St. Paul's is now podcasting!  You can share from anywhere in the world the good news of Jesus as heard through our sermons.

MOST RECENT PODCAST - LISTEN NOW:

St Paul's Salt Lake City - Podcasts Archive

 
The Ven. Steve Alder
Advent 2B; December 4, 2011

The Messengers of God

In the name of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Good morning and welcome to the second Sunday of Advent.

In our tradition we follow an ancient church calendar, and we know when Advent begins because our liturgical colors change in the fall – note that the ministers of worship are all wearing purple – and that change marks a change in the tone of our worship. We’re invited to wait expectantly, to reflect, to hope for a better world before we celebrate the humble birth of our Lord Jesus.

We are not Christmas people yet. Not quite yet. And there’s a palpable disconnect between the decorations in our buildings, and the decorations in the rest of the world. There is no Christ child in our manger scene. Not yet. There are no inflatable Santas or thousands of twinkly lights, and we’re not singing Christmas carols. Not quite yet. We are waiting.

Or, if you prefer, we might say that we are “preparing the way of the Lord.” And it can be very hard to patiently prepare, to reflect, to wait at this time of year, especially with the pressures of the outside world bearing down on us to buy, to get, to wrap, to go...we struggle to find space to just sit quietly ... and wait.

So it’s a little ironic that in today’s first lesson our quiet is shattered by a voice crying out in the wilderness: prepare the way of the Lord! Make straight in the desert a highway for our God!

The messengers of God in today’s lessons are anxious to share God’s good news with us. In Isaiah, the Jewish people, who have been held in captivity, are preparing to return to Jerusalem where the Lord will “feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.” It’s good news.

In the scripture called the second letter of Peter, we hear a famous statement: “with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day.” This is in response to the early Church’s belief that Jesus would return soon. Maybe next week, maybe next month. But as the time grew longer, people wondered why? Why hasn’t Jesus returned? So the writer explains it with the “one day is like a thousand years” analogy and states that “the Lord is not slow about his promise...but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish.” More good news.

And in Mark’s Gospel, there’s a strange man who appears in the wilderness outside of Jerusalem. His name is John, and he’s causing quite a stir. All kinds of people are going out to be baptized by him, and yet he proclaims: “the one who is more powerful than I is coming after me...I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” Awesome good news.

I want to take a little segue here, because in the midst of all of this good news, there’s something else we need to talk about today. It’s the theme of repentance that appears in all of our lessons. Even in our collect – the prayer at the beginning of the service that gathers our thoughts – we thank God for sending his “messengers the prophets to preach repentance...”

In Isaiah, because Israel has repented and paid for her transgressions, she will return to Jerusalem. In Second Peter, the author writes that the Lord wants “all to come to repentance.” And in Mark, people are baptized by John “confessing their sins.”

I won’t emphasize this point too much because the word “repent” carries a lot of baggage for me. When I was a Southern Baptist, barely a sermon went by when we weren’t exhorted to “repent! Or face the flames of hell fire.” And we all thought that “repent” meant that we should make a long list of our sins and stop doing them.

But the word “repent” in Biblical terms generally means “to turn around, to turn back.” We’ve layered it with all kinds of meanings about doing bad things, but we don’t really think about what it means to the people of the Bible: “turn back to God.” And today we might say: “focus your attention on God.”

This isn’t the quite the same thing as saying “don’t do bad things,” but when we turn back to God, we tend NOT to do bad things, right? So instead of saying “Repent! For the Kingdom of God has come near.” What if we were to say “Focus on God! For the Kingdom has come near.”

And when our focus turns toward God, and when we worry less about a list of sins and more about just being in God’s loving presence, then we begin to open ourselves up to God’s generosity, to God’s good news:

The Lord will care for his people as a gentle shepherd and gather the lambs in his arms.

 The Lord doesn’t want anyone to perish.

There is one coming who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

So we learn about the good news through the messengers of God in today’s lessons: the voice in Isaiah, the writer of Second Peter, and John the Baptist.

That’s pretty good, right? But let’s face it: it can all seem so 2000 years ago.

We’re not captives waiting to go home, we don’t worry so much about when Jesus will come back, and we’re not rushing out to the desert to see some crazy guy baptizing people in a shallow river.

We hear these stories regularly. We study them, we even preach about them. But what do they mean now, in today’s frantic, connected, impatient world? How do we understand the “good news” when it’s hard to find a decent job, when millions of people live on the edge of poverty, and when we are divided more and more by class and politics?

These seem to me, my friends, a few of the hard questions Advent calls us to consider. They’re questions we’re asked to think about as we approach our glorious celebration of Christmas.

And even as I reflect on all of this, I do start to ask myself: “where is the good news today and who are the messengers of God? Is anyone still speaking to us?”

And when I look out at all of you, I begin to find an answer.

Yes, yes we are busy people and many of us are overworked. Some of us are looking for jobs, some of us are hoping our jobs won’t go away. Some of us are captives of anger or abuse or fear, and sometimes we do forget, or are insensitive to, or are unaware of, the needs of others.

But let’s just take a moment. Look around this sacred space and you’ll begin to see God’s good news all around you: there are people here who love you. There are people here who knit for the needy, who feed the hungry, who teach our children, who visit the sick, who heal our bodies, and who give voice to those who have none.

There are people here who will pray for you and for people they don’t even know. There are people here who study scripture, who sing, who set up for services, who cook for us, and who welcome all to the Lord’s table.

There are people here who are as gentle as a good shepherd, who don’t want anyone to perish, and who have been touched by the Holy Spirit.

So where is God’s good news today, in Advent 2011? It’s right here. It’s being lived out through every one of you, every day, in ways big and small.

And where are the messengers of God preparing the way of the Lord and sharing this good news? They’re right here, too.

They’re us.

Amen.