It
is easy to rush through Advent. Indeed, our lives at this time of year seem
especially geared to push us relentlessly forward at an ever more frantic pace.
I
am still finishing up a rather exhausting semester. My days this past week went
from early morning to late night in a seemingly endless cycle of grading,
meetings, and year-end demands and, yes, early holiday festivities.
It
seems that our approach to that other penitential season—Lent—is so different.
Easter seems far away as we gather Ash Wednesday to begin weeks of abstaining
from something important to us, and commitment to fasting, reflection and
alms-giving.
In
contrast, the beginning of Advent is a mad dash into planning, shopping,
decorating, office receptions and parties with their special foods and
beverages, and more. It is a time of year when our society does everything in
its power to entice us to over-indulge in every way possible, beginning with
Thanksgiving and going all the way to Christmas.
For
the past few years, many Christians have been quick to complain of a so-called
“attack on Christmas.” I am far more likely to bemoan the attack on Advent! The
first Christmas tree I saw this year appeared in Sam’s Club… before Halloween! I was stunned and
dismayed.
Today’s
lessons—Isaiah’s cry on behalf of the Israelites, John the Baptist’s rough-hewn
lifestyle and in-your-face preaching—seem truly misplaced amongst the cheery
holiday music, fresh greenery and glittering ornaments that have already filled
our lives. Who wants to go into the wilderness when we can hang out here in
Christmasland?!
But
the wilderness has things to offer that we cannot necessarily find in the
hustle and bustle and beauty of Christmasland. Holy things. And these passages
give us some clues. This morning I invite you to hang out for a time in the
Holy Land of Advent.
Let’s
begin with the words of Isaiah (Isaiah 40:1-11, NRSV):
Comfort, O comfort my people,
says your
God.
Speak
tenderly to Jerusalem,
and cry to
her
that she
has served her term,
that her
penalty is paid,
that she
has received from the LORD's hand
double for
all her sins.
Of
course, Western Christians can hardly hear these words without hearing the
soaring music of Handel’s Messiah. But the prophet does not allow us to simply
rush straight to the triumph of the Allelujah chorus!
First,
even as we are comforted, we are reminded that we need comfort due to the
magnitude of our sins and the penalty we have paid. We have suffered as a
result of our estrangement from God.
Please
do not hear that as a theology of retribution. The bad things that happen in
our lives are not God’s punishment for our sins. Rather, things go wrong in our
lives and we lose sight of God. We try to comfort ourselves with all the wrong
things—mood-altering substances like alcohol, extreme busy-ness, spending
money, whatever—and the more we do that, the farther away God seems to be. And
we suffer.
Second,
Isaiah draws attention to the one thing that most reliably causes humankind to
suffer, and that is our mortality. We are flowers, beautiful but fragile, for
flowers do not last. The wind blows. We wither and die.
I
cannot stand here this morning without being reminded that in the past two
months (approximately), many of us have gathered here or at Redeemer in Oak
Ridge four times to lay to rest members of this community of faith, whose
departure left gaping holes, especially in the lives of the Barham and Brodie
families, but also in all of our lives.
This
world often seems devoid of the comforting presence of God! We often feel
forsaken by God! Isaiah reassures us that God is there in the wilderness of our
lives. That God patiently waits to speak tenderly to us, to feed us and to
gather us and to gently lead us home.
Turning
to today’s Gospel lesson (Mark 1:1-8, NRSV), I’m again struck by these opening words:
The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son
of God.
As it is
written in the prophet Isaiah,
"See,
I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
who will
prepare your way;
the voice
of one crying out in the wilderness:
`Prepare
the way of the Lord,
make his
paths straight,'"
With
this enigmatic opening, St. Mark connects his main character, Jesus the Christ,
with the God of Hebrew Scripture, through his lead character, John the
Baptizer.
John
the Baptizer hung out in the wilderness, and people went in droves to hear
him—in spite of the fact that he bore the bad news of sin and the need for
repentance. Indeed, in Matthew’s account, John calls the religious elite of his
day a brood of vipers!
So
why did the people flock to him? As Mark says, he also bore the good news of
another to come, one who would share with us the forgiving waters of baptism,
but one who had more—much more—to offer.
The one who is more powerful
than I is coming after me, John said. I have baptized you
with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.
We
go into the wilderness to repent, wait and prepare. In today’s epistle (1
Peter 3:8-15a, NRSV),
St. Peter tells us how: Patiently,
because God’s days are unlike ours and God has been more than patient with us. Keeping awake, for we do not know when God
comes again. Living godly lives,
doing the things God has called us to do to hasten the kingdom—which we know
from Jesus’ teaching means loving God and our neighbor as ourselves.
Dear
friends, let us hang out for awhile in the holy land of Advent. For here we find
God’s comforting promise of mercy and grace bestowed in the coming of the one
for whom we prepare—the one of power and glory who baptizes with the Holy
Spirit.
AMEN
