You Are White As Snow (A sermon based on Isaiah 1:17-18)

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You Are As White As Snow

A sermon based on Isaiah 1:17-18

Sunday, December 13, 2009 - Advent 3C

        This past Wednesday Midwesterners got hit with snow. And I don't mean a light dusting! In some places they got hit with up to 19 inches! Now, I don't know about you, but I sure am glad that I live where it's been 50's all week. Though I grew up in the suburbs of Seattle, where, like here, if we got snow it lasted only a day or two tops, I went to school in the Midwest for 7 years. I've seen my share of snow and am glad to be here right now where a light jacket will suffice.

        But maybe you're not like me. Maybe you like the snow. I know it's hard to believe, but some people do. They love the snow. Especially that first snowfall of the season. It covers the earth's dead vegetation with a beautiful blanket making everything in sight look pure and clean, in pristine condition. They love the contrast of gray and dull to bright and white, even if it does mean shoveling and freezing. 

        But as much as that contrast is from the brown dead grass to the pure white snow, it's nothing compared to the contrast of our ugly sin and God's pure holiness. But thank God for the snow-white forgiveness that he gives us to cover up that sin! Now, in God's sight, the color is white. Through our Savior, you are, spiritually speaking, as white as the freshly driven snow. Every stain of sin is gone and you are pure and holy. Here's how the prophet Isaiah put it 700 years before that first Christmas in Isaiah 1:17-18...

17 Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow. 18 "Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.

I. Learn to Do Right

        The Israelites thought they were doing well. They didn't murder anyone. They didn't steal. But God pointed out through Isaiah that they weren't doing well just because they kept from doing bad things. They were sinning when they kept from doing good things! So he told them, "Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow." What they weren't doing incriminated them! When they didn't give to support those in need, they were robbing from them. They were taking their lives by withholding their gifts that could sustain them.

        Now we might be tempted to think that we are doing pretty well. After all, look at how we've been this past month. Even though the economy's down, we've given to charities, we've shown love to our families even when they haven't always deserved it, we've even bought nice things for those we love. But you know that the gifts we give, the charities we help, really don't make us good people. They just show how good we can be at pretending. And we are great at pretending aren't we?

        My kids put on their Batman and Robin costumes and tuck a flashlight and a gun made of tinker toys into their "utility belts" before they punch and kick the imaginary bad guys that have somehow infiltrated our living room. But they're not Batman and Robin and won't be no matter how much they want to be. And we're not as good as we pretend no matter how badly we want to be. Like the snow that covers the dead vegetation, we only look nice on the outside, but not so pretty underneath that veneer. 

        The Ten Commandments reveal our hearts and our true nature as we learn what it means to do right. (2nd) Do you honor God's name? Sure you may not swear and call upon God to damn the hammer that you used to strike your thumb. But do you call upon his name as often as you should? Or do you forget to call home? [Write "FORGET TO PRAY" on tagboard.] Do you share his name with others? Eagerly? And often? [Write "BAD EVANGELIST" on tagboard.] Do you give God a good name by the way you who carry that name as Christians live your lives? [Write "HYPOCRISY" on tagboard.] 

        (3rd) Do you honor God's Word by setting aside time to worship? To read and learn what he says to you in his love letter to you? Or do you treat it like another Christmas letter to be read once a year, just to get a quick update on the family? [Write "BAD PRIORITIES" on tagboard.]            

        (4th) Do you honor God's gift of government and show respect to the leaders he's established? [Write "BAD CITIZEN" and "REBEL" on tagboard.] 

        (5th) Ever had an unkind thought about someone? How about the guy who cut you off in traffic? [Write "MURDERER" on tagboard.] God says in 1 John 3:15, "Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer." And Jesus himself said in Matthew 5:22, "Anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell." 

        (6th) Ever have an impure thought about someone else? Even once? [Write "ADULTERER" on tagboard.] In Matthew 5:28 Jesus said, "Anyone who looks at a [person] lustfully has already committed adultery." 

        (7th) Well, at least we're no thieves, right? But have you always worked your hardest at your job? Given it 100%? Does your boss pay you to do 75% of what you're capable of? [Write "THEIF" on tagboard.]

