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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
For the forgiveness of sins. For the forgiveness of sins, Cayden this morning was baptized. For the forgiveness of sins, Nikki, Tina, and Sharabeth this morning will be confirmed. For the forgiveness of sins, Jeromy and Gwen this morning will be received by Profession of Faith. For the forgiveness of sins.
We all heard the Divinely‑inspired St. Mark in today’s Gospel Reading say that John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins (confer/compare Acts 13:24). God miraculously made John appear, conceiving him by an elderly priest named Zechariah and his barren wife Elizabeth (Luke 1:5‑25, 57-80; 3:2), in keeping with God’s Divine purpose, as it is written in prophets such as Isaiah, whom we heard in today’s Old Testament Reading (Isaiah 40:1-11; confer Exodus 23:20; Malachi 3:1). Like prophets before him in dress and diet (2 Kings 1:8; Zechariah 13:4), John enacted and spoke a Message that Itself prepared the way of the Lord, with the forgiveness of sins.
We heard that John appeared and all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him, confessing their sins. John’s baptizing and proclaiming (or “preaching”) a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins brought forth a response! St. Mark uniquely reports both the baptism of repentance’s being for the forgiveness of sins and the people’s confessing their sins (compare Matthew 3:1-6 and Luke 3:1-6). Now, the people’s making some general confession all together as a group, such as we usually make right before the Divine Service, is hard to imagine, but their confessing privately to John, when he was baptizing them individually, seems more likely. Regardless, St. Mark is clearly using a figure of speech when he says “all” were going out and were being baptized, confessing their sins. John’s baptizing and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins certainly generated great interest, but we know from St. Matthew’s and St. Luke’s accounts that at least some Jewish leaders went out but were not baptized (Matthew 3:7; Luke 7:30), and there may have been a person or two in the country and its capital who did not go out at all to the river Jordan, perhaps despising its water as Naaman had done centuries earlier (2 Kings 5:1-14).
To be sure, all people, including each one of us, no matter our individual backgrounds or contexts, need both to be baptized and to confess sins. We all are sinful by nature, and so we all commit actual sins, any one of which sins by itself warrants our temporal and eternal death, apart from repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. As we heard in the Old Testament Reading, our flesh is like the grass that withers, and our beauty is like the flower of the field that fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it. But, as we heard in the Epistle Reading (2 Peter 3:8-14), the Lord does not wish that any should perish but that all should reach repentance. So, as John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and all were going out to him and were being baptized by him, confessing their sins, so still today God through His messengers baptizes and preaches in order to lead us to confess our sins. God’s working through His messengers prepares and makes ready His own way and straightens His own paths in us. And, after God has brought us to repentance and faith, then we cooperate in the ongoing process of our being made holy—not staying home or coming out only as a spectator, but being baptized and confessing our sins.
Christian art’s images of John usually depict him pointing to Jesus, Who in those images sometimes is Himself depicted as a lamb, for John at least twice called Jesus the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29, 36). Even in today’s Gospel Reading, John’s preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins speaks of the One coming after John Who is mightier than John—so much mightier that John said he himself was not worthy to stoop down and untie the strap of the Coming One’s sandals. The lesser one clearly distinguishes himself from and points to the Greater One. Without the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity’s lovingly coming down from heaven into human flesh as the man Jesus and dying on the cross, there would be no forgiveness of sins, no meaning to repentance, and no effect to baptism. John told people to believe on Christ Jesus (Acts 19:3-5), and indeed Christ Jesus, in St. Mark’s Gospel account, is virtually synonymous with the Gospel about Him. And, as St. Paul writes to the Romans, that Gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (Romans 1:16). That Believing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, brings the forgiveness of sins. By grace through faith in Jesus Christ, God forgives our sinful nature and all our actual sins, whatever our actual sins might be.
We heard in today’s Old Testament Reading that the Word of the Lord stands forever, and today’s Gospel Reading referred to prophecy about John that essentially stands written. God’s Word has authority for us today, and, though God’s messengers today may have different dress and diets than John and his predecessors, through those messengers today God also baptizes and preaches a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins and hears private confessions of sins for the sake of individual Absolution (confer Acts 2:38). Indeed, we acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins in the Nicene Creed, which Creed is traditionally associated with the Sacrament of the Altar. And, despite whatever differences there may have been between the baptism that John performed and the baptism that Jesus instituted, precursors to both Baptism and the Sacrament of the Altar are closely connected, as Baptism and the Sacrament of the Altar themselves are connected (1 Corinthians 10:1-4; confer Scaer, CLD VIII:123). For, the baptized from the Altar eat bread that is Christ’s Body and drink wine that is His Blood, given and shed for the forgiveness of sins, and so also for life and salvation.
St. Paul writes to the Romans that we are baptized in order that we might walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4; confer Colossians 2:12). Today’s Collect connected minds pure from repentance with service to God. Repentance leads to good deeds in keeping with God’s will. Today’s Epistle Reading also reminded us that our lives are to be those of holiness and godliness, and, hearing that, we are reminded that, while we are baptized once, we need to return to that baptism through contrition and repentance daily. We do not despise any of the ways God forgives us, but we also seek out individual absolution for the forgiveness of the sins that particularly trouble us.
If we all are not already, then we all should be here for the forgiveness of sins. The greatest worship of the Gospel is coming here for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus came and died for the forgiveness of sins. John and messengers like him baptize and preach for the forgiveness of sins. Through His Word and Sacraments, God leads us to repent and believe for the forgiveness of our sins, both now and—as our former member Wayne Miller is experiencing—for eternity.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +