Second Sunday of Advent Luke 3:1-6 Malachi 3:1-4Today our focus is the prophets. We may remember the so-called Major Prophets, like Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, but the other prophets, like Malachi, should not be overlooked. The latter offer a complementary perspective of what God is telling his people. What about the role of the prophet? Prophets speak as they are led by God. Although they might speak of the dramatic intervention of God in historical events in all periods, their messages were more common in the time after an exile. Perhaps that has something to do with the condition of the people who needed intervention and transformation of their conditions. Some of the prophecies are about the end time but others are of more immediate concern or possibly both. In Malachi we find words about God’s reliability – with a call to repentance and returning to God. Its final words about Elijah as messenger are interpreted in the Gospels and in Christian tradition they foreshadow Jesus as the Messiah, the Christ. In today’s passage from chapter 3, Malachi announces ‘the messenger of the covenant – he is coming, says the Lord of hosts’. Then it continues with a promise of ‘sorting out the situation’, as it were. I find verse 6 very interesting: ‘I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, have not perished.’ In other words, God is reliable; he can always be counted on to welcome his people back. It is his steadfastness that has saved them. Like in chapter 4, verse 2: ‘But for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings.’ Today, when we are reminded of the prophets in an ancient world, telling the story of the new age that is to come with announcements of the Saviour, we do so against the backdrop of the present time, with lots of disasters and rumblings of them. That may make us wonder about the message for today. In Luke’s Gospel, we hear another announcement, echoing one from the book of the prophet Isaiah: ‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’ John the Baptist quoting from the prophet Isaiah, as he proclaims a baptism of repentance. The Gospel writer, Luke, sets the events in historical context, with the names of the rulers of the day, under the Roman Emperor. The nation was oppressed, under foreign rule. Resistance movements had been crushed and people were struggling. What they did have, however, was the prophecies of the past, promising a time of renewal and hope. Those clinging to that hope, didn’t really know what it would look like, but John’s ministry at the Jordan made them interested. It had echoes of the Exodus, the famous moment when God led his people out of slavery in Egypt and into the Promised Land. How could they now escape their new slavery – their oppression – and which the old prophets had declared was the result of Israel’s sin, worshipping idols rather than their true God. The baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins that John was proclaiming, was a way to escape their condition. As the prophets had said, the people had to ‘return to God with heart and soul’ which is what ‘repentance’ means: to turn around. John was preparing the way for the Lord, according to the prophet Isaiah, in the act of restoring the people to God. Just like the words of the prophet Malachi. God was going to act, in a totally new way, for the deliverance of the people, including the rest of the world, as all of humanity was in peril. We know what happened later: Jesus was born and performed his ministry of healing and reconciliation, culminating by his ‘enthronement’ on the cross and his resurrection. We are now in between that moment and Jesus’ return in glory. We have been given the hope of rebirth in Jesus through faith, and also the hope of God’s action in the future. His kingdom is here and not yet. We are living within the tension of holding on to the promise in the future, because we have already received it in the past. The season of Advent reminds us of that. And so we wait and we watch, for God to act in the next phase of his rescue plan. Advent is the time of watching and waiting for the Lord God to be with his people. The prophets had proclaimed the preparing of the way for the Lord. But, as with any journey, it begins with the first step. God has made his. So how are we going to respond? May we do so with faith and a new understanding of his love for us; a love that is never changing, even if undeserved. Amen.
