Megan E. Sanders – 31 October 2005 – Preaching – 2nd Sermon
In the Name of the One, True, and Living God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
It is Advent. The second purple candle on the wreath is lit. I can just picture Fr. Dan in Florida at my Roman church from high school, putting on his bright pink chasuble next week! We are getting closer to the big event, and Christmas carols are blasting on every frequency. Today, tuning in to the gospel of Mark, we have a different message blasting from the speakers. Last week in the Gospel lesson we heard the call to, “Be alert!” and to “Keep awake!” The Son of Man could come at any time with power and great glory — even in the clouds! We were warned, presumably, so that we could get ready. When judgment comes, we wouldn’t want to be found lacking…and we certainly wouldn’t want to be caught asleep. The epistle this week tells us that the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and that we, the beloved, while we are waiting for these things, must strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish. Now, I won’t speak for you all, but as one with much blemish, my anxiety begins to rise J
And today we are warned again. It’s the voice of one crying in the wilderness … prepare the way, make the road ready! It’s John the Baptist, preaching a baptism for the forgiveness of sins, and urging us to repent.
Here’s my effort to reframe this picture for our lives today: I imagine we’ve all experienced the reality this reading points to — we just use a very different language to talk about it. But it doesn’t have to be the Eschaton
for us to experience God’s judgment, and it certainly doesn’t have to be Advent for us to hear the voice of one crying out in our own inner wilderness.
We hear from the prophet Isaiah today in the context of the Babylonian exile. The people were in despair, but Isaiah spoke of a new exodus: “See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way.” In the darkness of the wilderness, the Israelites are given a promise of deliverance. So the wilderness, for the ancient Israelites AND for us today, is both a route to the Promised Land and a place of exile for us, the disobedient. The wilderness is where we sin, and the wilderness is where we repent and receive a restored relationship with God and one another again and again.
Now, using my favorite CPE language, let’s “unpack” the word repentance. John the Baptist proclaims a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
The Greek word comes from Metanoia, actually meaning a radical change of heart or mind, a radical turning, or change of direction. And the Greek word comes from the Hebrew word Teshuva, which means returning to God and adopting another course in life — it’s the refashioning or remodeling of our identity by changing our hearts, our wills, and our behavior. In today’s language we might think of it as a paradigm shift – or, perhaps, if we’re not afraid to say it, even a conversion.
In rabbinic Judaism, Teshuva is a process. A process that requires five elements: there’s a feeling of remorse and of feeling alienated from God; there’s an honest recognition of one’s sins (or wrongdoing) and an analysis of one’s motive’s; there’s the admission of those sins — let’s call it a “confession”; there’s a commitment to stop the wrongdoing and whatever sinful behavior to which we’ve become addicted; and finally there’s restitution — making amends — as best we can, for any damage done.
This January will mark the 18th year since my dad began recovery from alcoholism. His journey to and through AA has changed more than his life, it’s changed mine. It’s changed the dynamic of my entire family system. I was 11 when he quit drinking, and since he had me every other weekend and he was going to 7 meetings a week there for a while, he just brought me with him. He got sober in between the pentagon basement meetings and the St. Mark’s Episcopal Church basement meetings on Capitol Hill. When I tried to sit in the corner and out of the way during my first visit to St. Mark’s, I was lifted (in my chair) in to the circle by the guy leading the meeting that day. I was a part of their community now…of their family. Everyone in that room knew what it meant to have their life overpowered by a battle with addiction, and they were not about to let me be separate from them as they were working to change everything about their lives in order to re-enter in to right relationship with those they had harmed, beginning with themselves. As for me, I may not have been an alcoholic, but there were plenty of places in my life that needed mending, even at eleven. We became friends in that church basement, and some of my most meaningful childhood memories were made when I was exercising my duties as the official chief coffee maker at St. Mark’s (and ash tray emptier, since this was before anyone had ever heard of a non-smoking meeting). My dad has lived all over the country and travels the world now that he is retired from the Army, and there’s not been a place he’s traveled yet where there isn’t a meeting filled with people who, although they may only meet once in their lives, are already members of his family. This sounds very familiar to how we are called to live within our Christian family and among our fellow humankind.
