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The Second Sunday Of Advent
Merciful God, who sent thy messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation: Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the HolySpirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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The Second Sunday Of Advent
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Scripture citation(s): Isaiah 40:1-11; Mark 1:1-8; II Peter 3:8-15a
A Sermon by
The Rev. Canon Carl Turner
on
Isaiah 40:1-11; Mark 1:1-8; II Peter 3:8-15a
✛
For he is like a refiner's fire. (Malachi 3:2)
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“The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”
The word Gospel means ‘good news’. It is easy to think that this good news – the gospel – is the story about Jesus and the life of the early followers of Jesus, that the gospel is about something that happened in the past, but I want to suggest to you that the gospel is not the greatest story ever told but is an encounter with the living God who comes to meet us.
“The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”
The Gospel is Jesus – Jesus is Good News.
And two themes mark this good news on the Second Sunday of Advent – fire and wilderness.
John the Baptist, when he appeared in the wilderness as a kind of prophetic figure to prepare the way of the Lord, did not begin a story; he pointed to Jesus. In the wilderness, he pointed to the Word – to Jesus – to the one more powerful than he and who would baptize with the Holy Spirit. In Matthew and Luke’s accounts, John the Baptist adds two words to his description of baptism with the Holy Spirit – and fire.
As New York felt the freezing arctic winds over the past couple of days, as I was writing this sermon and the snow was falling, nearly a quarter of a million Californians had been evacuated and 8,700 fire fighters were dealing with terrible wild fires in the Southern part of that State. The devastation of those fires that began in the summer and are still raging is truly awful. For those caught up in the tragedy of such fires, our Epistle reading today will be very sobering – Peter describes the Second Coming is vivid terms – similar to an early 1950’s Science Fiction movie in which the earth and the heavens are ablaze. Yes, fire.
But is the fire that Jesus will bring a destructive fire like the fire that is devastating California at the moment? A fire that is to be feared? Or could it be that the fire that Jesus will bring will be a refining fire – the kind of fire that a steelworker or a blacksmith is used to – a fire that changes things; yes, intense, but for a purpose and a creative purpose at that.
When Peter talks of the fire that will engulf the heavens and the earth, note what comes after: “we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” – new heavens and a new earth.
On this Second Sunday of Advent, our readings urge us to think about the Second Coming of Jesus when the whole creation will be made new. It is significant, I think, that after his Ascension and the disciples were in the upper room, when the Holy Spirit came upon them it did so not just as a rushing and mighty wind but also like fire! The fire that we often experience as human beings is often destructive and uncontrollable – the fire of the Holy Spirit is cleansing and re-creating.
Thus, the Gospel is Jesus – Jesus is Good News. Our God loves us so much that he came among us – he yearned for us to have such a perfect relationship with him that he came among us in Jesus who, significantly, also began his ministry in the wilderness. Fire and Wilderness; we often think of the wilderness or the desert as a harsh and frightening place but, whilst it is a place of testing, it can also be a place of creativity and growth.
The Prophecy of Isaiah which we heard this morning and some of us heard sung so beautifully in the choir’s performance of Handel’s Messiah last week, is about going into the wilderness. The people in exile were coming home but they could not avoid the wilderness; instead, they had to go through it. If you look at the images of parts of California at the moment, you will see the harsh and frightening kind of wilderness that we are all afraid of – scorched and parched and with the signs of death. But we also know that soon, and very soon, from this scorched earth will come signs of new life – a new creation will emerge; it is the cycle of life that this planet has known for millennia. The wilderness that Isaiah speaks of is a similar place; far from being harsh and frightening, it is a safe place to travel – a highway is there, the mountains are made low, and the valleys lifted up. It is not only safe, it is a wide and easy thoroughfare. Why? Because the glory of the Lord is found there – in the wilderness. It has been there before, hasn’t it? After the Exodus from Egypt, God led the Hebrew Tribes in a pillar of cloud by the day and a pillar of fire by night. The glory of the Lord led his chosen people into the wilderness and to the Promised Land.
This theme of wilderness and glory and new creation appears again and again in the scriptures as God called his people back to himself. Then, in the fullness of time, that glory became visible in Jesus Christ – the Word made flesh.
The glory was made visible to the Shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night in the fields near Jerusalem. That same glory appeared when Jesus met John the Baptist in the wilderness. That same glory appeared on the Mountain of Transfiguration, on Calvary’s Hill, shining out of the empty tomb, and taken into the clouds on the Mountain of the Ascension.
That same glory was then poured into the lives of the followers of Jesus and is offered to you and me today.
What is our response? What are we to do? To seek the glory of Jesus in our own wilderness experiences. How are we to do this? John the Baptist and Peter make it clear: We are to live in peace, aware of our impact on one another, and aware of the impact we have on the environment around us. Aware of our need for repentance, of the need to change – to turn around – until Jesus comes back; back to our wilderness, and with his consuming fire which will make all things new.
