Sermon Tone Analysis

So let’s just all admit it.

Cleaning dirty laundry is a chore.

I have family members who still remember their mother having a ringer washer.

Those were the first type of wash machines for clothes.

It had an open tub, that you would put your dirty laundry in and soap, then when the clothes were done, you had to put them through the ringer.

It was not a setting on the machine like we have today, you know, the “spin dry” setting.

Not at all.

You physically had to put each piece of clothing in front of two rubber rolling pins that someone had to physically crank.

It would pull the clothing through and squeeze out most of the water.

Oh, then one had to hang the washed clothes on the clothes line for them to dry.

And after that, the clothes had to be taken off the clothes line, ironed, and put away.

Instead of just taking a few hours where the machine does all the work, except ironing, folding or hanging, and putting away; doing laundry back in the day was at least an all day task, if not multiple days to complete.

Cleaning dirty laundry is an ongoing, never ending task, that most folks hate to do, but it is necessary for our appearance and health.

The text that we focus on today is the second reading for today, the Revelation given to St. John chapter 22, especially these words: “Blessed are those who wash their robes so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates” (v 14).

Today is not just any day, it is a very special day, Confirmation Sunday.

Young Bradly Nelson is being confirmed in his baptismal faith.

It is not just a special day for him, but for all of us.

Confirmation Sunday we all remember our own Baptism, and the faith that is given to us as we received the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit ().

This verse in chapter 22 has a twin, so-to-speak, in chapter 7 of Revelation.

The angel of the Lord took St. John in the spirit to see the throne room of God.

And there John is shown “a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne of and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes...” One of the elders in heaven asked John, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?”

John replies, “Sir, you know.” and the elder answered him saying, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation.

They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (vv 13-14).

For the Christian, Baptism is something extremely important.

For starters, it is instituted and commanded by God through His Son, Jesus Christ, after “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” through completing the will of His Father, in sacrificing His life, shedding His blood on the cross for the redemption of the world.

He continues on in verse 19 of saying, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

This command of God through Jesus regarding Baptism and His work in us through it is exemplified in other places of the New Testament.

The Holy Spirit speaks through Mark’s Gospel and shows us, “The one who believes and is baptized will be saved; but the one who does not believe will be condemned.”

(16:16), and the same Holy Spirit who Jesus promises the Disciples who will guide them in all truth, who does not speak on His own authority, but what He hears from the Father (), is the same Holy Spirit testifies about Baptism through Paul, “Do you not know that all of us who have been Baptized into Christ Jesus were Baptized into His death?” () and again the Holy Spirit instructs us through Paul in , “But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian (that is the Law), for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”

Baptism is efficacious because it is the Word of God combined with the water.

God’s Word does what it promises.

This is why Baptism “is of divine origin, [it is] not something devised or invented by human beings” (Large Catechism: Concerning Baptism).

So this vision that St. John has been blessed to not only see, but to also share with us is the culmination, or the conclusion or end goal, of what God has worked in and through Baptism for us.

He shows us through figurative language: robes washed and made clean.

So what is it that makes our laundry dirty in the first place?

This question reminds of that old saying regarding gossip, as airing someone’s dirty laundry.

Anyway, if we look in Isaiah, the same Holy Spirit teaches us that “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.

we all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind take us away.”

(64:6).

So, “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 like crimson, they shall become like wool.” (1:18).

It is sin that stains our laundry.

It is the inherited sin of Adam and Eve that pollutes everything about us, it has corrupted us to the core of our very being.

Original Sin has destroyed what God has created.

It severed the daily walk with God in the Garden.

It condemned everything in creation; it expelled our parents from the Garden and placed an angel with flaming sword at the entrance so Adam and Eve had no access to the tree of life.

It caused them and all their descendents from being outward focused, to curving in on our selves, always coveting, always wanting what is not ours.

It has destroyed our thoughts, our words and our deeds.

