First Reading: Isaiah 40:1-11
1Comfort, O comfort my people,
says your God.
2Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and cry to her
that she has served her term,
that her penalty is paid,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins.
3A voice cries out:
“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
4Every valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
and the rough places a plain.
5Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all people shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
6A voice says, “Cry out!”
And I said, “What shall I cry?”
All people are grass,
their constancy is like the flower of the field.
7The grass withers, the flower fades,
when the breath of the Lord blows upon it;
surely the people are grass.
8The grass withers, the flower fades;
but the word of our God will stand forever.
9Get you up to a high mountain,
O Zion, herald of good tidings;
lift up your voice with strength,
O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings,
lift it up, do not fear;
say to the cities of Judah,
“Here is your God!”
10See, the Lord God comes with might,
and his arm rules for him;
his reward is with him,
and his recompense before him.
11He will feed his flock like a shepherd;
he will gather the lambs in his arms,
and carry them in his bosom,
and gently lead the mother sheep.
Psalm: Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13
Righteousness shall prepare a pathway for God. (Ps. 85:13)
1You have been gracious to your land, O Lord;
you have restored the good fortune of Jacob.
2You have forgiven the iniquity of your people
and blotted out all their sins.
8I will listen to what the Lord God is saying;
for you speak peace to your faithful people and to those who turn their hearts to you.
9Truly, your salvation is very near to those who fear you,
that your glory may dwell in our land.
10Steadfast love and faithfulness have met together;
righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
11Faithfulness shall spring up from the earth,
and righteousness shall look down from heaven.
12The Lord will indeed grant prosperity,
and our land will yield its increase.
13Righteousness shall go before the Lord
and shall prepare for God a pathway.
Second Reading: 2 Peter 3:8-15a
8Do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. 9The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. 10But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed.
11Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, 12waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire? 13But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.
14Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish; 15aand regard the patience of our Lord as salvation.
Gospel: Mark 1:1-8
1The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
2As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,
“See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way;
3the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight,’ ”
4John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 6Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. 8I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
CHILDREN’S SERMON: Advent 2: PEACE
Today we will try a little quiz. I will tell you a slogan and you tell me the name of the product.
- “betch ya can’t eat just one” (Lay’s Potato Chips)
- “You’re in good hands with…” (AllState)
- In 2009 this company claimed, “We live to deliver.” But now they say, “Where now meets next.” (Fedex)
- “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom…” stops these carriers. (The US Postal system)
- And of course if I said “Golden Arches” you would know I was talking about McDonalds.
All these slogans bring smiles to our faces.
Let’s pray. Lord, may the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart be acceptable in your sight, my Rock and my Redeemer.
SERMON
15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. Colossians 3:15
Today is the second Sunday in Advent and we light the PEACE candle. Last week we learned that the journey of Advent is a journey of hope. God always fulfills his prophecies and promises and so we celebrate the incarnation in Bethlehem with hope. Old Testament prophecy was fulfilled. We know Christ’s promise that he will return and take us to be with him will come true. We live in that hope. Today we ponder peace with God.
So back to slogans. I will say a slogan and you tell me the company.
- “The original. If your grandfather hadn’t worn it, you wouldn’t exist.” It’s Old Spice. (I didn’t recognize it but I have often given my father Old Spice at Christmas.)
- “The happiest place on earth.” (People in California would recognize that as Disney Land’s tagline but people in Florida would say Disney World.)
- “The breakfast of champions.” (Wheaties)
- “Fly the friendly skies of…” (United)
Today’s text points us to a very different slogan and logo. If I were to ask you who preached wearing clothing of “camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey,” you would probably identify John the Baptist, even if we had not just read the Gospel. His slogan was not a call to happiness like Disney, not to safe car issues like AllState, or not even to a friendly trip into the heavens with United Airlines. He preached “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” The people from all levels of society flocked to hear John the Baptist and be baptized. His slogan is worth checking out this morning. John the Baptist paved the way for us to understand PEACE.
“a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins”
Our text today suggests that a world as chaotic, fragmented and fraught with political intrigue as theirs, was changed by a slogan that opened eyes to a new reality. Our world is just as chaotic, fragmented and fraught with political intrigue. John the Baptist came offering a way to find peace. So let me start by asking you this question this morning, “What do you understand to be the core problem with our world today? What really needs to change?”
- Some might answer, “all the world needs now is love, sweet love” written by songwriting team Burt Bacharach and Hal David and sung by Dion Warwick.
- Others might cry for equality, “a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage,” as Herbert Hoover offered in the 1928 presidential elections.
- Then again, our constitution originally saw “each man’s home is his castle”, secure from unreasonable searches and seizures of property by the government.”
