Sermon - 2nd Sunday of Advent - Year B

 Isaiah 40:1-11,  Mark 1:1-8                                                              

                                         Anticipating - Expecting

"I have baptized you with water;  but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."  John is saying to his hearers, 'A good thing has happened, but an even better thing awaits you.'  

This is the kind of hype we hear everywhere these days.  As December 25 inches ever closer, we find ourselves bom­barded with messages of "how grateful they will be when given the one gift which exceeds all expectations."  It was nice before; it is going to be even better this year. 

Throughout my childhood, the members of my mother's extended family drew names and exchanged gifts at the Christmas dinner.  I don't remember the gifts that I got for the first 12 or so years.  There was a series of poorly made pajamas from my Aunt Mutt;  toys from Aunt Helen that did not make it through the first demolition derby;  and gifts mailed to us from Aunt Lee which would have been appropriate the last time she visited us -  four or five years in the past.  

The first gift I remember getting was one my Aunt Izzy gave me.  This gift came just as I was entering adolescence.  Aunt Izzy gave me my first real tie - a tie that you have to tie - not a child’s clip on.  She presented it to me, commenting that since I was becom­ing a young man, I needed a grown man's tie.  That did it.  From then on, there was only one giver of gifts in my mother's family.  I would ask mother if there weren’t some way to rig the drawing so I would know that Aunt Izzy was always going to get my name.  In my mind, she gave the gifts which far exceeded all my expectations. 

"I have baptized you with water;  but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."  John is telling his hearers, 'A good thing has happened, but an even better thing awaits you.'  

John, in speaking to the Israelites, uses poetry which had been around for centuries.  John quotes the prophet Isaiah, who in the 3rd century b.c.e. had come to Israel to inform them that God was about to visit them with the most wonderful gift they could ever imagine.  Isaiah spoke to a people who had been carried off from their home­land - they were living as slaves, tending gardens which were not their own.  Israel had been overrun by the Babylo­nians and the leaders of the Jewish sect had been carried off into exile.  This exile is the event spoken of in our advent hymn, “O come, O come Emmanuel...and ransom captive Israel, who sits in lonely exile here, until the Son of Man appear."  

The people of God were slaves.  They were not in their own homeland; they were not tending their own gardens.  They were in exile and longed for the day when they would be set free. 

Arguably, the thing which had enabled Yahweh's chosen people to endure this horrible punishment was their confidence that none of this was outside the reach of God's hand.  It was Isaiah who had foretold these events.  He had warned them of their demise.  Isaiah told them that the king of Babylon was acting at God's command; that the exile had occurred as God's way of chastising and disciplining.  Isaiah had encouraged Israel to view their captivity as one would look upon the discipline of a loving parent. 

Though they had been separated from their temple and from the land promised to their ancestors they had not been cut off from God's love.  God had remained with them.  God was with them, in their lowly exile. 

But the time of ransom was about to occur.  Soon, very soon, God would visit them in the valley of their despair and that valley would be lifted up;  God would climb to the heights of their hopelessness and that mountain would be made low;  God would enter into the wilderness of their isolation and proclaim a message of salvation.  “Prepare the way of the Lord,” the prophet tells them.  Ease the path which God must travel.  Do it now, do it fast.  Do not allow anything to impede God's arrival. 

A wonderful thing is about to happen.  Wait for it, watch for it, and expect it.  It was true for Israel in the 5th century b.c.e.  It was true for those who went out to the River Jordan to listen to the sermons of John the Baptist. 

John's sermons were of the Get Right with God, variety.  His listeners were called upon to examine their lives and root out their transgressions.  As a sign and symbol of their renewed commitment to God and God's word they underwent a ritualized washing called baptism.  It was a baptism with water; an outward act which was intended to symbolize their renewed commitment.  It was a way of saying, “I will try to do better.”  It was a baptism with water.  It was a good thing - but something better was about to come.  John was making straight the path for the arrival of the one who truly would level those mountains of hope­lessness, lift up the valleys of despair, and overrun the wilderness of isolation. 

The baptism of Jesus is a baptism by fire.  It is the baptism which invites us into the death and resurrection of our Messiah.  It a baptism in which Christ is the actor and we the recipient.  Unlike the baptism of John, which could be nullified by irreverent or disobedient behavior, the Baptism into Christ can never loose its power.  It is built upon Jesus’ sacrificial death and God’s resurrecting him from the tomb.  It is a baptism which can never loose its power or effect. 

When we read this message from Mark’s Gospel, we aren’t simply taking a walk down memory lane.  The Gospel isn’t some word that was spoken once upon a time which we review and think, “Well isn’t that nice.”  In reading the Gospel, we are announcing, in our very presence, the same promise of God's eminent arrival.  This morning, as Mark's Gospel was read in our midst, it has the effect of being an announcement.  The read is announcing that God will enter your world, your life and give to you that gift which far exceeds all expectations.  It may have been good before, but it is about to get even better. 

You will have to examine the circumstances of your own life to understand where this gift might express itself.  

We sometimes allow ourselves to believe that the birth of Jesus is where the story ends.  But this is far from the case.  The birth is only the beginning.  From there the story moves through a ministry of healing and compassion on its way to an act of sacri­fice and redemp­tion.  The story continues to run that same cycle; bringing to each age a renewed promise of God's grace.  We are the ones who must risk offering to God the hurts and needs of our lives. 

"I have baptized you with water;  but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.  "It was good before, but now it is going to be even better."  "Come to the water, you who thirsts come to me.  Listen, Listen and you will hear." 

Amen.