SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT
December 8, 2024
Malachi 3:1–7b
Philippians 1:2–11
Luke 3:1–14 (15–20)
The Preaching of Repentance Prepares Us for the Coming of the Lord
The preaching and Baptism “of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Luke 3:3) prepare us for the coming of the Lord, Jesus Christ. The historic work of John the Baptist was completed with the first advent of our Lord Jesus in the flesh, but the ministry of the forerunner continues in the preaching of Law and Gospel and in Holy Baptism. Through His messengers, the Lord calls people of all nations to “see the salvation of God” (Luke 3:6). Our haughtiness is removed and our mountains of pride are brought low, but the Lord humbles us in order to exalt us in His mercy. As the Lord has begun this good work of repentance in us, so also does He perfect it by His Word and Holy Spirit, and He “will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6). He purifies us to be His priestly people, precious in His sight and abounding in faith and love, so that we offer our very lives in righteousness to the Lord (Mal. 3:3–4).
INTROIT Psalm 81: 8, 10-11, 13; antiphon Luke 3:4b
P The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
C “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.”
P Hear, O my people, while I admonish you!
C O Israel, if you would but listen to me!
P I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
C Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.
P But my people did not listen to my voice;
C Israel would not submit to me.
P Oh, that my people would listen to me,
C that Israel would walk in my ways!
Glory be to the Father and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen.
P The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
C “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.”
OLD TESTAMENT READING Malachi 3:1–7b
1“Behold, I send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. 2But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. 3He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord. 4Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.
5“Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.
6“For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. 7From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them.”
EPISTLE Philippians 1:2–11
2Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, 4always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, 5because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. 6And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. 7It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. 8For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. 9And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
HOLY GOSPEL** Luke 3:1–20
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.’”
7He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 9Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
10And the crowds asked him, “What then shall we do?” 11And he answered them, “Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.” 12Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?” 13And he said to them, “Collect no more than you are authorized to do.” 14Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.”
15As the people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ, 16John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. 17His 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.”
18So with many other exhortations he preached good news to the people. 19But Herod the tetrarch, who had been reproved by him for Herodias, his brother’s wife, and for all the evil things that Herod had done, 20added this to them all, that he locked up John in prison.
Summary of Sermon by Pastor John Riebhoff
The evangelist Luke is quoting for Isaiah "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord." Being prepared during this season for some is the long check out lines, dealing with grumpy people, bank accounts being emptied. There are two different kinds of being prepared, the way of the world and the way of a Christian. On the worldly level, people look for that perfect Christmas gift and have big Christmas celebration and parties. Then the next day it's all done. What do they have to look forward to now - returns at the stores or maybe some after Christmas sales. Some people get depressed for all the excitement and then nothing. For the church, Christmas comes and it stays. The birth of Jesus Christ is all year long. The church preparation is much more. God stirs up desire in our hearts.
In our reading, John the Baptist is clearing the way for one that comes after him. He said to the gathering crowd, "You brood of vipers!" What if I said that to you today? Would you listen to me or walk away. Back then it got the attention of the people. But what is he meaning by saying a "brood of vipers"? Well a viper is a poisonous snake. Snakes remind people of the devil. He was applying that they were children of the devil in the sense of getting their attention and getting the people to stop and think. Before our baptism we all are in bondage to sin. Baptism washes away our sine and we become children of God. John was trying to teach them and point to Jesus, who will takes away the sins of the world.
John also talks about the axe that is laid to the root of the trees. For if a tree does not bear fruit, it is cut down and thrown into the fire. Is John talking about us? We don't always produce the fruit on our trees that we should. We don't always have the strength, mind, love, to follow God's laws or to love our neighbors. But we can find comfort in the gospel in Jesus Christ.
Repentance of God is like making an about face and going the opposite direction. Turning from the ways of the world to God. Turn away from the lives of guilty, shame, and death. Fill our hearts with the life of Christ. Old habits are hard to change. People like their ways and self-indulgences. Advent season is 40 days long, just like the 40 days Jesus was in the desert. It is stated that it takes 40 days to change old habits into new ones. I have an addiction to chocolate covered peanuts. I have some right after breakfast, well maybe more then some. After awile I noticed that I was gaining some weight. I started to cut down on the portion of sweets I eat. It's not an easy thing to do right away. It takes about 40 days to form that new habit. When we wean ourselves from one habit it creates a void that we seem to fill with something else. It could be filled with a bad or good habit. The Advent season lets us grow closure to God and replace bad habits with good ones like Jesus Christ.
The world teaches us to repay evil with evil, to cut down people, not love our neighbors, curse, swear, and lie. These are just some worldly sins. Advent season reminds us to look to the cross, then it will lead us to our confess of sins, which leads to joy in our hearts and minds. 1 John tells us that God will cleanse us from our sin and then forgive us. Sometimes the roads we take will twist and turn and take us to places we don't want to be. We are not to follow the ways of the world. God tells us that he will not abandon us, but will be with us always. I know my sheep and they know me. No man will snatch them out of my hand.
John reminds us to "Prepare the way of the Lord." Advent time is a time of change. Weather our road for us is straight or crooked depends on our situation at that time in our lives. But God is with us through it all. God's grace changes our hearts and changes our paths to lead them to heaven. To lift us our of despair and grief to comfort and love. Advent is a time to find comfort and joy in the coming of Jesus. Jesus came to us in flesh to bring us forgiveness of sins and refine our faith to be with him. As we sing in our offertory, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." He renews us, makes us think about him, and what he has done for us. He shows us acts of mercy. "Come Lord, Jesus, come quickly."
What acts of mercy does Bethel do?? For the community?? For members??
Care packages, invite others to church, caroling to the nursing homes, giving to the food pantry, soup with the residents at Wiloway.
Acts of mercy for others are things that are sometimes things we don't think about. We do them and don't realize that we did anything special. Do we hear "thank you" for what we did? Yes we do. They will say it to us or we will thank you cards in the mail. People appreciate what we do for them. There is evil our there that don't care about others or these acts of kindness. People can see by what we do on how we live our lives, if walk in the ways of the world or the ways of Christ.
What if we don't get a "thank you" for what we did? We would still do these things because we are followers of Christ. We do these things because we love others the way Christ loves us. Christ's love flows through us and tugs on our hearts. It shows on how we live. He was given us a new heart and caring acts become natural to us and are not considered acts of work but acts of love.