Dec. 4, 2016 (full size gallery)
Advent 2 turned nippy and overcast. The leaves from the great sycamore have mostly fallen presenting a canopy to the Parish House. We had 41 for the service. The acolyte and Gospel bearer skillfully lit the two advent candles. Candle #1 represents "hope" and Candle #2 "love." During each Sunday of the Advent season, we focus on one of the four virtues Jesus brings us: Hope, Love, Joy and Peace.
Susan Tilt added to her beautiful "out of the world" advent hangings. During the announcements Catherine showed a Diocese stewardship publication which included St. Peter’s. Announcements included 3 seasonal events coming up this week – the lighting of the tree in Port Royal, the choir retreat on Saturday and the Everett’s Christmas reception on Sunday. During the offertory today Karen Richardson played soothing Christmas music during the offertory.
At the heart of the lesson from Matthew for Advent 2, and perhaps its overall theme, is the matter of hope. As Paul writes "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Related to this is answering ‘What defines a great leader?” In the midst of this we are called for repentence.
Fundamental is the prophesy of Isaiah, "root of Jesse" that there was a precedent for Jesus. Paul uses it in Romans and extends the Messiah to the Gentiles. "The root of Jesse shall come, the one who rises to rule the Gentiles; in him the Gentiles shall hope." The Jews were not the only chosen people – Gentiles too will find hope in Christ. Christ saw the bigger picture. The scriptures will help to unify us so we can become more Christ-like.
This week centers around John the Baptist and his mission described in the Gospel. The message is couched in irony. How could a man coming out of the wilderness provide a message of the savior ?
In the Gospel, John the Baptist calls for repentance in preparation for the coming Messiah. It refers to a turning away from the past way of life and the inauguration of a new one. John doesn’t come in traditional messenger garmants let alone priest clothes. However, his message will change the world. The Message Translation by Eugene Peterson defines this well – "I’m baptizing you here in the river, turning your old life in for a kingdom life. The real action comes next: The main character in this drama – compared to him I’m a mere stagehand – will ignite the kingdom life within you, a fire within you, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out."
From Isaiah’s time there was plenty of needs for this in the corruption 8th centuries before Christ. He defined qualities of the ideal ruler. The ruler should have a spirit of wisdom and understanding, counsel and might and knowledge and fear. The Psalm also looked forward to a new ruler to establish peace and justice, a desired state of affairs which goes out to help the poor.
While this week is about messenger and the message, we must accept the twists and turns in our own journey – the unexpected – and how God may be making a plan for us. We will be different for all of it. The key may be to expect the unexpected. In this Advent season, our preparation may be the consideration of our own repentence.
The sermon was the story of Chana, a young Palestinian girl from a small village in Judea who has traveled to Jerusalem with her parents and will hear John the Baptist.
"Chana remembers the harvest just completed, how her family brought the wheat, heavy with grain, out of the field to the threshing floor. She can smell the dust as a donkey pulls a sledge over the wheat to knock the grains out of their hulls as dust rises in a golden cloud in the late afternoon sun.
“Chana,” he says, “Chana, we people are like the sheaves of wheat on the threshing floor. This One who is coming will harvest the goodness in us. That’s why he will have a winnowing fork. He will use that winnowing fork to separate out what we don’t need any more, and what is useless in us so that it can blow away. He will carry the goodness in us into the barn. And he will burn all of that useless chaff away in a big fire like the one that we make at the end of every day of the harvest.”
“And then, like your mother, he will take the goodness in us, and grind it and make it into bread, so that we can be useful in this world.” John, with his reverent voice, was telling the crowd that they could hope in the One that was coming, that he could be trusted, and that this harvest would be good.
"Chana could tell that John the Baptist, and her mother and her father wanted to be part of that harvest. And so did she."