17.12.06 Ed Mackenzie Advent 2 Luke 3: 7-18 Advent Preparation
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Advent
is about preparation, looking forward with expectation to God’s
kingdom! And the message of the Gospel today seems to be that
preparation isn’t always easy. I was reminded of this earlier this
week when I went to bed straight after working on this reflection; I
woke up having dreamt that as I delivered the reflection the
congregation – yourselves – chatted amongst each other and began
to walk out, a dream I hope isn’t prophetic. Preparing for anything
worthwhile can be difficult and time consuming – it can mess with
our minds.
I wonder, for example, how you prepare when guests arrive in your home? Ali and I have some guests staying at the moment, and when we are awaiting visitors it’s all systems go, usually with Ali being slightly more directive than I anticipated from our wedding vows. We engage in a flurry of activity a couple of hours prior to our guest’s arrival – the lounge is cleared and the bedroom and study filled with the debris, which once again spreads throughout the house following the guest’s departure! The time we take to tidy our home often raises our stress levels but we are always glad to have gone to the trouble of doing so.
People also get ready in a different ways for the same event. We have some friends who have recently had a child, but prior to the birth they prepared for the event in very individual ways. The mother avidly read as many books on child birth she could find, scanning the internet and magazine articles for information on how to best give birth and handle a small baby. The father, on the other hand, did what seemed like nothing – depending on your perspective, he either trusted that all would be fine or ignored the implications of the coming event. Despite the different ways they prepared, both are up to their elbows and in caring for and enjoying their new daughter.
The third advent candle lit today represents John the Baptist in his role preparing for Jesus. The candles of advent remind us that Jesus did not emerge into the world out of a vacuum but came to us in a particular context, in a specific historical period and with historical forerunners. John the Baptist, a relative of Jesus according to Luke, prepared the way for Jesus by calling for repentance and announcing that the Messiah was still to come. John’s preparation for the coming of Jesus can also challenges and shapes our own advent preparations.
John’s called for radical repentance expressed in water baptism and in so doing described God’s will for human relationships. God, according to John, is a lover of justice and equality. John challenges his hearers to take responsibility for their own behaviour, not relying simply on their family or ethnic background, for God ‘can raise up children of Abraham from these stones’. I remember how an older relative of mine, an avid horse lover, would describe people as well as horses as ‘being well bred’ or ‘of good stock’. But for God, no one is favoured because they are of ‘good stock’ – God looks at the heart, not the family tree, and the way we live, not the privileges we inherit. As someone once put it, ‘God has no grandchildren’ – we are all equal before God, all invited into relationship.
When asked by the crowd what they should do, John calls for a lifestyle shaped by concern for others. Those who have two coats should share with those who have none and those who have food should share with those who are hungry. Asked by tax collectors and soldiers what they should do, John warns them against misusing the power their have as officials over the people. John’s vision here is similar to Jesus’ description of the Kingdom of God, in which the poor are blessed, and those who seek righteousness are called the children of God. John’s call for sharing echoes the values of the kingdom.
If advent is about preparation, John’s description of what repentant living means challenges me to think about how I can show the ‘fruits of repentance’ in the lead up to Christmas, and in that way prepare for the arrival of Christ. When I first came to Edinburgh, I was shocked to see homeless people begging on the streets, something I had never seen in New Zealand. I couldn’t understand how people could fall through the gaps in State provision and, while I realise it’s a complex issue, I’m inspired by those groups and organisations which work to help the homeless, whether Bethany, the Cyrenians or the Rock Trust. It seems to me that in helping the homeless we seek to share what we have received from God with others. For, as Oscar Romero put it, ‘The Christian society that God wants is one in which we share the goodness that God has for everyone.’ And we can share God’s goodness in many different ways in the lead up to Christmas.
As well as describing the fruits of a life orientated towards God, John points towards Jesus as the Messiah who is coming. Luke tells us that John the Baptist preached ‘good news’ to the people, but the good news was not just a message but a person. Jesus – God with us – is the good news for the world.
Asked by the crowds whether he was the Messiah, John takes the way of humility, refusing to be recognised as such. Instead, John instructs the crowds to look for the coming One whose sandal straps he would not be worthy to untie. As Jesus puts it elsewhere, John is like the friend of the bridegroom – the best man, we might say – who steps aside when the bridegroom comes to the altar.
Advent is about preparation, and just as John stepped aside and pointed to Jesus, I think that we can also prepare for Christmas by ‘stepping’ aside for others, recognising that in serving others we serve Christ. I know that my grandmother always stepped aside at Christmas time, spending hours in the kitchen while the rest of us enjoyed the New Zealand sun, though I know that Christmas sun is difficult to imagine in Scotland this time of year. There are many like my grandmother this time of year – mothers everywhere, those visiting the lonely, those spending Christmas helping in care shelters or even those preparing to make Christmas as exciting as possible for their children. In all these ways of preparation Christ is present.
We all know that Christmas can also be a stressful time, so I wonder whether as Christians there are different ways that we also prepare. Perhaps this means looking at ways to make Christmas simpler, and I’m sure that many of you know the Alternativity project which produces ideas and materials for this. Sometimes preparing well means preparing less, and taking time for the small things rather than being drawn into hectic activities associated with this time of year.
John the Baptist, then, steps aside because he recognises that Jesus is God’s promised Messiah. John explains that while he baptised with water, the coming one will baptise with the Spirit and fire. Commentators are divided over what the ‘fire’ refers to – as a prophet of judgement, John the Baptist may have meant it to express the punishment brought by the Messiah, but in the book of Acts when the Spirit falls on the disciples with ‘tongues of fire’, it seems to indicate the power of God’s presence. The disciples are transformed from fearful followers to people who spread the good news of Jesus around the Mediterranean, shared with the needy in their midst, and met Christ in the apostles’ teaching and the breaking of bread.
So while advent is about preparation, it’s not just about what we do, but about what God has done and does do in our lives. God is the one who prepares us as we seek to shape our lives by the person of Jesus. Jesus’ presence –baptism in His Spirit – means that we rely not on ourselves but on God to transform us into the kind of people and the kind of church that reflects His Kingdom.
Looking at John’s call for repentance might lead to guilt if we focus on our failure to live up to God’s call, but the Gospel tells us that Jesus can transform us by his presence and his action within us. I don’t think that this means we’re totally passive and simply wait for change to happen, but by opening ourselves up to the presence of Jesus in prayer, Scripture, Sacraments and the whole of life we can be changed – perhaps slowly, but certainly surely. Just as Jesus was born in Bethlehem, so He can be born in us. The reading from Philippian’s in today’s lectionary talks about some of the fruits of this transformation, whereby, ‘the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding guards our hearts and minds in Jesus Christ’ (Phil 4:7).
Advent, then, is about preparation! Preparation isn’t always easy, but the Gospel reading invites us to make our lives ready for Christ, to step aside for the sake of others, and ultimately to prepare our hearts and lives to encounter Christ who came 2000 years ago but still comes to us and speaks to us today.
Amen.