Advent 2C
5 Dec 2021
The themes of Advent: hope, love, joy, and peace.
There are other traditional ways of naming the Sundays or themes in Advent; regardless, the whole liturgical season is about what was, what is, and what will come to pass. Like the Eucharistic acclamation: Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. Past, present, future all mysteriously present in this season of heightened expectations. The Heinz ketchup season: the season where you wait and wait in anticipation of something good flowing outward.
I look at this second week of Advent as the week of love, not that love should ever be bound by a day or a week or a season. I tried (and hope you too will try) look at Paul and John through the eyes of love.
It is easy to pass off John as the epitome of the relative you hope will never come to your holiday gathering. Maybe we all have one of those people in the family. Uncle Sammy who reeks of tobacco; Cousin Amy whose political view are 180 degrees in the wrong direction. Oh, let’s not forget Ryan with the vegan diet who wears third hand clothes and looks down his nose at everyone who does not do likewise. Yup, we all have relatives that stretch our nerves. John was pretty rough around the edges. What was he like inside? Why did he preach what he preached? I have always tended to think of him as angry and self-righteous; but the only words I have are those written by others. Wouldn’t the long-lost diary of John the Baptizer be a find? Best seller. But like Jesus, he left no written records. Was John loveable? Or rather, since everyone is to be loved, was he cuddly like a teddy bear? That is a question for the ages and will forever remain unanswered and unanswerable. But did he love others? I would suggest that he preached what he did because he cared. It does not matter if he was self-righteous; if that were so we would all at one time or another be in in the hot seat. Love counts when it comes from the heart and when it comes with genuine concern and compassion.
God so often takes what seems of little importance to the rest of the world. If you listened closely to the Gospel reading today and if you are a student of Roman history, the opening will seem like Google Earth: start with Tiberius and the entire Roman Empire, which was much of the known world for the listener, then zoom in on Judea, then zoom in even farther to the parts of Judea, right down to the temple. And guess what? God passed over all those folks assumed to be so important. Instead the focus is on John, a nobody in the social order of the world. But then, isn’t that where God always gives voice? This is not an announcement of a virgin birth but of the coming of the Messiah, the coming of God. John does not say God will come when all the right sacrifices are made in the temple, any more than when we say all the correct prayers at the right time. Salvation will come when we turn from evil; this is how the hills are made low and the valleys raised up!! Make the path straight; live lives that are worthy of the God who made you. Yes, this means you!! It also means not only admitting and truly repenting of the evils you have done but being willing and able to forgive the wrongs that others have done against you. Instead of “don’t get mad, get even”, let your cry be to forgive evil and ask others to repent and forgive. Forgive those who wronged you and wronged others but hold them accountable for their acts just as you are accountable.
John did love the world; he loved it enough to long for its salvation, camel’s hair, locusts, and all.
Paul, short, bald, also quite the curmudgeon, did leave us a paper trail, albeit one missing much of the paper and one that has been so wildly interpreted over the millennia. Philippians is a love song from Paul to those he knew and cared for. It is full of the love of God for God’s people as much as Paul for his people. “I am thankful. I pray in joy. God has begun a good work in you. You are in my heart; I am full of affection for you.” Paul knows the meaning of love. He was most likely never married and remained celibate; while he understood romance and sexual love, he was smitten with the intoxicating love of God as witnessed by the life of Jesus; this is the love that passes all understanding, the overwhelming and enfolding love that knows no evil and is ever self-giving.
We hear it today as well in what may be the least familiar of our readings: that of Baruch. Baruch was the secretary for Jeremiah and the book is a work attributed to him, written from a place of exile in Babylon. The exiles will return to Jerusalem, the love of God will make that all possible, will make the road level for the people of God to return. Why?? Because the love of God for all God’s people is overwhelming, almost intoxicating.
God’s call to us comes from a deep place of love for all of creation; this is the call that speaks of the goodness of creation and the goodness of God. Advent reminds us of that love and turns our hearts and minds to the love of God for each of us, but also for the love we are called to have for one another.
We are entering another winter of a pandemic, where not only a virus but a failure to love one another are continuing to play out in so many aspects of our lives. If I could make one plea it would be to remember that Jesus, and Paul, and even John, teach us of the necessity of love, the sort of love that can put our hearts on fire and make this mess of a world into the realm of God towards which Advent points us.
Amen
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