December 6, 2020: May God’s words be spoken, may God’s words be heard. Amen.
Here we are in December. We are nearing the end of this crazy year. We have feasted at smaller tables, or hopefully so, on Thanksgiving, and the leftovers are finally gone – right to our waists. The Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, and Giving Tuesday events are behind us. And usually about now we are in the midst of preparing for Christmas – scheduling loads of holiday events at work, or our children’s school, or among friends and family (or being scheduled by them), planning our trips to see those we love (or have them stay with us), and so much more. Our To-do lists are generally as long as a receipt from CVS, as our exhaustion levels grow, and our bank accounts decrease. There is usually a lot to do to prepare the way for Christmas, and while it may be tempered a bit in this time of pandemic, there is still a lot of things we try to get done before the big day.
And Advent is a reminder to us all of the most important preparation we must do. We must prepare ourselves. That is what St. John the baptizer is proclaiming to us that we are to reflect on who we are, how we are living, and make ourselves ready for a deeper relationship with God, who is to enter into the world.
So how? How do we prepare?
Well, it isn’t something to add to our to-do list…not really.
It is a removing, more than an adding, in a sense.
To really understand it, let’s consider for a moment the setting – described in both texts – the gospel having taken a bit from that beautiful passage from second Isaiah. Now, I don’t know about you, but my heart really took in this year the words from Isaiah, “Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God.” Second Isaiah, which begins with the verses we heard this morning, is speaking to a people who are returning from exile. It is a message of deliverance from hardship and oppression, and a reassurance that God has not abandoned them.
I think a great many of us today, after this long 2020, need that same message from God – don’t we? But it gets even better, because a few verses later, we hear “lift up your voice with strength… O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!”
Or, put another way: “Tell the good news: Here is your God!”
That is also what we are hearing in the opening of the gospel of Mark heard this morning, the word gospel itself meaning “good news.” The passages starts with “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Again, put it another way, “this is the good news of Emmanuel – God with us!”
For all who are weary, grieving, lonely, and afraid in this difficult time, this is a balm for the soul – that you are not alone – God is here with us, with you, and with God alongside, we will be delivered from this dark time, and comforted along the way. Very good news for us all, if our hearts are open to letting God enter in. Which brings us to that preparation we need to do – because that is how we will feel it, that is how we will be ready to enter anew into a deep and abiding relationship with God. And we get a clue on how to do this preparation in both the passage from Isaiah, and its repeat in Mark, which says,
“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
“In the wilderness…”
Have you noticed that in the bible when folks have encounters with God, or want to anyway, they take a walk on the wild side and go into the wilderness? Moses, Jesus, John the baptizer… Why is that?
Well first, there was a lot of wilderness in those days, so it wasn’t hard to do, you didn’t have to get in the car to drive for hours. But, obviously that’s not the point. It is also a metaphorical place – where we leave the familiar to go to what is not yet known, where we enter into vulnerability, where we allow ourselves to be stripped down to the true essence of who we are. There, on the edges we can empty ourselves of the clutter, and it is in those wilderness places where revealing is able to happen – where things become clear.
That is the preparation we are being called to by our scriptures today – it’s not a to-do, but an un-do – an emptying of ourselves so that we can be filled with the divine love that we await. Think of it like a tall glass. It can’t be filled if it is already filled with other things. And despite our fanatical ability to multi-task that has been amped up since the pandemic hit, this relationship with God isn’t something you can send a quick text check-in and move on.
Relationship requires that we devote some undivided attention to it, or we risk looking up from the busyness of our lives and finding those relationships damaged, and even lost to us. Advent is a reminder to us that, while God will never abandon us, we may have set that relationship on the back burner. Advent calls us to do a reset – to clear a way through the clutter of our lives – that we may allow the love and light of God, found in the birth of Jesus, to enter fully into our hearts once more. It is to prepare for what is to be – and for what we are to be. It is to enter into a wilderness time of reflection, prayer, and openness to the gift we are to receive. It is to be in a place of expectancy and hope – of yearning and anticipation.
Because if we can do that, if we can prepare fully, if we allow Christ to enter in, then all that we hear in Isaiah is possible:
“…Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all people shall see it together…”
That is the hope and promise of Advent.
