Advent 2 – Series
C (December 6, 2015)
“Stones as
Children of Abraham” (Luke 3:8-9)
Last week’s text was from Palm
Sunday, where the Pharisees told Jesus to get his disciples to shut up. Jesus replied that even if all his disciples were
silent, God could make the stones cry out.
Today John the Baptist says that God is able to make stones into
children of Abraham.
Those of you who were born after
1980 probably have never heard of the “Pet Rock” fad that stormed the country
back in the mid-1970's. Gary Dahl was a
brilliant marketer who thought up the idea.
For a little under five bucks, you could buy your own pet rock, complete
with a cardboard box with your new friend nestled inside in plastic grass like
the stuff you find in an Easter basket.
Each pet rock also came with its own “Pet Rock Training Manual.” It told you how to properly raise and care
for your new pet. It told you that your
new pet would easily obey the commands “stay” and “sit.” However, “roll over” required some extra
effort by the trainer. And “come” was
completely out of the question.[1] But house training it was a snap. The manual told the owner to “Place it on
some old newspapers. The rock will never
know what the paper is for and will require no further instruction.[2]
Hundreds of thousands of these
things were sold, making Dahl a millionaire.
Ask your parents later if they were one of the people who bought
one. By the way, I can proudly say that
I never had a pet rock. You know
why? Because when I asked for one for
Christmas one year, my wise father said to me, “Son...it's a ROCK. You want a rock? Go outside in the garden and dig one up. I'm sure you'll find yourself a good one
there. I'll even put it in a box for
you.”
Rocks as pets? You've got to be kidding me.
That's probably the same response
that John the Baptizer got when he told the crowds who came out to hear him
that “God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.” Rocks as children? You've got to be kidding me.
John had come as the last and
greatest prophet … the bridge between the Old and New Testaments. He was sent, just as he had preached, to “Prepare
the way of the Lord.” Like a city
that prepares its roads when a king is on his way to visit, smoothing out all
the rocky places, the people were to prepare their hearts by repenting of their
sins and receiving the forgiveness of God by trusting in the promise of the
Messiah to come.
People came out in droves to hear
John. Why? Perhaps some came because they were truly
sorry for their sins and wanted to be ready when the Messiah arrived on the
scene. In those days, for one reason or
another, there were a lot of expectations that the arrival of the Messiah was
just around the corner. Others may have
come out of curiosity. They heard that
there was some strange hairy preacher out in the desert, baptizing people in
the Jordan River, and so they said to one another, “Let's go see what all the
hubbub is about.” And then there were
the religious authorities from Jerusalem, the Pharisees and Sadducees, who came
out to see John, perhaps to see if his sermons met with their “doctrinal review
committees.” St. Matthew is the one who
tells us that they were the ones John addressed when he said, “You brood of
vipers! Who warned you to flee from the
wrath to come? Bear fruits in keeping
with repentance. And do not begin to say
to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our Father.'
For I tell you...” and here you can imagine John waving his hand
around at all those water-worn rocks on the banks of the Jordan... “God is
able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.”
The Pharisees and Sadducees, and
many Israelites in those days, relied on their bloodline. They believed that their physical descent
from Abraham was their ticket to being in God's good graces. John saw right through their hypocrisy. “Bear fruits in keeping with repentance,”
he told them. In other words, “If you
are truly sorry for your sin, then there should be some evidence of it in your
life. There should be some changes in
your life. There should be some good
works to show that you have truly repented.”
And then John warns, “Even now the axe is laid to the root of the
trees. Every tree therefore that does
not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” Long ago, God had planted Israel as his own
vineyard. He cultivated it with his love
and mercy. But the children of Abraham
rejected him and did not produce the fruit of repentance. God's judgment is pictured as a tree being
cut down and thrown into the fire.
God's plan to bring about a Savior
was indeed centered in a bloodline.
That's why he was so patient with the stubborn Israelites over and over
again. He had promised that through that
bloodline of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob … then King David … and on down to
his mother Mary … that a Savior would one day be born. The tree that God had planted in Israel was cut
down, but a stump remained … a faithful remnant. And from that stump, a branch grew, as we
heard in last week's Old Testament lesson from Jeremiah 33, “In those days
and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and he
shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.” Jesus was the Branch that sprung up in the
womb of the Virgin Mary. And at his
crucifixion, God's justice over sin was satisfied. The sinless Son of God died with the sins of
the world laid upon him. And now his
righteousness is given as a gift to all who are baptized in his name and trust
in him as Savior.
That's how you become a true child
of Abraham. God's plan to bring about
the Savior was centered in a bloodline, but his plan to make children of
Abraham out of stones is NOT by one's genealogy. It's by faith. Paul explains this in the fourth chapter of Romans,
where he says that Abraham was justified – he was counted as righteous in God's
sight – because he believed God's promises.
“Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness,”
verse 3 of Romans 4 says, and then he says that all who “walk in the
footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had” are also declared
righteous by faith. And Paul makes the
same point in Galatians 3 where he says “Know then that it is those of faith
who are the sons of Abraham.”
So it doesn't matter whether you are
a Jew or a Gentile. It doesn't matter
whether you are a German, a Swede, or a Norwegian, or even an Irishman. It doesn't matter what kind of a hyphenated
American you are. Nor does it matter
what kind of block-headed things you may have done in your life as a
stone. It all boils down to this: God makes you his child by causing you to be
born again in the waters of Holy Baptism.
Apart from God working in our hearts through his Word, we are as
spiritually dead as those stones on the banks of the Jordan River. But when the forgiveness of sins in Christ is
spoken to your heart, faith is created and becomes the hand that receives that
same forgiveness through Christ's death and resurrection.
God turns stones into children of
Abraham, and then he makes you into a tree.
He plants you as a new tree in this vineyard called the Church and
causes you to bear good fruit. The
preaching of John to those gather at the riverside is for us to hear, too. “What then shall we do?” the crowds
asked him. To the people he said, “If
someone needs clothes, give them some of yours.
If they are hungry, feed them.”
To the tax collectors, he said, “Don't cheat people.” To the soldiers, he said, “Be the best
soldier you can be, and serve with honesty and integrity, and be content with
your wages.” To us, he would say
something similar. Help the poor and
needy. Serve in your individual
vocations and occupations with honesty and integrity. Don't covet, but instead be content with all
that God has blessed you with. Always
refer to God's commandments when you think to yourself, “How else can I serve
my neighbor in love?” You will have
plenty to keep yourself occupied there without wondering, “What does God want
me to do?” It's all there in black and
white. And the needs of others are right
there in front of you, waiting to be met.
It's really not all that hard to see them.
After all, you're not a rock. And you are not simply a pet either. God has lovingly adopted you, not as a pet,
but as a dearly loved child. You are a
living stone who has become a child of Abraham, not by bloodline, but by faith
in the shed blood of God's beloved Son.
Respond to John's Advent sermon to “Prepare the way of the Lord” by
smoothing out all the rocky places in your life by repentance and by receiving
the forgiveness of sins from the King who has come, who comes to us today, and
who will come again, just as he promised.
Amen.
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