Jesu Juva
“Where Were You?”
Text: Mark 1:1-8; 2 Peter 3:8-14; Isaiah 40:1-11
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
Where were you?
Where were you on December 7, 1941? If you can answer that question, you don’t need me to tell you what happened that day. But just in case, that day - whose anniversary is tomorrow, by the way - was the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Where were you?
When you heard about something called an atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima, ending what Pearl Harbor had started.
Where were you?
Where were you when JFK was shot? When our President was assassinated?
Where were you when Challenger exploded? The Space Shuttle, so majestically climbing into space . . . until it wasn’t.
Where were you?
Where were you for Y2K? When the digits 1-9-9-9 turned to 2-0-0-0 and everyone was panicking about the apocalypse that was going to be unleashed from our computers that wouldn’t be able to handle that change and go haywire?
Where were you?
Where were you on 9-11? When the planes hit, or when the towers fell?
Where were you when you heard bin Laden had been killed?
Where were you?
Where were you when Covid shut everything down?
Where were you?
These are moments that change our lives in an instant, in a heartbeat. That cause our hearts to skip a beat, still, even many years later, just thinking about them. Things that leave a deep impression. That leave us shocked and saddened. That define eras and generations. Where were you? What were you doing?
Some of you weren’t alive for many - or most of those events. Some of you were alive for ALL of them. Don’t worry if you missed out - I’m sure there are more to come.
The more important answer to that question, though, isn’t where you were, but what you did next. And for us, as Christians, to that question, there should be only one answer: we repented.
For that is what God wants. At all times. Through all generations. We heard that from Saint Peter today, that God doesn’t want any to perish, but all to repent and turn to Him. That when these events that define us and shake us happen, they should be a reminder to us of that even greater and more monumental day that is still coming, when (again, as Peter tells us today), the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn.
Where were you? when that happened? No need to ask! Everyone will be there for that. For the end. Ready or not.
When these things happen, maybe you don’t think about repenting. I would say many probably don’t. Are they the problem? Are we the problem? Is our preaching the problem? I’m sure there’s enough blame to go around. But repentance is where we should be. Where we need to be. Turning to the Lord for help. Turning to the Lord for what we need.
But instead, at such times, some will ignore God. Take it up ourselves. Solve this ourselves. Or we’ll look to those we think can. Or should.
Other take issue with God or get angry at Him. They ask HIM, where were you? Where were you when this happened? Why did you let this happen? Why didn’t you stop it?
But neither of those things bring us the comfort we need, or the help we need, or the answers we need. They only make things worse in many ways. We become more uncertain, more afraid, more confused, and oftentimes, more disappointed.
Better is to fall on our knees in repentance. To be stirred up to repentance, to use the words we prayed in the Collect for the Day. That is our proper response.
Where were you?
Where were you when John the Baptist came in the wilderness? I’ll bet that was a question even all the way back in the First Century! Like all our modern day examples, John shook things up. There hadn’t been a prophet for some 400 years! So his coming was one of those things that everyone knew, everyone heard about. For all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him.
John, though, didn’t leave it up to the people to wonder how to respond - he told them, and was quite blunt about it! Repent!
Some ignored him. Thought him a novelty, or a somewhat entertaining distraction from the problems of the day, or as just another religious nut.
Some took issue with him and got angry at him and what he was doing - the Scribes and Pharisees and other religious leaders who didn’t think him authorized to be doing what he was doing, and didn’t want things shaken up.
But many listened. And repented. And were baptized for the forgiveness of their sins.
Where were you?
I was there! they would say. I was one of those in the wilderness, in the Jordan. I was baptized by John. And then they began waiting . . . waiting and looking for the one coming after John . . . the one mightier than John . . . the one the strap of whose sandals [John] was not worthy to stoop down and untie. For if John shook things up . . . then one mightier and greater than he? What would that be like?
And when He came . . . where were you? the question probably was asked many times.
Where were you when John baptized Him and all that amazing stuff happened?
Where were you when He preached and healed and unclean spirits came screaming out of people?
Where were you when He raised the dead?!
Where were you when He was crucified? Because He shook things up a little too much!
Where were you?
None of us is old enough to answer that question! None of us were there.
And yet you were.
