Prepare What?

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Church Episcopal

December 17, 2017 (8am only)

                                                     3 Advent B

The Christmas I was five years old, all of our relatives on both my mother’s and my father’s side came to our house for Christmas.  We are not a large family, as my mother was an only child and my father had just one brother, but all together there were 17 or 18 of us, spanning four generations.  A great deal of preparation was required, mostly on my mother’s part.  There were many days worth of meals to prepare, the house to decorate, gifts to purchase, and family dynamics to navigate, to say nothing of finding places for everyone to sleep. One of the most memorable pieces of preparation was the purchase of our first dishwasher, an appliance that Don and I later inherited and lasted until our first born wanted to see if he could get the blue crayons clean.  Much time and effort went into preparing for what we called the “Big Christmas” and in the end, the holiday went off without a hitch.  Meals were enjoyed, gifts given and received, and family dynamics were successfully negotiated thanks in large part to good preparation.

For years I have preached, taught, and written about Advent as such a period of preparation.  Advent is the gift of time when we prepare not so much our homes, but our hearts, for the coming of the Christ Child.  I have long suggested that Advent is a time to be as intentional about our spiritual preparation for Jesus’ birth as we are about our decorating, shopping, and cooking.  When we cook, shop, decorate, and plan well for our Christmas celebrations, they typically go well.    When we prepare our hearts well for Christmas with worship, prayer, scripture reading and study, we are more able to welcome the Christ child in our midst.

Today’s readings catch me by surprise.  They tell me that I am only partially correct in my understanding of Advent as a time to prepare ourselves for the birth of Christ.  Both the prophet Isaiah and the man sent from God whose name was John tell us that there is more to Advent than getting ourselves ready for Jesus.

Isaiah has been sent by God to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners.  Isaiah is writing to a people in distress.  The Hebrew people have been released from captivity in Babylon to a different kind of captivity back at home in the Promised Land...a captivity in which they cannot earn a living, their temple is in ruins, they have lost everything of value and there appears to be no hope for a better future.  But Isaiah is not bringing good news just so the people feel better about their dismal situation.  Isaiah is bringing them comfort so that they can build up the ancient ruins, raise up the former devastations, and repair the ruined cities.  Isaiah is bringing the people hope so that they can then get about the business of restoration.  And when that happens, their descendants will be known among the nations, and their offspring among all people.  All who see them shall acknowledge that they are a people whom the Lord has blessed.  In other words, Isaiah preaches comfort, so that the people can rise up and rebuild that which was lost, and God’s glory will be seen through out the world.

In the gospel reading, we are told that John came to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.  John is the one sent to point the way toward Jesus.  Unlike last week’s gospel lesson from Mark, where the focus was on John as the one who baptized for the repentance of sins, in this gospel, baptism is peripheral to John’s real mission.  When the priests and Levites ask John who he is, John only answers in the negative: he is not the Messiah, not Elijah, not the prophet.  John’s whole identity was to be the one who pointed the people to someone else, who directed the people to the light of the world, the Word made flesh.  

The piece of the Advent message that I can easily miss is that Advent is a time to be intentional about preparing not just ourselves, but the world around us for the coming of the Christ Child.  Neither Isaiah nor John call us this morning to prepare the world by threatening hell-fire and damnation if people do not believe.  That is certainly not the missing piece of the Advent message.  Isaiah calls us to bind up the broken-hearted, comfort those who mourn, to provide a mantle of praise for a faint spirit, so that God’s glory may be displayed.  Isaiah calls us to work to rebuild the ruins and repair the devastation we see around us, so that the world around us will see the work of God.  Likewise, John calls to use Advent to testify to the Light.  Testify is not a typical Episcopalian word, but what John means is that Advent is a time to use our lives so that others may see the light of Christ in the world around them.  In Advent, and all year actually, our work is to point to the Light in our midst, bringing hope to the world around us. The apostle Paul calls us to rejoice always, pray constantly, and give thanks in all circumstances so that our lives point to the Word made flesh among us.  Certainly a people that can rejoice always and give thanks in all circumstances point to the glory of God.

Perhaps, in the end, Advent calls us to live as a people whose lives point toward the light of Christ.  If we heed the call of Isaiah to bring good news to the oppressed, the command of Paul to rejoice always and give thanks in all circumstances, and the witness of John to testify to the light, I believe that both our hearts and our world will be better prepared for the arrival of the Christ Child in our midst. 

Amen.