St. Margaret's Sermon Archive
Advent II - Giulianna Cappelletti 12/10/06
Luke 3:1-6
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, "The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 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; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’"
The Word of the Lord.
In the name of One Holy and Undivided Trinity. Amen.(Please be seated)
Several very important and wonderful events took place in our community last Sunday. If you remember, we had a baptism at the 9am early service, and then the Rite 13 ceremony at the later one. I don’t know about you, but in the midst of all of our celebrating last week, I almost forgot that it was the first Sunday of Advent.
And the first Sunday of Advent marked the beginning of our new liturgical year. Unlike the secular holiday of New Year’s Day, these four weeks of Advent is a time for not only celebration—but for penitence as well. This may seem like a paradox for us. We may wonder why we should be draping blue and purple around the church and singing hymns in minor keys and even maybe going to confession… while we look in expectation of the birth of our savior.Well, John the Baptist is a prophet who has a lot to teach us about the penitential nature of advent. John’s teachings can help us to understand how we can best observe this holy time in the church year.
The Gospel Lesson today from the third chapter of Luke introduced us to the preaching ministry of John the Baptist. The Gospel writer devoted nearly half of this lesson to providing us with historical context about when these events took place and who was ruling the land during this period of time. The very detailed organization of these facts was likely patterned after the prophetic books of the Old Testament. This alerted the original hearers of this message that an important prophet was being introduced.
In many ways, John the Baptist was similar to many of the prophets that we’ve heard about in the Old Testament. He was a person that was sent by God to be an intervening force between the people and God. And also like many other prophets, he pled with the people to repent of their sins and to turn back to the Lord.
There was something entirely unique about the prophetic ministry of John the Baptist, however. Unlike the many prophets that had come before him, John was prophet that was sent to actually inaugurate the era of the new covenant.
John the Baptist was sent by God to minister people that had become accustomed to waiting. After all, by the first century, this group of Jews had been waiting for generations upon generations to see their savior. Many of these people had likely grown weary from waiting. Their waiting likely had become a passive sort of waiting on God.
This group – though they were a group of faithful and chosen people-- needed a prophet to alert them to the fact that waiting passively for God to come was simply not enough. With the incarnation and ministry of Christ, the savior was no longer a distant promise. The savior was actually in their midst. John was sent to wake the people up so that they could see that God’s promises were being fulfilled right before their eyes.
So John pled with the people of Israel to "Prepare the way of the Lord" and "to make their paths straight". John wanted the people to understand that actively waiting on the Lord required penitent hearts and truly converted lives.
One thing that we all know about "John the Baptist" is that he came to baptize people. And our lesson today explains that the baptism that John proclaimed was "a baptism of repentance… for the forgiveness of sins". This baptism of repentance that John brought to the people was a form of a ritual cleansing. It demonstrated that the people were turning back to God and repenting for their sins. Both the people and God are active participants in baptism. It is the people who repent, but it is God who does the washing. It is God that cleansed the people from their sins and renewed God’s covenant with them.
But how does this passage apply to us today? After all, John preached these words 2,000 ago to first century Jews who were about to see their savior. Can’t we then simply read this Gospel as a lesson about a special time in history? Or is there another way that John the Baptist can speak to us – here and now-?
In many ways, perhaps we really aren’t so different from this group of believers who were waiting to see their savior. While today we live on the other side of Christ’s resurrection, we too are waiting. We too wait for the coming of Christ. We long for Christ to be present in our hearts. And we await Christ who will come again at the end of the ages. It is exactly this cautious, but joyful waiting on God that keeps us gathering together here week after week.
The coming of the kingdom is something far greater than our human understanding can grasp. John proclaimed that the coming of the Lord will be the time when "Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill be made low, and the crooked be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth". While the other synoptic gospels also make mention of this text from Isaiah, Luke is the only Gospel writer who also included the astounding note that: at the coming of the kingdom…"all flesh shall see the salvation of God".
The Gospel writer does not want us to miss the point that the promises of the new covenant are radically inclusive. Therefore, for us hear the prophesy of John the Baptist as being intended for one particular group of Jews gathered years ago would be to grasp only a small part of the story. God’s salvation is for all people.
John the Baptist was sent to alert the people that the Holy One was in their midst. It is for that reason that John the Baptist can serve as a prophet for us today as well. We who proclaim that Christ is risen, and that Christ dwells among us now, look in expectation for the day when "all flesh shall see the salvation of God".
So we too are called to prepare the way of the Lord. We too have been baptized, and we too are called to both actively wait for and actively prepare for the Emmanuel -- God’s coming among us.Turning back to God with penitent hearts is a necessary part of preparing room in our hearts for the Holy One. God does not expect us to be able to complete this great task on our own. We need God’s help, and we need each other to live lives worthy of God’s coming among us. Advent is a fitting time for us to examine our hearts… and to turn back to God.
I pray that during these last 15 days leading up to Christmas, we will be empowered by God to observe a Holy Advent. And as we prepare to celebrate our savior’s birth 2000 years ago, I pray that we will find the ability to take a long and pregnant pause to prepare ourselves for the Greatness that is still to come for those of us who wait upon the Lord.
