Sermon for the Second Sunday of Advent – 10th December 2023: ISAIAH 40:1-11, MARK 1:1-8, 2 PETER 3:8-15

Deacon Chris Saccali – St Paul’s Athens

 

A FOR ADVENT

 

May the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts always be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord our strength and Redeemer.

That’s it then Bazaar done and dusted for another year, and we are so grateful to all those who prepped, organised and turned up on the day plus cleared away. Christmas is on the horizon. That’s the trouble, isn’t it? We think and act as if we already know the end of the story. Most of us missed the service here last week, through other duties, so we neglected the Church New Year beginning in Advent.

Actually, Mark 13 was the set reading last week. Go back and read the sermon and service sheet on the church website if you like. It was all about waking up and staying alert. We might not feel like doing that towards the end of the secular year but this is one of the themes of Advent.

Many of us believe that this time of waiting and watching,  Advent, a sacred season, is all building up to  the big C word. So we merrily skip through it. The Advent Calendars on sale seem to bear no resemblance to those of my childhood, with luxury items installed behind every door or window. Andrew Caspari the Diocesan CEO says the same in his introduction to the Autumn Newsletter online, He suggests using each page of the news bulletin as a window on Advent.

I choose to use an Advent Candle and take time out every day with it lit for reflection maybe not even reading just being. Those candles are not easy to track down here – you can possibly find them at the Swedish Bazaar and they usually only have numbers marked on them from 1-24 for the days of December up to Christmas Eve. It works this year but not every advent.

We hope to start a craft group in the Northern suburbs soon as someone has kindly offered their home as a venue. One project may be advent Candles and another for Mothering Sunday. All ideas welcome especially using upcycling and recycled materials, we want to be an eco church as far as we can. We are grateful to Terry for starting a weekly Advent Course and are so glad we can now begin to gather together in homes.

 

So here we are now in Year B in the lectionary cycle and our designated gospel is Mark where the birth narratives of Matthew and Luke, all scant 120 verses of them, have no mention at all.  Over the centuries, the story of Jesus’ birth has become embellished and elaborated.

The evangelist Mark, writing for the first Christians, begins with this strange character striding out in the desert more in keeping with Old Testament prophets.

And the passage has quotes from Malachi and Isaiah. One of the great promises of the Old Testament was that the people would be set free again and relive the Exodus. Another was that God would come down and live with his people.

Isaiah seems to be getting into the mood better by talking about comfort and tenderness but there he goes too in verse spoiling it all by mentioning wilderness. Just like those prophets , all doom and gloom but actually telling us thgere is hope and that there is still time to repent.

Isaiah seems to think that we won’t get the comfort unless we have faced the devastation. What’s more he seems to be saying that the desert we are sitting in is all of our own making. We have pulled up our roots and turned away from our ground and source of water and nourishment which is God. Now we are so weak and dry that we wander about aimlessly. Isaiah is referring to the Israelites, of course, but the sentiments ring true today.

In every time and generation, people have asked themselves what kind of world this is to bring a baby into. We are all waiting for a child to be born over the next three weeks. For Isaiah, the coming baby is not a sweet little infant we can coo over and then get on with our lives. Instead, God is like a breath of fire on our withered lives. When he breathes on us , all that is left is the wilderness and God. When at last we have noticed that there is no life left in us, then we will see the beginning of the extraordinary transformation of the desert. Where there was the empty waste that we made, there will be paths, heralds, shouting, a huge crowd following the glorious king through the wilderness. Sound familiar? Where the king goes life springs up, life that is directly dependent upon him and he knows it. The lambs don’t go searching around for food, but turn directly to the Lord and are lifted up and fed. Oh yes, comfort and tenderness, all right but only once we realise there is only one source. All the tackiness and trappings of commercial Christmas are a wilderness, without the life of God and God as centre of our lives.

So perhaps the birth that comes at the end of Advent with us hardly having time to draw breath this year between the fourth Sunday of Advent falling on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, is not the end but the beginning. That would make sense after all Christ is the Alpha and Omega the beginning and end. Everything.  They are embroidered on my white stole which I shall be wearing over the Christmas season and which was designed and given me for my ordination.

2 Peter suggests that we should be grateful for this odd way of proceeding, grateful for the fact that each ending is actually another beginning that is what Christianity is all about. Resurrection and second coming, because each new beginning gives us a little longer before we face the final end. ‘ Be grateful for the waiting says Peter.’ Stand in your wilderness and start to build a place   is at home.’ We acknowledge that we are a long way off that mark and dream. That is why Advent readings contain warning. You think you want the coming of Christ? Are you sure you know what you are asking for? We need to prepare ourselves and restore the world to its intended order.

In all the hustle and bustle of Christmas preparations we must remind ourselves again that Advent is a season about preparation. The Bazaar would not have been a success if we had just rocked up on the day. It is all about organisation and preparation. John the Baptist, who has two weeks of readings dedicated to him in year B, leads us to see that the most important preparation for Jesus’ first Advent is to prepare our hearts. This echoes Isaiah passage tending the ground to bloom again in new creation.

And many carols we will sing echo this sentiment. I think they are going to be more poignant than ever this year when we are thinking and praying for the Holy Land.  A number of the carols and readings will challenge us and make us ponder anew as we long for light and hope for the birth of baby Christ and for His return.

Let us pray: AMEN