The process of Teshuva is a lot like the first 9 steps of AA…and in the BCP we have a sacramental rite called “The Reconciliation of a Penitent” where we include all of those elements in the context of the Kingdom of God.
These paths are all roads to the same place. Roads on which we do an about face and redirect ourselves toward the only One who can guide us out of our wilderness. Roads that lead to the One who is coming, was there all along, and is waiting with open arms for us to return. Roads to healing and reconciliation.
The God who speaks through the prophet Isaiah is one who longs for the people of Israel to be enveloped in God’s righteous love. Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem…
The God of the Israelites that speaks through Isaiah, through John the Baptist, and ultimately through the life of Jesus Christ wants to bring comfort to all those who struggle and mourn – who live in the hope of 2nd Peter, in accordance with God’s promise, for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.
So what does it mean for us to prepare the way of the Lord? How do we as broken vessels offer to pave a smooth path for the Lord our God upon which God will come in glory? We are preparing the way of the Lord in our church calendar right now and we’re surrounded by images and symbols of the greatest birth narrative ever told - but, the author of Mark begins the first written account of the Jesus Christ not with his birth, but with his baptism. What are we to understand about Mark’s perspective in that this is the very first story Jews and Gentiles hear about Jesus the Christ, the Son of God?
I’m going to bet that Mark wants to call our awareness to the relevance of baptism to everything in the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus. As Episcopalians, we are drawn further in to the life of Christ’s baptism in our Baptismal Covenant. Without our Baptismal Covenant we are incapable of being found as 2nd Peter calls us to be found – living in peace with one another. The good news today is that we have the example of Jesus, through Mark and so many other writers, as our perfect model, specifically showing us what it means to strive for justice and peace among all people, respecting the dignity of every human being.
We must treat one another with dignity. Whether our connections are rooted in 12 steps, 10 Commandments, or simply our basic human needs, we are connected. And we are connected as Christians through our Baptism, sealed with the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ’s own forever. My friends, let us listen: there is a voice crying out in the wilderness. Hear it, and see where it leads you this Advent. Amen.
In the Name of the One, True, and Living God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
It is Advent. The second purple candle on the wreath is lit. I can just picture Fr. Dan in Florida at my Roman church from high school, putting on his bright pink chasuble next week! We are getting closer to the big event, and Christmas carols are blasting on every frequency. Today, tuning in to the gospel of Mark, we have a different message blasting from the speakers. Last week in the Gospel lesson we heard the call to, “Be alert!” and to “Keep awake!” The Son of Man could come at any time with power and great glory — even in the clouds! We were warned, presumably, so that we could get ready. When judgment comes, we wouldn’t want to be found lacking…and we certainly wouldn’t want to be caught asleep. The epistle this week tells us that the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and that we, the beloved, while we are waiting for these things, must strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish. Now, I won’t speak for you all, but as one with much blemish, my anxiety begins to rise J
And today we are warned again. It’s the voice of one crying in the wilderness … prepare the way, make the road ready! It’s John the Baptist, preaching a baptism for the forgiveness of sins, and urging us to repent.
Here’s my effort to reframe this picture for our lives today: I imagine we’ve all experienced the reality this reading points to — we just use a very different language to talk about it. But it doesn’t have to be the Eschaton
for us to experience God’s judgment, and it certainly doesn’t have to be Advent for us to hear the voice of one crying out in our own inner wilderness.
We hear from the prophet Isaiah today in the context of the Babylonian exile. The people were in despair, but Isaiah spoke of a new exodus: “See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way.” In the darkness of the wilderness, the Israelites are given a promise of deliverance. So the wilderness, for the ancient Israelites AND for us today, is both a route to the Promised Land and a place of exile for us, the disobedient. The wilderness is where we sin, and the wilderness is where we repent and receive a restored relationship with God and one another again and again.
Now, using my favorite CPE language, let’s “unpack” the word repentance. John the Baptist proclaims a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
The Greek word comes from Metanoia, actually meaning a radical change of heart or mind, a radical turning, or change of direction. And the Greek word comes from the Hebrew word Teshuva, which means returning to God and adopting another course in life — it’s the refashioning or remodeling of our identity by changing our hearts, our wills, and our behavior. In today’s language we might think of it as a paradigm shift – or, perhaps, if we’re not afraid to say it, even a conversion.
