341 The Present

   (Note: This blog entry is based on the text for “The Present”, originally shared on December 11, 2024. It was the 341^st video for our YouTube Channel, Streams of Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my wife, Rev. Sally Welch.) 

   The gospel reading that will be shared in the vast majority of churches in the world this coming Sunday contains one of the funniest verses in the Bible. At least I thought so. And then I didn’t. Today, we’re going to find out why.

   The Gospel reading for this coming Sunday, Luke 3:7-18, begins with John the Baptist raging against the crowds of people who came out into the boonies to hear him be baptized by him, many of whom were just like us, people who believed they had a special status before God. And it gets worse from there.

   In fact, John gets even more pointed as the passage goes on, condemning the relatively affluent, the soldiers, and the tax collectors, the people you don’t want to provoke, especially if you’re just a wild man living out in the desert. John wore roadkill, skin from the carcasses of dead animals he found in the desert. He foraged for what edible things were available in the wilderness to help him survive.

   Can you imagine what it was like for John’s mother when she gathered with the other women at the public well to draw water? When she was asked how John was doing, I wonder if she dropped her head and said, “He’s living in the desert, wearing skin from dead camels. He’s eating bugs! We’re so worried!”

   Yet people were coming out to hear him speak! Was he the one they had been waiting for, for 50 generations? Were they the generation that would see the Messiah?

   But John didn’t seek their favor.

   If fact when what we would call today the “influencers” came out, he said this, in verse 7b,

 “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

   And then he warns everybody about what’s coming with the Messiah, the one sent by God, who is coming to transform and purify those who receive Him, but who will bring destruction to those who do not.

   Then, the passage ends with the words, “So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people.”

   I used to think that it was an odd thing to say. Pretty funny, actually. And now I don’t.

   Maybe it’s because I’m older.

   When I was a younger man, I wondered why the Bible’s book of Ecclesiastes was even in the Bible. It just seemed like the rantings of a bitter old man.

   But the older I get, the more it makes sense to me. 😊

   What was the good news in John’s warnings, rantings, and condemnations? Did I miss that part? No.

   John’s message was that there was nothing that people can do that could put them right with God. Only Jesus, who was the long-awaited Messiah, could do that, and he was coming.

   All they could “do” was to repent, to turn around, to turn away from the things that, whether they knew it or not, were killing them, and toward the new life in a living relationship with the one true living God that was God’s intention for all people from the beginning of their Creation by God.

   And they were to live the transformed life that resulted, they were to “bear fruits worthy of repentance.”

   New life. That’s the beginning of eternal life with God.

   His message was simple. He proclaimed a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus was about to begin his public ministry, and John was preparing the way for him.

   The history of salvation was coming to its fulfilment, the kingdom of heaven had drawn near. We do the same when we prepare the way for Jesus to enter the hearts of people we know. 80-85%

   We call all people to repent, the Kingdom of God has come near.

   Jesus brought that same message when he began his public ministry. Jesus sent his 12 disciples out with that same message. It was the theme of the first Christian sermon. It was the first word Paul used when describing the Good News. “Repent.”

   It’s not a word we use much anymore because it has been associated with a manipulative “turn or burn” approach that obscures the meaning of the Gospel, the good news. “Repent.”

   And it’s widely misunderstood as only saying, “I’m sorry.” That’s not what it means to repent.

   Repentance means life transformation. It is a gift, a present. The word in the Bible’s original language, Greek, is “metanoia.” It means to change one’s way of thinking. It means to turn around. It means receiving the gift of new birth, of becoming a new Creation, of turning toward the new life God gives through faith in Jesus Christ. It means becoming a new self.

   Have you ever made popcorn?

   My mom used to make it by pouring the hard popcorn kernels into a pan, then covering the kernels with oil, then covering the pan and putting it on the stove. Now we pull out a package and put it into a microwave oven. Some microwaves come with a “Popcorn” preset. It’s that common!

   Popcorn turns inside out under heat. Heat causes the moisture in the hard kernel to expand and then explode, transforming the kernel into something that can bring nourishment.

   The Holy Spirit is the fire that transforms the hardened hearts of human beings, turning them inside-out, into becoming a new creation that gives life.

   That is what it means to repent.

   Our relationship with God is broken. Our rebellion against God is what brings evil into the world, as it has since the beginning. Sin is separation from God. Repentance is God’s gift that leads to the reconciliation made possible by Jesus’ death on the cross.

   And, as we who are Christians are at the same time saints and sinners, we all need to repent. Regularly.

   Bearing fruit after we repent means to live the life that comes from our nearness to God that comes through the presence of the Holy Spirit at work within us.

   Paul describes the fruit of the spirit in Galatians 5:22-23,

22 By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.

   The good news that John proclaims is that we all are sinners, and we all have the same need, a need to receive reconciliation with God. John also proclaimed that the one who will save the world is coming.

   Do you know why we give gifts at Christmas? Gift giving has become a burden for many at this time of year. We wonder, “Who should I give a gift to?” “If I gave one last year, will they expect one this year?” “How much should I spend?” “What if I spend too much and they are embarrassed because they cannot give a gift of equal value in return?”

   None of these things have to do with why we give gifts at Christmas.

   What is Christmas? It’s the celebration of the Birth of Jesus Christ!”

   We give gifts at Christmas to remind each other of the greatest gift in the history of space and time, the gift of Jesus, God’s gift of Himself, God in human flesh, fully God and fully human being, born to give his life, to take it back again, and to return again in the Last Judgement.

