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SERMONS

Second Sunday of Advent
December 7, 2008

By The Rev. Sylvia Czarnetzky

Isaiah 40:1-11
Psalm 85:7-13
2 Peter 3:8 – 15a
Mark 1:1-8 (RCL)

The best analogy that I can come up with for our modern attitude towards the Second Coming of Christ comes from my childhood. At Carrie Stern Elementary School in Greenville, Mississippi, the teachers in the 5th and 6th grades ruled with iron fists. Mrs. Hamilton was one of them. She was tough as nails. Now when Mrs. Hamilton would leave the classroom she would say to us, as she was leaving, “Stay in your Seats and continue your work. I’ll be back, but you don’t know when.” Now the first few moments the teacher was gone, everybody did what they were supposed to do –- they stayed in their seats and continued their work. But the longer the teacher was gone, the more tempting it became t to misbehave. You know, there’s always somebody who just can’t stand it, and starts to live dangerously and by clowning around while the teacher’s gone. But not me. I was always one of the Dudley Do-Rights who stayed in my seat and didn’t act up, because I was afraid of getting caught. I’m one of those people for whom fear was an effective motivational strategy. But for those who were not ruled by fear the longer the teacher was out of the room, the more tempting it was to misbehave.

Now, what does this have to do with the Second Coming? Well, the analogy is that Jesus, when he was about to depart this earth, told his followers he’d be back. And the first generation of disciples expected Jesus to return during their lifetimes. (Bartlett 39) Those early Christians all believed that Christ’s return was imminent. But he didn’t come back when they expected him to. And he hasn’t come back yet, so Jesus is like the teacher who has left the room with a stern warning about his return, but by this time, the year of our Lord 2008, Jesus has been gone for a really long time!! And we’re wondering if he’s coming back at all! (38) So if Jesus is the teacher, then we all are the members of the class, who have been told to behave ourselves because the teacher could return at any time. But the teacher has been gone for such a long time, we’re starting to ask ourselves, “What is taking so long?” (39) and “Is he ever going to get here?” (38)

But people were starting to ask these same questions as early as the second century, a hundred years or so after Christ’s death and resurrection. People were wondering the same thing: Did the fact that Christ’s return didn’t happen when they thought it was going to happen mean that it wasn’t going to happen at all?

And that’s precisely the question that Peter was addressing in his letter. Peter’s letter was composed late, relative to the gospels and Paul’s letters. Peter was writing in the second century to a later generation of Christians who were wondering, what was taking so long? Peter tries to account to them for “the delay in the Lords’ return and…how we should understand the [Second Coming] in light of that delay.” (Brosend 14) The Second Letter of Peter speaks to Christians of his time whose belief in the second coming was beginning to waver. And the first thing Peter said to those folks was, “Do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day.” (3:8)

The passing of a thousand years in our mortal time frame might seem to God like the passing of a single day. So maybe, Peter suggests to is folk and to us, maybe we just aren’t counting the same way that God is! (Brosend 14) So maybe Jesus is not late at all, in terms of God’s time. – As Peter says, “The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness…” (3:9a) “For 2d Peter as for us, it seems clear that the initial promise, that Christ would return soon, was not fulfilled -- at least not in the way that many Christians from that day until now have expected it to be fulfilled.” (Bartlett 39)

But then Peter makes another suggestion about why the Second Coming hasn’t happened. Peter says, “The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but all too patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.” And that casts the delay in a whole new light – Maybe the Lord is delaying Jesus’ return to give us time yet to repent! “What looks like tardiness is really mercy.” (Bartlett 41) Maybe, Peter suggests, that God is being patient with human sinfulness and our stubbornness. Maybe the delay is yet another second chance for us to repent and amend our ways, before the day of Judgment. (Brosend 14) So maybe God’s patience with us is “deeply rooted in mercy,” (Norris 20) So it’s actually good news that Christ hasn’t returned yet, at least for those of us who may still need a little more time to turn our lives around! (Brosend 14) And Peter tells us that, while we wait, we wait, we are to “lead[] lives of holiness and godliness,” and “Strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish, and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation.” (2d Peter 3:14-5)

Peter reminds us that the Lord is “patient with [us], not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.” (3:9) So the delay is potentially good news for us! But Peter’s good news about Gods patience is about “to slam into John the Baptist’s demand for repentance. Now!“ (Brosend 15) John the Baptist crashes into the middle of our Advent season. He stumbles onto the stage in the gospel of Mark, “ proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” (Mk 1:4) In fact, that’s how Mark’s gospel starts!

