Prelude to the Sermon: From the beginning of my preparation
for this sermon, I could hear the music from Handel’s “Messiah” floating around
in my brain. But what most people don’t realize is that the libretto – the
words that go with the music - was not written by Georg Frederick Handel, but
instead compiled by Charles Jennens to prove a theological point – that Jesus
was the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy.[i]
Anticipation
as Preparation…
On May 25, 1977, I stood in line for
two hours with my friends to buy a ticket at our local movie theater. I was
graduating from high school in ten days, and preparing to leave on a European
tour with my high school band and orchestra the day after graduation. The buzz
on the street was that this movie was not to be missed, and so we did it. We
stood in the hot sun and waited. Our relief was noticeable as we were able to
get seats for the next show and not have to wait three hours more. We settled
in with our big drinks and our popcorn and our junior mints and waited for the
lights to dim.
Darkness surrounded us, and a starry
field emerged. And words started scrolling by… “A long time ago, in a galaxy
far, far away…Episode 4: A New Hope…” And so it began. And amazingly, over
forty years later, people anxiously await the next chapter in the story steeped
in the struggle between good and evil… Mandalorian Season 3, we’re waiting for
you! What would happen if we anticipated the coming of Christ in the same way?
As I read through the lessons for
this week, I was struck at the similarity of how the Star Wars stories are
introduced with how we learn about Jesus. George Lucas sets the scene by
placing the story in a particular time and place, clearly different from the
world in which we live, but not different at all. The biblical story does the
same. Today, we have three readings that set the story of Jesus in a historical
and theological context.
In the first lesson, the prophet
Malachi foretells the coming of a messenger.
The Messiah doesn’t just appear out of nowhere. Someone comes on the
scene and asks the world, “Are you ready?” The refiner’s fire he mentions is
used to purify gold and silver, making it more beautiful and more valuable. In this difficult and dangerous process, the
question goes from “Are you ready for him to come?” to “Are you ready for what
comes next?” The prophet tells us this message will change us. It will require
something from us… something that will be pleasing to God.
The reading from Luke 1 is a prophecy
from Zechariah and pairs with the reading from Luke 3. We don’t hear a lot
about this Zechariah – he is the father of John, a priest serving in the
Temple, old and childless with his wife Elizabeth. When told by the angel
Gabriel that his wife would bear a son who would be a great prophet, he did not
believe the promise. And so his voice was taken away until the angel’s promise
was fulfilled. In time, Elizabeth did become pregnant. Still, Zechariah was
silent.
A wonderful account follows in Luke
1 of the visit between Elizabeth and her cousin Mary, who is also with child.
We remember Elizabeth reassuring Mary that her angel’s promise would be
fulfilled… even Elizabeth’s unborn child leaped in her womb when Mary arrived.
We remember the wonderful words of the Magnificat, Mary’s song of praise as she
carried the unborn Messiah (and we will hear it again next week in worship),
but few of us know the hymn of Zechariah that follows the birth of John.
When three months later Elizabeth
gives birth to a son, she is told to name him John, which was unusual as it was
not a family name. But in affirming this name by writing on a tablet,
Zechariah’s voice was immediately restored, and he proclaimed, “Bless the Lord
God of Israel because he has come to help and has delivered his people…”
Zechariah’s proclamation is
interesting because when we read it, we think he must have gotten his verb
tenses mixed up. He announces that God has delivered his people. This implies that the people are already
saved - even though John is just a baby and Jesus isn’t born yet. Through this
proclamation, we are reminded that our salvation is not an isolated or new
thing. We are brought into the relationship God had with his people in the past
– the promises made to Abraham and all of his descendants become our promises,
too. As John and Jesus come into the
world, God is continuing the work of salvation, just as was promised.
We’ve talked about this before, but
here’s a reminder: Many Jews believed that the Messiah would come and change
the political order, but instead God’s promise transcended the political state
of that day and these days, too. Even after Jesus’ death and resurrection, Jerusalem
and Judah were still occupied by Rome. But those who believed in Jesus as the
promised Messiah were ultimately delivered from Rome’s power over them. This is
part of the resurrection story. The power of Rome, which is centered on the
threat of the cross as a way to keep people controlled, is not enough to keep
Jesus from exerting his God-given power. In the end, resurrection will always
win. God’s promises will always prevail.[ii]
What Zechariah proclaims about John
is simple. He will be a prophet who prepares the way for someone even greater,
and in doing so, will tell people about the power of forgiveness, and the great
compassion of God. We often think of the message of the prophets being words of
gloom and doom…. “Clean up your act, or else.” But Zechariah’s words remind us
that ultimately, the prophetic word is a call home to the loving arms of God.
The gospel lesson sets the ministry
of John, and also Jesus, in a specific historical context. They are real
people, set into a documented history. We can read about it, see the archeological
evidence and walk among the ruins and rebuilt streets and buildings, immersing ourselves
in that story. Each of the rulers listed at the beginning of this chapter was a
historical figure who ruled in a particular time that can be verified by public
record. They were people with great power, each of whom had power and influence
over many. Some were Romans – others were Jews, but God did not choose them to
initiate the big change that was coming.