The Gospel of Mark starts the story of peace with John the Baptist as an adult calling people for repentance to prepare the way for a Messiah’s coming. John the Baptist, born to Zechariah and Elizabeth in their old age, as the prophesized forerunner to the promised Messiah, has grown up and now appears on the world stage, like a real prophet in camel’s hair clothes and eating locust and honey. He certainly caught the attention of people. He did not preach health, wealth and prosperity as God’s solution for life like our TV evangelists do today. He was not performing miracles as far as we know. He was a voice of truth confronting people about peace, an issue of their day….and ours!
We are separated from God because of the things we do and the things we forget to do. We are not at peace in our world or within ourselves. We open our worship service, as we come before God, with a confession that we just cannot seem to get it right. We are separated from God – HELP – forgive us. Perhaps it has come to feel like a routine part of coming to church, kind of like a prelude, but it is core to peace, peace that passes understanding.
“prepare the way for the Lord”
Confession prepares our hearts for forgiveness, for the ability to reconnect with God and be at peace. Confession is a way of coming to grips with reality. In the 12 step program of Alcoholics Anonymous, a person must first admit powerlessness over alcohol making their life unmanageable, next they agree that there is a Power greater than themselves that can restore them to sanity, and thirdly that they will turn their life over to the care of God as they understand him. Until we understand that we are the creatures and God is the creator, we live with victim mentalities. We are the victims of the government, of our family history, of our bodily imperfections and we have trouble taking responsibility for our lives. I love the confessional that admits we have done wrong but also we have forgotten to do right. Confession is saying out loud the accusations that the evil one loves to whisper in our ears that we just are not enough in and of ourselves. Speaking the truth lays our souls open before that higher power and allows for God to speak.
Slogans appeal to something core within a person. Disney appeals to those who want to be happy and who pray a happy vacation will draw their family or group into greater harmony. Old Spice appeals to our deep desire to be loved and to find a faithful spouse. And United Airlines speaks to our fear of flying. If we are honest, we also have a deep desire to be at peace with our world, others in our world and with the power that controls our world. Conflict is not fun even for those who enjoy the adrenaline rush at first. Conflict is exhausting. I would suggest that the wars going on, the mass shootings, and the high divorce rates would say that our generation is looking for peace also.
“make his paths straight”
Repentance is the act of straightening out the paths of our lives. Many will acknowledge that they are powerless and caught in self-destructive behavior. They might even be willing to admit they were partially to blame and acknowledge that the whole problem is not the other person. I think counseling tries to get us to see two sides to the story. Acknowledging the problems of reality does not make things right, though. How do we straighten out our paths? That’s called repentance.
Repentance is not just saying we did wrong. It is changing and going in a new direction. I can cry in my beer about the grip alcohol has on my life but it is as I work on giving up drinking that my life starts to change. I have shared with you before how much I enjoy a chapter in Walter Wangarin’s book, As For Me and My Household. Forgiveness is not just saying the words, “I’m sorry,” not just kissing and making up or making out, and not just trying to forget an event happened. Forgiveness is acknowledging the part I had in the sin that occurred and laying it at the foot of the cross for God to take care of in his time. I am giving up my right for justification and vengeance. It is allowing God to have the final word. I open my fist and turn my anger or my fear or my greed or my addiction or my loneliness or my mistakes over to God. It is hard stuff and often I cannot do it myself but need the help of the Holy Spirit and perhaps a friend to pray with. When I no longer need to be in control of the outcome of a situation, I can find peace. It is no longer mine to deal with. I turn away from that destructive behavior.
8I have baptized you with water;
but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
John the Baptist appeared on the world stage to prepare people for the arrival of Jesus the Messiah. I remember back in the earlier days of computers when the word used to capture our imaginations and money was the word “power.” If we would only buy a computer we would have power at our fingertips. Now we focus perhaps on the time saving value of technology so we have “instacart”, “zoom” meetings so we don’t have to waste time going places, and CNN claims they have instant news in case an event like Mohamed or Jesus appeared anywhere in the world. We can hear about it tonight on the news. But back in the day, technology gave us “power” over our lives.
John the Baptist has a promise. He is but the “voice of one crying in the wilderness” telling us that his baptism prepares our lives for the arrival of the Messiah who will baptize with the Holy Spirit. For sure that sentence collapses a lot of religious wisdom into a few words. We probably don’t fully understand and nor can fully explain as much about the Holy Spirit just as we understand kind of the “world wide web” and “the cloud.” Slogans don’t tell us how Disney delivers happiness or how eating Wheaties makes me into a champion but slogans speak to a truth, to a deep human desire. John the Baptist spoke to a world hungry for peace. They did not want Roman rule. They did not want the poverty and problems of their day.
Today Advent speaks to us through the fulfilled prophecies that give us hope and through the spiritual disciplines of confession and repentance that open our hearts to hear the message of forgiveness. Jesus will baptize us with the Holy Spirit who walks with us to achieve peace. We can be at peace within ourselves, with our acquaintances, with our world and with the God who created us. Wow. That is a slogan worth wearing camel’s hair clothes and shouting in the wilderness about. Advent promises PEACE.
Let the people of God say, “Thank you, Lord.”
On the Way to Wonder 