Advent 2

6 December 2015 at Stewkley

Old Testament Mal 3.1—4

3 ‘I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,’ says the Lord Almighty.

² But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. ³ He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness,⁴ and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord, as in days gone by, as in former years.

Epistle Phil 1.3—11

³ I thank my God every time I remember you. ⁴ In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy ⁵ because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, ⁶ being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

⁷ It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. ⁸ God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

⁹ And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, ¹⁰ so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, ¹¹ filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ – to the glory and praise of God.

Gospel Luke 3.1—6

Alleluia, alleluia. Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God. Alleluia.

John the Baptist prepares the way
3 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar – when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene – ² during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. ³ He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. ⁴ As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet:

‘A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
“Prepare the way for the Lord,
    make straight paths for him.
⁵ Every valley shall be filled in,
    every mountain and hill made low.
The crooked roads shall become straight,
    the rough ways smooth.
⁶ And all people will see God’s salvation.”’

Sermon

Advent is a season of hope, of expectation, of waiting, of preparation for the coming of the Saviour. Today is the second Sunday in Advent, when we think about John the Baptist, the forerunner, the one who looks back to the prophets of the Old Testament whilst announcing that all things will be new in Christ.

The readings are familiar to us. The gospel comes from Luke chapter 3, which is split between the first 6 verses which we read today, and the remainder of the chapter next week. At this time of year, it’s easy for us to sit back and let the pre-Christmas readings wash over us, without thinking too hard about what is going on, or what the words mean in the modern day. Somehow I have to bring something new to the passages, pose some new questions, or get you to look at the familiar words in a new light.

As we know, all the gospels are different in approach. Luke is the more historical and methodical. He starts his gospel by declaring his purpose. Luke’s material, he claims, has been handed down by eye witnesses. He has made a careful investigation and drawn up his own account of events, so that you may know with certainty his version is true.

Luke starts his gospel with the birth of John the Baptist. He is asking us to believe the miraculous events involving an aged couple — Zechariah the priest and his wife Elizabeth. Zechariah has an angelic vision that he will have a son who will make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

This same angel, Gabriel by name, appears again to Mary in the Annunciation. Mary then visits Elizabeth, John the Baptist is born, and Mary and Zechariah sing songs of praise to God.

In chapter 2, Jesus is born. Luke sets the date in the governorship of Quirinius who rules Syria. There are angels, shepherds and astrologers, Jesus is presented as a baby in the Temple, and then 12 years pass before he visits the Temple again.

We know quite a bit about Quirinius. He was a Roman aristocrat — an ambitious young man rising rapidly up the ranks. Herod Archilaus the tetrarch of Judea had been banished, and Quirinius was appointed to be governor of Syria in his place. Judea was added to his domain, and one of his first tasks was to assess the people taxation, hence the census which seems to have been around 6AD according to Luke, but may have been 2 or 3 years earlier.

Luke cites 7 religious and political leaders to anchor his account historically, which gives it a certain authenticity — but it’s clear Luke’s gospel is not just a narrative of events. It is a confession of faith, as well as a work of history.

By naming all these authorities, Luke is keen not only to fix his chronology but to show how John the Baptist invites his audience to turn away from the religion and politics they stand for, and to turn towards the Messiah. He wants them to renounce the powers that be, and return to the true faith in God. In doing so, John posed a continual challenge that eventually got him killed.

This is why Luke is not as concerned as the other evangelists about John’s appearance or how he behaves, but he’s keen to portray John as representative of the Old Testament prophets, and probably the last of them. So Zechariah is descended from a priestly line; his son John calls the people to repentance, the word of God comes to him just like the prophets of old, and John foretells the Messiah, the salvation of Israel.

The best way of describing the place John the Baptist fills in the narrative is that he is the hinge between Old and New Testaments. The old age is closing, as the new opens.

Given the fate of both John the Baptist and Jesus — John is beheaded by one of the people Luke mentions and Jesus is crucified by another — their paths were not exactly made straight, the valleys were not filled in, the hills were not levelled, and the rough paths were not made smooth.

Is all this just a history lesson I have foisted on you, or is it more important than that? Firstly, I would say that to anchor our faith in fact is a good thing. Luke’s account does not read like a myth, and our faith is stronger, especially when challenged, if it is founded on real historical events. But secondly, on the world stage John the Baptist, without Jesus whom he foretells, is nothing. No one would have heard of John without the Messiah who comes after him. So the message of today is not so much about John as Jesus.

And what is that message? I think it comes at the end of the reading from Isaiah that Luke quotes. John the Baptist is the voice crying in the wilderness, foretold by the prophet Isaiah. John’s purpose is to prepare the way of the Lord, Why? So that all people will see God’s salvation. So, in all today’s sermons about camel’s hair, locusts and wild honey, we concentrate on his clear message — that we will see God’s salvation for all people.

John baptizes with water. He must diminish, as Jesus grows in stature — the one who is to come, who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.