prepare to meet your maker

‘Prepare to meet your maker’ Sermon for Dec 6,2009
Crows Nest Lutheran Parish (W.Logan)

Luke 3:1-6
 1 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene— 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the desert. 3 He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 4 As is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet:
   "A voice of one calling in the desert,
   'Prepare the way for the Lord,
      make straight paths for him.
 5 Every valley shall be filled in,
      every mountain and hill made low.
   The crooked roads shall become straight,
      the rough ways smooth.
 6 And all mankind will see God's salvation.' "

“Prepare to meet your maker!”
John the Baptist wasn’t a cowboy, but that’s another way of expressing what John was saying. The Lord is coming: get yourselves ready to meet him!
That’s what we are doing in Advent.
Or are we?

We’re getting ready for the Christmas feasts... We’re getting ready to exchange presents... We’re getting the house ready, with decorations and Christmas lights, and if we haven’t set it up already, we also need to prepare a place for the Christmas tree.

Maybe we’ve set up the Nativity scene, and send off our Christmas cards or emails...
It’s a busy time. Christmas breakups and functions to attend, and special Christmas services – for the children...

The children and their helpers are busy preparing for the special services... but what about the rest of us? What about preparing to meet the Lord and celebrate his coming every Sunday?

Do we even make any effort to prepare to celebrate his coming at Christmas time? Or is it  just one of those things that we might think about, but don’t get around to, because we are too busy? We don’t mean to be disrespectful. I’m sure we think of ourselves as spiritually minded people. But what do our lives say? Actions speak louder than words. Our actions show what we really believe.
Our choices about what we do with our time show what we value most. OR they show what we think other people value most, and we do those things because we are afraid of meeting with their disapproval if we fail to conform to their desires. Or what we think are their desires.
What priorities or values are you choosing to follow?
Are they your values, or someone else’s?

John the Baptist calls us all to come back to God’s values, and God’s priorities.

John the Baptist shouted in the desert: “Get the way ready for the Lord.”

It’s not nice to be shouted at, is it?
But a shout that warns us of danger, or announces the arrival of someone who is very special to us, is a welcome shout.

John’s ministry fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah 40:
A voice of one calling in the desert,
Prepare the way for the Lord,
      make straight paths for him.
Every valley shall be filled in,
      every mountain and hill made low.
   The crooked roads shall become straight,
      the rough ways smooth.

Through John, God commands us to stop and think about our lives. Where have we gone downhill into sinful lack of self control or lack of love? Where have we struggled to the top of a hill of sinful pride? What paths have we taken to get to where we want to be? Are they good, straight paths, or have we used deceit and walked in crooked ways?

Even now, are we trying to struggle up a hill that isn’t about serving God in the needs of others, but rather serving a desire for recognition and honour in the eyes of other people? Even now are we here only for show?

‘Repent!’ is the word that summarises John the baptist’s preaching. It sounds like ‘Repaint’.  There was a man who decided to get more value out of his paint, or so he thought, and he thinned it down. A lot. After painting his house, he congratulated himself because it looked good. But soon the weather started to have an impact and his paint started to peel. It looked terrible. His minister noticed this as he walked past one day, and called out to him, ‘Repaint, repaint and thin no more!’

Painting is about making things look better on the surface. But there’s more to it than slapping a coat of paint on a surface. Sometimes a lot of work is needed to get the surfaces ready. Holes have to be filled in, and often several coats are needed, starting with the primer. What John the Baptist is talking about could be compared to that kind of work: examining the condition of the timber... what needs filling in... where is there old paint that needs to be stripped back to bare boards... and some boards may need to be completely replaced.  Rushing the job might get it done, and it might look good for a time, but proper preparation is vital to a job that will stand against the elements in the long term.

As we prepare for Christmas, we are tempted to rush it. Thin the paint, slap it on, and hope for the best. But it won’t work. God sees our hearts. And it is on the door of our hearts, at the centre of our being, that God knocks.

Do we leave him there, patiently knocking, while we are too busy getting our houses and presents and cards and food ready? 

Could this be a useful question to ask about any opportunity we have to come to receive the Lord as he comes to us in worship, in his words and in the Lord’s Supper? Are we worried about our Sunday dinner, the guests, or the work we still have to do...?

Repent! Says John.
Repent! Says the Lord.

It is a joyful word!  A word that calls us away from petty pursuits and draws us into the heart of our God. ‘It’s time to meet your maker’ was said in a menacing tone, by the gunfighters in the Western movies. But for us, our maker is our loving God and Father!
Our maker is the one who has come to set us free!

Free even from our busyness and distractions. Free from our worries and concerns about things that maybe do not matter as much as we think. He comes to set us free from the fear of what other people think. He calls us to focus instead on what he thinks.
And what he thinks is this: You are reason he came.

When there’s a wedding in your family, there are a lot of preparations. As the time gets closer, we can get frantic, and worry a lot.  But what goes on in the minds and hearts of the couple themselves? They are in love. They are looking forward to sharing their lives. Amid the stress there is joy. A happy and hope-filled expectation of life together stretches out before them. So all the preparation has a point. It has a purpose.

What is the purpose of our Christmas preparations? Are we just going to struggle through to Christmas, then fall in a heap afterwards and think, ‘I am so glad that is over?’  If this is how we are thinking, we need to stop. Repent: To repent means ‘to turn’

God calls us to turn away from the pressures of our plans and focus on him. He is our heavenly bridegroom. He is our loving Lord and Maker. He is the one who saves us. He is our future.

As we prepare for Christmas, let’s not be superficial. Let’s not skimp on our spiritual preparation. Let’s pay attention to the voice of the one who shouted in the desert: “Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.”

It’s time to meet our maker. Let us meet him with hearts that are repentant… turned away from our sins… let’s give up all the games of trying to impress other people. Let’s focus on the Lord, our Saviour, and the future that he is inviting us to share, with him, forever.

Amen.