The Second Sunday of Advent: Prepare the Way

12/5

season of light

On the second Sunday of Advent, I was with the Beverley Church community again.  Here si my reflection.....

This is always one of my favorite Sundays of the year.  The Second Sunday of Advent.  The Sunday John the Baptist comes back to the stage again. But before we get to him, first a few words about Advent…Advent comes from the Latin to come…we’re talking about what’s to come…and specifically, we’re talking about the coming of Jesus.  And every year when  we enter Advent, we’re entering a season, a time of preparation for the celebration of 3 comings at the same time. 

First, there’s the very existential celebration of this year’s Christmas with who you will be with …family of origin or family of choice, friends, loved ones….the unique circumstances of this particular year as they are for each of us. And as we live in together as a community.   And as the world around us is inundated with the secular Christmas season, Advent can become for us a place for us of respite, of peace and refreshment for our soul. 

Second, we look back to the historic birth of Jesus, millennia ago, and try to make sense of God’s choice to enter into our world in human form. And what significance that might have for us today. 

And finally there is that coming yet to come, that so-called second coming when Jesus comes back to wrap things up, sing the 11 PM grad finale song  and pull the curtain down on this production.  But in a recent conversation with my friend Naim Atik from Jerusalem, he suggested that another way to translate this is not second coming, but Jesus comes again. Again because in fact, Jesus never has left us. He has been here  with us all along, amen, 

So now we’re ready for John. I want you too notice something….how very specific Luke is about time:

1In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, 2during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 

He wants to be very specific.

Like hear this:

The first year of the Presidency of Joseph Biden, the last year of the mayorship of William De Blasio in the last month before the mayoralty of  Eric Adams in the year that Kathy Hochul succeeded Anthony Cuomo when Francis is Pope in Rome and Bob Brashear about to be installed as Moderator of New York City Presbytery (had to work that in) the word came to the people of Beverly in Brooklyn, See? Like that…

Now who was this John the Baptist? According to Luke, he was the son of Zechariah…Zechariah, a priest of the Jerusalem Temple.  That means John came from privilege, like being the son of a tell steeple preacher. From the heart of the religious establishment. This is the one who will head out to the desert, dressed like the most radical of hippies, and go way beyond vegan diet wise. 

I recently watched the new movie The Eyes of Tammy Faye.  It was the story of famous Tammy Faye Baker, wife and ministry partner of PTL Club founder televangelist Jim Baker. She of course famous for her make up and high gloss finish. Actually, she rocked a lot of boats by not simply accepting a woman’s role as “helpmate”, openly talking about what Christian couples could do to improve their sex lives to bringing an openly gay pastor on her show. The evangelical establishment was scandalized.

This was all before their empire came crashing down because of Jim's conviction for mail fraud and his hush money  sex scandal. But here’s what I’m getting to…several years ago, I had an encounter with their son Jay.  Turned off by what he had seen of religion, he walked away from it entirely. Got his hair punked out,  got some serious  tattoos and dived into the world of alternative culture.

Where I encountered him was in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, he had felt called to be a pastor of his own unique style and far from the Bible Belt in the urban wilderness he created the Revolution Church at Pete’s Candy Store preaching a gospel of love, non-judgment and acceptance. And social responsibility. He had special heart for young people who were runaways or throw aways or otherwise outcasts. And there’s a special place in his heart for the LGBTQ community who had surrounded his mom with so much  love as she was dying of cancer.

When I think of a modern-day John the Baptist, he’d look a lot like Jay Baker. 

So what was John the Baptist up to?  proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins…. Telling his community that it was time to turn around, go a new direction …and accept forgiveness. 

Quoting from Isaiah, he called the people to join him in the work of messianic preparation ….leveling the mountains, lifting up the valleys, making the way clear…serious accessibility…curb cuts and elevators and kneeling buses…that kind of smooth path ..like they say on the subway, this is an accessible station…the road to salvation is barrier free….

That’s what Advent is for us….a time of preparation, for getting ready,,,we should start our service with Prepare ye the word of the Lord from Godspell and finish with People Get Ready there’s a Train a Comin…

What dies that mean for us today? We live in a time of great stress and tension. The greatest income disparity since the 1920’s. A global pandemic that shows no sign of ending soon. Hurricanes on the coast, firenados in California, the greatest flowing stream of refugees and migrants the world over close to half our people don’t believe in democracy anymore. My oldest son said to me, dad, I’m not sure I believe in God, but if he was trying to gat our attention it would  look something like this…

But I also remember my friend Father Duffell who said, For most of us, reflecting  on our own death, our own mortality is apocalypse enough. If we take care of our own lives, God will take care of the rest…

Advent is a time of preparation. For the coming Kingdom (Kindom) of God. And we do that by stepping into and living in the kingdom that is already here. The community of those who  choose to gather in the name of Jesus. And practice then ministry of forgiveness of sins. There is a story about a man who asked his rabbi, Rabbi is it necessary to pray for forgiveness every day?  And his rabbi responded, No.not at all.  Only on the day before you die…

And so it’s time to get ready, to get prepared. The best Christmas gift we could give the coming baby Jesus …and each other…and ourselves..would be to truly live out a life of repentance and forgiveness of sins…beginning  with the one we have the most difficult  time forgiving, mainly ourselves.

In the very particular circumstances of this very particular year, let us prepare the way, let us prepare the way…

Let those with ears to heart, hear….

                                                                               *****

 1In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, 2during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, 4as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,

"The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:

'Prepare the way of the Lord,

make his paths straight.

5Every valley shall be filled,

and every mountain and hill shall be made low,

and the crooked shall be made straight,

and the rough ways made smooth;

6and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'"