2nd Sunday of Advent - 2024c

Old Testament - Malachi 3:1-4

New Testament - Luke 3:1-6

 

“Course Corrections”

 

INTRODUCTION: So over Thanksgiving while in Knoxville Audrey, Luke, and I decided to do something, in the hindsight, that wasn’t really all that smart.  

 

Having finished lunch with my Mom and Dad at a restaurant, and with nothing else scheduled for the day, we decided to head to the mall. Did I mention this happened to be on Black Friday? And did I also mention the mall in Knoxville is actually pretty large. Covering 1.3 million square feet, it’s still the largest mall in the state. A gigantic, multi-floor Dick’s Sporting Goods store complete with an outdoor basketball court, small track, batting cage, and other training areas is the latest addition.    

 

Needless to say, just trying to find a place to park took a bit of time. And once in the mall? Good heavens, what a scene! The place, as you might imagine, was crammed with people milling about and loaded down with shopping bags. And the mood, despite the cramped conditions, was actually pretty jovial and festive. As people dashed about in quest of the next big discounted purchase, there was cheery laughter, and Christmas music could be heard softly playing throughout the mall. Although a frantic time, it also seemed to be a merry one for many as well. 

    

Except, I should say, for the poor store clerks and salespeople, who collectively looked like a beleaguered and worn down lot. At one point Luke, Audrey, and I wandered into GameStop to check out video games and other accessories. Well, the store looked like a tornado had swept through it, and the clerks were all huddled behind the checkout counter in defensive postures with blank and distance stares. 

 

It was, as you might imagine, quite an experience. As the three of us left the mall and headed back to our car, which was located in some remote parking spot, all I could think to say to Audrey was, “That was absolutely insane.”

     

ONE:  Needless to say, Luke’s account this morning of John the Baptist rolling in from the wilderness proclaiming the need for people to be baptized and repent can seem odd given the energy, hectic pace, and merriment of the season, I think. 

 

After all, according to the National Retail Federation, consumer spending during Christmas in 2024 is expected to set a new record. Yep, based on current patterns, it’s estimated that we’re going to spend on average just over $900 bucks per person this year on Christmas gifts. While people in survey after survey claim they don’t think the economy is very good right now, our spending habits seem to indicate otherwise, as we’re scheduled to happily and cheerfully fork over more money than ever on Christmas gifts this year. 

 

But then...but then comes John the Baptist. Storming in from the wilderness he shows up telling us it’s time to get our lives in order. Standing in that long line of prophets from the Hebrew Scriptures, John is his own “voice crying in the wilderness” about the need for people to “prepare the way of the Lord.”  

 

No wonder one person has this to say about Jesus’ wild-eyed, bug-eating relative: “John the Baptist didn’t fool around. He lived in the wilderness around the Dead Sea. He subsisted on a starvation diet, and so did his disciples. He wore clothes that even rummage sale people wouldn’t have handled. When he preached, it was fire and brimstone everytime.” 

 

And so John the Baptist is a strange figure to have to hear from around Christmas time. For he shows up roaring over the Christmas music warning us of God’s coming and calling for people to repent. While we greet each other with, “Merry Christmas!” and “Happy New Year!”, John can be heard behind our chorus of good wishes snorting, “Repent! Repent! Repent!” 

  

TWO: Of course, while John’s words might be a bit discordant, they’re also a good reminder. After all, as Christmas culturally creeps ever further and further back into the calendar toward Thanksgiving, it can be easy to forget how the season of Advent has traditionally had a penitential quality to it. 

 

Years and years ago, for example, monks were expected to fast during December, as many as three days a week. It was a time known as the Fast of December or the Nativity Fast. Now I don’t know about you all, but fasting usually isn’t on my radar during Advent. In fact, if I can keep the weight gain to under 5 pounds, well, then I consider myself lucky!  

 

And the music during Advent? Well, it too was supposed to have a penitential nature to it. That’s why so many of our Advent hymns contain minor chords giving them a kind of mournful, longful quality. 