   Why does the world celebrate snow men, and Santa Clause, and shopping, and eating and drinking? Because the world’s biggest problem is that it doesn’t know it needs a Savior.

   We all know something is wrong in the world, in fact a lot is wrong in the world. How do people respond?

   Buddhists deny existence itself. Hindus have many gods so people can find one for any need. Pagans have many gods they use to manipulate their fate. Atheists do whatever they want because nothing matters. Some worship their ancestors because they believe that their family will save them. Others worship themselves and put themselves at the center of their lives and depend on themselves in every time of need.

   Christians proclaim a Savior. We don’t work at being better because we think that it will help us. We receive the gift of the Savior, Jesus Christ, and then we want to be better so that we can serve others. We bear fruits worthy of repentance, of lives changed for the better.

   Karl Marx, the founder of Communism, was confirmed as a Lutheran Christian! His father was Jewish and his father wanted to be a lawyer, but laws in Prussia at the time would not allow Jews to be lawyers, so he just became a Lutheran. This was one reason that Karl Marx was put off of all religion.   

   The world rejects true Christianity because people fear they would have to act differently and wouldn’t be able to live the lives they want. As the British author G.K. Chesterton wrote, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.” John the Baptist did not make following Jesus sound easy.

   John was not easy on the people who came out to him because he knew that their biggest need was for a Savior. When people think that they are fine as they are, or that they can manipulate the gods, or existence itself, they think that they have no need of a Savior.

   People need to know that they can’t save themselves before the gift of a Savior makes any sense to them. We are now preparing to celebrate Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ, our Savior, in an event that took place over 2,000 years ago.

   “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift of God, which is why we call it the present” is a statement variously attributed to Bill Keane, the cartoonist who drew the “Family Circus” cartoons, Eleanor Rosevelt, the activist and wife of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and the Kung Fu Panda.

   Today is the day to open your heart and receive the gift that is Jesus. We give presents at Christmas in response to that gift of Jesus. Jesus is our message in all seasons.

   We are now in the Church’s season of Advent. Its color is blue, a royal color to prepare us for Christmas, whose color is white for the purity of Jesus, born among human beings. Then the Epiphany season reflects on the meaning of God entering human history. Its color is green for new life even in the depth of winter.

   Then comes Lent. Its color is purple, also a royal color, to prepare us for the death and resurrection of Jesus in Holy Week and Easter Sunday, whose color is white for the color of the grave clothes in the empty tomb. The season of Easter reflects on the meaning of the cross and the resurrection. Its color is white for the forgiveness that has made us righteous before God.

   Then comes the Season of Pentecost, almost half a year to reflect on what it means to be a Christian. Its color is green for growth.

   The structure of the Church Year is the format for how our lives are made new and then lived. It is expressed in our worship.

   Lutheran Christian worship is liturgical worship. It is structured, just as the Church Year is structured, to be the means by which groups of people can worship God.

   I read Confucious, the Chinese philosopher, when I was in seminary. I remember taking a quote of Confucious to a friend of mine who was working on a PhD in liturgy that said that whoever controls the ritual can control the people.

   Liturgy, however, is not ritual. In fact, the word “liturgy” has been understood to mean “the work of the people.”

   Liturgical worship is directed toward God. It requires active attention and intention. That’s what I think that Danish philosopher and theologian Soren Kirkegaard meant when he wrote that, when a Christian worship service is finished, the question that Christians should ask themselves is not, “What did I get out of that?” but “How did I do?”

   Liturgical worship is the most common form of Christian worship in the world. It has been deeply meaningful to people of every race and nation for over 2,000 years. Liturgical worship services follow the same structure as the synagogue services in which Jesus participated: Gathering > Word > Sending, except with the addition of Holy Communion: Gathering > Word > Meal >Sending.

   The shape of the liturgy feeds us. It is a present from God.

   But there is also a lot of freedom in the structure of our worship service.

   Martin Luther said that as long as the Word is rightly preached and the Sacraments are rightly administered, everything else is important but not necessary.

   That’s why Christian liturgy can be adapted to the history and culture of every nation and people in which it is used, as long as the basic message remains true to that that was witnessed and handed down by the apostles to the people of God from the beginning.

   God makes us a community in worship. The Christian Church is a community. We are made for community. Without it, we become curved in ourselves, like the shooter in the mass shootings at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park in 2023. The shooter had become estranged from his family. He had no church. He had no community

  We are a community of God’s people, but we are so much more. We are not just a place of belonging for people with common interests and needs. We are people who have a common  relationship with the one true living God!

   We are more than ourselves.

   Jesus said, in Matthew 18:20,

²⁰ For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”

   We don’t serve others because we just like to help people. Even non-Christians do that. We serve others because we love them as God loves them, because that is who we are.

   The closer we get to God the closer we get to one another. And the closer we get to God the more we see the world as God sees it, and we want to meet its needs out of love, because who we are is an outcome of Whose we are.

   We are a community made from love, love for one another and for the world because God is love. That is how the world knows that we are from God, because of our love for one another.

   Love came down from heaven when Jesus was born.

   All people need Him and God has now come as the Savior of the world, Jesus, fully God and fully human being, for the sake of the world.

   We will soon celebrate His birth. The birth of the Savior.

   Christmas is coming. Let us, like John the Baptist, prepare the way for those we know to come and know that Jesus is the present, God’s gift of Himself for your sake, and for mine, and for the sake of the world!