🔊 What then shall we do?

Welcome to AnchorCast, a weekly podcast of homilies and sermons from Christ our Anchor Anglican Mission in Nashville, Tennessee.

Let us pray.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.

Amen.

Today, as we stand in Advent awaiting the arrival of Christmas, we are not all that different from the people standing with John waiting for Jesus to arrive.

Like those around John, we wait with people who work for the government and insurance companies, that is the tax collectors.

We wait with people who have many extra coats and much food to share.

We wait with police officers and gangsters, that is, soldiers.

And we wait with folk who are paid too little for the work they do.

What I’m saying is, is that we wait with people, sinful, broken people with all sorts of problems and imbalances.

Now, when I listen to the news and politicians, it seems like everyone knows the exact correct answer to all of our problems.

Just do this or just do that.

You know, never mind the same thing they said a week ago that turned out to be wrong, and definitely do not think about what they said about a year or more ago.

And I, like many of us, are left in confusion and chaos.

Like those around John, I sometimes have to ask, what then shall we do?

The answer John gave over 2,000 years ago is no less true now than it was then.

The short of it is simply this, get baptized, trust in Jesus alone as your only hope and salvation from all of this around us, and then get about the work of a Christian.

Leave the big stuff and the big worries to God.

Love your neighbor, give your excess to the poor, care for the widows and orphans, be honest in business, deal fairly with others in whatever position you have, work your job to the God’s glory, and be content.

I think we all know the list, and it goes on and on.

We have the wonderful writings of Paul and the other apostles to help us along the way.

But I think we so often try to make it more complicated than it is.

God gave us the simple gospel of love and peace, and we just don’t seem to be able to believe it.

We want it to be harder to do, harder to understand, and we psych ourselves up so much that we sit frozen in place.

But the good news of Jesus Christ really is simple.

It really is made for everyone.

If it were exclusive, complicated, or near impossible to achieve it, it wouldn’t be good news.

So hear the good news again today.

We can trust Jesus.

He sees it all and has real answers.

His words have never been false.

His advice has never led to destruction.

We can leave the worries and the chaos at the feet of His cross.

We can tune out the politicians and pundits who offer us their sage advice, and instead we can look to the manger.

When we’d wrecked the world and gotten ourselves into an unfixable situation, God came to us.

He forever became human to fix our mess.

He died on the cross for our sins, and He would do it again and again and again.

That is His love for us.

That’s the care He has for us in our chaos.

So accept His gift and leave the big stuff to Jesus.

Trust in Him, and you’ll find great peace in the little things that He has given us to do.

He’ll return in His own time to complete His work.

The broken will be repaired.

Justice will be served.

The complexities of our world will melt away under the powerful gaze of His loving eyes.

We stand on the banks of the Jordan in our anxiety and stress.

We can stay there, or we can let it all go and walk into the water with Jesus.

We can live under the pressure of the world we’re in, or we can walk into the Christmas world that’s breaking in all around us.

The name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

Amen.

Christ Our Anchor is an Anglican mission in East Nashville that meets on Wednesday evenings for prayer and fellowship.

And join us on Wednesday evenings at 530 as we live into what Jesus has called His church to be.

Everyone is welcome.