Sermon 6th December 2020 – 2nd Sunday in Advent
Text Mark 1:1-8 – Same story –
different challenges
For many, this does not feel like the
usual joyous march toward Christmas. By
now we have everything planned – we’ve contacted parents about roles for their
children – we’ve got our play underway and being rehearsed, we’ve got the
carols and readings all worked out. But not this year. We’re still trying to
work out how we fit the usual crowds into one per 4 square metres and 1.5
metres apart. And how do we account for any visitors that may turn up? There is
anything but a straight path to Christmas that John came to proclaim with many
road blocks and potholes we are facing along the way.
This has been a year full of
unprecedented experiences. Christmas may be the same familiar story but our
lives this year are not. But while the harshness of wilderness may have
confronted us this year as we experienced closed church buildings the ageless
truth remained the same and it is what got us through.
When the angel announced to Mary and
Joseph that Mary would give birth he said that this child would be called
Immanuel – which means God is with us. And that has kept us going knowing that
in the wilderness we were not alone.
Peter was writing to a Christian
community experiencing persecution at the hands of the ruling empire. They were
looking for Jesus’ return and immediate relief from their suffering. But God does not always act in our timeline. A thousand years is like a day, and a day is
like a thousand years to God. And when
we are suffering the lonely nights can seem like an eternity in the wilderness
as the Psalmist writes: Weeping may last for the night, but rejoicing comes in
the morning.
During Advent we are given a word of
hope for the future while our present seems like wilderness The prophet John
the Baptist proclaims in the wilderness a familiar message to a people who were
in the wilderness themselves. Israel has been invaded by the Roman Empire. John points away from himself and toward
someone greater to come. John points to a hopeful future by promising one who
will come baptizing, not with mere water but with the eternal Holy Spirit. And
we are to live out our hope by looking away from ourselves and our wilderness
to one more powerful than us.
And that’s what Peter said also:
while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace,
without spot or blemish; and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation. And
it’s the patience of the Lord that creates the seeming slowness in times of
wilderness – his patience not wanting anyone to be lost forever.
So just as we are pointed by John to
Christ, we point the world to the Christ, the one who is more powerful, more
patient, and more loving. We point to the Christ, the one who is to come.
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