honor the stable-born king is to repent and believe.
What does he mean when he says, “Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand”? He is saying: Believe that God is for you and not against you, believe that God is actively at work on your behalf, believe that God loves you and wants the best for you, believe that God is on your side and that he is not out to get you.
Carl Michelson, a brilliant young theologian who died a few years ago in a plane crash, shares something that happened one day while he was playing with his son. They were wrestling on the front lawn and he accidentally hit the young boy in the face with his elbow. The boy was stunned by the impact. He was about to burst into tears, but then he looked into his father’s eyes. He did not see anger and hostility, he saw compassion and concern. When he saw that, instead of crying, he burst into laughter. What he saw in the father’s face made all the difference.
When we sin we expect God’s anger and hostility. But if we look into the Father’s eyes, what we see is compassion and a readiness to forgive. Knowing that we have such a God enables our repentance. It enables us to turn from our sin.
We can talk about this repentance that God enables in two ways. At the most basic level repentance means turning from sin and committing ourselves to Jesus as Lord and Savior. In his article, “Returning to the Church,” the writer Dan Wakefield describes what the process is like. He says that he was passing through a treacherous time in his life. A long-standing relationship with a woman had failed. He was out of money, and in a span of seven months he buried both of his parents. In addition, his work no longer felt satisfying and drugs became an active means of escape. He writes, “I was headed over the edge of a cliff.”
As strange as it seems, it was a chance meeting with someone in a bar that began to turn things around. He met a man who was also looking for a service to attend on Christmas Eve. This led to his attendance at a Christmas Candlelight service and that led to other worship services and Bible study. As his involvement in the church increased, his sense of purposelessness decreased as well as his life-numbing addictions. Eventually, he reached the point where his burden was taken away.
Christians are familiar with this basic kind of repentance that is enabled by the awareness that God wants to draw us close. God’s only desire is to love and forgive. God has embraced the world in the form of the stable-born king.
But there is also another aspect to repentance. It is not just a one time event, it is a process. It is something we need to do daily. So, we may be in Christ, but we still struggle with sin. And sometimes we allow sin to pull us away from Christ.
Tom Long tells the story of a businessman who grew up in a Christian home but drifted away from his faith. The man was on the verge of implementing a shrewd business plan. The plan involved dropping prices so low for a period of time that he could drive a small competitor out of the market. He did not even consider the fact that his competitor had a wife and three little children to support.
But just as he was about to put his plan into place, he had to attend the funeral of a cousin. All the family burial plots were in the same area of the cemetery; and as the graveside service went on, his eyes drifted to the grave stone of his grandmother. It had a saying from Proverbs: “She opens her mouth with wisdom and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.” He had read these words in the past, but only now did they disturb him. Reminded of the quality of his grandmother’s life, he abandoned his plan and began to take seriously the faith he had been taught.
Repentance is a process. There are a lot of obstacles that can get in the way of our relationship to Jesus. We eliminate them by turning from sin and turning to him for forgiveness. We may have been ready to worship the stable-born king last Christmas. That does not mean that we are ready this Christmas unless through repentance we have cleared the obstacle of sin from the way.
So, here are the basic Advent questions: First, have I yielded my life to Christ or am I floating through life without a sense of purpose, moving from one distraction to another, anesthetizing myself when the pain gets too great? Second, what are the obstacles that stand between me and Christ right now? Has someone hurt me? Has someone wronged me? Am I walking around bearing a grudge? Am I refusing to go about the work of mending fences with my neighbor? Or have I wronged someone else and I am refusing to talk with that person or to try and bridge the gap? What sin am I allowing to stand between me and Christ? What sin do I love more than him?
Do we want to honor the stable-born king? Let me tell you the greatest gift we can give him.
Forgive someone! Quit holding on to a grudge.
Ask for forgiveness! Make an effort to mend the fence between you and your neighbor.
If you have some sin that just keeps on afflicting you, sit down with your pastor and talk about it. The gift of private confession and absolution is one the greatest gifts the church has to give. Pastors have been given the spiritual authority to forgive sin. Take advantage of it. Therapists are helpful when we have problems. They can accomplish a lot in terms of helping you with your problems. But therapists are not authorized to forgive sins. Only pastors are authorized to do that.
It is such a sad thing that we are willing to carry sin around inside us rather than share it in confidence with a pastor. When we choose to hold on to sin our lives become more and more troubled and distorted. I remember my very last visit in the first parish that I served. I got a call that one of my parishioners was committed to the psychiatric ward at a local hospital. It wasn’t a complete surprise. I had known her for several years and it always felt like there was something afflicting her that she would not share. That day she did. Since it was my last day, she probably felt that it was now safe to share her dark secret. Over the years I have thought of her again and again. I do not believe that she would have suffered a breakdown if she had been willing to confess her sin and receive forgiveness.
Do we want to honor the stable-born king? Here is the gift he wants--repentance!
copyright 2001 by Rev. Dr. John K. Luoma