Advent I: Confessional Address (30-Nov-2014)

This confessional address was preached at St Mark's Lutheran Church, Mt Barker, 8.30am, 10.30am.

Over the following four Sundays in Advent, I’d like to pick up a little custom which I learnt from some of my pastor friends in Sweden and Finland, where each Sunday it is common to give a small address before the confession of sins. This kind of address is supposed to lead us into the confession of sins, picking out some themes to do with repentance and forgiveness from the readings for the day.

In our Old Testament reading, we are going to read these words: O Lord, you are our Father, we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. I think this is a very helpful image for this time of the year—especially since a potter often uses a wheel to shape a pot. And there are many of us that get extraordinarily busy at this time of year, and it feels like we’re spinning out of control. In all the busyness, the temptation for us can be to forget to sit and enjoy the message which God wants to speak to us at Advent and Christmas-time.

So first of all, we should think about the reason why Jesus came into the world. Was it because we were all so great and fantastic? Was it that he thought heaven was so uninteresting that he thought it would much more enjoyable to be with all of us? No—it’s because we are completely corrupt and sinful, and he wants to come and die and make full payment for our sins. In our Old Testament reading today, the prophet Isaiah says: We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. Sometimes we might know this passage: All our righteous deeds are like a filthy rag. Let’s really sit under these words and let them sink in—let them work on us, like hands moulding clay. Sometimes we might say that our bad deeds, our unrighteous deeds are like a filthy rag, but here Isaiah says that our righteous deeds are like a filthy rag. Even the good things we do are all tainted by sin, and have bad motives attached to them.

But thank God, we’re not left alone with our sin—we are also going to hear the words today: Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Behold, your king is coming to you, righteous and having salvation. Even though our righteous deeds are a filthy rag, Jesus is righteous. And part of that means that he doesn’t keep his righteousness for himself, but he wants to share it. It also says that Jesus our king who is coming to you has salvation. Once again, not for himself, but in order to share it. And he shares his righteousness and salvation, and lets us borrow it from him. He does this when he forgives each and every single one of our sins.

So friends, let’s draw near to God our Father with a true heart to confess our sins, to put all of our filthy rags at his feet, and ask him in the name of our dear Lord Jesus Christ, our gentle and humble king, to forgive us and to clothe us not with filthy rags but with the clean, pure robes of his righteousness. Let’s pray…