“Are You Ready?” Luke 3:1–6, Nov. 27, 2011--1st Sunday in Advent

1.                    Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.  During this Advent season, we get ready for the coming of baby Jesus. As God provided us the ultimate present in his Son, we prepare presents from our hearts also. For each of you, this preparation has had different beginnings. I have already begun to shop for Christmas presents even before Black Friday. I’m almost done shopping for presents. Maybe some of you have yet to begin. Maybe I should say, “You have not yet begun to fight.”

2.                    Now, in addition to the presents, I would suggest that you also prepare useful phrases for responding to Christmas presents you’d rather not have received. You know—honest but polite.  So Advent is a time of preparing presents to share—and choice words to say—but, of course, more important, it’s a time when we are being prepared for Christ. So, are you ready? Are you ready for Christ? Are you ready not only to receive the gift of Christ, but also to speak choice words about that gift? Are You Ready to Share
the Good News of Christ?

3.                    In Lk 3, we hear from John the Baptist, or using another nickname, John the Preparer, preaching a Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  This is what Luke 3:1-6 says, “¹In 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, ²during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. ³And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. ⁴As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness:  ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. ⁵Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight,  and the rough places shall become level ways, ⁶and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”      

4.                    Most of us can identify with what John the Baptist is saying. We, too, were baptized. We, too, were washed out of our sins and into new life with Christ. We, too, experienced a turning away from sin and a turning toward God.  This is what little Mackenzie Schmoll will/has receive(d) today when she is baptized into the Christian faith in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

5.                    Advent is a time when we’re reminded of being in a constant state of readiness. As Scripture teaches us in Matthew 24, Christ will return to us like “a thief” in the night. If you fall asleep at the wheel, there’s bound to be trouble. If we are not vigilant when we stand watch, then Satan and our other enemies can be upon us, and it’s often too late to defend against the attack.  But why must this be so? You might ask, “Why doesn’t God just tell us when he’ll return—date and time?” Then we could be more relaxed, instead of vigilant and stressed out.  There’s that famous line from the movie A Few Good Men. The prosecutor, played by Tom Cruise, screams, “I want the truth.” The colonel on the witness stand, played by Jack Nicholson, shouts back, “You can’t handle the truth.”

6.                    Indeed, we can’t handle it. If God told us when his coming would be, we wouldn’t be able to handle it. With that knowledge in hand, many of us would lead unseemly lives. We would plan a “repentance” shortly prior to the announced date of Christ’s return. But would that planned repentance be a true repentance?  Repentance is a complete change, a reversal of previous thinking, feeling, and conduct. As John the Preparer shares, in Luke 3, repentance is about valleys being filled in, mountains made low, crooked roads rendered straight. Indeed, the proud are humbled. Repentance is not a simple adjustment you make. Repentance is not something you plan to do later. If you’ve repented, you are, at the core, in your essence, different. You cannot help but be different. You cannot help but want to follow Christ.

7.                    I often hear, “Pastor, I’m too busy now for church and God. I’ve got marital problems, problems at work, financial challenges, psychological issues. When I retire, put my kids through college, I’ll see you then.” My response, “Brother, if you’ve got problems, that’s why the church is here. It’s a place for people with problems and issues. It’s not for those who think they’re healthy. The church is for the sick, the wounded, the sinners. If you’ve got issues, Christ is here for you. He will see you through the problems. Christ will heal you, forgive you, and empower you.”

8.                    Rather than denying our need for the Savior—or pretending we don’t need him just now—let us heed the John the Baptist’s call to repent. You are ready for Christ’s coming—and for sharing the Good News of Christ—through repentance.

9.                    Brothers and sisters, there are not too many guarantees in life. One is that, unless Christ comes beforehand, our time on earth will have an end in death. We will all die. Tragedies occur. Our health is brittle. There are “term limits” for all of us. Sadly, as it seems, some of us even outlive our children. Just as Christ will return like a thief in the night, so can death. Let us be ready. Let us help others be ready too.

10.                Now just as John the Baptist’s preaching, teaching, and baptizing aroused the people to wake up, smell the coffee, and stir the pot, we, too, encourage each other into a state of readiness. If Christ comes today, are you confident that he will deem you righteous?  Are you ready? Don’t answer those questions by looking at the accomplishments in your life. Don’t answer the questions by going through a laundry list. Don’t respond by looking at your good deeds and misdeeds and lack of deeds and come up with a sum total. If we respond with these kinds of answers, none of us in this sanctuary is ready. None.

11.                Instead, respond by looking at what the babe Jesus would someday accomplish. Look to the perfect, righteous life Christ lived in your place. Be comforted today by the death he died so you wouldn’t die eternally. Christ has won your salvation for you, in your stead. By believing in him, you are ready.  Part of being ready is to be prepared to share the Good News. Christ gave us that responsibility before ascending into heaven. So, are you ready to share the Gospel?

12.                When I ask that question, I get a variety of answers, but they amount to this: no, not now, not ever, maybe, yes, and (very often!) barely yes. So I ask other questions to clarify. Are you baptized and do you partake in Communion? Yes. Then, you’ve been refined and are undergoing refinement, through the Means of Grace. This is good. Do you believe that your sins are forgiven? Yes. Do you trust in Christ as Lord and Savior? I do. Then, you are ready. Does God continue to equip you as you attend church services regularly so that you hear the Word and become involved in the life of a church? Yes. Does he hone you as you study Scripture? Yes. Does it help to get some training for Gospel outreach? Yes, but the bottom line is, you are ready.

13.                What are the usual excuses? I didn’t go to seminary. I’m not equipped to do that. I need to do more Bible study before I’m ready. I don’t have an outgoing personality. I’m too tired just surviving. I might hurt someone’s feelings when I mess up during the attempted sharing of the Gospel. These are the same kinds of excuses used by the brother who said that he’ll go to church when he retires. Brothers and sisters, you need not be John the Baptist or the apostle Paul to share the Gospel.  Sometimes all it takes is just to invite someone to church or to offer to pick them up to take them to one of our Advent Midweek services or our Sunday morning services.

14.                My brothers and sisters in Christ, God is so gracious that not only did he send his only Son to die in our stead, but he even sent John the Baptist, the Preparer to ready us for his coming. God is so gracious that he has still not returned for close to two thousand years, giving us every possibility of becoming ready for that return. We fall asleep during our watch, and yet he wakes us from our slumber to be vigilant. He even allows us to take part in helping others become ready. What a joy it is for us to have the opportunity to help prepare others!  Are you ready? I pray you are, by the grace of God.