Advent III (B) – Sunday 17th December 2023 – St Paul’s, Alverthorpe
Eucharist / Sermon
Do you drive?
If you do, then you’ve probably been in traffic when the emergency services are trying to get through.
In the mirror you see blue lights….
Perhaps you can hear the sirens.
If on a motorway, maybe this is all approaching fast, on the hard-shoulder… though obviously not on the M62!
In a town, perhaps the lights are reflected off buildings and glass.
All the signs are there…
You know something has happened and help is on its way…..
But what sort of help….?
Unless you are involved in the incident, perhaps you don’t need to know.
Maybe you want to help…. but how?
Perhaps you offer a prayer for the ambulance, police or fire teams as they pass you.
Perhaps a prayer for those in peril – who they seek to rescue.
Of course, if you can, you will try to move out of the way – although that doesn’t always work….!
You know you must clear the pathway for whoever is coming through…..
Wait for it….!
Such is the mission of John the Baptiser!
He knew he must be seen, to act, and to bring change….
He was compelled by God to do these things, and to do them NOW.
To make the way straight for the coming Messiah….
Sirens…. Lights…. Bells…. OK, mostly baptisms….!
I do like baptisms…. Often quite noisy….!
John isn’t the ‘emergency’… He’s not the main event.
He knew that.
He came to shake the people up so they were ready….
The clarion call of the whole cloud of prophetic witness: Moses, Elijah, Amos and Isaiah.
Ah yes, Isaiah….
The often quoted prophet….
Referenced throughout the New Testament…
And today – John the Gospel, telling us about John the Baptist, quoting Isaiah the Prophet….
Great stuff…! “…so the prophet Isaiah says….”
Now, don’t get me started on Isaiah…!
Oh you have… well….
I set myself the goal of reading the whole of Isaiah during Advent.
I use a plan on my Bible app, and I refer to a commentary by a trusted author.
How am I getting on, you say? Ha…!
Like with any entire text from scripture, especially our Old Testament, it’s full of nuance, context, history, politics and geography; and it is filled with questions and answers that need a lot of thought!
And all of this, along with kings and rulers…. Good and bad… and of course….
Lots and lots of battles and destruction and horribleness and misery.
And that can be quite off-putting, to say the least.
I’ll be honest, I found it quite a challenge to read Isaiah at this time – with all that is taking place in the world….
Isaiah is written by several hands, over a long period of time, narrating different periods and events in the history of Israel, Judah and the surrounding nations, but…
The essence of Isaiah is a message about the Holy One of Israel – God, Yahweh.
The people stray, the people worship idols, the people fight, the people are carried off into exile;
There is failure and victory, the need for retribution and remorse; the people are again and again offered hope, redemption and the promise for a brighter future…… in God, the Holy one of Israel.
The prophets bear witness to the world around them in very different ways…
They see where God is at work – in the past, the present and the future – and they tell it different
And as Christians, we need to hear them…!
Now, we don’t often get the chance to include all three of the readings from the Sunday Lectionary…
So, just for you, here are the first two verses from today’s Isaiah passage:
1 The spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me;
he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,
to bind up the broken-hearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and release to the prisoners;
2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;
Chapter 61 speaks of consolation to the people as they lament the brokenness of their nation.
They feel oppressed – as if they were still in Exile, when they were imprisoned by the Babylonians.
Israel feels humiliated – its cities laid waste – and their hope in God seems far away.
And yet it doesn’t have to be….
God always calls them back.
God always call us back….. too.
Yet, you have to choose HOW you return. Do you know what I mean?
When someone offers a way out, maybe forgiveness, wholeness and healing… when love is offered for no cost.
I don’t know how hard it is to prosecute war on the scale we see, in various parts of the world…
I do know how hard it is to seek peace and forgiveness, and all that entails – small scale, maybe…
Yet without some insight into human brokenness and frailty, such a hope is not possible.
Or even just an awarenss of how your actions affect others…
I cannot imagine how any nation could conduct itself without even that amount of humility….
And yet they all do.
Fool that I am to believe otherwise.
Again and again the prophet describes how all will be well – milk and honey – when the people return to God, walk with God and abide in God.
Then Israel will prosper.
Its relations with everyone around them flourish.
The history of what we call the Holy Land is filled with war and the enforced displacement of populations.
No one can say how long the horror of destruction will continue in Gaza and Israel.
No one can foretell how peace will come or how these peoples will fare in the future.
Such things are known only to God.
But…
We too are known by God.
We are a people of the Christ.
We are disciples of Jesus.
The Word made flesh…
The Messiah who came to bring light to the world, a light that could not and will not be diminished.
Step back to the start of that Isaiah passage….
Now, fast forward to the very beginnings of Jesus’s ministry:
Luke Chapter 4 – Jesus stands up in the synagogue as the Isaiah scroll is handed to Him.
He reads those first two verses and right then, right there, the essence of the Christ is revealed.
He is the anointed and in the Spirit of God, he comes to put right all that brings us low, all that keeps us apart from God.
And He tells them so!
Wow!
Our journeys are lit-up by the light of Christ.
It’s up to us now.
We must be prophets…..
Hope isn’t just for the future, it’s for NOW.
So, what can we do to offer light and hope to those around us?
How do we respond as Christian disciples?
We can pray – for peace, for our sisters and brothers everywhere…. For one another and for ourselves.
Maybe a prayer for all who might hear about Jesus this Christmas – perhaps from the prophets, or from scripture, or maybe from us.
And in the maelstrom of all that Christmas wants to promise, we too can be the light in the world.
There will be many who can only sense the darkness and the cold, for whom hope is far away.
And we can speak up – or stay silent…..
Help the oppressed and vulnerable to have a voice.
Or welcome the stranger, call-out injustice and hatred.
Let the Spirit guide us to see God in action – now and in the future.
Finally…. Unless you are already deeply engaged with your chosen Advent reading, if any…
I commend to you for a second, third and fourth reading, the passage from Paul’s letter to the people of Thessalonica that we heard today.
We are encouraged to:
Ceaseless prayer….
To listen to the Prophets….
And to rejoice in the Lord….
YES Rejoice!
So, by God’s grace, and with every fibre of your being – go and be joyful this Christmas, that others might know of the hope we have found in Jesus Christ, the Messiah.
Thanks be to God.
Amen.
Photo by camilo jimenez on Unsplash
“Trusted Author” – Goldingay, J. (2015) Isaiah for Everyone, Kindle Edition, SPCK