2 Advent, Year B

“COME INTO THE DESERT OF ADVENT”
A sermon by The Rev. Gene R. TuckerGiven at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, IL; Sunday, December 7, 2008
Isaiah 40: 1 – 11; Psalm 85: 7 – 13; II Peter 3: 8 - 15a, 18; Mark 1: 1 – 8

“John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”

Welcome to the desert that is Advent!

We are called, as Christians, every Advent season, to come into the desert, into the wilderness, to repent of our sins, to undergo a cleansing of our hearts and minds, that we may be ready for the Lord Jesus Christ’s baptism of the Holy Spirit.

So, welcome to the desert that is Advent.

You see, the desert, the wilderness, is the place where salvation is found. That was so for God’s Chosen People as Moses led them out of bondage in Egypt, into the desert, the wilderness, where their passing through the waters of the Red Sea marked the beginning of their journey to the land that God had given them.

The desert is the place where salvation is found, where God is encountered. That was so for the great prophet Elijah, who, clothed like John the Baptist in camel’s hair[1] and with a leather girdle around his waist, called the people of God into repentence from their idolatrous worship of the Canaanite god, Ba’al.

The desert is the place through which God’s Chosen People would pass on their way home from exile in Babylon, returning to the Promised Land. Isaiah’s voice (chapter 40) reminds us of this salvation event in the history of God’s people, “A voice cries, ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God!’”

The desert is the place where the lonely voices of the prophets are heard. The setting is perfect, for one’s reliance on God’s providence to preserve and save life are no more urgently felt than in the desert.

It is in the desert that the hustle and bustle, the distractions of the crowded city are overcome.

And, so, John’s voice rings out in the desert, “Repent, seek forgiveness of your sins!”

It is John’s voice that points the way forward to the other baptism that Jesus Christ will offer as he says, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

Are you ready to leave the hustle and bustle of city life, and to go into the desert?

Once there, you will hear the urgent voice of an odd-looking man who eats locusts and wild honey, whose words land on our ears with a sting, “Repent!”

It’s not a very appealing sight, is it? John the Baptist, that is. He isn’t one to wear fine clothes and to dress in the soft velvet of city folk. No, his appearance and rough-hewn character are matched with a sandpapery roughness in his words and in his tone that rubs our senses raw.

John’s message is no less unattractive than his appearance, for he calls us to a “spiritual inventory”. The urgency in his voice is matched with a burning call from the Lord, to tell God’s people that they must repent.

“No, thanks,” we say….. “Your appearance is off-putting, John. Your words offend our ears.” The urgency of your voice which betrays the fire in your heart ignites the tinder of our hearts, and we stand ready with the blankets of our respectability to snuff out any flame that might be started, that flame which would prompt us to heed your words and to obey the call to repent.

“We’re quite comfortable in our formal relationship with God,” we say. “We’re ‘doing pretty well,’”, we think.

“Thanks all the same, John,” we respond.

But, you see, John’s baptism of repentance and Jesus’ baptism with the Holy Spirit are offered to us Christians today, both at once….It’s a two-for-one deal, baptism, for we descend into the waters of baptism with Jesus Christ, dying to our former life of sin, repenting of our sinful nature with which we are all born, and trusting God to bring us up out of the waters of baptism into a new life, a new relationship with God in which there’s hope for salvation and for the power of the Holy Spirit to be present with us evermore. That’s what happens in baptism.

One cannot have one without the other, baptism with the Holy Spirit without the repentance which opens the way for the Holy Spirit to take up residence in our hearts. Repentance, which is the turning away from our former life of sin, precedes the coming of the Holy Spirit.

Moreover, we can’t simply sit back and say, “Well, I was baptized ‘way back when….that’s over and done with. Got the certificate to prove it.”

No, we are called to renew our baptismal relationship with the Lord, taking stock of our lives, realizing we need cleansing from our sins on a regular basis. That’s part of what Advent is all about.

Our Baptismal Covenant reaffirms this fact. In the Book of Common Prayer, page 304, the candidates (or their sponsors) are asked this question, “Will you persevere in resisting evil, and whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?”

Notice the word “whenever”.

We in the Church are very realistic! We know that we will “mess up” from time-to-time.

We know that’s a certainty. We will fall short of God’s standards of holiness. It’s going to happen!

So, this Advent season, John’s voice calls us into the desert, away from the distractions and the hustle and bustle of city life. John’s voice calls us to repent, that we may prepare a highway for the Lord in the wilderness of our hearts.

AMEN.
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[1] See II Kings 1: 8