Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

O People of God, fellow-citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem! John the Baptist was born into this world for you! In this wilderness of disease and destruction, in this morass where you hear there’s no real truth, just people’s personal opinions, you must listen more carefully than ever for a clear, pure voice speaking out. You need a preacher who is not afraid to tell you how it really is for you, no matter how much it might hurt. And considering that we’re all miserable sinners and every day we battle the desire to serve the self, most often the truth is going to be painful to hear. But someone who stands as a spokesman for God, then decides to change what he says based on how it might go over, such a preacher will do you no favors.

What you need is a preacher, a “voice crying out in the wilderness,” a “prophet of the Most High.” You need to listen for the pure words of Law and Gospel for the forgiveness of your sins. The church cannot afford to have a reed that is shaken by the wind. Instead, you are much better served by a man called by God who preaches the same, unchanging Word, whether he fits your ideal “mold” or not, whether or not you can easily get along with him. You must hear from this preacher’s voice the clarion call to repent! You desperately need John the Baptist, because your need for repentance is urgent.

Through this bold, yet quirky man of God, the Lord fed His people with His wholesome Word, even though his own body was sustained by a meager diet of locusts and honey. John’s preaching was really the voice of God Himself, and God’s people of all times and places hear His voice and follow Him, even into the forbidding wilderness, where he was given his pulpit. Now, the hymns and readings today may sound to you like they’re out of place—that’s understandable. We associate John with the season of Advent, because his message is the perfect preparation for the coming of Christ in the flesh, whether as the baby of Bethlehem, the mighty Judge at the end of time, or in hidden form under bread and wine today at the altar. But you and I are sinners all year long. We constantly need to repent.

All sorts of people came to listen to John in his lifetime, and he didn’t care what public opinion was of him. He stayed focused on the Word of God that he was called to preach, and on His Lord Jesus Christ in whom he delighted, even from the time when he was still a fetus in his mother’s womb. This faithful shepherd in the wilderness preaches “a baptism of repentance,” meaning that his preaching and baptism was doing something in the hearts of all who listened. His Holy Spirit-inspired words were leading people to turn away from their sins and receive God’s forgiveness that is freely given in the waters of Holy Baptism. All who listen to this baptism-oriented preaching to this very day are pointed to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. John preaches to you, too. You have been baptized. Repent, be ready to receive Jesus, even though it’s still six months from Christmas Eve.

The world around you in the light of God’s Law is nothing but wilderness, and your own sinful nature within you is a spiritual wasteland, full of unbelief and despair. The word of God coming from the mouth of John is the food and drink that you need to live. Repent, confess your sins and receive Jesus who comes to you today, and who will come again at the Last Day.

“Comfort, comfort,” that’s what God also says through His preacher to you, His people. That means all is not lost. Be comforted, you who mourn. Be comforted, you who are anxious and in need of our Lord’s loving hand. For you cannot deceive yourself into thinking that things will get better all on their own. You cannot imagine that you can pull yourself up, dust yourself off and start all over again. You are attacked daily by the devil’s sharp arrows accusing you of your sins and trying to convince you that God does not care. By yourself you could not withstand such a barrage. But be comforted, God does care for you, and not because you now finally do what God wants you to do, but because He has reached out in mercy to you, poor miserable sinner that you are. He loved you too much to leave you alone to do whatever your human nature wanted or believe whatever was just your own opinion.

God will comfort you, this you can know for certain. However, be aware that you will not feel comfortable. Remember, it is the Lord’s comfort, not the comfort you expect from this world. You can work and struggle to achieve a comfortable way of life for you and your family. You could look for comfort in all sorts of things that you think will make your life more fulfilling, but in the end it’s all an illusion. You won’t reach lasting comfort in these things—only God out of His undeserved mercy and love—only He gives you true comfort in His Word.