We prepare to be transformed by the Word made flesh, and to live out our lives in Christ. It isn’t new, or impossible, because others before us have been doing it for centuries.
I want to tell you a story about a man who was born to wealthy Christian parents in the Greek town of Patara, in what is now Turkey. He was orphaned at an early age from a devastating plague, yet he knew the comfort of God, and grew in his faith, even at a time when severe persecutions of Christians were widespread.
As an adult, his relationship with Jesus deepened, and he heard the call to serve the poor, selling off his whole inheritance to aid the less fortunate. He dedicated his life to serving God and was eventually was made Bishop of Myra, also in present day Turkey, while still a young man.
Under the Roman Emperor Diocletian, he suffered for his faith, was exiled and imprisoned. After his release, he attended the Council of Nicaea in 325 (from which we get the name of our Nicene Creed, though it was actually finalized in the Council of Constantinople of 381). Now, a little thing about that council meeting. This man, not liking what one bishop had to say about the divinity of Christ, marched across the room and slapped him! I suppose we all have our moments, even good and faithful folks like this bishop.
Years later, in 343, he died on this day, December 6th, having lived his life in service to Christ. And today would be his saint day, if we didn’t transfer saint days that fall on Sunday to another day.
Many legends and stories of miracles are told of this beloved saint – that he rescued from prostitution & slavery three young maidens whose family had no money for their dowry by dropping off bags of gold in the night – three separate times, one for each of them.
That he saved the lives children, sailors, and those suffering from famine, and many more. He was a man of compassion, humility, and love rooted in his deep and abiding relationship with Jesus. And, he wasn’t perfect, he apparently could lose his temper.
And who is this saint? Well, none other than St. Nicholas himself!
Yup – Dec. 6th is the feast of St. Nicholas – aka. Santa Claus – the patron saint of children, and also of pawn-brokers, prostitutes, scholars, laborers, travelers, merchants, judges, students, sailors, victims of judicial mistakes, and criminals. He is known as the friend and protector of all in trouble or need. What a saint for us today, don’t you think?
Folks often think that Christmas is ruined by Santa Claus and commercialism, but at least with the former, they’ve got it wrong. St. Nicholas is a model for what Christmas should mean. His life reminds us that we are not here to serve ourselves, but to serve each other and God, in the name of Jesus. He entered into a deep relationship with the Word made flesh, serving in love as Jesus modeled for all who follow him. And relationship like that – as St. Nicholas had with Jesus – as we are all called to have with Him – takes effort – it takes preparing ourselves to receive Him fully in our hearts.
This is the preparation we are being asked to do at this time – this is why we need to make way – that we will be ready to receive the Christ born anew to us at Christmas. Because the good news, the really amazing tidings we are hearing, is that in that birth we await, God chooses us – chooses to enter into relationship with us – that we, having prepared the way, may receive him and become partners with God – transformative agents of divine love and grace for a world in need. That is the life St. Nicholas led, and like him, we won’t be perfect at it, we might even feel like slapping somebody from time to time. Thankfully, perfection is never required of us, just a desire to be as Christ like as we possibly can.
Perhaps then St. Nicholas, Santa Claus, Father Christmas (or all the other names by which he is known) while not perfect, is the perfect Advent Saint. For like the excitement of children all over the world at Christmas, we in Advent enter into that place of wonder and possibility, hope and promise, open and ready like shoes on the doorstep on Dec. 6th, or stockings hung on Christmas Eve, empty and waiting to be filled with the greatest gift humanity has ever received.
And if we can do that, if we can prepare and be ready, that gift will change us in ways we cannot even imagine, but one thing is for sure….together with God, we can, like St. Nick, make miracles happen.
Amen.
For the audio from the 10:30am service, click below, or subscribe to our iTunes Sermon Podcast by clicking here:
The Rev. Diana L. Wilcox
Christ Church in Bloomfield & Glen Ridge
December 6, 2020
Fifth Sunday of Advent (7 Week Advent)
1st Reading – Isaiah 40:1-11
Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13
2nd Reading – 2 Peter 3:8-15a
Gospel – Mark 1:1-8
