Second Sunday of Advent

Luke 3:1-6

Last week on the first Sunday of Advent I invited you to listen to the voice of Mary this season. In Luke’s Gospel, the lowly servant girl is the first person on earth to use her voice to tell about God coming on earth — the first one to name and praise the great things that God has done. The pregnant young woman who physically carries Jesus into the world as a newborn also bears God into the world with her words.

And now, in today’s gospel reading, we hear another voice –John the Baptizer who is crying in the wilderness; quoting the prophet Isaiah; he, too, is a God-bearer, bringing the living God into the world

Both Mary and John use their voices to name who they know God to be and declaring the truth of the promises God makes and fulfills in our lives. We talk about this same pattern in the psalms where the songwriters first say who God is and then appeal to God to act in ways that reflect what they already know about God. These appeals testify to the steadfastness of God, “who was and who is and who is to come.” (Rev. 1:8)

Importantly, the emperors, governors and high priests — the politically and socially powerful people — who Luke names in the beginning of this passage are not the ones who are given the news of God’s coming reign; instead it is entrusted to Mary and now to John to proclaim the good news to those around them, at great cost.

Mary could have faced stoning for being pregnant with someone else’s child, and as Methodist pastor William Lamar IV (the 4th) wrote in a recent essay about John’s proclamation, “[Spiritual leaders who] leave the social order uninterrupted don’t get beheaded by the state.”

The disruptive gospel that Mary delivers is that God “has scattered the proud …; He has brought down the powerful…, and lifted up the lowly; He has filled the hungry with good things.” (Luke 1:51-53)

And while we will hear John’s message of repentance in more detail next Sunday, in verses 4 and 5, he declares that when the Lord comes, “every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth….”

Advent puts us on alert that changes are coming — that God’s kingdom coming on earth will look different!

Like Mary and John, as people of faith, we know God as One who listens to and responds to us. We are confident that God is steadfast and present with us. We believe that God’s kingdom coming on earth will mean the world is reconciled, not divided; peaceful not warring; and hope-filled, not despairing — changed from what we are experiencing now. We carry this vision for God’s kingdom into the world by our actions and with our words, not just because we want to be “nice” but because, just like Mary and John, as Christians we too are messengers for God, entrusted with a responsibility to bear God’s love and mercy into the world around us.

Surely, one of the ways we prepare for the Lord is in worship. Worship isn’t a spectator sport or a performance given for our entertainment; we are participants, active and invited to use all our senses to praise God through the music and the liturgy, taking in the colors of the seasons that we see on paraments and banners and remembering the light of God with candles. Surrounded by elements of God’s story, we are reminded that God’s story connects to our own story. Worship is also where we clear our minds of all the chatter and noise of the world and stop to listen to God. Sometimes we talk to God in prayer, but the silence we offer God is where we can hear God speak to us. Worship is where we are reconciled with each other in the sharing of the peace, which isn’t a casual greeting, but sharing the restorative gift of God’s own peace with one another. And, worship is where we lay down our burdens before God and receive the bread and the wine that nourishes us for the journey of discipleship. And then we are sent out into the world, as messengers and God-bearers.

Earlier in the week, I shared with our congregation council one question that has been on my mind since I was with the Synod Council last weekend, and that is, “How do we bear God to the people who aren’t in worship?” Another way to ask that is “Where do we show up and reveal God to others?” Or “How can we be the capital-C Church in the world, unafraid to love and live like Jesus?” Whether with our words or with our presence, we bear God into the world when we show up.

Before the weekend snowstorm, there was a meme, or picture, on Facebook that showed one of those electronic, programmable  highway signs over a road; the sign read, “LIZZARD WARNING Saturday to Sunday” and it was captioned, “You had one job…” 

In this life of faith, we have one job, and that is to carry the Good News into the world, even when it costly or disruptive.

Let us pray…
Holy and disruptive God,
Thank you for Your promised Son Jesus coming as our Savior and Lord;
Awaken us to the world’s deep need;
By Your Spirit help us use our voices to carry Your love, mercy and forgiveness into the world
Amen.