"Our Advent Confidence" based on 1 Corinthians 1:3-9 and Isaiah 64:1-9

1st Sunday in Advent, November 30, 2008

Pastor Troy Slater, Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Herington, Kansas

It is often said that "confidence is everything" and I suppose in a way, that is true. Of course today many an athlete takes the "confidence" thing to an obnoxiously arrogant level, but still, on the athletic field for example a properly-channeled confidence can mean the difference between winning and loosing; in a job interview a humble confidence or lack there of can make all the difference in getting the job or not; on a first date a likable confidence can lead to a second and of course no one likes to follow a non-confident leader. So while I wouldn't say "confidence is everything", I suppose the difference that a "proper confidence" or lack thereof can make should not be overlooked.

Well today we begin a new church year as we begin Advent. And Advent is of course all about being ready for the coming of Christ. And today on this first Sunday of Advent we consider once again the coming of Christ on the Last Day - His return which is sometime in the future. How much in the future? We don't know, could be in our lifetimes, could be this week, could be another 2,000 years. We don't know. But specifically today we consider our "confidence" in view of that day. Today we consider "Our Advent Confidence" as we look to the day of the resurrection.

For it is in fact this "confidence" that St. Paul addresses with the Corinthian Christians in our Epistle reading for this morning. And you want to talk about a people who should have had absolutely NO confidence in themselves in view of the return of Christ, well the Corinthian Christians certainly had reason to worry. If you are at all familiar with this first letter Paul wrote to the Corinthian congregation then you know some of their troubles - divisions and social snobbery - jealousy and quarreling; you had a man taking his father's wife and lawsuits among the believers; some of the Corinthian Christians were even abusing their Christian freedom and joining themselves with prostitutes in pagan religious rituals. In Corinth you had a people whose spiritual growth was stunted by a refusal to grow in the Word while they wholeheartedly embraced the world. Add to that the abuse of the Lord's Supper as some selfishly used it as an opportunity to gorge themselves while others went hungry and what you're left with is a people who, in many ways, were totally unprepared for the imminent return of Christ. A people whose confession should have very much matched the confession found in our Old Testament lesson this morning from Isaiah. "How then can we be saved? All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away." Not much confidence in that confession, is there? And yes that should have been the Corinthian's confession in view of their messed up lives and in view of the return of the Lord Jesus. …

Well before we start hammering on the Corinthians too much more, maybe we should ask the question, "So how do we compare to them?" Do we have room for anymore confidence than the Corinthians did in view of Christ's imminent return? And no I'm not pointing at the people out there, after all a fallen people in a fallen world are expected to act like the Corinthian Christians were acting. So rather I'm pointing at the people in here - certainly including myself, first and foremost. How do we compare to a people who were marked by divisions, jealousy and quarreling? A people whose immoralities looked every bit like the world around them? How do we compare to a people who neglect God's Word? How do we compare to a people whose selfishness and greed led them to ignore their fellow man as they gorged themselves? How do we compare? … … Sadly, probably all too well I suspect. Probably all too well. … Yes "all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away." … Not much confidence there, is there? Not much confidence for God's Old Testament people; not much confidence there for the Corinthians in Paul's day; not much confidence there for us on this first Sunday in Advent as we ponder our Lord's return. Not much confidence.

And if that's the case, if that's our confession this morning, then perhaps it's time to turn to our Epistle reading for this morning from 1 Corinthians, chapter 1. For here, here to a people who most certainly should have lacked any confidence of their own in view of the day of the return of the Lord Jesus, Paul proclaims a confidence. Here Paul proclaims a gracious God - a faithful God who sent His only-begotten Son for sinners. Here even to a bunch who were as messed up as those Corinthians were, Paul proclaims Jesus. A Jesus who once said how He "came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." "came not to call the righteous, but sinners." Jesus came not because we have it so together, but because we've made such a mess of our lives and of this creation. That's why Jesus came as the baby born in a stable. That's why Jesus walked the road to a cross.

That's why He came - to call sinners - even the chief of sinners like St. Paul, even a group as messed up as those Corinthians were, and well, even a group like us - like you and me. He came to call those sinners - us sinners - to repentance. He came to be the Savior that all might trust in Him - have a confidence in Him as their Savior. He came TO BE the confidence for those who confessed the fact that on their own, they have absolutely no confidence to stand before a holy and just God on Judgment Day. To again borrow words from Isaiah, "All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags. … Yet O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. Do not be angry beyond measure, O Lord; do not remember our sins forever." Repentant sinners. Clay of the potter. The work of the Father's hands. A people who trust that a gracious and faithful God would take them and cleanse them, forgive them and shape them, create them and recreate them to be His own. That's what Jesus came to do - for sinners.

Paul describes it in our Epistle reading to the Corinthians this way, "you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly await for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." "Blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." To be "blameless" is to have no reason to fear any punishment; to be "blameless" is to be found with no fault or reason to be accused; to be "blameless" on the day of the Lord is to be found with no sin on that Judgment Day. You read the book of Corinthians and you see absolutely no reason for the Corinthians to be considered "blameless." But they were, weren't they? Not of themselves, certainly, but in Christ. In the Christ whom Paul proclaimed to them, they were blameless. In Christ they had a confidence that no matter their sin - certainly not an excuse to sin - but no matter their sin, they were blameless. Yes their sin overflowed, but God's grace overflowed more. They had no room for any confidence of their own, but in Jesus they were blameless and thus they had a confidence that could never perish, spoil nor fade. Paul knew that that's what the Corinthian believers had in Christ.

And as God's Advent people today, as those who anxiously await His great and final return, that's the confidence that we have in Christ also. As those who confess to our God that on our own we are but "poor miserable sinners" who have offended our Maker and "justly deserve His temporal and eternal punishment", we appeal solely to the "boundless mercy" and "the holy, innocent, bitter sufferings and death of Jesus Christ." As those who gather here today to humbly kneel before our Lord's table and receive His gifts to us - His body given and His blood shed for the forgiveness of all our sins - He is our only confidence. Jesus is our only hope. As we look around at a world that continues to be filled with violence and evil; as we see ourselves make messes out of our lives and our relationships; as we see our congregation - like the Corinthian congregation - not be all God has called us to be; as we feel our bodies grower ever weaker and weaker as time and again we are reminded of our mortality, we know we need a Savior. We know we need something from outside of us - someone from outside of us to be our confidence in the face of life and in the face of death. And we know that that confidence is Jesus. Jesus who lived, Jesus who died, Jesus who rose again for sinners, for us. …

And so I suppose "confidence is everything" isn't it? At least when faced with the prospect of a Judgment Day and when that confidence is in the right place, or should we say, in the right person. As God's people our confidence - "our Advent confidence" - does make all the difference. For it means that we can live, it means that we can die, it means that we can stand on that great day "blameless" - blameless in Christ Jesus our Lord, our God, our Savior, our Confidence. Amen.