3 December 2023 Advent 2
Something was happening for Isaiah, and something is happening for John the Baptist. Mark’s gospel starts with a bold statement ‘the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ’, we have a brief excerpt from the Isaiah reading we have heard, then we get straight into John who is making some very bold claims about baptism with water, and preparing for someone who is bigger than him, for whom he is not even worthy to untie his shoelaces. But let’s return to those first few words. The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ. Mark is suggesting that his whole story about Jesus, starting with John the Baptist, running through his calling of the disciples, healings, feeding large crowds, exorcising demons, culminating in his death and declaration of his resurrection; it is all just the beginning. Because the story of the good news of Jesus Christ continues to this day among us. And given all that we hear in our current news cycles, that is very timely and so important.
So let us, for a moment, think about that, think about the fact that God is with you, working through you, continuing the story of the good news among and in and with you, and God will keep doing this well after this current season of Christmas concludes. This story is bigger than the news in our news cycles, bigger than the concerns we hold within us, even bigger than the hopes we share. God is not done. We are not yet what we have been called to be. The promise of Christmas is bigger than we have imagined, and God’s mercy and courage and blessing extends further and deeper than we can imagine. All this is just the beginning.
And our beginnings happen ‘in the desert’, in the wilderness. Both Isaiah’s message and John’s message were for people living under foreign rule – Isaiah’s because they lived under Babylonian exile, John’s because they lived under Roman rule, both suffering loss of autonomy, dignity and freedom. And as we continue our stories, we question why we need to dwell in the wilderness as we prepare for Christmas; why does God’s comfort come in such barren, desolate settings; why is joy hidden in the desert.
But, it is only in the wilderness that we find ourselves ‘laid bare’. It is only in the wilderness we find ourselves powerless and any illusions of self-sufficiency fall apart. In the wilderness we have no choice but to wait, and watch, because our lives depend on God showing up. And it is in this environment that God’s word comes.
Wilderness also softens us toward repentance, repentance that makes God’s consolation and comfort possible. John’s proclamation of repentance happens ‘in the desert’ well away from the temple, and the city, and everything that his listeners would have considered routine and familiar. And it is in this harsh environment that we are ‘brought to our knees’. Our hearts are exposed, our ‘hard shells’ melt in penitence, sorrow and hope. ‘Sin’ and ‘repentance’ are not words that sit easily for many of us, they come with ‘baggage’, with images of guilt and self-loathing and hellfire. But Advent begins with an honest, wilderness-style reckoning with sin. Isaiah tells us the God who comforts is also the God who judges. The God who forgives is also the God who convicts. Not because God is cruel or withholding, but because God knows how deeply sin distorts and damages our souls. And if we can get past our baggage and risk the desert, we will find comfort in the fact that we are caught up in something we cannot fix on our own. And when we can confess our need for deliverance, we will find a place of profound comfort. A place where God, who is the only one with the power and will to forgive, can make us whole.
And wilderness is a place where we can see the whole landscape and participate in God’s work of leveling inequality and oppression. Isaiah describes a day where ‘every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth’. He suggests this leveling, this great reversal of high and low, rich and poor, full and empty, arrogant and humble, must happen before the Lord appears to gather God’s flock in God’s arms. The ‘highway’ that will bring God into our midst is the highway we must pave through this leveling, this toppling, this sustained insistence on justice, healing, reparation, and liberation.
Our readings this morning assume we are a people in exile. A people wandering in the wilderness. Comfort awaits us in the desert. God promises to come to us in the wilderness. Are you ready for the wilderness that is part and parcel of the waiting in Advent. Are you ‘just waiting for Christmas’ or are you ready to ‘get in the game’, explore how you can spend your time and energy, your life making a difference now. Explore how you can help level, and topple, and bring justice, healing, reparation, and liberation to our communities, to the world. Because it is not just John the Baptiser who is called to cry out and prepare the way – it is us too. Right now, right here, waiting actively, making a difference in the lives of God’s people all around us. God’s story of the good news of Jesus continues in and through you, and me, all of us, in our words and actions, and we will have lots of opportunities every day, every week, to contribute to the sacred story, to make it come alive, to help God keep God’s promises here and now.