It is the robe we are born in, the robe that must be clean if we are to gain access once again to the tree of life; cleansed in the water and blood of Christ Jesus in Baptism to be able to be given new robes, wedding garments that grant us permission to “enter the city by the gates”.

The text today from John says “Blessed are those who wash their robes...” young Bradley, you are blessed.

Bobby, you are blessed…Shari, you are blessed, Jacob, you too are blessed.

All of you who have been Baptized into Christ have put on Christ, your laundry is clean, You too are all blessed.

There is this promise from our Lord, through His Holy Spirit, that because you no longer have any dirty laundry, you have the right to the tree of life, and you may enter the city by the gates!

The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.”

The Holy Spirit is inviting all who have yet to clean their dirty laundry “Come.”

You are invited to the wedding feast!

You are invited by the Holy Spirit and the Church, who is the Bride, to come and have your thirst quenched.

The Holy Spirit and the Bride invites you to fill your desire for the water of life.

There is no cost, it is free.

As the Bride, I invite you all, as we celebrate Bradley Nelson’s confirmation of baptismal faith, to celebrate your own.

If you don’t have one, a Baptismal faith, I invite you, the Holy Spirit invites you to come, be Baptized, receive new robes.

The Bride and the Holy Spirit prays that you will thirst and have an unquenchable desire for the water of life.

It is a free gift, no purchase necessary.

Be redeemed in the Blood of Christ; let His crimson blood make your robes a dazzling white.

Come, enter through the gate, come, receive the right to the water of life, and to the tree of life, the one transplanted from the Garden of Eden to the throne of the Lamb, from which flows the water of life that feeds the tree of life and gives it the rich and abundant leaves and fruit that feeds and nourishes you for your healing.

So, “How can the death of a man be able to do such things?”

Well, ‘lil Jonney’, you see, When God loves you so much, He doesn’t add a bunch of other stuff on top of you in order for you to have to pay off your bill, so-to-say, so that you must now do all these other things to buy your ticket into my amusement park.

You must fulfill each of these items on this list in order for you to “earn” your way into heaven.”

No, that is not a loving god.

That is a god that you must appease with what you do, how much money you give, and do a quantifiable and proven perfect each and every day of the rest of your life.

Oh, and the fine print here at the bottom states that if you fail just one time and any of these three things, you must start over.

Of course, you understand there is also a processing fee along with that re-start, ‘lil Jonney’ “Oh, Mr. god, sir, that sounds like fun.

But how much is that little processing fee?”

The first time, it cost you 10 gold pieces.

the rest is on a sliding fee scale.

Each subsequent time, the scale slides higher by 100%”

No, the triune God is far more loving that that.

When He loves you, He does everything for you.

As your Father, He loves to hear from you, so He even gave you a prayer to pray, as well as an entire book of prayers called the Psalms.

And as your Father is pleases Him to give you everything you need for your body and soul.

He daily and richly forgives all your sin, and He provides even your food, clothes, home and a family.

Not just your Mom and Dad, but in Baptism He adopts you as His son.

Now you have an entirely new family.

Brothers and Sisters you have never met before.

The price of Adam and Eve’s sin is so great that you are never able to pay anything in return.

You know that list your god gave you.

Well, the triune God has a bill also for you.

If you ask Him, He will even show it to you.

His is much longer.

He details the effects of Adam and Eve’s sin on you.

The very top line says that you are to only have one God.

You know how many tick marks it has besides it?

Me either, I can’t count that high.

There are nine other itemized items also.

The tick marks on those are as equally long.

There is something weird at the top of your bill that God has.

It has a box on top of the bill that says underneath it, “for office use only”.

It’s stamped with something, in a very sloppy way in the darkest redish-brown color I have ever seen.

So God told me to tell you that since your talents are approaching 10,000.

Do you have any idea what that much amounts to?

According to today’s market, with 12 troy ounces to one pound, and there are 75 pounds in one Talent, that comes out to approximately $11,753,730 total.