Homily for Sunday, 7 December 2014

2nd Sunday in Advent

Readings of the day: Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11; Psalm 85:9-10, 11-12, 13-14; 2 Peter 3:8-14; Mark 1:1-8

Who here has ever prepared for a long journey? What would we bring with us on this journey? We need our passports if we are leaving the country. We need enough clothing and footwear for the duration of the journey. We need the right kind of clothing. We need chargers for all our electronic devices; maybe a good book; personal toiletries; money…

Now who here has ever been on a journey when it is difficult to know what to expect or what to bring? I have been on some journeys for which I have found it difficult to prepare. As a junior in university, I studied for one year on exchange in Lille, in northern France. I worried for some time about whether I would be accepted for the exchange; whether I had the right paperwork to apply for my French student visa; whether I had enough money to last the year abroad. As a Basilian, when I went to Cali, Colombia to teach for the first time six years ago, I was even less sure about what to expect. I had little prior teaching experience and had not been to South America before. At least when I went to France, I could speak, read, and write in French already; I knew very little Spanish when I first arrived in Colombia.

Even worse than not knowing what to expect of a long journey, who here has ever prepared to go somewhere when we really did not want to go; when going frightened us? Fortunately, I have not had this kind of experience. But this was the experience of the people of Isaiah’s time; the experience of which we hear in our first reading today. This was also the experience of many people in the time of John the Baptist and Jesus in our Gospel reading.

Imagine the background events to our first reading: The prophet Isaiah wakes up one morning and is enjoying his cup of coffee when God says to him: “Say this to my people, Israel: “Give comfort to my people.” You have “received from the hand of the LORD double for all your sins.”

“Comfort and forgiveness of sins,” Isaiah thinks, “the people will be happy with this message. A man named George Frideric Handel will set these words to beautiful music in a few hundred years. This music will be called ‘The Messiah.’”

But then God continues: “The people are to go home to Israel. ‘Prepare the way of the LORD! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!’ Prepare a way back from this exile in Babylon. Go back to Jerusalem that the Babylonians destroyed years ago. Rebuild it and make it into my house; a house of God once again”!

“Whoa,” Isaiah says, “Are you sure, God? The people will be afraid to go back to Jerusalem. I need to think over another cup of coffee, or maybe some of that mint tea that is so good here in the Middle East: How will I prepare the people to return home; to rebuild Jerusalem”?

“I know,” Isaiah suddenly jumps up, “I’ll remind the people of how much God cares for us: “Like a shepherd he feeds his flock… and [leads] the ewes with care.”

Isaiah’s message was for the most part a success. A small group of the people in exile in Babylon did decide to return home to Jerusalem; to rebuild the city and its temple as the house of God. These people prepared for and then set out on a journey back to a place where they did not know what to expect.

But this would not be the last time, in the Bible or in our time, when people would prepare to set out on a journey to somewhere or something they did not know what to expect. Our Gospel reading from Mark says that, just as “Jesus Christ, the Son of God” was becoming known, “people of the whole Judean countryside and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem” were going out to meet a man named John, who was baptizing in the Jordan River.

Imagine this: Probably most of the people going to meet John the Baptist did not know how to prepare to meet him; did not know what to expect from this man baptizing in the Jordan. John had a reputation for being a bit wild. He spoke loudly about repentance; about preparing the way for a Savior to come after him. He dressed in “camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist.” (This was the hipster fashion of the New Testament.) John’s personal hygiene was suspect. And long before low-carb, low-fat, high-protein, or crash diets were popular, John was feasting on “locusts and wild honey.” I have heard the John the Baptist diet is delicious and nutritious, but I think I will pass.

And yet despite his reputation as a wild man, there is something that draws us; attracts us to John the Baptist and his message. What is it? We are attracted to John even if his invitation to prepare and to set out toward the unexpected may frighten us.

Could it be that John’s message sounds a lot like that of the prophet Isaiah? “Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way. A voice of one crying out in the desert: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.’” Could it be John’s humility with which he recognizes, “One mightier than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit”? Could it be that we know, as the people of John’s time knew, who this “one mightier than” John; the one to “baptize…with the Holy Spirit” is: Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior?

Like Isaiah, John the Baptist asks us to set out on a journey without knowing what to expect from this journey, or quite how to prepare for it. We know that our salvation through Jesus Christ is at the end of this journey. We know that this journey will change us if we set out on it. If we set out “to prepare the way of the Lord,” we will become more like the humble John the Baptist, pointing out Jesus’ presence in our lives; in the world; in the goodness and kindness of people around us. We will be moved to repent from our sin. We will be more like the prophet Isaiah, speaking truth to powerful and meek alike, urging one another to return home; to return to God with all our hearts. We will become more like the Lord Jesus himself, even as we are saved by him.

How ready are we to be changed by our Advent journey? How ready are we to prepare for what we are to become, more and more like Jesus himself; like our Lord and Savior? John the Baptist, like Isaiah, calls us to set out on a journey. The message of John and of Isaiah is attractive and yet unnerving at the same time: Prepare. For what (or for whom) are we to prepare? What are we to expect of this journey?

This journey is not like anything we could expect. We cannot prepare for it simply by packing our passports; enough clothing that is right for the weather, our electronic devices and their chargers; foreign language books for beginners… No, this journey, if we set out on it, will lead us through the unexpected; the frightening; the attractive moments. If we set out to “prepare the way of the Lord,” to prepare for what we will become through our journey, we will become more like Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, and we will be saved by our journey with, through, and in Christ.