Sermon delivered on the second Sunday of Advent C, December 9, 2012, at St. Augustine’s Anglican Church, Columbus, OH.
Lectionary texts: Malachi 3.1-4; Benedictus (Luke 1.68-79); Philippians 1.3-11; Luke 3.1-6.
In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Today is the second Sunday of Advent and we have lighted the second purple candle on our wreath that represents the OT prophets. As we saw last week, Advent comes from the Latin word, adventus, and means coming or arrival. It is a season of expectation and preparation in which the Church prepares to celebrate the coming of Christ in his incarnation, and also looks ahead to his final advent as judge at the end of time. In addition to our candle, today’s texts also emphasize the prophetic role of God’s people, both in announcing the coming of God’s promised Messiah and in our call to continue to proclaim God’s word to his broken and hurting world in word and deed now that Jesus the Messiah has come. It is this theme that I want us to look at briefly this morning. Specifically I want us to answer this question. Whose way are we preparing? Our own or Jesus’?
As Luke makes clear in his gospel, the coming of the Messiah is rooted firmly in history. That is why Luke the historian tells us about all the movers and shakers who were ruling when John the Baptist appeared. This reminds us that history is going somewhere and based on John’s announcement, God is clearly inviting us to be part of his party that will heal and save God’s world. More on that in a moment. But before we can come to God’s party, John reminds us that first we must repent so that we can have our sins forgiven. As with the Four Last Things that are appropriate grist for reflection during Advent—death, judgment, Heaven, and Hell—talk of repentance quickly produces eyes rolling up in the backs of heads and looks of incredulity. I mean, come on. Aren’t we past all that silly repentance stuff? It’s depressing to talk about and makes us feel bad! Haven’t we progressed enough to put to rest all those outdated notions of right and wrong, good and evil, and ultimate Truth? Don’t we all know that we really have transcended the problem of evil and that what we need is more sex, money, power, and toys ?
Well, no we haven’t and no we don’t. Because if we are really honest with ourselves—and some, if not most of the time, life has to smack us squarely in the face before we are ready to be honest—deep down we know how broken we are, and how desperately we need to be healed and forgiven. The evidence is all over the place for us to see that all is not right in God’s good world. We read of puppies being tied to cars and dragged through the streets. We read about murder-suicides that leave babies orphans. We are aware of people and systems that will do anything or hurt anyone for their own self-aggrandizement. And if we dare look closer to home, we must admit that we are part of the problem. Oh, we may not be murderers or thieves or sadists, etc. But we all know what it’s like to have suffered through broken relationships, to take advantage of others for our own benefit, and to experience guilt, fear, and failure. We don’t much like talking about such things, not only because they are no fun to talk about (a surefire symptom of our human pride) but also because we know our brokenness needs to be fixed and we don’t know how to fix ourselves. Even if we did, we don’t seem to have the tools to do so. This, of course, is what has caused much of the evil and mess in God’s world today. It seems that almost from the very beginning, we humans weren’t satisfied to be the wise stewards of God’s creation we were created to be. No, we wanted more. We want to be the rulers, not just stewards. We want to play God even though we are thoroughly ill-equipped to do so and we are busy trying to prepare a path for our own advancement, not God’s kingdom. But just because we live mostly in denial about our human condition doesn’t change the truth of the matter. Simply put, left to our own devices, we often make a mess of things, including our own lives. And if we think about it long enough, we realize that frankly, it would be easier for God to just chuck the whole thing, us included, and start over.
But it is to the glory of God that God will not chuck the whole thing, us included, and start over. God remains faithful to his plan to re-create and renew his broken and hurting creatures and creation. That is why he called his people Israel through Abraham to be his faithful agents to bring his healing love to the world so that through Israel God could set the world to rights. But of course Israel was part of the problem and often failed miserably to answer God’s call. However, because God is faithful to his promises and because history is going somewhere, specifically toward God’s promised new creation, we read in our texts this morning about God’s prophets announcing that God’s Messiah would appear and do what was necessary to establish the conditions for God to fulfill his promise to set his world to rights. Most of Jesus’ contemporaries expected the Messiah to appear just as God promised. What nobody expected was that the promised Messiah would be God himself embodied in the person of Jesus.
And because Jesus was faithful to God’s call, it made it possible for God to use Jesus’ death and resurrection to bear himself the punishment of his own just judgment on our sin and rebellion. Put another way, because of Jesus’ blood shed for us, God is able to look at those of us who accept his free gift through faith with fresh eyes so that God neither sees or remembers our sins any longer. Do you believe this? You can never hope to be really healed unless you do.
Not only that, God defeated the powers and principalities on the cross and ushered in his promised new creation when God raised Jesus from the dead. Obviously the new creation is not fully consummated but it has begun and God invites everyone to come to the party and build on the foundation laid by Jesus our Lord. But we can’t build on the foundation of Jesus’ accomplishment until we have begun to really accept God’s forgiveness offered to us and decide to stop building a path for our own glorification. This is why John preached repentance for the forgiveness of sins. When by grace and the power of the Spirit, we come to a real faith in Jesus, we realize how shallow and futile are our own efforts and fall on our knees in praise and thanksgiving for the healing love offered to us in Jesus. When that happens, we are willing to change directions, to work to build God’s kingdom, not our own. In biblical language that is what it means to repent. In other words, we are willing to make straight paths for our Lord who loved us and claimed us from all eternity.
