Don’t Look Back!

 

I remember my track coach saying that over and over again. Run your own race! Look only for the finish line. It was great advice for those of us who ran hurdles; unfortunately I wasn’t often in position to use that advice. I can relate stories firsthand of watching those leading the race who did glance back only to get knocked down by the next hurdle just ahead.

 

God sent angels to Sodom to offer Lot some advice. “Flee for your life; do not look back or stop anywhere in the Plain; flee to the hills, or else you will be consumed.” But Lot’s wife did look back and she was turned into a pillar of salt.

 

I’m not saying that we are in for anything that extreme when we look back at the sins and shortcomings of our lives. But looking back does impede our forward progress. Not looking forward can allow the next hurdle to trip us up. It’s so easy to get caught up in other things so that we don’t look ahead and instead walk squarely into that parking meter or stop sign. Yes, I do know that well from experience.

 

“Prepare the way of the Lord; make His paths straight!” These words of John are a warning to look ahead to the coming of Christ. Don’t let it sneak up on you. Take down the hurdles that keep us from seeing Christ clearly.

 

John said those words so many years ago that we may be tempted to regard this as just a history lesson. After all, John was just a guy who wore ratty clothes and ate bugs to keep himself alive. John was speaking to people who did not know Christ but in fact were soon to meet him face-to-face for the first time.

 

But the gospel is far more than just a history lesson! How do WE deal with John’s challenge here? We do need to repent—to turn our lives in the direction of God’s will. We must remember that repentance does not mean looking back and wallowing in the sorrow of our past sins and failings. It does mean looking forward and putting our focus on God and His plan for our lives. This is how we make his pathway straight; straight to our hearts.

 

 

Are we the wheat or are we the chaff? If we are truly honest with ourselves, we all have our times when we are most like chaff. We are tempted to cling to the past just like those Sadducees and Pharisees, hoping that the things we and those before us have done in history will somehow see us through.

 

There are times when it is easy to believe that we in the Lutheran Church are a little above everyone else. After all we follow not only the Bible but also the Book of Concord! But is there something more holy about us because we follow in the footsteps of Martin Luther and Philipp Melanchthon? But without renewing ourselves through repentance every day, and just plodding along in our sin, we are very much in danger of becoming dry and withered in our faith—we are in danger of becoming chaff.

Ann Lamott’s novel, Crooked Little Heart, is a contemporary story of repentance. In it, 13-year-old Rosie has been cheating on close line calls to win crucial tennis matches. Rosie’s shame grows as she is unable to stop herself. She even hurts herself in a physical attempt to get her mother’s attention, but she is trapped by her compulsion to win.

There is an ominous man, an outcast named Luther who comes to every tournament, watching her, but she knows he will not tell. To simplify the story unmercifully, Luther finally invites Rosie beyond her self-absorbed guilt with his own confession: "I did what you did."

"What do you mean?"

"I cheated."

As her secret becomes visible to both of them, Rosie calls herself a cheater. "No," Luther says, "you cheated." Then he tells her that other people cheat, too. By doing that, he invites her into the company of flawed humans. He also gives her a way to claim her identity as one who can make different choices, who can tell the truth. He makes room for her repentance to begin.

Rosie begins to change. She is reprimanded by the sportsmanship committee, but they allow her to continue playing. In the final game, she over-compensates, not calling points out because she wants to avoid the appearance of cheating. Then she finds the courage to call a long shot correctly and Luther stands up to leave. "Aren’t you going to stay and watch Rosie win?" her mother asks.

"I already have," he says and disappears from the rest of the story.

John the Baptist is calling us to repentance. He’s not calling us to look back and punish ourselves for being sinners. He’s not asking us to cry “woe is me” as we reflect on our yesterdays. He is saying “Don’t look back! Turn around and look forward! God has done great things for you and invites you to dwell in Him forever!”

Looking ahead. That is the very substance of Advent. We look ahead toward Christmas. We look ahead to the coming of Christ again into this world. We need to prepare ourselves for that day even more than we prepare the decorations in our homes, more than we prepare for that special meal with our families and friends.

 

The world around us can be so distracting. There are so many things grabbing our attention—trying to make a buck during this season of preparation. They even try to motivate us to spend by naming the days for us: Black Friday and Cyber Monday. With companies fighting so hard to make a profit at Christmas I imagine we will soon hear the Sunday before Christmas something like “Get Out and Spend Now before we have to take inventory Sunday.”

 

Maybe it’s not all bad to have these days so strongly pointed out to us. Perhaps we can use these overhyped retail benchmarks as a time to instead quietly consider the preparation we have to do in our hearts. And if we do that and decide to skip the frenzy of shoppers, we can stay in bed and laugh at all those people who line up next year for those 4 a.m. bargains. And if we really miss those lines of people, we can then come here to the Zumbro Christmas Bazaar and line up downstairs for the 10:00 bake sale.

 

Thinking of long lines it is fun to imagine that day in the desert. A long line of people had come a long way to have a bath in the Jordan River. I don’t suppose they knew that this was really going to be an opportunity for John to make a much stronger statement than simply the washing away of sins.

 

Today we have the privilege of being present for baptism. And what great joy we have as the family of God when another person joins our community. But today, instead of being a passive observer during that time, we should all take the opportunity to remember our own baptisms; take the time to hear the promises our sponsors made for us.  When asked “Do you believe in God the Father Almighty?” remember that you or your parents and sponsors answered this question when you were baptized.

 

And remember the words of Luther’s Small Catechism:

 

What does baptizing with water mean?
Baptism means that the old Adam in us should be drowned by daily contrition and repentance, and that all its evil deeds and desires be put to death. It also means that a new person should daily arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.

Where is this written?
St. Paul says in Romans, chapter 6, "We were buried with Christ through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life."

 

Through baptism we are a new creation every day when we repent: when we again turn our lives to Jesus. Why is this such good news? Because each day we may live a new life! We don’t look back; we know our sins are forgiven. Today through baptism we can look forward to Christ coming again and remember the promises of eternal life.

 

Thanks be to God!

 

 

May the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.