December 8, 2024 – Advent 2C

“In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth;and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’” Luke 3:1-6

The four themes of Advent are Preparation, Expectation, Proclamation, and Revelation. The four parts of the service are Gathering, Word, Meal, and Sending. The four themes of Advent and the four sections of the worship service go together nicely in this way: We Gather and Prepare for worship; we hear the Word and know that we are part of the Proclamation; we gather around the table for the Meal and meet Jesus who is Revealed in the word, the bread and the wine; and finally, we are Sent into the world with the Expectation that we are the hands and feet of Christ.

The Prophet Malachi should be a prophet to whom we pay attention, because the word Malachi actually means “My Messenger”.  And the words of Malachi, given to him from G-d are this: that “God is sending a messenger to prepare the way for the Lord to come.”  But the book of Malachi also ends with these words: “I will send the prophet Elijah before the day of the Lord comes.” And then Luke tells us that John the Baptist is the fulfillment of this prophecy – that he is the one who has come to prepare the way.  His is the voice that is crying out. His is the voice setting the stage for Jesus and Jesus’ ministry. And his message is that people need to prepare themselves through repentance, through actual change in their lives – how they are living and who they are serving. And if we are willing to be messengers, well that may take some dramatic change.

You see, Advent is not just the buffer to Christmas. Advent is not just the countdown to Santa. Advent is preparation, it is proclamation, it is reading about and meditating on the fact that something Earth changing is coming.  Luke is intentional about making the statement that Advent is about “setting the stage” – that a miraculous, worldwide, phenomenally, incredible event is coming. So we better find our way into G-d’s word, so we can prepare as best we can.

Pastor Dave