AMEN.
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, "The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 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; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’"
The Word of the Lord.
In the name of One Holy and Undivided Trinity. Amen.(Please be seated)
Several very important and wonderful events took place in our community last Sunday. If you remember, we had a baptism at the 9am early service, and then the Rite 13 ceremony at the later one. I don’t know about you, but in the midst of all of our celebrating last week, I almost forgot that it was the first Sunday of Advent.
And the first Sunday of Advent marked the beginning of our new liturgical year. Unlike the secular holiday of New Year’s Day, these four weeks of Advent is a time for not only celebration—but for penitence as well. This may seem like a paradox for us. We may wonder why we should be draping blue and purple around the church and singing hymns in minor keys and even maybe going to confession… while we look in expectation of the birth of our savior.Well, John the Baptist is a prophet who has a lot to teach us about the penitential nature of advent. John’s teachings can help us to understand how we can best observe this holy time in the church year.
The Gospel Lesson today from the third chapter of Luke introduced us to the preaching ministry of John the Baptist. The Gospel writer devoted nearly half of this lesson to providing us with historical context about when these events took place and who was ruling the land during this period of time. The very detailed organization of these facts was likely patterned after the prophetic books of the Old Testament. This alerted the original hearers of this message that an important prophet was being introduced.
In many ways, John the Baptist was similar to many of the prophets that we’ve heard about in the Old Testament. He was a person that was sent by God to be an intervening force between the people and God. And also like many other prophets, he pled with the people to repent of their sins and to turn back to the Lord.
There was something entirely unique about the prophetic ministry of John the Baptist, however. Unlike the many prophets that had come before him, John was prophet that was sent to actually inaugurate the era of the new covenant.
John the Baptist was sent by God to minister people that had become accustomed to waiting. After all, by the first century, this group of Jews had been waiting for generations upon generations to see their savior. Many of these people had likely grown weary from waiting. Their waiting likely had become a passive sort of waiting on God.
This group – though they were a group of faithful and chosen people-- needed a prophet to alert them to the fact that waiting passively for God to come was simply not enough. With the incarnation and ministry of Christ, the savior was no longer a distant promise. The savior was actually in their midst. John was sent to wake the people up so that they could see that God’s promises were being fulfilled right before their eyes.
So John pled with the people of Israel to "Prepare the way of the Lord" and "to make their paths straight". John wanted the people to understand that actively waiting on the Lord required penitent hearts and truly converted lives.
One thing that we all know about "John the Baptist" is that he came to baptize people. And our lesson today explains that the baptism that John proclaimed was "a baptism of repentance… for the forgiveness of sins". This baptism of repentance that John brought to the people was a form of a ritual cleansing. It demonstrated that the people were turning back to God and repenting for their sins. Both the people and God are active participants in baptism. It is the people who repent, but it is God who does the washing. It is God that cleansed the people from their sins and renewed God’s covenant with them.
But how does this passage apply to us today? After all, John preached these words 2,000 ago to first century Jews who were about to see their savior. Can’t we then simply read this Gospel as a lesson about a special time in history? Or is there another way that John the Baptist can speak to us – here and now-?
In many ways, perhaps we really aren’t so different from this group of believers who were waiting to see their savior. While today we live on the other side of Christ’s resurrection, we too are waiting. We too wait for the coming of Christ. We long for Christ to be present in our hearts. And we await Christ who will come again at the end of the ages. It is exactly this cautious, but joyful waiting on God that keeps us gathering together here week after week.
The coming of the kingdom is something far greater than our human understanding can grasp. John proclaimed that the coming of the Lord will be the time when "Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill be made low, and the crooked be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth". While the other synoptic gospels also make mention of this text from Isaiah, Luke is the only Gospel writer who also included the astounding note that: at the coming of the kingdom…"all flesh shall see the salvation of God".
The Gospel writer does not want us to miss the point that the promises of the new covenant are radically inclusive. Therefore, for us hear the prophesy of John the Baptist as being intended for one particular group of Jews gathered years ago would be to grasp only a small part of the story. God’s salvation is for all people.
John the Baptist was sent to alert the people that the Holy One was in their midst. It is for that reason that John the Baptist can serve as a prophet for us today as well. We who proclaim that Christ is risen, and that Christ dwells among us now, look in expectation for the day when "all flesh shall see the salvation of God".
So we too are called to prepare the way of the Lord. We too have been baptized, and we too are called to both actively wait for and actively prepare for the Emmanuel -- God’s coming among us.Turning back to God with penitent hearts is a necessary part of preparing room in our hearts for the Holy One. God does not expect us to be able to complete this great task on our own. We need God’s help, and we need each other to live lives worthy of God’s coming among us. Advent is a fitting time for us to examine our hearts… and to turn back to God.
I pray that during these last 15 days leading up to Christmas, we will be empowered by God to observe a Holy Advent. And as we prepare to celebrate our savior’s birth 2000 years ago, I pray that we will find the ability to take a long and pregnant pause to prepare ourselves for the Greatness that is still to come for those of us who wait upon the Lord.
AMEN.