Sermon preached on Sunday, December 15 at St. James
the Less, Nuremberg
Advent
3: Isaiah
35:1-10, James 5:7-10, Matthew 11:2-11
So, are you ready?
How is your preparation for
Christmas coming along? Have you bought all your presents – I haven’t yet: though
I do know what I want to get for my wife, which is a good start. Have you baked
the cake? Have you sent all your cards? Have you ordered your turkey or
whatever it is you have for your Christmas Dinner? If you can answer yes to all
these questions then you are really well prepared.
And how is your spiritual
preparation for Christmas coming along? Today is the 3rd Sunday of
Advent so we are three quarters of the way through this season the Church has
set apart for us to get ready, to prepare for the celebration of the birth of
our Lord. But it’s not too late to start. You might consider saying a prayer,
silent or aloud, when you light the candles on your Advent wreath. Or like in
Lent, that other much longer season of preparation, you might want to take on a
spiritual discipline. I’m reading this book for Advent, a collection of poems,
one for each day until Epiphany, with a reflection and a question for
self-reflection.[1]
And in Advent we really should also be reflecting on ourselves: who do we need
to ask for forgiveness for some wrong or some omission, and who do we need to
forgive?
Whatever you do, make sure that your
preparation includes time to think about what it means that God, God almighty,
the creator of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible, sent
God’s Son to us, that he became a human being, that he shared our human lot. Two
thousand years after the event we tend to take it for granted and forget just
how unexpected and – literally – incredible this was and is. When in today’s
Gospel reading from Matthew Jesus says “blessed is anyone who takes no offence
at me” that is what he is referring to: blessed is the one who does not take
offence, who is not shocked that Jesus is not doing what everyone expected the Messiah to
do. That he did not come in power and glory and as a ruler with an army to
liberate Israel, but as one who heals and cares and forgives and embodies God’s
love and liberates the whole world – but not by force.
Now it is comparatively easy to
prepare for something we know is coming, like Christmas, for something with a
fixed date: December 25th. It’s especially easy when we have things
like Advent wreaths and calendars to help us count down to the date. Each candle,
each door brings us a little closer. We can’t miss it.
But how are we supposed to prepare
for Christ’s second coming if we don’t know when it will be? Because
that is also what Advent is about. Two weeks ago we heard that “about that day
and hour no one knows” (Matthew 24:36) and that “the Son of Man is coming at an
unexpected hour” (Matthew 24:44) and in this week’s Epistle, James has to tell
his readers to be patient until the coming of the Lord. It is near, he tells
them, but the time and date are still unknown.
We certainly know what awaits us.
Each week in Advent the Old Testament lessons have been presented us with a
magnificent vision of what we are waiting for:
Advent 1: a
vision of peace. Swords will be beaten into ploughshares and no one will learn
war any more. (Isaiah 2:1-5)
Advent 2: a
kingdom of justice, prosperity, and righteousness – without fear in which the
wolf shall live with the lamb (Isaiah 11:1-10)
Advent
3: a place of everlasting joy and
gladness in which “sorrow and sighing shall flee away” (Isaiah 35:1-10).
So it is definitely something to
look forward to! But how do we prepare for an event like the Second Coming? How
do we prepare for the Advent of the Kingdom of God?
First let us not forget that the
Kingdom is not just some future event, it is also very present. Jesus inaugurated
it during his time on earth. He tells John’s disciples to tell John that
Isaiah’s prophecy of healing for the sick and good news for the poor is already
being fulfilled. Right relationships with God and with one another are not
something that has to wait until the End of Days.
Our role therefore is not just
patient waiting. Instead we are called to be active participants in the work of
building up the Kingdom of God; we have a role to play in its preparation.
Jesus empowered his disciples, whose successors we all are, to carry on his
work in the world. Both Jesus, talking about John the Baptist, and James hold
up prophets as examples of what is expected of us. What does that mean?
Thankfully not that we have to take John’s dress sense, a coat of camel’s hair,
or his diet of locusts an wild honey as examples: But certainly his single
mindedness and focus and his actions.
When James tells his readers to take
the prophets “who spoke in the name of the Lord as an example of suffering and
patience,” (James 5:10) he does not mean that they have to wait patiently and
passively. Prophets did not wait, they acted! They still needed to be patient,
as we do, because God’s message does not always get through first time – or
second – or third – etc. What message might that be? Well the prophet Isaiah
for example, from whom we have heard so much during Advent, called for economic
and social justice, he prophesied against those who deprived the needy and
robbed the poor. He promised salvation for all, to be brought by one who would both
serve and suffer. While he was not shy to warn and admonish, he also never
stopped preaching a message of hope.
John the Baptist too warned and told
those who came to see him and be baptized by him that they needed to change their
ways, to repent. He stood up against the powerful of his day and spoke the
truth regardless of the, in his case fatal, consequences. He too promised
salvation and forgiveness. He announced that one much greater would follow him
– one who would suffer and serve and save.
That folks is what we are called to
do
to prepare the
Kingdom of God - when we take the prophets as our example. Never to be silent
about injustice, to work actively for justice and peace, to tell people about
the promise of forgiveness and salvation in Jesus Christ, to announce the one who
came to serve, who suffered and who saves, and to be beacons of hope in the
world.
We do this through what we say and
even more through what we do. When John’s disciples ask Jesus if he is the one
who is to come he doesn’t launch into a long theological discourse but simply points
to his deeds. We are all called to show others what a difference Jesus makes in
our lives. We don’t want people to follow us, but to follow the one we follow.
That is how we prepare the way of the Lord.
So, are you ready?
Amen
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