The Lutheran Hour
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"It Will Work Out"
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Text: Luke 3:5-6
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Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! A baby, God’s Son, is born in Bethlehem; years later, a crucified man, our Savior, rises from the dead in Jerusalem. The child and the man, the cradle and the cross, a beginning and what should have been an ending, are brought together in resurrection victory before the empty tomb. It is His story that we share. Amen.
I love my wife. Before I go any further in this message, I want you to know that I love my wife. She is my conscience, my compassionate critic, my encourager. She has been, outside of the Savior and all the blessings He bestows, the greatest gift God has given to me. Now that that’s settled, I want to tell you one other thing. My wife has a tendency, the smallest, almost inconsequential tendency, the hardly-worth-mentioning inclination to ask my opinion and then promptly disregard it. It doesn’t happen often. But it does happen.
For example, she will ask me, “What dress shall I wear tonight, the red one or the blue one?” Now, I always like my wife in red, so it’s no surprise when I say, “I’d like you to wear the red one.” With the red dress in her left hand and the blue dress in her right, and a serious expression on her face, she begins to think. Then, having thought, she announces, “I’m going to wear the blue one.” A few years ago she came to me and said, “Your fiftieth birthday is next month. We can celebrate it with just the two of us; or I can throw a big party for you. Which do you want?” “A nice evening at home would be my choice,” I replied. “Righto,” she said, “A surprise party it will be.” I wonder, “Why does she ask my opinion if she’s not going to listen?” In fact I asked her that once. She said, “I do listen to what you say, sometimes I just don’t like it.”
I wonder if the Lord feels the same way about the way the world remembers the birth of His Son? Every year, right about now, we come to Him and ask: “God, there are a number of ways we can celebrate Jesus’ birth. How would you like us to proceed?” To which God replies, “You know, nobody really knows the exact day My Son was born.” That’s when we interrupt. “Yes, yes, yes, we understand all that, but how would it look if we didn’t celebrate Christmas? We’ve got to do something. Look, God, we can do it simply, or we can do it with a big production. God, what’s Your preference?” Once again, God starts to speak: “Well, if I have a choice, I would just as soon you would…” God doesn’t get much further before we interrupt again. The smell of chestnuts roasting on an open fire, the vision of sugarplums dancing in our heads, being home for Christmas, if only in our dreams, has completely taken over. As we leave the room, we enthusiastically, excitedly, eagerly, call out, “God, glad we agree. We’re going to celebrate Christmas, and we’re going to do it right.”
As we dig in, it doesn’t take long before we realize that doing “Christmas right” is going to be quite a production. You know we have holidays like Veteran’s Day and Labor Day that are minimum output celebrations. A minimal output celebration means we may barbecue something, or go to a parade, but doing that doesn’t call for much effort, does it? I mean, after all, we were going to eat, anyway. Then we have the medium output remembrances: like Mother’s Day when we have to pick out a card, send some candy or flowers; days like the Fourth of July when celebrators have to lay in a stock of sparklers, and a quota of Roman Candles. Medium output celebrations do call for some planning, but it’s the kind of planning most people can do on a free afternoon or on a rainy Saturday. But Christmas – Christmas is different. The celebration of Christmas is a maximum output holiday. The celebration of Christmas is difficult, it’s daunting, it’s demanding – if you’re going to do it right. “In fact,” you confess, “the celebration of Christmas is too much for me, or anybody to do all alone. I think I might need some help.” The moment you commit yourself to celebrating Christmas, employers around the world hire people to work extra shifts; foremen turn on machines that have been sitting idle all year long; and advertisers start sharpening their pencils.
The distilleries and breweries are willing to help you celebrate Christmas. They put their products, their whiskies, their scotches, gins, and vodkas into special pre-wrapped Christmas packages. “Everybody knows,” they whisper into your ear, “you can’t have the true spirit of Christmas without having a bit of spirits under the tree.” You have neither the time to agree nor disagree before the Christmas card manufacturers step up and say, “Liquor is OK, but your Christmas celebration should be more personal. Let us help you. Our presses are already rolling; we are turning out cards with snowmen, sleighs, and Santas; we have cards featuring snowy forests, snowy farms, snowy fields, and snowy landscapes; we have cards printed on paper that is so heavy everyone will know you are successful because you can afford to pay extra postage.
The card folks have hardly completed their pitch before they are pushed aside by the toy manufacturers. “And do you know what the perfect Christmas toy is? Of course you don’t; but we do. We know the perfect Christmas toy because we have spent millions of dollars designing it, and since December 26th of last year we have invested many more millions telling your child that his or her life will be pointless and meaningless without the perfect Christmas toy. “God,” you think as sort of an afterthought, “this is the way we agreed You wanted me to celebrate Christmas, isn’t it?”
