Emmanuel – 11:00 am P&P
8/12/24
Advent 2 – Year C
Malachi 3:1-4
Luke 3:1-6
This past week I have spent quite a lot of my parish time on funeral planning for three upcoming services. Yes – we are starting on a happy note. I went looking for a grave from 1872 in the St Nicholas churchyard with no luck. While there I ran into an aunt visiting the grave of her nephew on the anniversary of his death. I also went to East Surrey Hospital to give our dear Marion Dallison last rites before she died on Wednesday evening.
There has also been a spate of deaths in the Gatwick terminals that I have been made aware of. And I learned about the impending death of an old school friend in Canada after a horrendous cancer journey and she will be leaving a husband and two little boys.
My heart has been rather heavy! This is supposed to be a holly-jolly time of year…
Yet in the midst of this I met a family to discuss the baptism of their delightful first born daughter Anthea. What a joy that was. To bask in the smiles of a 5 month old baby to talk about her life in Christ at the start of the journey was balm to this soul. This was a reminder about light in the darkness, in the sorrows of life that there can be joy.
This theme is found in the heart of the messages and prophecies of the prophets.
The Second Sunday of Advent focuses on the prophets of the bible. The Wednesday Advent study group has been looking at them as well. There are four Major Prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel. The prophets and prophetesses in the Old Testament were spokespersons for God. Their job was to announce God’s will or intentions for people, predicted the future, or did both. They represented God to a particular people at a particular time about specific events. They voice God’s opinion on what is going on – offering God’s perspective.
The messages of the prophets cannot always be applied to other events so careful reading is required. The original messages are rooted in historical events. Some spoke to the political & military crisis (Isaiah). Amos spoke about lament and social justice. The prophecies are always connected to the now and possible future consequences; prophets are not fortune-tellers or speaking directly to future events.
Many of the prophets found themselves literally and figuratively in the wilderness. That place of loneliness where nothing grows; all seems empty and lifeless. We too can find ourselves in those wilderness places, maybe when things do not work out the way they should, when that death comes sooner than we thought, health fails, that job gets lost, a relationship breaks down.
To make wilderness experiences all the more painful, we can often feel that God has somehow left us alone and has become distant or absent. We may not feel close to Him or Him to us.
Malachi is assumed to be the last prophet of the Old Testament as his book closes it out. There was roughly a 400-year gap when God was silent. (Jane Williams): In Malachi there is an argument going on between God and his people. At the end of chapter 2, Malachi says that the people have wearied God, and they ask indignantly what they have done.
Malachi replies that they have called into question God’s justice and so his very character. The people have said, ‘All who do evil are good in the sight of the Lord. Where is the God of justice?’
God answers them – both in Malachi and Luke. God is a righteous God and he will make sure his righteousness prevails. He does this by sending his messenger and the people may well live to regret it. God’s messenger is of course Jesus. The Lord’s messenger will be sent to prepare the way and then the Lord will suddenly come to his temple. There is no time given for this. The people have to watch and wait for the signs.
And then the dawn breaks in the wilderness. After 400 years with not a word from the heavens, the forerunner to the messenger appears in the wilderness. ‘The word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness.’
This is no random appearance. If you look at the detail that Luke provides: ‘in the fifteenth year of reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, when Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of Ituraea and Trachonitis, Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness.’
John’s timing was precise and divinely ordained for that exact moment and place in the wilderness. Our time on earth is just as precise and divinely ordained. When you pray with and for someone around the time of death there is always a space for prayers of confession, repentance and absolution. This is a very fruitful time for many people.
I understand not everyone gets this opportunity for repentance at the time of death as it is very dependent on various factors. Therefore, my friends, we need to take the opportunity in life to use our time and timings for this very fruitful activity!
Like John, we too have been given a way to prepare. The way of repentance. This is what the people who heard Malachi’s prophecy and later John’s and likely many of us today may not want to hear! John came at that exact moment to proclaim a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. What if we too started this new church year with an honest, wilderness-style reckoning of our sin?
Debie Thomas. ‘What is sin? Growing up, I was taught that sin is “breaking God’s laws.” Or “missing the mark,” as an archer misses his target. Or “committing immoral acts.” These definitions aren’t wrong, but they assume that sin is a problem primarily because it angers God.
But God’s temper is not what’s at stake; he’s more than capable of managing his own emotions. Sin is a problem because it kills. It kills us.
Why? Because sin is a refusal to become fully human. It’s anything that interferes with the opening up of our whole hearts to God, to others, to creation, and to ourselves. Sin is estrangement, disconnection, sterility, disharmony. It’s the slow accumulation of dust, choking the soul. It’s the sludge that slows us down, that says, “Quit. Stop trying. Give up. Change is impossible.”
Sin is apathy. Care-less-ness. A frightened resistance to an engaged life. Sin is the opposite of creativity, the opposite of abundance, the opposite of flourishing. It is a walking death. And it is easier to spot, name, and confess a walking death in the wilderness than it is anywhere else.
Here’s the really great news, repentance and forgiveness are not far away from any of us. We do it in every service whether Matins or Communion. We started this morning with the Sentences of Scripture before we are invited to confess our manifold sins and wickedness.
Can I ask you to think back a few minutes, what did you do with that time this morning? What goes through your head when we say these things? Did you repent of anything? Ask for forgiveness?
You were then offered absolution; did you take it? I make an assumption every time I put my hand up to make the sign of the cross, that you have repented and that you take the comfort of the absolution offered. There is also further reference to repentance and forgiveness; in the Benedictus and the Apostles Creed, ‘suffered under Pontius Pilate’ – there’s that timing again – ‘was crucified, dead and buried.’
Lord’s Prayer – forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
This is not in any way to condemn, make us dwell in our failures and shortcomings but rather to free us from the bonds, to wake us up to the reality we may live in, become more aware of the dust and sludge has built up and we may not have even realised it. This is what stands in our way to the manger on this Advent journey.
Our human love, however well-meant and deep, remains imperfect in the light of God’s love. Love and repentance go together. There is no love without forgiveness, and there is no forgiveness without love.
At the start of this new year, we need a wilderness moment that will lead to fruitfulness and abundant living in this new season. The time is now and the time is always right to confess, repent and accept forgiveness that is on offer to us. If this is a wilderness season for you, start to look for signs of new life. That life may start with confession.
We don’t have to go far: it is in your hands at every service, it is in the words we say. Sometimes it simply needs to be brought to our attention. Grab hold of the promises of God, grab hold of the messenger who has come to prepare the way for us, grab hold of the deep and unchanging love of God. Listen for the voice of the one crying out in the wilderness.