2nd Sunday in Advent, 4th December 2011
St Michael and All Angels, Brighton
Isa 40:1-11, 2 Pet 3:8-15a, Mk 1:1-8
+ In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen
It’s Christmas time again! Yes, it’s that time of year when, wherever you turn, you simply can’t escape the fact that it’s Christmas. Those lovely twinkling lights that I walk past on North Street as I make my way from Kemptown these last couple of weeks. The adverts on the TV helpfully reminding us to go to this store or the other to buy the latest “must have” presents. And of course the annual treat of turning the radio on and hearing Mariah Carey singing “All I Want for Christmas is You”. It’s all a wonderful reminder that we are in the Christmas season!
Except of course that we are not. Not yet! We may be forgiven for thinking that we are. Because, although we know that Christmas is on its way, it’s not here yet! As Father Raymond reminded us last week, we are in a period of preparation in these weeks leading up to the birth of Jesus. So perhaps to go mad with excitement just now is a little premature!
Advent is a time of preparation and anticipation, and each week during Advent has its own particular focus, and on this Second Sunday of Advent the church focuses upon the “Prophets”. Those giants of the Old Testament who often perhaps seem so stern and foreboding! The popular image of the prophet is often that of a crazy eyed religious zealot making stern pronouncements in the name of a God who seems to be continually mad at the way people have moved away from him. There is the reputation that prophets sometimes have as a sort of divine fortune teller, yet to reduce their role to something not far removed from the astrology column of a newspaper does a great disservice to their real significance.
What both the gospel and the Old Testament reading that it echo’s this morning emphasise, is the role of the prophet of one who prepares. One who lays the land, who gets the people ready. The gospel opens with the declaration, “See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying out in the wilderness; “Prepare the way of the Lord” (Mk 1:2-3). It speaks of course, of John the Baptist whose role it was to declare the coming of Christ and get the people ready for the one who was to come.
Now, while I’m certainly no building engineer or architect, I’m pretty sure that this wonderful building we worship in today didn’t just appear overnight. Plans were drawn up, the land was made ready and foundations were dug. Each step in the process took time, and without any particular component the actual building just would not have been able to take place. To just hastily erect a church (or any building) without a very thorough period of preparation would have simply been a recipe for disaster.
I’m sure many of you have been here when the wind is blowing hard outside up here on a hill; I’ve had that experience myself a few times over the last couple of weeks. The creaks and strange noises that often happen at such times give us all the more reason to be thankful for all the careful preparation and planning that went into the building of this place.
What if Jesus had just suddenly appeared completely out of the blue? What if the Bible we have today consisted solely of the twenty seven books of the New Testament and nothing else? No historical context, no back-story, simply the sudden appearance of a baby in a manger who turns out to be the Son of God! How very different our story would look then. Yet the whole of the Bible in its many different ways prepares for, and leads up to, the coming of the one who, in the Incarnation, brings God into the messiness of our world. Over generations the ground was laid and made ready until the time was right for the event that was to change the whole of creation.
I have to confess, I’m not the greatest in the world at waiting for things. There are times like going on holiday, my birthday.....and yes, even Christmas when I’m like a big kid and just want it to happen now! Occasions like these are among the few times that even now I actually bounce out of bed in the morning at some unearthly hour full of excitement and wanting it to happen now. Loathe sometimes as I may be to admit it, the build-up, preparation and anticipation is all part of what makes these times so special. They don’t just suddenly appear as isolated moments in our life.
Here in this Second Week of Advent we come together not simply as a group of individuals, but as a community. A community on a shared journey of wonder and discovery as we gradually get closer to the moment when God came and dwelt amongst us, sharing our humanity and inviting us to be partakers of his divinity. Let us not rush that journey. When all around us seem to be frantically looking for instant satisfaction, let us take a moment to slow down and savour this time of waiting. Step away, even if it is only for a few minutes each day from the busyness of our everyday life and be still with our Lord. A time of reflection, of anticipation. A time of joy.....and yes, of gradual excitement. Events such as the Beach Hut Advent Calendar on Hove sea-front over the next few weeks are an excellent opportunity to present the Advent story as one of looking forward with hope to our Lord’s coming. May those who visit the beach huts come away with a sense of wonder and excitement at the message they hear.
As John the Baptist prepared the way for Christ, let us prepare ourselves for Christ. Both as we celebrate his Incarnation as a helpless infant in a manger, and as we look forward to his coming again as we heard in the epistle reading. As the writer of the epistle exhorts each of us, “Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish; and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation” (2 Pet 2:14-15a).
+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. AMEN