In rabbinic Judaism, Teshuva is a process. A process that requires five elements: there’s a feeling of remorse and of feeling alienated from God; there’s an honest recognition of one’s sins (or wrongdoing) and an analysis of one’s motive’s; there’s the admission of those sins — let’s call it a “confession”; there’s a commitment to stop the wrongdoing and whatever sinful behavior to which we’ve become addicted; and finally there’s restitution — making amends — as best we can, for any damage done.
This January will mark the 18th year since my dad began recovery from alcoholism. His journey to and through AA has changed more than his life, it’s changed mine. It’s changed the dynamic of my entire family system. I was 11 when he quit drinking, and since he had me every other weekend and he was going to 7 meetings a week there for a while, he just brought me with him. He got sober in between the pentagon basement meetings and the St. Mark’s Episcopal Church basement meetings on Capitol Hill. When I tried to sit in the corner and out of the way during my first visit to St. Mark’s, I was lifted (in my chair) in to the circle by the guy leading the meeting that day. I was a part of their community now…of their family. Everyone in that room knew what it meant to have their life overpowered by a battle with addiction, and they were not about to let me be separate from them as they were working to change everything about their lives in order to re-enter in to right relationship with those they had harmed, beginning with themselves. As for me, I may not have been an alcoholic, but there were plenty of places in my life that needed mending, even at eleven. We became friends in that church basement, and some of my most meaningful childhood memories were made when I was exercising my duties as the official chief coffee maker at St. Mark’s (and ash tray emptier, since this was before anyone had ever heard of a non-smoking meeting). My dad has lived all over the country and travels the world now that he is retired from the Army, and there’s not been a place he’s traveled yet where there isn’t a meeting filled with people who, although they may only meet once in their lives, are already members of his family. This sounds very familiar to how we are called to live within our Christian family and among our fellow humankind.
The process of Teshuva is a lot like the first 9 steps of AA…and in the BCP we have a sacramental rite called “The Reconciliation of a Penitent” where we include all of those elements in the context of the Kingdom of God.
These paths are all roads to the same place. Roads on which we do an about face and redirect ourselves toward the only One who can guide us out of our wilderness. Roads that lead to the One who is coming, was there all along, and is waiting with open arms for us to return. Roads to healing and reconciliation.
The God who speaks through the prophet Isaiah is one who longs for the people of Israel to be enveloped in God’s righteous love. Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem…
The God of the Israelites that speaks through Isaiah, through John the Baptist, and ultimately through the life of Jesus Christ wants to bring comfort to all those who struggle and mourn – who live in the hope of 2nd Peter, in accordance with God’s promise, for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.
So what does it mean for us to prepare the way of the Lord? How do we as broken vessels offer to pave a smooth path for the Lord our God upon which God will come in glory? We are preparing the way of the Lord in our church calendar right now and we’re surrounded by images and symbols of the greatest birth narrative ever told - but, the author of Mark begins the first written account of the Jesus Christ not with his birth, but with his baptism. What are we to understand about Mark’s perspective in that this is the very first story Jews and Gentiles hear about Jesus the Christ, the Son of God?
I’m going to bet that Mark wants to call our awareness to the relevance of baptism to everything in the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus. As Episcopalians, we are drawn further in to the life of Christ’s baptism in our Baptismal Covenant. Without our Baptismal Covenant we are incapable of being found as 2nd Peter calls us to be found – living in peace with one another. The good news today is that we have the example of Jesus, through Mark and so many other writers, as our perfect model, specifically showing us what it means to strive for justice and peace among all people, respecting the dignity of every human being.
We must treat one another with dignity. Whether our connections are rooted in 12 steps, 10 Commandments, or simply our basic human needs, we are connected. And we are connected as Christians through our Baptism, sealed with the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ’s own forever. My friends, let us listen: there is a voice crying out in the wilderness. Hear it, and see where it leads you this Advent. Amen.
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