December 9, 2018

Second Sunday of Advent
Malachi 3:1-4
Luke 1:68-79
Philippians 1:3-11
Luke 3:1-6

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
 grace and peace to you
from the one who sends a messenger to prepare the way. Amen
 
Growing up my parents liked to take my brother and I hiking,
 usually in the Columbia River Gorge or up at Mt. Hood,
 more often than not these hikes were to a waterfall
and they always involved a change in elevation,
usually up on the way into the forest
and down on the way back to the car.
 
 Sometimes my brother and I did not share our parents’
overwhelming (it seemed) enthusiasm for hiking
and had to be cajoled along with these trails
 with something other than the promise of seeing a beautiful waterfall,
chocolate usually worked
or the promise of the rare treat of a soda when we got back to the car,
 
and many times my parents had done these hikes before
 so they had a good gage of when to leverage this external motivation
 so that we could all have a mostly pleasant time together in the beauty of nature.
 
But sometimes we tried new trails,
and then they had to make educated guesses
 on how the hike would go
and sometimes they guessed wrong.
 
One hike in particular goes down in family memory,
 Dad had heard about this great waterfall
 that we just had to go see
 so we decided to try the trail,
 
after what seemed like a long time of hiking
 we began to wonder just how much farther it was to the falls,
 Dad insisted they were “just around the next corner”
 
 several corners later we asked again
and again Dad insisted it was “just around the next corner”
 
 and again several corners with no waterfalls later
we inquired again and again Dad insisted it was “just around the next corner”
 
I think it was at this point we began to wonder out loud
about the possibility of turning around
 without seeing these waterfalls
 because we were clearly misinformed about the length of the hike
 
 but Dad insisted that we’d come this far
and that- you guessed it- they were just around the next corner.
 I don’t know how many corners later we did eventually reach the falls,
and they were nice enough as far as waterfalls go
 but it was definitely a longer hike than we were anticipating,
 and we’ve never let dad forget about his repeated insistence
 that the waterfalls were just around the next corner.
 
Sometimes,
waiting for Jesus can feel like that hike,
 the way includes many curves
and it starts to feel like the wait is far longer than we anticipated,
 
on our own it is all too easy to give up before the end,
shrug our shoulders and say
I’m sure it’ll be great
 but I’m turning around and getting on with my life,
 
which is why we need people
 to encourage us along the way,
people who insist with vigor
 that it really is just around the next corner
and that we should keep going,
 
in the Bible, these people are called prophets,
in the wait for Jesus this person is called John the Baptist.
 
Luke tells us in our gospel for today
 that in a particular time and place
“God came to John son of Zechariah”
 
Luke emphasizes the particular time and place
all those names at the beginning of the gospel
 for a couple of reasons,
 
Luke approaches his gospel as a historian,
 he’s investigated everything
and sets out to write an orderly account,
 
and listing the names of the rulers and the high priests
locates this story in historical time,
 sometimes it can feel like the story of Jesus
 is a bit of a fairy tale,
out of time,
 
no Luke says,
this happened at a particular time and place,
 a time and place a long time after God’s promise to David
that there would always be a descendant of his on the throne,
 
in that time many people had given up on waiting,
 they’d given up hope of seeing the waterfall
and turned back down the trail
and gotten on with their lives
being ruled by the Babylonians, and Persians and finally the Romans
 
the people needed some encouragement,
and that came in the form of John the Baptist,
 whose miraculous beginnings
 parallel Jesus’
 
an angel announces his birth and his name,
his father has some doubts
and because of those doubts is rendered mute
for the length of his wife Elizabeth’s pregnancy
and is only able to speak when he confirms John’s name,
 
 and in response to the loosening of his tongue
 Zechariah sings a song of praise,
the song we had as our psalm for today,
praising God who has acted in the past on behalf of the people of Israel
and who will act again,
 through his son who is the one to prepare the way
by “giving people knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of sins”
 
and then we are told that John “the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day he appeared publicly to Israel.” (Luke 1:80) proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
 
Repent-
 literally to turn around,
 ‘hey,’ John calls to the people,
‘the messiah is just around the next corner,
turn back to God,
you’re going to want to see this.’
 
And people flock to John
 and mark their repentance
 by being baptized,
a bath signifying a fresh start
and all this happens in the wilderness.
 
Why the wilderness?
 We think of the wilderness as a place of scarcity,
 and it is,
 but it also is consistently a place where God is at work,
a place of safety and divine provision.
 
 God brought the people out of slavery in Egypt to the wilderness,
 where God provided food and instruction
 on how to live in freedom,
 
 many prophets escaped to the desert
when their message from God
caused rulers to seek their lives,
 
 the wilderness,
harsh though it may be
is where God provides us with what we need,
 even if we can’t see around the next corner,
or it feels like we’ve been walking up hill forever,
 or over boulders constantly twisting our ankles.
 
 God, through John
promises salvation-
and what that will feel like
 is the hills and valleys being leveled,
 and the path made straight
 so we can see where we’re going,
 and it’ll be smooth too,
no twisted ankles.
 
In the wilderness John prepares the people for the salvation of God,
Jesus, who comes and teaches a simple way of life-
 love of God and love of neighbor-
who lives out that way of life all the way to the cross,
for the love of us,
for our salvation,
 to give us life everlasting.
 
Jesus came,
in a particular time and place,
 but what he did stretches beyond that time and place
and now We are waiting again,
 for Jesus to come again
 
and once again the wait has become long
and the promise of around the next corner seems laughable,
 
sometimes during this wait we end up in the wilderness
going up endless hills
or around corner after corner
 
and yet in Advent each year
 John calls out to us to repent,
to turn back to the path toward God,
 
 and Zechariah sings of how God has acted
 and God will act again
 
and in his letter to the Philippians
Paul adds his two cents “I am confident of this, the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ...and this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you determine what is best”
 
The messengers of God preparing the way
Pointing to Christ,
 and the wait becomes easier to bear,
 for we have seen the salvation of God. Amen