December 9, 2012
Text: Luke 3:1-6
I. Outline of Introduction::
Christmas—favorite time
Day after Thanksgiving—got out the boxes, bought the tree, put on the music—Bach’s Oratorio, Messiah. 71 Christmas CDs. Ordered 3 more.
But I wonder—does all the sentiment, celebration, and delight of the season obscure its message?
Culture at large gets terribly confused.
Where does God’s Word come? Where is it heard?
Not in the seats of power, or in the temples of popular culture
But the Word of God comes to John, in the wilderness.
God’s word comes to places where we might not expect it
Out of the way places—out in the Judean countryside, or at a stable in Bethlehem
Wilderness
Remote, desolate, Da Bar --- “No Word”
This Advent we ask: where do we hear the promise of God’s coming?
In all the lights, pageantry, wrappings, and parties that highlight these days?
Or in those marginal, out of the way, unexpected places places;
In the lonely, desolate places of our own lives;
Among those who witness in society’s forgotten places to the One who brings healing, hope, life, and ustice…
II. What does God’s Word say?
In the wilderness, we read in Luke, John calls for a “baptism of repentance.”
Not just to say you feel sorry;
Turn around, go in a different direction.
Change of heart that leads to a changed life.
Why? To prepare for what God is going to do in the world.
God is coming near to us.
God’s promises are coming true.
Baptism is always about identity. John was calling those coming out into the wilderness to live into a new identity, shaped by God’s coming presence…
So our lives, and our world, must be prepared—which means our lives, and our world must reflect God’s desires.
John builds on the vision from Isaiah
Israel in exile—in Babylon
Lonely, desolate, forsaken, forgotten
The Lord was returning them to the Promised Land
He was showing the way to a new future;
Build a super highway there and clear away everything that stands in the way.
The promise of returning from exile rests on the firm hope and faith that God is doing a new thing, and wishes to build a community for his people that is marked by God’s desires for faithfulness and for justice.
A society that cares for its outcast and marginalized—the widows and orphans, the most vulnerable in their midst.
A society that treasures the gift of God’s creation.
A society that turns swords into ploughshares.
A society where “justice and peace will kiss, and where faithfulness will spring up from the ground.”
This was not a promise for the people of Israel about the end of time. It was to be fulfilled within their history. So it called the people of God to act differently, now, to prepare for this new future.
Likewise with the message of John the Baptist. He announces the new thing that God is doing. God is coming to us as never before. His presence will break into our world through the life of the Anointed One whom God is sending. It’s a promise that enters into our very own history, into the flesh and blood of this world.
So we must repent, change, and make ready. We must live our lives now through the promise of this future.
What God desires to do in the world begins breaking into our world now. Heaven and earth touch. The Kingdom begins breaking into the kingdoms of this world. God’s will is to come on earth, as it is in heaven. That is why the babe, who is the full presence of God, is born in a manger. God’s Son, taking on our own flesh and blood.
Isaiah’s vision about God leading the people to a new future, and John’s word of repentance to prepare the way for God’s coming, both speak of judgment. This simply means that God is dissatisfied with the way things are. Preparing the way means our lives should change. But preparing the way also mean that society must change.
These powerful images, echoed in Handel’s Messiah that Karin and I listen to as we put angels on our Christmas tree, speaking of valleys being lift up, mountains made low, and uneven ground become level—rough places made plain are not instructions for building an interstate highway. They are about correcting all the uneven, crooked, distortions in our society, because God desires a new way that reflects His will for the world. That’s why Advent comes with these unsettling words of judgment, from John the Baptist and others, about God’s dissatisfaction with the way things are.
And this part of Advent’s message echoes today, in our time and place.
It’s not hard to imagine what John the Baptist would say about those rough, unequal places in our own society today. Certainly one would be the growing income inequality that dominates our economic landscape. Whatever one’s politics might be, when the top 1% of citizens posses a greater net worth the entire bottom 90%, something is wrong. When one of the five children is living in poverty, and homeless children are in our school classrooms, we have major uneven places in our society that dissatisfy God. There’s plenty of work to do to prepare for his coming.
This is part of God’s word to us on this Second Sunday of Advent. The promise of God’s coming—and the truth of God’s entrance into the world as an infant in Bethlehem—calls us to repentance, for this seeks to bring about a decisive difference in our lives and in our world. (Insert)
With this comes our longing for how we pray for God to break into our world, once again—
The growing calamities of climate change;
Places of hellish violence and suffering—in the Congo, Syria
Intractable conflicts and wall of hatred, as in Israel/Palestine
Africalast week—275 million out of 382 million work force either unemployed or doing informal work hired by the day; Youth—growing population wanting jobs….
Jude Hama—more goes out than comes in—Ghana.
Advent—we ask these questions—waiting, longing for God to break in
And asking what it means for our lives
So it’s particularly appropriate to listen to these questions deeply in Advent, when we hear the promise:“Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.”
It’s right for anyone to ask whether the message of the Gospel brings the hope of God’s justice to break into the world, and compels followers of Jesus to work for such a future. Any version of the Gospel that doesn’t embrace that biblical challenge doesn’t deserve to be taken seriously.
So on this Second Sunday of Advent, as we enjoy the lights, decorations, Christmas trees, and music, all of which I love, let’s listen for the word that comes from the wilderness. Let us prepare the way of the Lord, and live in the present through the promise of God’s future.
Advent offers us the privilege of participating in the world of God’s desiring, where every hurt is healed, and there is a place for everyone. God came in flesh and blood to make this so. And a table is set before us to celebrate this work of God’s grace in Jesus Christ our Lord.