The wild man John seems the
most unlikely candidate to start the revolution, living out his mission in the
most unlikely place. Like the Old Testament prophets before him, he does his
work, not in a vacuum, but stirring up trouble at the very center of the
political world around him. And as insignificant – and maybe a little crazy –
as John seems, his prophecies about who Jesus is and what he will do will shake
the very foundation of the world. Nothing will ever be the same.
So, what does John say? First, John
speaks of repentance. Now the word repent doesn’t just mean saying that we are
sorry. It means completely turning around, requiring a total change in the way
we think and the way we live… in the way we think about who God is and what God
requires of us.
Second, John proclaims a message of
hope. John the Baptist was announcing the coming of the Messiah, and he was
calling for repentance. The crisis he was speaking to was not an outward,
national crisis, but rather the inward, personal need for the people of his day
to prepare for the coming of the Lord.[iii]
Just as Isaiah spoke a word of hope
to those who were in physical exile, John speaks hope to those who are longing
for a different way of life – for salvation – and tells us to prepare the way
for him coming. This is not just about preparing ourselves, but also preparing
the world around us, making it possible for the salvation of God to be made
real for everyone and everything.[iv]
I’m sure this has happened to you.
You plug in the name of the town where you want to travel and, in the list,
your GPS tells you it’s 50 miles away. But when you choose the place, and the
route is calculated, the distance gets bigger, sometimes almost twice as far
you believed it to be. In the South, we call that first calculation “as the
crow flies.” And the second – well, that’s just “going by the road.”
When John talked about crooked
places being made straight and rough places being made smooth, he was not
talking about cutting down on the amount of distance we travel in the world, or
the quality of the roads. He wanted people to examine their lives and confess
the places where their rough places needed smoothing out, where their
crookedness needed straightening. Repentance was the first step and baptism were
the signs of their commitment to new life. But the change did not end there.
Throughout his
ministry, he called people with encouragement, to not run away from their
problems, or avoid God’s judgment, or flee from the wrath to come. In the midst
of it all, he asked people to change their lives and, in doing so, change their
world. His call was for us to bear fruit worthy of the gift of forgiveness.
So today, I ask this: What does it
mean in your life for the crooked to be made straight and the rough places made
smooth? 2021 has seemed like the year of the crisis. Fires and floods, hurricanes
and drought, snow and cold, wars and terrorism, masks and vaccines, shutdowns
and lockdowns slowing us all down. Plans are being reworked again and again.
This is not the Advent season that we wanted. But it is the one we have.
When the crowds
asked John how they were to make the crooked straight and the rough smooth, he
said, “If you have two coats share one with a person who has none; do likewise
with your food.” He told the tax collectors not to collect any more than they
were authorized. He told the soldiers not to harass or cheat anyone, and to be
satisfied with their pay. In other words, he called upon people to straighten
out their lives by caring for the lost and the least among them. And this is a
word for us, too.[v]
In 2015, when
Germany was just at the beginning of the Great Migration, Muslim refugees
traveled great distances to find safety and a place where they could make new
lives. And as Saint Nikolas Day (December 6th) approached,
communities with longstanding traditions started wondering if they needed to
change what they had always done. In the village where I live, St Nikolas
greets the children in the forest and hands out presents. Music is played and
carols are sung.
In preparation for
the feast day, men in towns and villages all over Germany are trained to
interact with children, dressing up to tell them St Nikolas’ story and about his
ministry from long ago. Good, sensitive people wondered if presenting
themselves to Muslim refugee children would be offensive, and what if anything,
they should do to tailor their conversations in that context. Eventually, it
was decided that because St Nicholas is the patron saint of all children, that
they would go where they were welcomed. One St Nicholas portrayer related his
experience that spending time with a group of Muslim girls was one of the best
experiences he had ever had.[vi]
There is no magic
solution for the problems of the world. God is working in every one of these
crises, but he’s working through us. We are his hands and feet, carrying the
burden of others and helping them pick up the pieces and rebuild. We are his
voice proclaiming not just a message of ethereal hope that wafts like a ribbon
of smoke through hurting people’s lives, but hope as acts of love and courage
that meets people where they are and brings them with us to wholeness – the
place where God wants all of us to live.
I don’t know what
that looks like for you. I don’t even know what it looks like for me right now.
But I do feel John’s message stirring me from my fear and doubt and complacency
and asking me to do something…. He has set the stage – now it’s time for us to
act! Prepare the way of the Lord!
Peace, Deb
(c) Deb Luther Teagan, December 2021
[i] Robert
Harris, Handel’s Messiah: Six Surprising Facts, http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/handel-s-messiah-6-surprising-facts-1.3351122
[ii]
Robb McCoy and Eric Fislter, Pulpit Fiction, http://www.pulpitfiction.us/show-notes/144-advent-2c-dec-6-2015.
[iii]
Dawn Chesser, Preaching Helps, December 6, 2015, www.UMCdiscipleship.org
[iv]
McCoy and Fistler
[v]
Dawn Chesser
[vi]
“Traditions and the New Refugees,” https://www.deutschland.de/en/news/tradition-and-the-new-refugees
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