And that’s when God, who has been watching all of this with some interest, says, “You know, if you want to do all of this, it’s all right by Me. It’s appropriate that you remember Jesus’ birth, but, I can’t really remember saying this is what I want. And since I do have a perfect memory, I’m pretty sure My memory is accurate here. As I remember it, you weren’t paying much attention when I was giving My answer. Now, I’m not going to stop you from celebrating this way; but if you’re really going to give Me a chance to tell you how I want Jesus’ birth to be remembered, I do have a few suggestions Very calmly, so as not to excite you and set you off again, God says, “If you want to keep Christmas the way I want, go down to the Jordan River and listen to John the Baptist.” You interrupt by saying, “Lord, the retailers have been telling me I can celebrate Christmas by going to the mall, and that sounds lots more fun than walking through the wilderness to the Jordan River. You can see I’m pretty busy here; can’t John come to me, everybody else has?” God gives you a look, and you know you are not going to interrupt Him again. He says, “It doesn’t work that way; John doesn’t work that way. If you want to prepare for Christmas My way, find John. Go down to the Jordan and listen to him. He’ll tell you how I want my Son to be remembered; how He should be celebrated. Since it is Jesus’ birthday, you agree, “OK, I’ll go down to the Jordan, but tell me, how will I find this John fellow?”
God smiles at your question; He gives a big smile, and His voice laughs when He says, “John is not all that difficult to find. Go down to the desert till you hit the river. When you get to the river stop and listen; you’ll hear him. Just follow the sound of his voice till you see a disheveled camel-clad fellow standing in the water, baptizing people. That’s John the Baptizer. You really can’t miss him. If you want to celebrate Christmas the way I would prefer, listen to him.
So you go, and you find John just where God said he would be. You sit down to listen. It takes a few minutes for your ears to get accustomed to what John is saying. John’s message, his tone, is a U-turn from all those other folks who have been helping you celebrate Christmas. You know the ones I mean, the ones who were telling you how good you were, and how you deserved the best, and how you could make the holidays special by giving away a lot of stuff. John’s message was a lot different. His message was simple: repent and believe. It didn’t make any difference if you were rich, or if you were poor, if you were young or old, male or female, freeman or slave, John’s message was the same: repent and believe.
If what John said is shocking, what he didn’t say is even more surprising. John never mentions presents, or cards, or parties, or tinsel, or lights, or gifts, or, Santa, or snow, or well, any of the things that most people think make up a good Christmas. John said we should get ready for the Christ by preparing “the way of the Lord, (and making) make the paths straight for Him.” Honestly, did you ever, in your wildest dreams, ever think about preparing for Christmas by doing road work? You have to wonder: Is this guy serious? I can tell you, John was serious. He just wasn’t being literal.
A little listening helps you realize that when John said we should make the paths straight, he was referring to an ancient custom. Back in John’s day, if a governor, or an emperor, or any kind of important person came to town, the local folks were instructed to go out and clean up the road. Every person was responsible for cleaning up the road which ran in front of his house, or alongside his fields. If the road was rough like a washboard, they were supposed to smooth it out; if the road made unnecessary bends, it had to be straightened. Why all this roadwork? Simple, a bad road showed disrespect for an honored guest; it said the people of the community were poor hosts, and, of course, there is the obvious: it just doesn’t look good to have an important person disappear into a pothole, or slip on some stray stone. John took the custom of preparing an earthly road for an earthly king, and encouraged people to be prepared spiritually for the coming of their spiritual King.
Years ago, when I first graduated from the seminary, and was at my first church, I jumped in with both feet. After a year or so, I started having some physical problems. Pamie, that’s my wife, finally put her foot down and made me go to the doctor. The doctor ran the tests and told me I had a mild case of hypertension. Then he added, “Klaus, there is nothing physically wrong with you. You’re in good shape. Your heart is strong. Your problem is you worry too much.” “Now,” he said, “we have two options. I can give you medication… or you can start practicing what you preach and let the Lord take control of things.” Do you know what I did? I did what any man would do. Because I knew what the doctor was going to say, I never went back to that doctor again.
That’s the way a lot of people feel about John the Baptizer. They know that he’s going to tell them to repent and believe. They wouldn’t mind so much if John softened things up a little bit and talked about the baby in the manger, or if he told us a story about the lowing cattle, or even sang a song about the little drummer boy who played his best, or talked about Rudolph, or the wise men with their gifts, or… or if John said anything other than repent and believe. They wonder, “Is repenting really the way God wants us to get ready for Christmas?” The answer is, “I don’t know.” I do know that is the way God wants us to get ready for Christ.
