In last week’s readings we were shocked by the surprising suddenness of God’s acts.
—“Comfort o’ Comfort my people” in
the 40th chapter of Isaiah was birthed out of 39 chapters of
affliction and a history of exile.
—“The beginning of the Good News of
Jesus Christ, the Son of God,” appeared out of nowhere, Rome and Herod didn’t
see it coming.
Not
so this week.
—This week we read from exiles
returned from Babylon, picking up the pieces—the survivors of a nuclear
exchange peeking their noses out of a bomb-shelter—so to speak.
—This week we find a more reflective
John the Baptist, giving an extended description of his place in the world in
light of the Gospel.
In
some ways, the pressure is off—the surprising salvation of God is known, and
therefore it needs to be wrestled with. Good News has been done, and continues
to be done, to God’s people, so there is more space to unpack and figure out
what salvation is. Last week was all about unexpected salvation, this week is
about reflective expectation.
Or
to get a little more with the season—get a little more Advent-y, what we have
before us today are examples of Active
Waiting… Waiting to see God’s
ongoing salvation roll out before us, but not
in a passive way, not plunked down
in a lawn chair doing nothing, but
instead doing so in a faithful manner—Actively
Waiting for Gospel.
Let us pray.
In
many ways, the situations of the returned exiles, and the community of John,
and the situation of the Thessalonians, mirror our own
—most of us here, by now, know that,
“Old Old story of Jesus and his Love,”
we trust that God is for us,
that we are saved from the powers of
Sin, Death, and the Devil through Christ’s Life, Death, and Resurrection.
We know these things—but we don’t always know what to do with
them.
Now,
the returned exiles responded to God’s saving act, using Cyrus the Great to
destroy the Babylonian Empire and free them from captivity—by rebuilding their
community on the twin pillars of Righteousness
and Praise.
Isaiah calls on those who return to
the Land to do justice to their neighbors—to act justly in society,
and to honor
God with their gladness, and full praise, and joy at the saving acts of God…
interestingly, sometimes it’s hard to distinguish between righteousness and praise—they
are quite intertwined:
—God’s covenant is honored when
robbery and wrongdoing is replaced with Justice.
—The rejuvenation of those broken by
oppression displays the glory of God.
Righteousness and praise…
XThis is why we worship together regularly (for example right now this Sunday, as
well as on Wednesdays throughout Advent) and this is also why, at all levels of
the Church, we engage with issues of the
Public Good (from our collections of food and gifts to our Synod’s
commitment to Public Housing to our National Church’s Malaria Campaign).
John,
quite likely the last of the canonical Gospels written, has had some time to
process the meaning of the Good News, and so John the Baptist reflects a way in
which that community, and our own,
can live in light of Jesus’ coming to us and for us. John is a witness, John testifies to Jesus.
In three of the four first verse we
read today, he is described as testifying
or giving testimony. His whole
interaction with the Levites is one long
public pointing to Jesus.
John
witnesses publically, grounded in a clear, but humble, certainty about
Jesus.
In some ways, this is the opposite of
how we Christians often witness—we prefer to do so privately, in an unclear
manner, and inserting a lot of ourselves
into the testimony that is supposed to be about Jesus.
XThis is why we encourage Bible Study and Confirmation (so we can be clear about the faith), why we occasionally
do Blessing Blurbs (so we can
practice pointing to Jesus instead of ourselves), and why we meet in a public
place for Pub Theology (again,
public proclamation)—all this, to practice Testifying
like John.
Finally, Paul’s first letter to the
Thessalonians is the earliest Christian writing we have—so it clearly points to
an early time when Christians are working out how one responds to God’s saving
act through Jesus Christ, even as they await his further saving acts. They are
working out how to actively wait for
Gospel.
Paul calls on the community to Rejoice—to borrow from CS Lewis, joy is not just being happy, but is living
in the ongoing joy of the Gospel, because Christ already acted for us.
Paul calls on the community to pray—…our beloved wants to hear from us—isn’t that amazing!
Paul calls on the community to give thanks—we have breath in our
bodies, shoes on our feet, and people to love—Thank God!
Paul calls on the community to listen for the Spirit speaking through our
fellow Christians (2x)—what are we saying to one another as a community?
He is also calling us to sift through those things:
--calling us to find what’s bad and keep away from it, and find
what’s good and treasure it.
XThis is why we encourage one another
to pray both together and on our
own,
why we continue to tell that old old story,
why the Eucharist—communion, is a Thanksgiving Meal,
and why we insist on an educated and trained clergy who have
been taught many tools with which to discern God acting in the community,
but also
that’s why each Christian has the
responsibility of their own conscience—it is yours as much as mine,
to discern the Spirit’s calling here in this place.
Righteousness
toward everyone and honor to God.
Clear, humble, public pointing to Jesus.
Prayer, ongoing joy, thanksgiving,
and discernment.
These are all marks of an Advent
faith
—these are all ways we may faithfully,
and actively, wait for the One who is faithful and will come, our Lord Jesus
Christ. A+A
