2 Advent, Year A

Isaiah 11: 1 – 10
Psalm 72: 1 – 7. 18 – 19
Romans 15: 4 – 13
Matthew 3: 1 – 12

A homily by: Fr. Gene Tucker

Given at: Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois; Sunday, December 5, 2010

“JUST WHERE IS THE HOLY-OF-HOLIES?”

(Homily text: Matthew 3: 1 – 12)

Just where is the Holy-of-Holies, anyway?

I speak, of course, of the most holy place, a place where God can dwell.

To the Jews of 2,000 years ago, those who had come out to the Jordan River to hear John the Baptist preach his message of repentance, and to enter into the waters of baptism in the river, their answer would have been, “In the Temple in Jerusalem, that’s where the Holy-of-Holies is.”

Indeed, they were right.

That most sacred of places, the Holy-of-Holies, was located at the heart of the most sacred of places, the Temple Mount itself. The very presence of God was understood to be present in the Holy-of-Holies, even as the entire complex was seen by the people of 2,000 years ago to be God’s dwelling place. Its imposing size (even today, if you go to Jerusalem and see the mount itself, the massive platform that survived the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD, the size and height of the mount is deeply impressive) signified that God was present with His people.

So, by its imposing presence, God seemed to be near, near to His Chosen People.

And yet, God was hidden, hidden behind the veil that separated the Holy-of-Holies from the lesser areas surrounding it. Only the priest was able to enter into the Holy-of-Holies, and then only infrequently.

For all of God’s nearness, seen in the physical presence of the Temple complex, God’s presence in people’s daily lives seemed remote. Or at least that’s the image we get from the New Testament.

We may be sure that the Jews of ancient days did all of the prescribed sacrifices, went to the Temple, having ritually cleansed themselves beforehand, and sought to apply all of the hundreds of rules and regulations that the Law of Moses required to every aspect of living. Rabbis of that time debated the ways in which that sacred Law was to be applied to daily life. Intense scrutiny was applied to each and every action. Leading this sort of minute examination were the Pharisees, who appear in today’s Gospel text, coming (we may suppose) to observe what John was doing there in the wilderness in the River Jordan.

“This is the way we draw near to God,’ they may have thought.

And yet, the picture drawn for us by Holy Scripture is one of nearness to God in the formal, rigid, legalistic sense, and yet God was removed, far removed from people’s hearts. As evidence of the godless condition of many in John’s day, we may point to the plot to murder Jesus which was hatched by the leadership of the Temple. That action was led by the “holy men” of Jesus’ day, who, outwardly at least, were righteous and holy in every respect. Yet inwardly, they were capable of crafting an evil plot to rid themselves of that pesky preacher from Galilee.

And so John the Baptist’s voice rings out, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near!”

Now, at first hearing, perhaps some in John’s audience might have said to themselves, “Why do I need to enter into the water to receive a baptism for the repentance of sins? I’ve already washed myself in preparation for my visit to the Temple, just the other day.”

We don’t know for sure, but perhaps some who might have thought that way needed a short course in repentance.

If so, then what might a short course in repentance look like?

It might look like this:

• The Temple which God seeks to occupy is located in the human heart: In the truest sense, it is not, cannot be, a physical building, no matter how imposing and glorious it might be.

• God cannot take up residence in a sinful place.

• The human heart, which is the Holy-of-Holies which God seeks to occupy, must be cleansed of all impurities, and it must be wholly dedicated to the sacred purpose of being God’s throne room, even as the Holy-of-Holies which was located at the top of Mount Zion in Jerusalem was cleansed of all impurities, and was set apart (consecrated) for sacred use.

Hence the need for repentance.

By confessing our sins, and by allowing God to wash them away in the waters of baptism, we allow God to do the cleansing and the consecrating. Both actions are necessary in order for God to become resident in our hearts.

By now, you’ve probably guessed that repentance is a key Advent theme. We hear it in our Collect for the Day today, as we ask the holy and merciful God to “give us grace to heed their (the prophets) warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer….”

The Collect sets before us the purpose of our repentance, for in addition to creating the cleansed and dedicated conditions that are necessary for God to take up residence within, these actions also prepare us to receive God’s only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, as He comes anew to us at the great Feast of the Incarnation (Christmas).

For the Lord seeks to relate to us in an intimate, ongoing, face-to-face relationship. To have such a relationship is to experience the relationship that Adam and Eve had in the Garden of Eden before their disobedience removed them from God’s presence. Such a restoration of intimacy is possible only through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, whose death on the cross makes possible the peace with God that He alone offers. We accept His sacrifice on our behalf, claiming its benefits even as we deplore and confess our sins.

Then, God comes to take up residence in a cleansed, renewed, and sacred space, our hearts.

AMEN.