During my years as a parish pastor I saw a lot of brides and grooms spend a lot of time and money preparing for their wedding. Amazingly, many of those same brides and grooms never bothered to take a moment’s time to think about their marriage and the future they were going to share. I’ve watched a great many grieving relatives spend thousands on a funeral, but they refused to invest a dime visiting their dearly departed while he was still alive. People can have peculiar priorities. It’s the same when it comes to Christ and Christmas. Look up and down your block. You’ll see a lot of folks who get their house, and their wardrobe, and their liquor cabinet ready for Christmas, but they are not ready to allow the Holy Spirit to prepare their hearts.
So those hard hearts might hear; so sinful souls might be rescued by the Savior, John shouts out God’s message: “Let the roads become straight and smooth. Repent! Believe!” Of course, the normal question people ask when they hear John is this: “Of what should I repent?” You know, if the Baptizer were there with you right now, he wouldn’t be able to give you a complete answer to that question. You see, as blessed and inspired a man as John was, he couldn’t see what is in your heart. John would probably take a look at your exterior and conclude, “This is a person who is pretty good, most of the time; a person who tries to do the right thing, much of the time; an individual who doesn’t commit a lot of really big sins and who tries, in general, to be a good guy or gal.” Isn’t that what John would see if he just looked at your outside, if he merely saw you from a distance?
But John’s call to repentance was not based on his evaluation or his opinion of you. When John called out, “repent,” he did so as a prophet of God speaking by inspiration of God. John knew that when God looks at you, at me, at every person in the world, He doesn’t confine His inspection to our exterior. The all-seeing, all-knowing Lord looks into our hearts and He sees with perfect eyes into our souls. He sees, and what He sees is revealing and revolting to Him. Please, please, do not launch into a denial here. I am merely telling you what God sees. I’m just saying it the way it is… and if you’re honest, if you take a sincere and honest look into your heart, you will also see the envy and anger, the jealousy and lust, the hatred and loathing that bubbles and boils there. You may try to disguise it, to curb it, to hide it, but it is there; and because it is there, John calls out the summons to repentance. Repent because the end, your end, is coming. Repent because you don’t want the Lord to find you as you are. Repent and acknowledge that you cannot, on your own, do anything to change yourself. “Repent,” John calls out. “Repent and believe.”
Repent and let the Holy Spirit turn you from what you are to what God wants you to be. Let Him move you from hell to heaven; let Him take hatred from your heart and replace it with hope that comes that comes from belief in the Savior. More than 2,000 years ago, on the shore of an insignificant river, John the Baptist pointed sinners to their Savior. Today, the message remains the same: repent and believe. Believe that your loving Lord, seeing what was within you, sent His Son to save you. It is your heart, not your home that the Lord wants to prepare for the coming of the Christ. God wants you to stand with the shepherds on the Bethlehem hillside and hear the angels announce the message which the world, and each of us, needs to hear: “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which is for you and for all people. Unto you is born… a Savior, Christ the Lord.” He wants you to go with the shepherds to the Bethlehem stable, and bow down before God’s great gift of grace. The Father wants you to walk with the Savior as He ministers in a world which is hopeless and afraid. He wants you to see the Redeemer be a friend to the lonely leper; a healer of those with illness of mind, body, and soul. God wants you to know that no matter what pain and problem you might possess, the Son of God can heal, or help you; He can restore or support you. The Lord wants you to hear His Son call sinful souls to repentance and see as He delivers to them a forgiveness and peace that no one else can offer.
Repent and believe. Believe on Him, stay awake with Jesus as He kneels in the Garden of Gethsemane. Stay with Him and see Him accept the cup of suffering from which He will drink so that your parched soul might be refreshed. Walk with Him as He is arrested so you might be free; stand in awe as He refuses to defend Himself, so, on Judgment Day, He might successfully defend you. God wants you to listen as one judge after another declares Jesus guilty and worthy of death. God wants you to believe that Jesus has endured all this so that you might be declared innocent when you stand before your eternal Judge. God wants you to stand at the cross and watch as His Son dies so you might live. And, so you might know all I have said is true, the Father wants you to watch as Jesus, the third day after He was declared dead, comes back from the grave in resurrection victory. God wants you to see all this, to hear this, to listen and learn so you might be given a repentant heart, a believing heart. Then, when you have those Spirit-given gifts, you will know how to celebrate Christmas. If we can help you with this Christmas celebration of the Savior’s birth, call us at The Lutheran Hour. Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for December 10, 2006
TOPIC: IS THE BIBLE A MORAL GUIDE BOOK?ANNOUNCER: Now Pastor Ken Klaus answers more follow-up questions inspired by the interactive congregational workshop known as Equipping To Share. I’m Mark Eischer.