You were through the miracle of Baptism, because in those waters, God joins you to the death and resurrection of Jesus. You die and rise with Him, Paul says (Romans 6). You were there.
And you were there through the miracle of the Supper, because in that bread and wine is the same Body and Blood of Jesus that hung on the cross and rose from the dead. With those, God feeds you with the life of His Son, gives you the forgiveness of the cross, so that you will live with Him forever. You were there.
So many of the events that happen in our world, life-altering events, events that define eras and generations, we can remember, but we weren’t there. But the cross of His Son, God wants everyone there. And so He makes that happen. Through these means, through these Sacraments. What we could never do, He does. He makes it so.
But maybe it is better to say it this way - not that we were there, but that He is here. Still washing, still preaching, still forgiving, still casting out unclean spirits, still raising the dead, still feeding us. So not where were you? but, where is He? And He is here.
Here through how many Advent seasons? Some 2,000 since Calvary and the empty tomb. God is indeed patient.
We would not have been so! Right? If you or I were running the world, we would have ended this all a long time ago. Let’s get to the good part. The good stuff.
But for God, the good doesn’t start until you are there. That’s what He wants. And so He waits. And more Advents go by. And more people turn to Him and repent. And that’s a good thing. Not everything that happens or will happen is good. But God can use it for good. For if He can use the death of His only-begotten Son on a cross for good, the rest is easy.
And then, with repentance, there is the comfort we need, the comfort we are looking for, the comfort spoken of by the prophet Isaiah:
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and cry to her
that her warfare is ended,
that her iniquity is pardoned,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins.
When we ignore God, there is no comfort. What we want may not happen. What we try may not work. Things will change. Something else will always come up. There’s no comfort because when we ignore God we make our own solutions our gods. Which is really to make ourselves our own gods. No comfort there!
Or when we take issue with God or get angry at Him, no comfort there either. To judge God is to put yourself over God and again, make yourself your own god.
But when we turn to God, when we repent, then what do we hear? Your warfare is ended, your iniquity is pardoned - forgiven! - and you receive from the Lord’s hand double for all your sins! Blessing double the sin. You can’t do that! But He can. And does.
And so He who can use all things for our good, even those things that are not good, does so even with our sins! Turning them around and blessing us double when they bring us to our knees and turn us to Him in repentance and faith.
If we know that, realize that, understand that, believe that, why ever stop repenting?
And then we will be ready for when our Lord returns and the end comes. When our Lord turns the all the frightening and life-altering things that happen in our world to good, when comes the new heavens and a new earth that Peter talks about. The home of righteousness. Where there is only righteousness. No more sin. No more trouble. No more life-altering, generation changing events.
That’s what we’re waiting for.
In John’s day, the people repented and were baptized and waited for the one mightier than John to come.
For us, we repent and are baptized and receive the Supper and hear His Word and wait for the one mightier than John to come again. To come not to die again, but to raise all the dead, and give eternal life to all who did not ignore Him or turn against Him, but believed Him.
John prepared the way by preaching repentance. That’s still the way. For that’s how Peter’s words are fulfilled, when he says: Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, - the new heavens and the new earth - be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.
How do we do that? How can we be found like that? By being good? No. The only way to be found without spot or blemish and at peace is when we receive the forgiveness that washes away every spot and blemish of our sins and gives us peace with God.
Be diligent in that, Peter says. In repentance. In hearing the Word. In opening your mouth to the Body and Blood of the Lord.
Perhaps you haven’t been. Or not as much as you should.
Perhaps you’ve been ignoring God, or angry at Him, taking issue with Him, instead of repenting to Him.
That happens to all of us.
But you know what? God is patient. Still. And still here for you. Still calling you. And this new season of Advent, the next in so many that have come since the tomb was found empty, the call is going out again. To return, to repent, to receive. For we are getting ready to remember when that one mightier than John came in the not-so-mighty manger. And that He is coming again in a way mightier than we could ever imagine.
Which really is good news for us.
For you never know . . . the questions that may still be to come . . .
Like where were you . . . when the next pandemic hit?
Where were you . . . when World War 3 started?
Where were you . . . when that disaster came and wiped out . . .
Where were you?
Let our answer be: On our knees. With our Lord.
And He with us.
In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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