 

Why, if we were to be puritanical about the season, we wouldn’t even play Christmas music until Christmas Day! Instead, we would have a whole month of mournful and dour music and then for 12 days we’d saturate ourselves with Christmas music until the day of Epiphany when those three wise men are supposed to have finally arrived in Bethlehem. 

 

And then as we discussed last Sunday during our Hanging of the Greens service, there is the color purple, which symbolizes repentance and preparation. Preachers don purple stoles and the paraments, of course, are also changed to that color. 

 

And just on the off chance that you are not crazy about the color purple being used during Advent, keep in mind there was a time when the color for the season was actually supposed to be black! How’s that for a Merry Christmas?              

And don’t get me wrong. I am far from being a purist about this stuff myself. Why, I have been listening to Christmas music now for probably a good month and I am happy to include Christmas carols in worship services during Advent, even though some hardcore traditionalists might frown on such a practice! 

 

So maybe John’s words about repentance and preparation are actually a good thing. For they help remind us Advent is more than just a time to frantically dash about in an effort to complete our shopping lists.    

  

THREE: The whole point behind the need for repentance during Advent, of course, has to do with the coming of Jesus Christ. Not just as that tiny infant born in a manger, but also as that Savior who now reigns over all and has promised to come again.

 

Back in Jesus’ day, when kings were going to be traveling, they would send emissaries in advance to inform people of their pending arrival. And so to prepare for the king’s coming, the people would actually take to patching and repairing the road leading in and out of town. They would fix breaks in the road and smooth out the rough spots so the king would have a nice even, level surface to travel upon with his coming. 

 

Well, John sort of serves the same purpose. He is an emissary for Jesus Christ announcing his coming. Except rather than repair and patch roads, John asks us to repair and patch our lives in an anticipation of Jesus’ arrival. In the same way people of old would repair roads in advance of a king’s coming, we’re asked to do the same thing with our lives. 

 

Or as John likes to put it just two verses later after our reading for this morning, we should, “Bear fruits worthy of repentance.” Bear fruits worthy of repentance.

 

A fellow minister has a neat way of talking about repentance that I really like. According to him, repentance is kind of like trying to sail a boat on a long journey. 

 

When sailing long distances, of course, there are always ways for a boat to get nudged off track. Strong storms might knock the ship to and fro pushing it off course. There are also always times of doldrums when the ship might drift aimlessly in the water because of no wind. And then there is the human factor. Simply by mistake, calculations might be made sometimes that can also throw the ship off course even though weather might be ideal.  

 

So sailing a ship often requires course corrections and adjustments. Why sometimes it might even be necessary to turn the ship around and head back in the other direction.     

 

And that is what Advent is for us. It is a time to look at how far our lives have drifted of course so we might make any needed course corrections ourselves. For the king is coming, says John the Baptist. And because of that, we should make an effort to repair and tidy up our lives. 

 

The late theologian Shirley Guthrie likes to say, “To be Christian is not to have arrived at some state or condition of…existence. It is to be constantly having growing pains. It is not to be something but to be becoming something. It is not to have arrived but to be constantly on the way.”

 

And repentance…well, that’s how we engage in that process of becoming something.   

 

CONCLUSION: Well, it never hurts to pause in order to take stock of our lives, right? For the day-to-day affairs of just trying to make it through life have a way of knocking us off course, don’t they?

 

So thank heavens for this season of Advent! For amidst the hustle and bustle of this season, we are actually invited, of all things, to pause - to pause in order to contemplate our lives and where they might be headed.

 

For the King is coming, right? The King is coming and so it only makes sense to make sure we're headed in the right direction as we wait and prepare for his arrival. And if we’re not headed in the right direction? Well, then there’s still time to make the needed course corrections. For the King is coming. The King is coming.          

 

And now to the One who by the power at work within us is able to do far more abundantly than all we can ask or imagine, to God be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.