Over the last couple of weeks, the titles for the messages for this Advent series has been somehow related to a Christmas song. The first week was, “All I Want for Christmas” and last week was centered around, “Go, Tell It of the Mountain.” Today, we continue with this trend with a take-off on “Here Comes Santa Claus.” You remember the all important line of the song right, “He sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake; he knows if [what?…right] you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake.” That’s easier said than done though, right? Can I get an amen on that? It seems that no matter how hard we try we’re gonna mess up and sometimes our mistakes can have a disastrous outcome.
Take for instance, I heard the story that one afternoon a carpet layer had just finished installing carpet for a lady. He stepped out for a smoke, only to realize that he had lost his cigarettes. After a quick, but fruitless search, he noticed that in the middle of the room, under the carpet that he had just installed, was a bump. His cigarettes!
“No sense pulling up the entire floor for one pack of smokes,” the carpet layer said to himself. So, he got out his mallet and flattened the bump.
Not long after, as he was cleaning up, the lady came in. “Here,” she said, handing him his pack of cigarettes. “I found them in the hallway. Now,” she said, “if only I could find my parakeet.”
Okay, now I don’t know that to be a true story, but you know, it’s not too hard to believe that it could happen. But there have been some disastrous consequences to some real-life mistakes made. Here are just a few:
The mistake that burned down London. On the night of September 1, 1666, the oven of the royal baker to the king of England sparked a fire. It wasn’t a spectacular conflagration, and it seemed like no big deal at first, but the fire burned for five days. In the end, it wiped out 13,000 homes and leveled 80 percent of the city.
The mistake that sobered America up. Prohibition in the United States lasted from 1920 to 1933, and during this period it was illegal to manufacture, transport and sell alcoholic beverages. It seemed like a great idea at the time — outlaw liquor, and you eliminate a whole range of alcohol-related social ills. But Americans like to have a drink or two, and Prohibition opened our eyes to the ways in which organized crime will meet this demand in profitable, violent and destructive ways.
The mistake that killed John Wayne. Much of the filming for the movie The Conqueror was done in Utah’s Snow Canyon, which is located about 150 miles downwind from a nuclear testing facility. At least 91 of the 220 people who worked on the movie contracted cancer, and more then half of them died — including John Wayne.
A spark jumps out of an oven, and a baker fails to snuff it. A well-intentioned ban is placed on alcohol. A movie is filmed downwind from a nuke facility. These are small oversights, errors and miscalculations that we do not tend to see as major mistakes.
But secret problems can hurt us and they rarely go without some consequence. In other words, though we try to project ourselves otherwise, most people know when we’ve been bad or good. For goodness sake!
That’s right for goodness sake! There is goodness in being found out or discovered when we mess up.
Take for an example, Ralphie, in the classic movie, A Christmas Story. He’s a pretty normal boy, who is good most of the time. He even was eager to help out his dad change a flat tire one evening. Now, I don’t know if it’s just his age, or being a boy, or a combination of both, he messed up and let loose a word that he shouldn’t have. And of course, there was consequences….
(Video clip from A Christmas Story shown where Ralphie has his mouth washed with soap)
For goodness sake… You know, we need to hear those words because that really gets down to the crux of what this season of Advent is all about.
Let’s look at how the entry of John the Baptist conveys this as we turn to Mark 1. If did not bring your bible with you, it will be up on the screen.
Mark 1
2 It is written in Isaiah the prophet: "I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way"-- 3 "a voice of one calling in the desert, 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.'" 4 And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.
When we look at this passage of scripture, we can see a striking similarity between Ralphie’s mom and John the Baptist – they were both preaching about cleaning off the bad and turning toward what is good.
Ralphie’s mom had him wash out his mouth with soap, so that he would remember the bad-tasting consequence of using bad words. John also had people wash off the grime of this world (sin) through repentance and begin living a new life with God.
Friends, God is still calling people to do the same thing. God called me to help you remember who you are and whose you are. Although we are some 2000 years removed from John’s words, they transcend time. They still call us to a time of repentance.
Repentance. What exactly does that word mean anyway?
- Recognize that you and I have sinned
o We all have messed up and we miss the mark.
- Remorse
o Know that we by our own actions and inactions, we fall short of being who God calls us to be.
o The blame rests on each of us.
- Turn around
o Decide that we want to walk with God
As we sing this last song, I’d like for you to pay special attention to the third verse, as it says these words:
No more let sins and sorrows grow,
nor thorns infest the ground;
he comes to make his blessings flow
far as the curse is found.
Been bad or good? You are forgiven by the One who knows us best and loves us the most!
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