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| Decorated for Christmas |
A cold December morning. The first snow. The second Sunday in Advent. And I'm on my way to Good Shepherd Faith Church. I enter the church to find it lit up with lights and holiday decorations. We light the Advent candles.
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| Lighting the second candle |
'Comfort Ye"
This always used to be one of my favorite Advent Sundays. Some of my favorite Bible verses and one of my favorite characters, John the Baptist. SO many memories...like when we all got together and did "Comfort Ye" at West Park? It continues to this day at SPSA but long forgotten is the role of our friend John in creating the project. I can still hear the solo tenor voice, maybe our late friend Philip, opening the evening in the darkened sanctuary, "Comfort Ye..." Handel's Messiah.
"Prepare Ye"
Yes....lots of memories. But here interrupting, disrupting, disturbing...comes John the Baptist...crying out..'Prepare Ye the way of the Lord.."
So...who is this guy? This man dressed in animal skins and living on 'locusts and and wild honey?" Like a dedicated nazirite, those ascetic prophets of the Lord.
By tradition, Jesus' cousin.His mother Elizabeth carrying him as Mary carried Jesus. Son of Zechariah, a temple priest..son of a tall steeple, 5th Avenue or Brick Presbyterian (Associate) Pastor. One way or another, a child of privilege. Turns hippie and heads to the wilderness.
Or like Jay Baker, son of Jim and Tammy Faye, who walked out of the PTL Club televangelist world and eventually walked into Pete's Candy Store in the wilderness of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, tattoos and all, to start the Revolution Church....
Think about that....
Jill Duffield who writes lectionary commentaries for the Presbyterian Outlook, reminds of us of an old story about the importance of punctuation:
Let's eat,mother
Let's eat mother.
Commas save lives
In this case it's the placement of a colon:
In Isaiah .
3 A voice cries out:
“In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
In Mark:
who will prepare your way;
3 the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight,’”
Are we to hear a voice crying out in the wilderness to prepare a way?
Or hear a voice telling us to prepare a way in the wilderness?
And does it ultimately matter?
I've got two issues for you...
First of all, what is wilderness to you?
and second, What does preparing the way mean?
Wilderness...good or bad? Positive or negative? It's where Israel became a people...where Jesus went to be tempted, to figure himself out... a pace where thngs are stripped down, simplified, clear...
or...man does it feel like a wilderness now...(Duffield)
Such wilderness wanderings are fraught with wild beasts, unexpected visitors and disorienting landscapes, but they also include manna, water and angels.
You don't have to go to the wilds of northern New York, those thick forests north of Lake Placid on the way to Canada...there can be a wilderness right here in the city..Williamsburg or Upper West Side..
What is your wilderness? What do you hear there?
How do we prepare? The women have called us to attention here...with the "me too"....so Al Franken's down...but what about Roy Brown? And need i say it, the president himself?
And we can't let this issue lead us to forget that we who are white folks have a lot of work to do to start deconstructing white privilege as well as male privilege. What have you all in this congregation experienced in your efforts to be a multicultural congregation learned? What do you have to share? What stories to tell?
I had dinner last night with the former Dutch Human Rights Ambassador to the United Nations...He said that the diplomats he knows want to know why we aren't rising up...filling the streets...what's going on?
I couldn't really answer that. The Revolutionary Communist Party has tried, but as could be expected, no mass uprising yet.
Start by being honest to yourself about yourself..then we all come together ...that's how we begin to prepare the way...
This time there was much conversation about what preparing the way meant, especially in this day. Some discussion of Jesus' anger. Knowing time and place of our responses. The general mood of tension in our subways and buses. The power of just one kind act. Our responsibility to lighten the world with kindness. A good conversation.
Over coffee downstairs there is casual conversation with the arriving members of the Korean language service. The conscious desire to connect in simple ways.
They call this the Advent Sunday of Peace.
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| Getting ready to preach |
First Reading Isaiah 40:1-11
1 Comfort, O comfort my people,
says your God.
2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and cry to her
that she has served her term,
that her penalty is paid,
that she has received from the Lord”s hand
double for all her sins.
3 A voice cries out:
“In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
and the rough places a plain.
5 Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed,
and all people shall see it together,
for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”
6 A voice says, “Cry out!”
And I said, “What shall I cry?”
All people are grass,
their constancy is like the flower of the field.
7 The grass withers, the flower fades,
when the breath of the LORD blows upon it;
surely the people are grass.
8 The grass withers, the flower fades;
but the word of our God will stand forever.
9 Get you up to a high mountain,
O Zion, herald of good tidings;
lift up your voice with strength,
O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings,
lift it up, do not fear;
say to the cities of Judah,
“Here is your God!”
10 See, the Lord GOD comes with might,
and his arm rules for him;
his reward is with him,
and his recompense before him.
11 He 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.
Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13
1 LORD, you were favorable to your land;
you restored the fortunes of Jacob.
2 You forgave the iniquity of your people;
you pardoned all their sin. Selah
8 Let me hear what God the LORD will speak,
for he will speak peace to his people,
to his faithful, to those who turn to him in their hearts.
9 Surely his salvation is at hand for those who fear him,
that his glory may dwell in our land.
10 Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet;
righteousness and peace will kiss each other.
11 Faithfulness will spring up from the ground,
and righteousness will look down from the sky.
12 The LORD will give what is good,
and our land will yield its increase.
13 Righteousness will go before him,
and will make a path for his steps.
Gospel Mark 1:1-8
1The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
2As it is written in he prophet Isaiah,
“See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way;
3 the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight,’”
4John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 6Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. 8I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
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