The sermon for December 23 was based on John 1:19-28.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

"Everything's relative." We hear it all the time. We say it all the time and, even when we aren't saying it, we're thinking it and living accordingly. In August my neighbors were a bunch of beer swilling louts who needed nothing so much as a forced stay in some kind of civility boot-camp but by the middle of September they were my fellow Americans and the finest people ever.

Here's a less grand example but one that hits closer to home. Walking through Wal-Mart I seem pretty fit, when I'm with my Marines I look like a Green-Peace project, the kind they're always trying to roll off the beach and send back to its pod. Context really effects our self-image.

John the Baptist provided the people of his day a very interesting context in which to assess themselves. The scribes and the temple priests, who were the original higher-critics, imagined themselves to be refined and educated and too sophisticated to take the promise of a Messiah literally. Next to John, with his repulsive wardrobe and grotesque diet, they seemed even more suave and became even more aloof. The Pharisees, who were much more conservative, felt insecure next to John because he made their even their confidence in the Word seem bloodless.

The season of Advent, as we've so often reminded you, is a time for repentance and preparation. There are about 32 hours of Advent left and I'm going to say that most of you have wasted the season thus far. You've wasted it either by failing to examine yourselves at all, or by substituting some kind of wretched naval-gazing for true repentance, which looks not at the self but to Christ, or by considering your life in the wrong context. And what is the wrong context? Any standard or comparison other than the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Perhaps, as you've scurried through the stores, you've compared yourselves with those miserly souls who show no interest in making the holidays beautiful for the people around them. Or possibly you're one of those who've been sitting around doing nothing to bring anyone joy and feeling smug about being above all the consumerism and commercialism that taint our festivities. Then again, you might not be all that self-righteous. You may be one of those who feel like you haven't done enough or have done too much or have somehow otherwise failed to excel this year.

To all of you, in whatever state you find yourself, I say this. Relax and listen. There is a reason that we publish Advent devotions. There is a reason that we have extra services throughout the season. There is a reason for our caroling and for our visitation and for our living nativity. God does not judge us by how closely we resemble either Scrooge or Tiny Tim. His scale doesn't run from the Grinch at one end to those love people in the Gift of the Magi at the other. Our lives are going to be judged by their conformity to the life of Christ. And that is absolute.

The fascinating thing about the kind of context that Jesus provides is that it swells to fill our entire field of vision. For those who lack faith, for those who still intend to prove their worth to God or to themselves, Jesus' righteousness, innocence and blessedness, tower over everything we've ever done and all we can see is how far superior to us He is and it makes us hate Him. How many services or prayers or devotions have you skipped this season (how many will you skip during the season of Christmas) because you don't like this context, all the while claiming to be merely busy or tired or something else equally feeble?

Now, for those of us who have been given saving faith, Jesus' person and work are equally magnetic. Those of us who are terrified by our sins and realize that there is nothing about us to commend us to God can't take our eyes off Jesus. His message to us isn't "Be more like Me" but rather "Let Me be you for you." "Let Me keep the Law. Let Me love God and your neighbor. Let Me face your grave and your guilt and your grief." Jesus declares us to be what we manifestly have not been and His mercy obscures every other standard by we may judge ourselves.

The Scribes and the Pharisees were nervous enough about being compared to John the Baptist. After all, here was a man who loomed large in the minds and eyes of the people. But when Christ arrived on the scene their insecurity exploded into violent and murderous hostility. Quite the opposite happened among those in whom the message of repentance had borne its fruit. We see it John the Baptist himself. When the minions of the Pharisees demand that John explain and identify himself he says essentially, I'm nobody, I'm the one who talks about... Him!

And then He goes on to talk about Him. Jesus fills all of John's vision and life. The same would be true for those who came after John. The Apostles, the disciples, the crowds. They would follow Him for days. They would hang on His every Word. In time, many of them would die for His sake. Nothing else matters to those of us who see in Christ the fulfillment of the Father's deepest desires for us. We are not terrified by Jesus' righteousness because He's given it to us. We don't resent His perfection because He's allowed us to participate in it. We are secure.

I know that there are some of you who still suspect us of trying to turn you into Roman Catholics with the sign of the cross and daily prayers and weekly Communion and Private Absolution. But all we're doing is allowing you the opportunity to see who you really are, not who you are in the changing light of this or that comparison but who you are in the radiance cast by the Light of the World Himself. The Means of Grace are sure and stable and unchanging. There is nothing relative about them. The Word of God is absolute. It will not lie to you or about you.

Making the sign of the cross won't turn you into a Roman Catholic but it will help you realize that your immortality began at the font. Taking Communion once a week or even once a day won't turn you into a Papist but it will forgive your sins and assure you of your adoption.

Having the Pastor absolve your sins will most certainly not make you any less Lutheran, nothing could be more Lutheran, it will, though, dispel any notion that your salvation is relative or that your worth in God's eyes depends on who your standing next to on Judgment day or even Christmas Day. Amen.

The Peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Last Updated: 7/15/2008