Rorate Coeli – Fourth Sunday of Advent
December 18, 2016
John 1:19-28
What is destroying your soul? As surely as rust causes metal to crumble, as surely as the acid burns holes in your esophagus, so do the vices lay waste to your soul. Vices are not simply bad actions, or habits; they are a state of mind, a world-outlook by which we see others as obstacles to walk over, objects to be possessed, or enemies to be defeated.
The first vice we encounter in today’s Gospel is envy, the envy the leaders in Jerusalem have for John the Baptist and his success. This envy, St. John Chrysostom said, “Harms and wastes them … like some mortal venom deeply seated in their souls” (NPNF1, vol. 14, p54). What venom is deeply seated in your soul, corrupting you? Envy? Wrath? Lust?
We see John the Baptist tempted by something that has come and will come to many of you. It’s the nature of this area, where you can move among the powerful and the wealthy; where the chance encounter or right connection can advance your career. What is the cost of your integrity? A delegation comes to John from Jerusalem, and with the offer comes a denial of the faith. At what price can you be bought?
John the Baptist’s proclamation was this: the world is lost, and all of us are damned, poor, needy, miserable people. There is no life or work, no position that merits anything before God, unless – and here’s how Dr. Luther puts it – Everything a man does is damnable “unless Christ our Lord dwells therein, unless [that man] works, walks, lives, is, and does everything through faith in Him” (AE 75:178).
Doing something through faith in Christ doesn’t mean doing something on a gamble. It means that everything you undertake, big or small, is done as a repentant sinner seeking to be a faithful disciple of Jesus, confident that He will do what He says: forgive sins and raise the dead.
So John the Baptist didn’t need the favors of the powerful; the only thing he lived for was fidelity to his calling.
He knows what the talent-scouts from Jerusalem want: they want to promote him, and be part of his rise. But John’s consistent message was to point away from himself. “I am not the Christ,” confessed John. He took no honor to himself, and as a sign of this, denied himself even the basic pleasures of life.
Our confession must begin with a denial of self: setting aside self-glory, self-seeking, self-serving. How much of your life is measured by what pleases you, how you would like things to be?
“He confessed, he did not deny, but he confessed” – this language about John the Baptist must characterize our own lives. If we would be disciples of Jesus, we too must confess our sins, not deny our attraction to vices, but confess our corruption – and then confess Christ the Incorrupt One, who heals and restores His corrupted creatures.
The last two weeks of Advent focus on John the Baptist for a reason: before Christ comes to us at Christmas, the way must be prepared in our hearts by the repentance which John preached.
Like a drunken man staggering, we can stumble first in one direction, then the other. On the one side, we stumble into the indulgence of the flesh by fornication or intoxication; then comes wrath, haughtiness, greed. Then the reformed person staggers into the other ditch of self-confidence. Do you see your spiritual life as secure in who you are and what you do? One person serves on a church board, another gives rich offerings, another donates time to charity, another tries to be good and fair towards others – and soon we are so confident that we are doing good that our own pride has become the greatest hindrance to true faith.
Living by faith is to speak like John: “I confess, I do not deny, but confess, ‘I am not the Christ.’ I am not the savior, I am not the righteous one, I am not the person with all the answers, who can solve all problems. I confess, and do not deny, but confess: I am nobody, Jesus is everything.”
We want somebody to come and say, “Look! I have the key to your happiness, I have what you have been looking for! Invest your money here, follow this advice, attend this event, meet this person. Look, here is how you can lose weight, here is how you can be at peace, here is how you can have it all!”
But John says something very different. John points us to Jesus and says, “Look! The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” It is as though John says to us, “All of your ways lead you into one ditch or the other, and it will end very badly for you. Stop it, change your mind; don’t trust in yourself but also don’t despair; here is the Christ who takes away sin, who conquers death. Follow Him!”
So we approach the altar of Jesus, the Lord’s Table, confessing and not denying who we are. We lay on His Table, we lay on Him, all the things destroying our soul. We say, “Take them away, dear Jesus, remove them from me, and give instead Your body, Your blood, Your self. It is You I need. I am not the Christ, but You are. You alone can save me. Make me ready for Christmas, make me ready for Your coming. Only You can make me whole; only You can restore the world.” +INJ+