It’s All About Baptismal Life – 10 December 2017 – Second Sunday in Advent

Mark 1:1-8

John's proclamation includes his own lifestyle: he embodies possibility by insisting on living in a new way, one that disdains the trappings of power and maintains harmony with creation. John invites people, therefore, to live in a community that calls into question the whole of society. We prepare for Jesus by the way we live together now. . . .

Pheme Perkins asks: "How can modern men and women recapture the eager expectation that God will redeem humanity from the cosmic and human power of suffering, evil, and injustice?" (New Interpreter's Bible 8 Abingdon, 1995] 529-33.) The answer, she says, lies not in human longings for an end time that leads to a sectarian isolation from the larger community but by following Jesus into the real world of human experience.

John cries "in the wilderness," she suggests, because that is where the exiles of Isaiah and the Hebrews of the exodus walked in obedience to God's revelation. In the wilderness God's people are made receptive to God's grace and respond with hope by building a highway for the coming of God who has already drawn near to them and turned them toward the light of God's promise. –– Blair Gilmer Meeks

Isaiah 40:1-11

The people who have suffered from terror and exile will know God's mighty arm and tender care. God's goodness is not given because of the people's worthiness––they have, in fact, been faithless: "surely the people are like grass. The grass withers; the flower fades" (vv 7-8) –– but the people will be rescued because God is faithful. . .  

The image of the triumphal way prepared for God's entry contrasts with the splendid processional street, probably known by the exiles, that was enjoyed by the oppressive kings of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar's ornately decorated road to his throne has been partly reconstructed and, since German reunification, is easily accessible to visitors in Berlin's Pergamon Museum. Modern viewers cannot fail to be impressed with the symbols of power and astounding display of wealth represented by this ancient road.

God's triumphal way, on the other hand, is the way home for God's people and is built with the cooperation of creation. God intends to restore the people and all the earth.

God's coming will display power. . . but will also demonstrate God's tender care: the shepherd (or mother) feeds the flock, cradles the lambs in her bosom and gently leads the sheep (v 11).  –– Blair Gilmer Meeks

2 Peter 3:8-15a

2 Peter raises the question of how our Advent hope––our eschatological expectation––affects our present behavior. This issue, addressed in several epistles, was troubling to preachers and teachers who had observed a thoughtless attitude among some members of the community.

Why bother about everyday matters if the parousia is almost here? Our contemporary tendency to focus on Advent as a time of "spiritual" preparation for individuals may produce a similar predisposition, leading to a neglect of acts of justice and compassion.

There is, in other words, a social dimension to Advent waiting. To prepare for citizenship in God's resurrection household means living holy and just lives now. . . to participate in new life today. –– Blair Gilmer Meeks 

Blair Gilmer Meeks, was at the time of this writing, a pastoral minister, writer of worship-related resources, and leader of workshops on worship living in Brentwood, Tennessee. Among her four books is Standing in the Circle of Grief: Prayers and Liturgies for Death and Dying (Nashville: Abingdon, 2002). 

Homily Service 36, no. 1 (2002): 17-26.

Refining to Prepare – 6 December 2015 – Second Sunday in Advent

Advent is a season in which the messengers (Jesus, John the Baptist, and Mary) give us stark and mysterious language through which to look at the present from the vantage of the future. Visions of the future come from prophets. 

We preachers like to talk about the eschatological focus of this time and put that important-sounding language on the days instead of seeing Advent as a time merely to “prepare” for the birth of Jesus. But to speak of end-times, that eschatological realm, is to speak of what we are preparing to witness, because that future is now, the babe is past and coming, and time has collapsed. What Advent does is help us to clarify what real preparation entails. 

Luke 3:1-6

John the Baptist was of the lunatic fringe. He was physically on the fringe: on the banks of the Jordan, on the edge of the Promised Land. . . . He was psychologically on the fringe: a raging personality, insulting persons in authority, calling them to repent.

And yet the gospel tells us that John spoke a message of truth. This is the truth from the wild to the world. In the world persons live steady, stable, “normal” lives, constrained by the necessity of making a living and a desire to get along. In the wild, one is loosed from constraint and able to speak with a freedom that knows no bounds. With his wild ways, the voice of John the Baptist brought the world to attention.

For the people of Israel, the world was the promised land, which the Lord had carved for them out of the desert. The promised land had meaning, order and safety. The temple gave meaning as a reminder of God's presence. The Law provided order. Safety came from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

Surrounding this ordered world was the desert, dangerous for the body as well as the soul. Wild animals threatened the body. . . Temptations threatened the soul. . . Only the holy could survive there. Elijah or Jesus went there to be tested. If order and meaning were to be found in the world, truth and holiness were to be found in the wild.

It is similar in the Western imagination. Whether in Europe or in America, the “world” of order was that settled place, carved out of the dangerous wilderness. . . .  The world needs to stay in conversation with the wild. Though Israel was born in the wild, during forty years of wandering in the desert, they could not leave it behind them. Once in the promised land, they could forget the wild only at their own peril. The prophets reminded them of it. – Fritz West

Malachi 3:1-4

The prophet Malachi points to the voice from the wilderness, as well, the place where what is not essential is burned away. We Christians link the prophets of the Old Testament with the one for whom we are to “prepare the way.” We may also see the image of the fire that refines as an image of salvation for which we are preparing. 

Is Immanuel the one who comes as a fire to burn away the dross and refine us, like the descendents of Levi processed into pure gold and silver, so that our offerings, our lives, will please God (Malachi 3:3)?   

. . . Perhaps the question is less about the character of the Coming One, and more about us. If we are hard-pressed and need rescue, we require a strong savior riding upon the clouds and smiting those who oppress us; if we enjoy relative comfort, especially if our wealth and privilege are derived from the exploitation or oppression of others, we must expect that the new order will ensure that those who are hungry now are filled while we may be sent empty away. – Scott Haldeman

Philippians 1:3-11

In Malachi, the refiner's fire and the fuller's soap (the latter reappears in descriptions of the Transfiguration) do not bring purity as an end in itself. Rather, they purify so that we may present offerings in righteousness. . . . But what might this mean for the “royal priesthood” (1 Peter) of the baptized? . . . How do we prepare ourselves to be pure and blameless, producing the “harvest of righteousness” (Phil. 1:10–11)? – Ron Anderson

Fritz West, a liturgical author and retired pastor of the United Church of Christ, lives in Marine on the St. Croix, Minnesota, and serves as the Presiding Member of the Association for Reformed & Liturgical Worship Steering Committee. 

W. Scott Haldeman is associate professor of worship at Chicago Theological Seminary, Chicago, Illinois.

E. Byron (Ron) Anderson is the Ernest and Bernice Styberg Professor of Worship and the Director of the Nellie B. Ebersole Program in Music Ministry at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois.

Homily Service 40, no. 1 (2007): 21-30.