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A New Agenda
John the Baptist’s ministry on the banks of the Jordan River
signaled a change in the status quo. The religious leaders of the time knew it
– so they went to investigate – and they found … they found a guy, dressed in
camel hair (prophet’s clothing) with a strange diet – grasshoppers and honey –
who freely confessed and did not deny, “I am not the Christ.” By he did say, “I
am a voice crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the LORD.’’
John stands as the starting point for a new day, a new creation,
and he announced a new agenda for this world.
There are all kinds of agendas for how the world should be.
We hear about it all the time. The Republicans have an agenda. The Democrats
have an agenda, the President has an agenda, the media have an agenda. Everyone
has an agenda. However, all these agendas fall short. Some have aspects that
are good and praiseworthy, but ALL of them fall short of God’s agenda. And the
impact can be seen in many ways. Here are a couple
October of 2016, Time Magazine reported that since 2012 there
has been a steady rise in high school students experiencing anxiety and
depression. The phenomenon cuts across demographics – it doesn’t matter if you
are talking suburban, urban, or rural. And experts suspect that what they are
seeing is only a segment of the accrual number of troubled teens, because many
never seek help.
How does that match up with Jesus’ words, “I have come that
they may have life, and have it to the full!”?
There are different agendas at work in the world, and they
hurt people.
How about this? Have you noticed how there are no good guys
left? There are no knights in shining armor? In the movies, those who were
straight-laced heroes when I was a kid are now broken, mixed up morally,
selfish, and tainted. Our heroes are now anti-heroes. Where are the role models
of society – in fiction or reality? Who are the people we emulate? We used to
look to sports, to politics, to media personalities, and even to church
leaders. But now all of these are tainted – often through allegations and
actions of sexual misconduct, abuse, greed, and self-interest. It has created a
form of nihilism at the heart of society. Everyone does wrong, and in the end
it doesn’t even matter.
How does that match up with Jesus’ concern for little ones
and His desire for them to come to Him?
There are different agendas at work in the world, and they
rob us of our hope and joy. And why would it be otherwise? Jesus said that the
thief comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy. What better way to do that than
to urge us to look to our own interests, to make life meaningless and
purposeless – after all we are but accidents of space, chemistry, and time,
coming from nowhere and headed to nowhere.
But in the midst of meaninglessness, a voice shatters the
status quo – Prepare the way for the Lord!
Prepare the way for the Creator. Prepare for the creator who,
even before you were born, He knew you. He knit you together in your mother’s
womb – because he wanted you – you! – to exist and live with him. He knows the
plans He has for you, and He is mindful of you in the vastness of all of His
creation.
Prepare the way for the Savior. God is aware of the world’s
agenda and how it breaks people’s lives – how it breaks our lives. He comes to
us to break and hinder the agenda of the devil and the world. But we need to
know that we are not merely victims in this scenario. We are complicit with the
devil and the world.
Every year in confirmation class some asks, “How is it fair
that we suffer because Adam and Eve sinned?” I always ask, “And have you
sinned?” And they know better than to say that they have not. “So, don’t blame
Adam and Eve.” We each bear our own guilt. We have all rebelled against God.
God’s agenda is to save us from ourselves. He stages an
intervention like no other. Jesus – the Second Person of the Trinity – became
one of us. He was born to experience the same temptation we do – but to bear up
under every one of them, to never falter, to never fail. And He died on the
cross as the atoning sacrifice for our sin. That’s God’s agenda to save us and
restore us in Christ.
“Come to me all who are heavy laden, and I will give you
rest.”
Prepare the way for the Lord. Prepare the way for Emmanuel –
God with us. We usually think of that in terms of Jesus, but we can also
rightly remember that God is with us in the person of the Holy Spirit who
dwells in us and among, feeding us, tending us, keeping us in faith, through
the Word and Sacraments.
And now Jesus has come, God’s agenda is at work in this
world. So what does that look like? Our epistle lesson gives us a picture.
Rejoice always – God’s good is being done in the midst of the
broken world. We have experienced his salvation and the joy of the Lord is our
strength in the midst of struggles.
Pray without ceasing – there are still competing agendas at
work in the world. We pray for God to preserve us, strengthen us, protect our
loved ones, save those who are deceived, and help us to live within his agenda.
Give thanks in all circumstances – All circumstances? Even
the bad things that happen? Yes! Because we are convinced that God works all
things to the good of those who love Him and nothing can separate us from the
love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Bad circumstances are one more
opportunity to experience God’s love and mercy – and giving thanks for them is
an expression of faith and trust.
This is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you!
It goes on: Don’t quench the Spirit. Don’t despise
prophecies. Test everything. Hold fast to what is good. This basically means to
hear the Word of God, to love it, meditate on it, live by it, and let it guide
your agenda.
And abstain from evil. And this is a little tricky, because
we have so many competing voices telling us what is good and what is evil. But
we let God define good and evil. We let him decide what is sin and what is not.
Then we trust him as we try to follow him instead of the world’s agenda.
Through all of this we trust that the God of peace himself
will make us holy through faith in Jesus – and He will keep us – spirit, soul,
and body – our whole selves (salvation isn’t spiritual or airy-fairy, it deals
with the whole self) He will keep us blameless when Jesus returns.
And this is our confidence – living in God’s agenda, His plan
for us will prevail. Why? Because, “He who calls you is faithful; He will
surely do it.” He has already done the heavy lifting. He has given his Son to
die and rise for us. He won’t leave the work unfinished. Amen.
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