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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): Matthew 3:1-12
A Sermon by
Fr. Mead
on
Matthew 3:1-12
✛
Five Grace Notes for Advent
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“I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I…he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” St. Matthew 3:1-12
In the Name of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.
This past Thanksgiving my wife and I eagerly awaited the wind and fire of the visit of our two grandchildren from Kentucky – and their parents, of course. We attempted preparation, but when they arrived, their incarnate presence, showing their bright faces with their drink-it-all-in eyes, overwhelmed all forethought. At eight and six years, they blew through like a great, gracious hurricane, and they warmed our hearts to the crying point. Life presents us with these episodes, love’s reunions, which are analogous to Advent, the season when the Church, using the stories of John the Baptist and Jesus, calls us to prepare the way for the Lord in our lives.
John the Baptist is the last of the prophets of old Israel and the forerunner of Christ. In fact John and Jesus were kin, and their mothers were literally and symbolically old and young. Elizabeth, John’s mother, was old and considered barren. Mary, Jesus’ mother, was a young virgin betrothed to her husband. Both John and Jesus were wondrously conceived; John, by a great surprise to his mother and father Zechariah; Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit and without the intercourse of his father Joseph. Both conceptions were announced by the Angel Gabriel: in John’s case, to his unbelieving father; in Jesus’ case, to his believing mother.¹
The same Holy Spirit by which Jesus was conceived in his mother’s womb was also the power of his ministry. Today, from the lips of John the Baptist in the midst of his ministry of preaching repentance, we hear that Christ will baptize his people with the Holy Spirit and with fire. The word “spirit” in both Old Testament Hebrew and New Testament Greek means, “wind” or “breath.” In other words, the Messiah would baptize his people in the two elements indicative of the energy of the Holy Spirit, wind and fire. Wind drives and moves, while fire warms or consumes.
John the Baptist’s ministry was one of repentance: to call his hearers to prepare themselves for the Messiah’s arrival. That means to clear out the rubbish, to remove the obstacles in our lives that would impede our freedom to receive Christ and to walk by his Spirit. When we start thinking, talking and acting in a way that indicates repentance, turning away from sins towards times of refreshment from God and thereby being transformed by the renewal of our minds,² we are already anticipating the reception of Christ – so that when he himself comes, we are ready, willing and able to receive him. This does not mean that our preparation prevents us from being surprised by Christ when he comes; it just means that it will be a pleasant surprise. The gifts of faith, hope and love, which shape us as willing hearers of John’s message and eager waiters for Christ, make all the difference. Without faith, hope and love, the coming of Christ is a matter of indifference or resentment – an unpleasant surprise. This is what is meant when John in today’s Gospel refers to the fire of God in two ways: as a warmer and purifier of God’s people (the wheat) or as a consumer of all which is not of God (the chaff). This is the issue between heaven and hell.
There is a sharp contrast between what you see outside now on Fifth Avenue of the winter holiday commerce and what is going on inside the church in Advent season. Since Halloween the world has been saying, “Happy Holidays.” But in church we hear the prophet address his hearers, especially the scribes and Pharisees, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to escape from the wrath to come?” Presumably John felt they were showing signs of being the chaff to be consumed by the unquenchable fire of the Spirit. So instead of saying “Merry Christmas” prematurely, we began today’s service with the Great Litany. We do this, not to be cultural contrarians but to appreciate the depth, the height, the breadth and the power of what God desires for us and what will come our way if we will have it.³ In the words of the great poet, “Salvation to all that will is nigh.”*
Salvation! That is a strong word. It means being saved from sin and death and hell. In the terms of everyday life, salvation means being given the power to see the mystery of eternity in the people, places, things and events of each day. This is the insight that life – far from being what we sometimes are tempted to feel is nothing but “one damn thing after another” – is an adventure of providence. It is the sense that our duties and good deeds in the here-and-now are in fact errands of the Holy Spirit. It means, as the New Testament puts it, walking in a whole new way. This wondrous, divine dimension of life has always been very much here present. But sin hardens us, deadens us to it, keeps us away from it, absent. When we wake up and “cast away the works of darkness and put upon us the armor of light,” we begin our baptism in the wind and fire of the Spirit of the Lord. Whereas one was in an out-of-joint, listless, cold-hearted relation with the Lord; now one is put into harmony with him, enlivened and warmed by his Spirit. When I am saved, I am fully alive; and Jesus saves me in every way that it is possible to be saved.
But salvation is not a vaccination against sin. As long as we live in this world, until we depart it for the eternal and immediate presence of the Lord, it is necessary to keep up the discipline of repentance. Here are a few things to remember which have to do with this discipline. First, believe in God. Then, keep life’s crucial grace notes up to date, up to the minute. These are the five mountain-moving phrases: 1) “Please.” 2) “Thank you.” 3) “I was wrong, I’m sorry; please forgive me.” 4) “It’s all right; bless you.”( That’s a gentle way of forgiving someone who has trespassed against you.) 5) “I love you.” Then, again and finally, believe in God. Baptism in God’s Spirit is beyond imagining and can carry you right off into heaven, even in the here and now.
In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.
__________
¹St. Luke, all of chapter one.
²See Acts 3:19; Romans 12:2.
³Romans 11:33; Ephesians 3:18.
*John Donne, Holy Sonnets, The Annunciation, first line.