But what does that look like for us today? We make straight paths for the Lord by imitating Jesus in humble love and service to others. Every time we feed the hungry or clothe the naked or offer forgiveness where none is deserved, we make a straight path for Jesus’ rule. Every time we resist exploiting others for our own gain, we make a straight path for Jesus’ rule. Every time we speak out against injustice and oppression and evil of any kind, we make a straight path for Jesus’ rule. Every time we treat others honestly and fairly and insist that others do likewise, we make a straight path for Jesus’ rule. Every time we study Scripture together and pray for each other to be the fully human stewards God calls us to be, we make a straight path for Jesus’ rule. This obviously is not a comprehensive list but you get the idea.
We do none of this, of course, on our own power but in and through the power of the Spirit and with the help of each other. And as we saw last week, we see again the importance of prayer illustrated in today’s epistle lesson. In praying for the Philippians, Paul emphasizes three critical themes. First, Paul prays that their love will grow in knowledge. This immediately alerts us to the fact that biblical love is not some sappy emotion but rather emerges from those who think about and act on how they can best serve God and others in the context of their lives.
Second, Paul prays that the Philippians (and we) should have common sense. Yes, that’s right. Common sense. Paul knew that we are going to be bombarded by all kinds of competing ideas about what spirituality and life in the Spirit really look like. We’d better be prepared to use our God-given reason, knowledge, and good common sense to help us sort out the good from the bad from the ugly. Otherwise, for example, we may do goofy things like advocating a life of sin so that grace may abound (cf. Romans 6.1). Why is that goofy? Because while God always accepts us where we are, God is never satisfied to leave us where we are because God loves us too much to leave us in our sin. We won’t find this out until we’ve plumbed the depths of Scripture and lived the shared life of the Spirit for a fair amount of time, i.e., until our love grows in the knowledge of Scripture and we acquire common sense.
Last, Paul wants the Philippians (and us) to bear the fruit of righteousness, a different way of telling us to make straight paths for the Lord. Paul also reminds us that history is going somewhere by reminding us we are to expect Jesus to reappear at any time to finally consummate his great victory won on the cross and vindicated in his resurrection. Paul knows we are who we are by the power of the Spirit and he reminds us that God always completes what he starts. As we have seen, God has called us to be his people in Jesus the Messiah to bring about his kingdom on earth as in heaven and we do that by how we think, speak, and act. When we work for the kingdom, we always subordinate our needs to the demands of Jesus, no matter how difficult or painful. Always. And because we know history is headed somewhere good and God always completes the work God starts, we continue to work tirelessly and humbly in Jesus’ name to embody his sacrificial and healing love to others who desperately need it. Don’t misunderstand. God brings in the kingdom, we don’t. But God uses our good works in the process and God always finishes what he starts.
So whose kingdom are you working to build? If you are working to build your own more often than Jesus’, what do you need to add or jettison so that you can join the party and engage fully in the only relationship and work that can possibly satisfy your deepest longings? Pray about this using Paul’s prayer as your model. Remember that despite your flaws and mistakes, you are still covered by the blood of the Lamb, assuming, of course, that you are not willfully hostile toward God and God’s good purposes for you and others, and accept in faith God’s forgiveness.
And if you are making straight paths for the Lord more often than your own, keep at it and pray for both perseverance and for growth in your understanding of how to love and what you need to do to show that love to others on behalf of the Lord. Resist the temptation to become discouraged when you do not see immediate results. Remember that history is going somewhere, and for the good, and that God always finishes what God starts in you (cf. 1 Corinthians 3.11-15; 15.58). Your work in God’s name is never yours alone. You enjoy God’s forgiveness through the cross, are promised that the new creation is coming through Jesus’ resurrection, and are helped to do God’s work in the power of the Spirit, thanks be to God!
In closing, I would like to read to you an updated rendition of Luke’s gospel lesson today because it sums up nicely what I have tried to say this morning. In the fourth year of the reign of Barack Obama, president of the United States—when John Kasich was governor of Ohio and Michael Coleman was mayor of Columbus—during the episcopate of Roger Ames, bishop of the ADGL, the word of God came to the people God assembled and formed into St. Augustine’s Anglican Church to preach repentance for the forgiveness of sins, to work with Faith Mission and others to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, to visit Worthington Christian Nursing home and elsewhere to visit the lonely, to bring God’s healing love in Jesus the Messiah in the ways they conducted themselves in the contexts of their daily lives, to pray for each other, and to study the Bible in small groups and support each other when it hit the fan. None of this made total sense to those whom God called because despite their fervent prayers and hard work, things really didn’t seem to change much. But in the power of the Spirit, through God’s word in Scripture, and God’s presence in worship, fellowship, and the sacraments, God made his people understand that God is faithful and always finishes the good work he starts in and through his people, especially those at St. Augustine’s. And so in and through their humble work in Jesus’ Name, they continued to encourage each other in the Spirit and to make straight paths for the Lord who loved them and claimed them from all eternity by doing the good works and speaking the good things he called them to do and speak. And when they realized that God always delivers on his promises and starts what God finishes, they knew they had Good News, now and for all eternity. Amen. Come Lord Jesus.
In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
