“I am A VOICE OF ONE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS, ‘MAKE STRAIGHT THE WAY OF THE LORD,’ as Isaiah the prophet said.” -John 1:23
We have often throughout history wrestled with the question of how we will turn out as we live from one year to the next. The question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” has been asked by many a parent of many a child. Likewise, many a parent has wrestled with the question of who and what they are supposed to be, because, as it turns out the answer is not always so cut and dried, is it?
But did you ever think you would live in an age where people would not ask the question, but confidently assert, that they are someone or something that totally contradicts the very essence of their biological makeup? It has gotten so far out of hand that boys now declare themselves to be girls, men declare themselves to be women, and they declare you to be a bigot if you suggest any other reality.
But it is even worse. There are people who declare themselves to be cats, or dogs, or some other wild creature. And then there are those who declare themselves to have a range of personal pronouns that completely defies common sense.
It is true that sin, perversion, corruption, and confusion have always found their way in some form or fashion ever since Adam and Eve forsook God for their own pursuit of knowledge and wisdom, but these latter days have seen a depth and range more stark than in prior ages.
The behaviors mentioned above were largely unheard of a few decades ago but now stain the fabric of creation far more widely and more deeply than ever, with those who teach and practice such things insisting that you accept, teach, and practice the same. LORD, have mercy!
But it is not enough to sit back and marvel in disgust over the course of this fallen world. You must accept the truth and the fact that you also by nature are of the same fabric, the same make up, willing and able to forsake the truth of who and what you are in exchange for a lie. Were it not so you would not have confessed your sin this day, or any other day for that matter.
It does not matter what depth of degradation you embrace. That degradation and death embraced you from the moment you were conceived and were intent on dragging you down into hell faster than a whirlpool drags rubbish and debris to the bottom of the sea.
You may say, “There but for the grace of God go I,” and that is true. Yet it stands that even as the grace of God in Christ Jesus has saved you from that which you could not save yourself, the muck, the mire, the sin, the death have not vanished. Whether inside of you or outside of you, its presence is constant, and it will be until your baptism is complete.
It is into this great depth of sin, death, and confusion that God the Father Almighty has intervened. He has, by His Holy Spirit and through the flesh and blood of Christ Jesus to step in with a strong and mighty hand, each step of the way making sure there is absolutely no confusion over Who He is and what He does; a strong and mighty hand hidden under the Cross but revealed plainly by the preaching and administration of His Word.
For the ancient children of Israel this intervention was so plain, so clear, so drastic, so terrible, so loud, and so dreadful that they cried out, “Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, let me not see this great fire anymore, or I will die.”
For you in these latter days this intervention is so plain, so clear, so drastic, so sweet, so quiet, and so perfect that by water connected to God’s Holy Name you are, as Henry Erik James Horner soon will be, without any merit or worthiness on your part, completely bonded and grafted back into Him from whom you by nature would flee from and hate, even God Himself through your LORD Jesus Christ.
This great salvation - culminating in the bloody Cross whereupon the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world give up His spirit, having made atonement for your sin and death – this great salvation was worked out from the beginning, without confusion or misunderstanding as to purpose and aim, and it was carried to save even those who in this day and age do not even care to accept who and what they are biologically or otherwise.
When the Pharisees came to John the Baptist in the wilderness it was with the sole purpose of finding out who he is. By that time John was not some lowly wanderer, unknown and unseen with his coarse clothing and his strange diet of wild locusts and honey. He was influential. He opened his mouth and spoke so clearly and strongly concerning the coming Day of Judgement that many people’s lives were changing. They were repenting. They were forsaking the ways taught them by the Pharisees.
With that kind of influence, he had to be questioned because, as far as the Pharisees were concerned, they, the Pharisees, were the ones whose words were to hold sway among the people, not this strange fellow, John, whose message was so out of sync yet true and clear.
But there is no confusion. There never has been confusion on the part of God where your salvation is concerned. By His Holy Spirit and by His Word St. John, like Christ Jesus, was foreordained to be the megaphone, the singular loud, clear, voice preaching repentance and faith in Christ Jesus just as your preachers do to this day, not with mumblings and mutterings, confusion and clever new sayings, but with a voice that declares what all faithful prophets, apostles, evangelists, and pastors are given to declare: In Christ Jesus and in Christ Jesus alone you are saved from your sin and reconciled to God.
John is not confused about who he is. First of all, he confesses and does not deny, but confesses, “I am not the Christ.” That right there would have given the Pharisees pause, because their conception of the coming Christ was messed up.
They thought the Christ would be a man of great political influence, like John was, but they were blind to the deeper purpose and meaning of the Christ’s work, namely that of atoning for sin by giving up His perfect life upon a bloody Cross of death that would result in all mankind having the hope of salvation.
John is not confused about who he is because his mother and father, Elizabeth and Zechariah were keenly aware of the purpose for which John had been conceived and born.
Before John was even born, Elizabeth felt him leap for joy in her womb as Mary, who would give birth to the Christ, greeted her. After John was born, Zachariah spoke these words by the Holy Spirit:
“And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;
For you will go on BEFORE THE LORD TO PREPARE HIS WAYS;To give to His people the knowledge of salvation By the forgiveness of their sins.”
Do you think Elizabeth and Zachariah forgot these things? Most certainly they did not. They would not only have kept them in mind but would also have told John about them many times as he was growing up.
Even on John’s eighth day, as the holy evangelist St. Luke reports, “fear came on all those living around them; and all these matters were being talked about in all the hill country of Judea.”
So there is no confusion here. John is the prophet of the Most High. He has been designated and given precisely for the purpose of preaching repentance and faith unto life everlasting by the forgiveness of sins, which forgiveness is only available and only avails on account of the Christ at Whom he clearly points his finger and says, “Look here! The Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world.”
All this clarity of purpose, all this lack of confusion, all this action foreordained from the beginning of time, is for you who are so easily confused, so easily disheartened by your life, the lives of others who sin against you, and the circumstances surrounding you in this fallen world, so that you may have one Foundation, one singular and perfect Source to guide you, namely God Himself in and through Christ Jesus, Who has drawn Himself to you, Who has drawn you into Himself through the same baptism of repentance and forgiveness administered to you - and soon to Henry - in this place with all of its rich and tender mercies, this washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit.
And so that things are even more clear, and you are even more perfectly and completely sustained in this forgiveness of sin and everlasting life that comes from God alone, He feeds you with that same salvation through the true body and the true blood of the crucified and risen Christ Jesus.
Do not be confused. Do not be disheartened.
The Prophet after Moses has been raised up in these latter days, namely Christ Jesus, whose forerunner, John the Baptist was not at all confused. Let your baptism into Christ Jesus be your starting point every day and every hour, because being rooted and grounded in Christ Jesus your path forward is sure.
Your path is joined to the One Whose paths are perfect and righteous, no matter how it looks or feels. His paths reach back and forward throughout all time and into eternity, and they are brought to you bodily and concretely in Christ Jesus, in Whom there is no shifting shadow or lack of clarity.
With Christ Jesus as your Chief Cornerstone, your foundation, your clear and abiding Word, your Rock, and your Salvation everything will be brought to completion, even as He was born of the Virgin Mary for you and crucified under Pontius Pilate for you.
And not only will everything be brought to completion at the Last Day, but even now you are given to rejoice in the Lord always. Your gentle spirit as received from Above will be known to all men. You know The Lord is near.
You need not be anxious for anything - ANYTHING - but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving your requests flow forth to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus.
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