Mark does not begin his gospel with angels and shepherds, and mangers and wise men., like Matthew and Luke. (Peterson 12) Mark does not begin his gospel like John does, with “sweeping poetic grandeur.” (12) Oh no. The first words of Mark’s gospel are very matter-of-fact: “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” (Mk. 1:1) “Like a starter’s pistol, this brief first verse rings out and Mark’s narrative is off and running.” (Stendahl 2008 20) And the very first place it takes us is to John the Baptist.

Kathleen Norris asks: “What can this crusty, hard-edged character, dressed in animal skins and subsisting on locusts and wild honey, have to say to us,” here in the modern world? For Norris, “John has always been a mysterious and troubling figure []. “I have never been sure where to place him, or how to listen to him. But today’s gospel makes John’s significance clear. He is one of the messengers that God always provides to wake us up and help prepare the way. “His words may bring to mind people in our own lives who have been such faithful harbingers of truth, those who have smoothed the way for us, leveling the rough places [we walk through] even as they challenge us to seek to be the people God calls us to be.

“When we look to John we find mercy made plain, for he points to God’s ultimate purpose, which is the forgiveness of our sins.” (Norris 20)

In the wilderness of hatred and violence that we have made of the world, John makes us ask, Can it be that mercy really is at the heart of God? It seems too good,..., to be true.” (Norris 20) Yet it is.

Maybe that’s why this wild-looking figure of John the Baptist pops up every year, on the second Sunday in Advent: to call us to repent “as part of our preparation for Christ’s birth.” (Brosend 16) Maybe we all ought to add that to our Christmas “To do” list:

• buy wrapping paper
• decorate Christmas tree
• repent of sins

The coming of Jesus Christ is an event that signals the end of our captivity to sin and death; liberation from the prisons that we find ourselves caught in; and freedom from captivity to the past. (Taylor 43) For the good news of Jesus Christ is that we are not bound by the past. We can repent of our past behavior and throw ourselves on God’s mercy.(43) Peter reminds us that it’s not too late! New beginnings are still possible! (Stendahl 16)

So, “[d]uring Advent,” let us “go with John into the wilderness to prepare the way to welcome Christ into our hearts and lives anew at Christmas. “We have the opportunity to explore the inner geography of our lives for areas of dead wood, thorns or tangled knots. Twisted relationships, the dead wood of old hurts or habits, the confusion that sometimes comes when we feel we can’t see the [forest] for the trees” we must clear away the dead wood in our lives – “before growth and new life is possible.” (Galloway 6-7)

In a hymn about John the Baptist that [we’ll sing/we sang] [this morning/at the end of this service], we are reminded yet again of the task we are called to this Advent, as we prepare for Christ’s coming: Then cleansed be every breast from sin; make straight the way for God within, and let each heart prepare a home where such a mighty guest may come. (Hymn 76, verse 2) Amen.

Works Cited

Bartlett, David L. & Barbara Brown Taylor, Eds. Feasting on the Word, Year B, Vol. 1. Louisville: Westminster, John Knox Press, 2008.

Brosend, William F., II. “The Season of Advent/Christmas.” New Proclamation Year B. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2005.

Brueggemann, Walter, et al. Texts for Preaching: A Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV - Year B. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1993.

Galloway, Kathy. “Wilderness.” Resources for Preaching and Worship Year B. Êds. Hannah Ward and Jennifer Wild. Louisville: John Knox Press, 2002. 6-7.

Montgomery, Stephen R. “Beyond Fear, Fundamentalism, and Fox News: The Active Hope of Advent.” Journal for Preachers. 29(1) (Advent 2005).

Norris, Kathleen. “Mercy, me.” “Living by the Word.” Christian Century November 29, 2005. 20.

Peterson, Brian K. “The Season of Advent. New Proclamation, Year B. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2008.

Stendahl, John. “On your Mark.” “Living in the Word.” Christian Century November 20, 2002. 16.

__________. “Living by the Word.” Christian Century December 2, 2008, 20.

Taylor, Barbara Brown. “Saving Space.” Mixed Blessings. 2d. ed. Cambridge: Cowley Press, 1998. 40-6.