Malachi 3:1–4
Luke 1:68–79
Philippians 1:3–11
Luke 3:1–6
Year C
I.N.I.
Song from the Iona Community: “Come, Holy Spirit” Each phrase is repeated.
Come, Holy Spirit….
Come, Holy Spirit….
Maranatha!
Come, Lord, Come.
In the time that it takes to go from Nashua to Lowell, you can reach the Judean desert. Seriously, you can travel from urban modern-day Jerusalem to utter wasteland in about thirty minutes, on a tour bus.
Here’s how it looks and sounds…..(photos)
Many people cannot make it to Christmas without seeing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Quite a few cannot make it to Christmas without making at least one if not more trips to the mall. A good number cannot make it to Christmas without one or more office parties.
In the place where Advent takes hold, in those who are formed by the Sunday assembly, we cannot make it to Christmas without an invitation to travel to the wilderness. And the host, the one issuing the call to leave wherever you are to a place apart is someone named John, son of Zechariah.
Zechariah was a priest in the temple. He was, as they say, long in the tooth, tending to the stuff of ritual activity, making sure the candles stayed lit, ensuring the doors were locked and opened on time, dealing with the machinations of prayer. He was formidable, old school, and under the polished veneer, miserable. You see, he hid his longing for a child of his own, and probably dismissed this hidden desire as an impossibility in his old age (not to mention Elizabeth’s). As the story goes, it was Zechariah’s turn in the temple to burn the incense pot. Trudging into the stone cavern of the temple, lighting the coals and throwing the perfumed incense on top, on the right side of the altar it says, an angel appeared! Right after scaring the bejeebers off Zechariah the angel said (as angels do) “Do not be afraid.” Then came the messenger’s speech, that Zechariah’s deep-seated prayer had been heard,, that the child shall not be named Zechariah, Junior but John, how happy Zechariah will be, and how with the spirit and power of Elijah son John will go. He will turn, meaning John, many to the Lord their God.
Though Zechariah protested at first, though Zechariah had fits about what was happening to him and the world, in the end, once John emerged from the womb, the old man’s heart melted. He burst into song, the song we ourselves sang from Luke in place of the psalm today. How did it go?
76And you, child, shall be called the prophet of | the Most High,
for you will go before the Lord to pre- | pare the way,
77to give God's people knowledge | of salvation by the forgiveness | of their sins.
78In the tender compassion | of our God
the dawn from on high shall | break upon us,
79to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shad- | ow of death,
and to guide our feet into the | way of peace.
Beautiful song from a proud papa.
Quite a contrast with the grown-up John emerging on the scene in the Gospel, who blasted a megaphone about repentance. Rethinking…..Preparing….Turning toward the Lord….Participating in God’s great construction project, where the landscape up high and down low is leveled, S turns are straightened out, rocky roads are smooth as silk.
If John was the messenger à la Malachi or Elijah, when people heard him, it would be like getting a swift kick where it counts, the prep work for what was coming would be scrubbing with steel wool and wielding a blow torch, with a wrecking ball.
The noise of this excavation signaled change for the one seated in power in Rome, the regional representatives squeezing the pockets of the citizens, and the compliant religious elite.
And it came from nowhere, or at least it was next to nowhere. The voice cried the wilderness.
Far enough from Jerusalem, home of Zechariah and others just doing their business, the Judean desert, the desolation and isolation of silence demand that you wonder what in God’s name brought you there.
Welcome to deep in the heart of Advent, the recipe being a mix of dread and promise. As we prepare our inner and outer landscape in order to receive the coming one, Jesus the Christ, we must make room. We must consider the cry of John, the supreme messenger. One must excavate the rocks and the hard places. In order to get to Christmas, we must take a trip from our preoccupations and machinations to the solitude that John ends up in and crowds stream to.
Remember how the desert sounds and looks? Remember how we prayed earlier? “Stir up our hearts, O Lord, to prepare the way for your only Son.”
See if this prayer comes true this Advent, for you, and for us. See if a posture of thinking, rethinking, turning to the Lord, preparing, leads to promise and the promise.
Receive the invitation as an opportunity to notice change on the horizon. Consider that joy is mixed with the jarring megaphone of John, in the promise that Christ will come, Christ did come, Christ is here, with us now. Hear and heed the call to the desert, the place and the journey where we set aside wherever we are and whatever we are doing to welcome him. Let it begin now. Clear the obstacles to God’s landing close to you as you open your ears, and your eyes, and your hearts. Understand and appreciate the gift of time and resources to allow the salvation at hand to get through.
Today, if for a moment, tomorrow, first thing, last thing, or in the middle of things, make yourself available for God’s great construction project. Pray. Read a bit of Scripture. Recognize the clutter and the noise of the world, and hear the call to the wilderness. Stop, and know, join in the ways of repentance become yourselves the path for the coming one. Join forces with loud-mouthed crazy John and winsome and wizened old Zechariah, and share in the good news that change is coming, is necessary. God in Christ is coming down the highway, and by his birth, and life, and death, and resurrection, is making a way through to us.
In these anxious and busy times, pray for peace and for those serving in the Armed Forces, that their mission will promote justice and the building up of global community.
Pray for an end to selfishness, so that we can look to one another for mutuality and the opportunity to share what we have for the good of society.
Above all, let us unclutter our minds and activity to make way for Christ, who frees us to serve and love.
“Stir up our hearts, O Lord, to prepare the way for your only Son.” Blessed Advent.
Song from the Iona Community: “Come, Holy Spirit” Each phrase is repeated.
Come, Holy Spirit….
Come, Holy Spirit….
Maranatha!
Come, Lord, Come.
I.N.I.
The Rev. Timothy J. Keyl, Pastor
Christ the King Lutheran Church
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