        A quick evaluation of my life compared to God's Law and the holy standard that he gives, leaves my life looking, well... pretty ugly. And that's a problem. Many think that bad people go to hell and good people go to heaven. But that's not what God teaches. He said in Leviticus 11:44, "Be holy because I am holy." Jesus said in Matthew 5:48, "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." The truth is that bad people go to hell, AND good people go to hell. Only perfect people go to heaven. I have not always, "[Sought] justice, encourage[d] the oppressed. Defend[ed] the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow." And therefore, I am not perfect. I deserve hell. And like it or not, so do you. Pretty big problem, isn't it? So what do we do? Well, we can try all sorts of things...

II. Reason with God

        If we search long and hard for a solution to this very serious problem, the only thing that mankind collectively can come up with is do better. Maybe, if I try hard, I can improve. I'll work harder, I'll be nicer, [Write "BE NICE" on tagboard.] I'll give more. [Write "GIVE $$$" on tagboard.] Or maybe I can try to make up for what I've done wrong. I've been selfish with my time, so I'll volunteer somewhere. [Write "VOLUNTER" on tagboard.] I haven't always been so kind to my wife, so I'll buy her something nice. [Write "BUY FLOWERS OR JEWELRY" on tagboard.] If I try really hard, then I know that I can be better than most. And hopefully God will grade on a curve.

        But you know that he doesn't. He still demands perfection. And I'm still not perfect. All the good things that I've done haven't cancelled out the bad things that I've done or completed all the good things that I should have been doing all along and that I've still left undone. And when my motive is to earn God's love, the arrogance in thinking that I can only makes my record look worse. Try as I might, I can't erase my sin. [Attempt to erase permanent marker.] It stains the soul more than a permanent marker.

        In fact, the Hebrew word for scarlet in verse 18 literally means "double-stained." You see, to get a rich red color to a piece of cloth, you'd have to dye it more than once. Just once and it would turn out pink. You'd have to dye it a second or even a third time to get that bright, rich red. But once you did, there was no chance you could restore it to it's original color. It was stained.

        So how can you and I be white as snow when we're stained with sin? Well, there's no solution to the problem that you or I can come up with. It's not something that we can figure out on our own. All we can come up with by our reason is work-righteousness in some form. So we need to listen to God and hear his plan. And he has a solution that we couldn't come up with: "Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.

        God's solution is the only one that works. God gives us his grace in the person of Jesus. [Take out bucket of paint labeled, "GRACE" with Chi-Rho.] You see God sent his Son, Jesus, to be born of woman so that he could be both true God and true man. That's the miracle of Christmas -- that true God became true man. As true man, he could live under the same law that you and I live under and be subject to it, just as we are. As true God, he could keep the law perfectly in our place. He was never unkind, never had an impure thought, never had a selfish motive. He is perfect. And yet, he took all of our sin on himself. And as true man, he could suffer hell and die for that sin. And as true God, that payment is sufficient to cover all the sins of all mankind for all of human history. And as Jesus credits his perfect, sinless, holy life to us, we are made clean... as white as snow! [Brush over all our "sin" with white paint.]

        You and I are sinless and holy in God's sight. Full atonement has been made. That is, we are at one with God again. And the crown of life with the riches of a paradise in heaven are yours and mine. And there's nothing we have to do to get it. Jesus did it all. He paid the ransom to set us free from our sin. And by his grace, we are free -- eternally! Now there's nothing left to do, but thank him. So with the new life that he's given by his grace, we continue to grow in our faith as we stay connected to the gospel and hear this good news again and again. Then we'll stay in this one true faith until that crown of life is ours!

        Friends, you may still be dreaming of a white Christmas, just like the ones you used to know. You may be hoping for an inch or two of snow this Christmas. Or you may be like me, glad to be living down south where the climate's warmer and the odds of a white Christmas are relatively slim. But either way, you can rejoice that with or without snow on the ground, you will have a white Christmas because our God in his grace, through our Savior, Jesus, and his sacrifice, has made us all as white as snow. In Jesus' name, dear friends, amen.

In Him,

Pastor Rob Guenther