Advent Sunday Luke 21:25-36 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13The Kingdom of God is near. That was the message that we heard in previous weeks, when we were moving towards the end of the liturgical year that has just finished. We go in cycles – not circles! – each year, beginning with Advent, when we are looking at how it all began, and ending with Christ the King, when we celebrate Christ on the throne. His work, that he came to perform as the living Word, the Way, the Truth and the Life, is finished. The liturgical years of the Church are reminding us each time of the particular cycle of our salvation history. His story, it has been said, God’s story in his redemption of the world. We don’t repeat everything each year, but we focus on the most important parts of the story, so that we may remember and not forget, and celebrate with joy what God has done for us. So now it is Advent Sunday, the beginning of a new year in the story of God with us.Advent is a season of expectation and preparation, as the Church looks forward to celebrating the coming (adventus) of Christ as a human being, and also to the final moment when he comes again as judge at the end of time. That is why the readings and liturgies not only point towards Jesus’ birth, but also spur us on to look further ahead to that final moment of his return. When we light the candles of the Advent Wreath, we are reminded of who went before us to proclaim the arrival of the Saviour; a different focus each week. Today we are reminded of the Patriarchs: Abraham, our father in faith, and David, the ancestor in whose city Jesus was born. Reflecting on where we find the roots of our faith is part of the process that Advent takes us through.The theme of today’s Gospel reading from Luke is the signs of the time. Jesus talks about the ‘signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves’. Metaphors from the natural world, are used to describe the changes that are to take place and that announce the arrival of Christ ‘in the cloud’. The question is how we prepare. If we didn’t already know that Christmas is coming, we’re sure to be reminded by TV commercials and decorations in the shops. So the trimmings of the festival are well-established. It’s fun, too, or it can be if we’re not too busy, to prepare for a celebration, to make the house look nice and anticipate special food and company. In the churches, the carol services will soon be under way. But, with all of that, where is Jesus? If we’re celebrating his birthday, while at the same time anticipating his return in glory and power, where is our guest of honour at the table? There are traditions that keep a seat for him, and make a physical point of reference to his presence. It’s just to say that he is included and the reason for the season in the first place.In a parable, Jesus tells us to be alert to the changes that are to come as signs of the new season: the fig trees and all the trees that sprout leaves to say that summer is getting near. ‘So, when you see these things,’ he says, ‘you know that your redemption is near’. He also reassures us: ‘Truly I tell you, this generation [this humanity] will not pass away until all things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.'The present world is full of ‘rumblings’ in all kinds of trouble, near and far. We are told to ‘be alert and to pray’, to hold on to God’s Word become flesh and to trust in the good outcome as Jesus has promised. Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians points out that giving thanks has a positive effect. Thanking God for all his works, in all circumstances, all the time, helps build up trust, patience and kindness in our hearts. Whenever we see the signs of change and become fearful, let us be reminded of the peace of Christ and rest in it. As Paul says: ‘May he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.’ So, this season of Advent, may you see him in the build up towards Christmas, prepare him room, with thanks, and rejoice. Amen.
Christ the King John 18:33-37 Revelation 1:4b-8The last Sunday in the Church’s year is Christ the King, and as such concludes the cycle of Jesus first coming into the world as a baby and moving into his ministry and work of salvation that sees him enthroned as King of kings and Lord of lords. In today’s reading from John’s Gospel, we find him standing before Pilate. He has been handed over to Pilate by the chief priests, possibly on the hint of Jesus claiming to be king. In those days, more than now, a king was all-powerful. He (for now we focus on kings, not queens) had absolute power and ruled over people as he wished. Violence was often a means to get what he wanted. If he wasn’t on the throne through the family line, he would have got there by means of the sword. So when Pilate finds Jesus in front of him, he is wondering along those lines: either this very common looking man is deluded or he has a following that could upset the status quo with Herod as Rome’s puppet-king and threaten Pilate’s own authority. He asks Jesus: ‘Are you the King of the Jews?’ Jesus, as he does so often, answers with a question: ‘Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?’ In other words, is this your own idea or not? It is actually an important question. If Pilate had known something about Jesus through his works, he might have come to the right conclusion: yes, Jesus is a king – if not like other kings of the world, at least a king of some sort. But Pilate is going only by his own experience of kings and doesn’t know or doesn’t want to know all the ins and outs of Jewish life. For, as Jesus also says, the Kingdom that Jesus is referring to is not from the world, even though it is for the world.In the passage from Revelation, we find this confirmed, when the Apostle John writes about the second coming of Jesus Christ, ‘with the clouds; every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail.’ John calls him, ‘the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth, […] who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever.’ Standing in front of Pilate, Jesus points out that the nature of his kingdom is different, as it is not from this world. For, if it had been from this world, his followers would have been fighting to keep him from being handed over. His final words to Pilate are a statement about truth: ‘You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth, listens to my voice.’ Pilate, who sees things only through his worldly lens, only says, ‘What is truth?’ This is indeed also something that the disciples had to learn, through the resurrection. Truth is not made in a laboratory, or worked out through mathematics. It is a gift that Jesus alone brings into the world, as God’s living Word of life. Pilate only knows about political ‘truth’; the one that is forced on by the sword. But Jesus is the truth that sets people free through his death on their behalf. It is the truth of the meaning of the cross. The Truth is the person standing in front of Pilate. Nobody else can do what Jesus does: face the power of sin and evil, and destroy it. Grace and peace come from him. He alone can set us truly free. Us, Barabbas, the people of Israel, and Pilate. For Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords. Amen.