But consider the comfort that He proclaims to you—it sounds strange falling on human ears. In Isaiah 40, the Lord informs us that the preacher we need talks about iniquity, the guilt that is left over from sin. It is the sense of God’s judgment hanging over you because He is righteous and holy and you are sinful and unclean. Talking about your sin surely doesn’t give you any comfort. Who wants to be reminded of the wrongs they have done in the past? God’s call to repentance sounds harsh, too. Turn away from your sins, you haven’t lived with the constant attitude that God is first in your life. Too often, other things have taken His place, but your complete trust needs to be in Him alone. At first hearing, the comfort of God doesn’t sound comforting at all.

However, by talking of sin and iniquity and the need to repent, God is constructing a straight, level road in the rocky, forbidding wilderness where you are. The reason why you need to hear and admit that you are by nature sinful and unclean is so that you would be truly comforted with these words: Your sins are forgiven. Your iniquity is pardoned. You are the spiritual inhabitants of the New Jerusalem, our Lord’s heavenly kingdom of peace and you have received from the Lord’s hand double for all your sins. But double what? Double the punishment? No, certainly not. The punishment is already gone—that has been laid upon Jesus and paid in full for you on the cross. Instead, it is double the grace: first, that your sins are taken away and the slate is clean, and second, that Christ joins Himself to you and in God’s sight you are just as holy and righteous as He is. That is what it’s all about: receiving from the Lord’s hand double blessing in exchange for all of your sins.

Rejoice, you are sinner no more, because John was born for your repentance, then the time was perfect for Jesus to be born for your salvation. You have found food in the wilderness—it is the comforting words of God’s forgiveness given to you through Jesus Christ. The Lord is your shepherd; he is feeding you in the wilderness through John the Baptist, just as He fed His people of old. The same baptism of repentance that John preached, the baptism that forgives your sins, this gift of the Holy Spirit is what you can claim for your very own inheritance. This baptism is none other than the Lord’s comfort to them and to you that sins are forgiven and God’s people are rescued from the devil’s wilderness, saved from the deadly snare of unbelief.

Your Lord Jesus gives you real food and drink every time you kneel at this altar and eat His Body and drink His true blood. This is not spiritual “comfort food” or merely a fine reminder that everything will be all right. This food brings true comfort, the comfort that comes from sins that are forgiven. Your heart is really turned around so that you love and trust in God above all things. This is the food that sustains you in the wilderness, and ushers you into the blessed presence of your Savior. Though you may find yourself at times in a spiritually barren wasteland, attacked by the constant temptations of the devil and plagued with worry and despair, you will not starve, you will not be harmed. The Lord is your shepherd and you shall not want—you shall lack no good thing. You are His sheep, and you are precious to Him because He has washed you in the saving waters of Baptism and made you His own. God is constantly concerned over the health and safety of your soul and body. He will not let go of you. And through His called servants of the Word, He will guide you with His Word and promises in the paths of righteousness, through the wilderness of this life, that you may dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

So you see, you are blessed to have John the Baptist come into this world for your benefit. In him you have a humble servant of God who loves you enough to proclaim to you the truth, even when it hurts. Confess your sins, renounce the devil and all his works and all his ways, for no matter what time of the year it is, you can never have Christmas-style joy without Advent-style repentance. Soon the highway through the wilderness of this sin-stricken world will be complete. And when the glory of the Lord is revealed, and all flesh finally sees it together, you will then fully know the riches of God’s heavenly grace that are your hidden possession right now.

In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Readings:
Is. 40:1–5 Comfort my people … voice of one crying in the wilderness
Ps. 85 Mercy and Truth have met…Righteousness and Peace have kissed.
Acts 13:13–26 to you the word of this salvation has been sent
Luke 1:57–80 Nativity of John the Baptist

Job 38:1–11 Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? … Where were you …?
Ps. 124 Our soul has escaped as a bird from the snare … the snare is broken
2 Cor. 6:1–13 We…plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain.
Mark 4:35–41 windstorm … in the stern, asleep…