Advent II

Sermon for Hope Episcopal Church
Houston, TX
By The Rev. Martha Frances+
Year C Advent II
10 December 2006

Text: Luke 3: 1-6
Other Readings: Baruch 5:1-9; Canticle 16; Philippians 1: 3-11

Most of you know I just moved to a new house, & several of you came over to help me pack or unpack. In fact, there are still several boxes. . . . Moving is never easy but was infinitely less complicated this time than 3 years ago when Bill & I moved after 27 years in our condo in Sharpstown. Not only have I only 3 years of accumulated “treasures,” but this time, you & others of my friends helped me pack & unpack them. In addition, I am healthy this time where 3 years ago, I had a miserable cold the whole time between my move & Christmas.

What is peculiar is that Bill & I had anticipated our move back then for over a year. We had planned & talked about what furniture we would keep & where we would put which items for months. But the only preparation we’d done until Thanksgiving was verbally & on paper. We hadn’t packed a box. We hadn’t given away anything. We weren’t ready for the move.

Then it happened. The time came & we had to make our move all at once. We had to react instead of respond because we hadn’t made the necessary preparations. So that move was as horrendous as was my cold.

Advent, this time of year 4 Sundays before Christmas, is a time of preparation. “Advent” means “coming” & is all about joyful preparation & expectation for something exciting just ahead for us. These 3 weeks (since Advent IV is also Christmas Eve this year) are like the time I should have spent packing before our move. Advent is the time for sorting out what’s important that we want to take into a renewed relationship with God & what can be jettisoned because it no longer serves the purposes it once served for us. We don’t have to be moving house in order for Advent to be a crucial time of year for each of us.

As is often true with important times, there are key characters connected with them. Today, we encounter one of the most peculiar Biblical characters: John the Baptist. Ole John was a character, that’s for sure. He was so strange that it’s hard to believe he was Jesus’ cousin. In the first place, he was an only child of an older couple, so you know he was spoiled rotten. Maybe that’s why he ran around in those funny clothes & invented the craziest diet anyone has ever heard of (well, perhaps except for the grapefruit diet!).

Luke the Evangelist makes a big deal out of exactly when John the Baptist popped onto the scene, & who was ruling where at the time, but the big deal is that John was the Advent person; his whole purpose was to get us ready to welcome Jesus, his cousin. Let’s pay attention to what John told us we’d better do.

In today’s Gospel, Luke says John heard God’s word in the wilderness & God responded by stirring up a following of people to prepare their lives for a Messiah. The Jewish people had been watching for a Messiah for centuries, & though some prophets’ predictions had come true from time to time, there wasn’t a lot of Messiah-watching going on by the time John came along. The first lesson this morning gives a whole new slant on the end things, the time when righteousness & peace are to dwell on the earth. Baruch tells the people to take off their garment of sorrow & affliction & to put on forever the beauty of the glory from God. What wonderful imagery for a new day dawning & new hope for more abundant life! Can’t you imagine Baruch’s children gathering from east & west to rejoice that God has remembered them? When we assemble here at Hope each Sunday morning to hear the Word, to sing praises, to pray to God, & to break bread together, we have a little taste of the joys Baruch says God intends for all of us.

Likewise, John told the people of Judea they needed to shape up & open their hearts to that which is to come. He said, specifically, they needed to repent & be baptized. Most of us have been baptized, but even those who have been Christians all their lives need to evaluate what’s not working in our lives & turn away from it in order to be able to fully accept what is to come. John said that we all sin & fall short of the glory of God so it’s not a disgrace to get on with the business of cleaning up our acts & making room for God in our hearts. John offered the age-old ritual for changing: bathing. Baptism is a symbolic way of burying the old self & starting over, asking forgiveness for what we’ve done amiss & choosing new ways of behavior. As we clean out our closets each Advent, we are like the people John the Baptizer gathers around him, helping them prepare for the Savior’s arrival.

That’s what the Baptizer says to us this Advent, too. John says, “Come on down, you who are tired of merely existing— & those who want life more abundant—clean out the cobwebs in your hearts & your bodies & make room for the coming of the Christ Child.

How might we make ready for Jesus’ birth in our hearts again this year? Gee, haven’t we done this before? Don’t we “do Christmas” every year? Well, yes, DUH, December 25th comes around, but what does it mean in our hearts & lives? Will we get to the 25th again & wonder what happened & why it feels like Christmas is passing us by? Could be, but it’s not necessary. You & I can do a better job of preparing for Christ to enter into our souls this year than I did for that move 3 years ago.

Daily reading of the stories about Jesus’ arrival & of various Lenten meditations helps us see what we might do differently once we “repent & return to the Lord.” St. Paul rejoiced when he wrote to the Philippians in today’s letter because the Christians at Philippi were living out their Christian lives & sharing with others. What were the Philippians doing that St. Paul thought was so great & that we might want to look at to follow this Advent? They were known because they were loving people. Paul said “your love may overflow more & more with knowledge & full insight to help you determine what is best.”

St. Paul didn’t expect the new Christians to magically know how to behave, how to make good decisions. He encouraged them to grow in knowledge—that means worshipping together, regular Bible study like happens at 9:00 in the parish house each Sunday, & gathering with other groups like the Brotherhood of St. Andrew & the Daughters of the King to strengthen us to show forth that love we Christians are supposed to be known by.

I’m not just talking about other people’s sins today, either, my brothers & sisters. I’ve been pretty grumpy with several folks around here lately so I have some readjusting of attitude to do myself. You see how my lack of preparation spills over into a bad attitude & affects those around me? I might not be the only one who needs an attitude adjustment which isn’t chemically-induced this season.

The specifics about what John the Baptist’s call to repentance & change of life means to you will depend on you, & the only way you’re going to know what you’re called to do in preparation is to slow down, sit or kneel down, & ask God to show you where your heart needs to be cleansed. I would encourage your making that quiet time a part of your day every day between now & Christmas. Look around to see how you can perhaps be the occasion for the Christ child to appear in someone else’s life this year. I’ve given several suggestions for true gifts which keep on giving on the pew bulletin cover today. The gifts which come to us at this season don’t really happen because we’ve been very, very good but rather because we’re being very, very loved. God initiates the gift of the Christ child as well as the adult Christ this Christmas.

I look back at the lesson from Baruch this morning & recognize a quote from Isaiah. God orders every high mountain & the everlasting hills to be made low & the valleys filled up so that the ground may be level & Israel may walk safely in the glory of God. It was just that sort of clearing of the way which used to be done when the king would come in procession through a territory. I watched such preparations being made for the new rail lines down on Main Street when I was executive director at LOTS. We watched the roads made level & the rails & protection platforms & other necessities built so average citizens can now make their way more efficiently through the city to their work or home or errands. How much more should our preparation be for the King who comes as a little child yet lives in us as a wise man to enter our hearts anew? May your Advent season 2006 prepare you for unparalleled joy as the Christ child appears. Amen.