2 Advent Year B 12/10/2023
Isaiah 40:1-11; Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13; 2 Peter 3:8-15a; Mark 1:1-8
Rev. Mark A. Lafler
Advent is a penitential season in the church calendar.
The other major penitential season is Lent.
Penitential means to give or express penance…
Meaning to confess, repent, and seek forgiveness.
And unlike Lent, Advent places those that follow it in a weird and strange position…
at odds with our North American culture…
It kind of makes all Episcopalians, Roman Catholics, Lutherans and others (who follow the Christian calendar) out to be scrooges…
As we prepare for Christmas…
without really celebrating it… yet.
Sometimes… from somewhere deep inside us…
the Advent police come out…
No Christmas carols, No Merry Christmas, No parties, not yet!!
Our society is not there… nobody advertises much for Advent…
except as a way to count down the days until 25th of December…
This is especially noticeable in Mount Dora as there is a Christmas event every weekend…
Nevertheless, we follow the Christian tradition…
the Christian calendar… faithfully…
which leads us smack dap in the middle of tension between church and culture…
And it’s here that we enter a strangely dressed…
locust-eating… preacher named John the Baptist.
John shows up on the scene… out in the wilderness…
calling for repentance… like an Old Testament Prophet…
In fact, that is why he is dressed the way he is…
The Gospels are connecting him to the Old Testament prophet Elijah… who also wore a “leather belt around his waist” (2 Kings 1:8)
The Gospel of Luke says that John the Baptist –
…With the spirit and power of Elijah he will go before [Jesus], to turn the hearts of parents to their children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
(Luke 1:17)
The “rough” clothing and austere diet recall the stern self-sacrificing, self-denying ministries of the Old Testament prophets.
And his message was similar to the prophets of old…
Our Gospel reading from Mark says:
John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness,
proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
And 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.
Baptism wasn’t new in Jewish culture…
Many practiced a ritual baptism for various groups of Judaism…
so, it wasn’t totally strange to have this “Baptism of repentance” that John preached…
But John did fulfill the scripture from our Old Testament reading in Isaiah 40 (3-5)
It is written:
A voice cries out:
“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
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.
Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all people shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
John prepared the way for Jesus…
He was the bridge between the Old Testament and the New Testament.
He was the hinge between the Old Testament prophets and the prophet – Jesus Christ… the messiah…
He prepared the way for the coming of Christ…
the Advent of Christ.
The word advent means arrival…
And so, he prepared for the arrival of Jesus.
And just as John prepared the way for Jesus first advent…
So, we prepare the way for Jesus second coming…
the second advent…
And our message is the same as John’s,
“Repent! For the Kingdom of God is near.”
We heard in our second reading from Peter’s second letter (3:9):
The Lord is… patient with you, not wanting any to perish,
but all to come to repentance.
This is our message in preparing for the coming of Jesus…
Repentance means to change…
to turn from what you are doing…
to turn 180 degrees and walk the other way…
This message of repentance comes to us…
invades our lives in two ways:
First, we are called to repent…
All of us… ALL of us…
have areas in our life that we are not proud of…
areas where we need the conviction of the Holy Spirit…
areas that we need to confess and repent…
Sins of unforgiveness…
Sins of immorality…
Sins as described in the Holy Scriptures…
Billy Graham, who often played the 20th century role of John the Baptist, had these comments about the disease running rampant in our world… He said:
“We’re suffering from only one disease in the world.
Our basic problem is not a race problem.
Our basic problem is not a poverty problem.
Our basic problem is not a war problem.
Our basic problem is a heart problem.
We need to get the heart changed, the heart transformed.”
Advent is a call to confession… a call to repentance…
To change the way we live…
in preparation for the coming of Jesus.
Second, we are called to preach repentance…
Just as John the Baptist preached repentance in preparation of the coming of the Messiah…
as the people of God,
we are to preach repentance as well…
This is what St. Paul preached…
listen to his testimony to King Agrippa in Acts (26:19-20):
St. Paul said: After that, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those in Damascus,
then in Jerusalem and throughout the countryside of Judea,
and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God
and do deeds consistent with repentance.
Just as St. Paul… we too are called to preach repentance.
Now, we don’t preach repentance from a place of power…
To bring guilt and shame… to lift us up…
We preach repentance from a place of brokenness…
I occasionally hear that some people don’t come to church because of the overwhelming weight of their sins…
as if lightning would strike them if they walked into a church building…
I think that’s a bit strange…
It is precisely because of the weight of our sins that we come to church…
So that we can assemble together…
Worshipping God in our brokenness…
not because we have it all-together…
but because we don’t…
We worship God in our brokenness.
And from this place of brokenness…
we receive forgiveness…
we are given absolution…
and this is Good News…
And we turn and share this good news…
Good news of repentance…
which brings freedom.
Which is why we preach repentance…
Not legalistic manipulation…
but freedom-giving repentance…
We are called to bring change into this world…
We change as we yield to the Holy Spirit…
repenting of our own sins.
The world around us changes as we tell people the good news of Jesus Christ…
We are called to this change…
As we prepare for the coming of Jesus.
And we don’t do this by our own skill… our own strength…
John the Baptist 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.
I have baptized you with water;
but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
(Mark 1:7-8).
We who now prepare for the coming of the King are filled with the very presence of God… the Holy Spirit…
we are baptized for the calling before us…
To proclaim the coming of Jesus.
The late theologian Carl Michalson was once tussling playfully with his son on their front lawn…
…when Michalson accidentally hit the young boy in the face with his elbow.
It was a sharp blow full to his son’s face.
Stunned by the impact of the elbow…
hurting and about to burst into tears…
The boy looked into his father’s eyes.
And instead of anger and hostility,
he saw his father’s sympathy and concern…
he saw his father’s love and compassion.
Instead of exploding into tears,
the little boy suddenly burst into laughter.
What he saw in his father’s eyes made all the difference!
The sharp blow of God’s message to us is: Repentance…
And at first it seems painful… impossible…
But, look into your heavenly father’s eyes.
What he offers you is forgiveness and that makes all the difference.
Repent and you will be forgiven…
That’s a promise.
Amen.