KLAUS: For those who don’t know, Equipping To Share helps people learn how to share their Christian faith with others.
ANNOUNCER: In the course of our first “go around” of questions, people responded and wanted us to amplify some of those points we made. A few listeners want to know: Why all this emphasis on the Bible? Isn’t the Bible just one of many instruction manuals that tell us how to live moral and upright lives?
KLAUS: Good question, one we can answer very easily. Yes, the Bible is one of many instruction manuals that tell us how to live a moral, upright life.
ANNOUNCER: But that’s not really the answer I was expecting.
KLAUS: Yes, but it’s true. If you read the Bible, it will tell you how to lead a moral life. For example, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Goodness, if everybody followed that, the world would be a much better place. Then, of course, we could talk about the instructions about loving your enemies, or honoring your father and mother, or not stealing, or lusting, or envying. There’s a lot of advice in the Bible on how to lead a moral, upright life.
ANNOUNCER: And I suppose the same could be said for other books?
KLAUS: Absolutely. Bookstores have shelf after shelf of books that will tell how you can have a better life, how to treat your spouse, your children, your employees, your guests. These books, too, for the most part, are telling us how to lead good, upright lives.
ANNOUNCER: I still thought you would give a different answer.
KLAUS: Yes, but I answered the question. Of course, it’s probably not the right question.
ANNOUNCER: And why not?
KLAUS: Because using the Bible only for moral guidance in this world is like using a diamond engagement ring to scrape labels off a baby food jar. It’s like using a Corvette to spread fertilizer. It’s like using a fine bottle of champagne to pound a nail.
ANNOUNCER: So then, using the Bible only for moral guidance is not the best use of God’s Word.
KLAUS: Good, you’ve got it. If you want to find out that humankind is sinful, that we are evil, inconsiderate, hateful, and nasty, you can watch the evening news, or read the newspaper headlines. Humanity is nasty, and we need to try and get better.
ANNOUNCER: And that’s where the Bible comes in?
KLAUS: No, not exactly. The Bible doesn’t tell us how to get better. It tells us that sinful human beings can’t get better. It tells us that we are helpless and hopeless.
ANNOUNCER: So then, what is the proper use of the Bible?
KLAUS: Well, it can tell us that we are all the nasty, sinful things I just listed. It tells us that, on our own, we are lost. But it doesn’t give us the power to become moral enough or good enough to please God.
ANNOUNCER: That’s not very encouraging.
KLAUS: No, it’s not. But that’s not where the Bible stops. You see, the Bible, along with telling us of our sin, also tells us of God’s grace.
ANNOUNCER: Grace means to get something good that you don’t deserve.
KLAUS: I should have said that. Thank you, Mark. The Bible, unlike any other book, tells us that God, looking at our helplessness, decided to do something. He decided to send His Son into the world to take our place… to live a perfect life of obedience to all of God’s commands… to resist temptation… to bear the punishment for our sins… to live, to suffer, to die, and then to rise again for us.
You will note, Mark, that what I’ve described here means the Bible is not a mere self-help book. The Bible doesn’t just direct our life and our morality… it tells us what God has done to forgive our total and complete failure.
ANNOUNCER: So the Bible gives us good news and bad news.
KLAUS: Right. The bad news is that we are sinners who can’t keep God’s moral law.
ANNOUNCER: And the good news is that God sent His Son to save us by His sacrifice in our place… that’s the Gospel.
KLAUS: Right. Good news and bad news.
ANNOUNCER: But, our questioner would probably want to know, “Aren’t there a lot of other books that do the same thing?”
KLAUS: “Ah-ha!” he said. That, my friend, is the point. There is no other book that I have ever read, or heard of that does what the Bible does.
The Bible is unique because the idea of God coming to earth to save His sinful children is unique. There is no other book like it. It is the very Word of God and the Holy Spirit works through that Word to actually give us faith in Christ.
Every other book is just what the original question said: “a self-help book.”
ANNOUNCER: Thank you, Pastor Klaus. This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.
Music selections for this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by John Leavitt. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC
“On Jordan’s Banks the Baptist’s Cry” arranged by David Cherwien. From Hymn Interpretations, vol. 1 by David Cherwien (© 1992 Summa Productions, Minneapolis)
“Hark! The Glad Sound” by John Leavitt. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC.
“Adeste Fidelis” by John Behnke. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC