Advent 2

Sermon preached by Mary Brown, ordinand at Ridley Hall

I don’t know about you, but I am not prepared for Christmas. I haven’t even made a list of who I need presents for, let alone thought about what to get them. I’d been telling myself that this wasn’t a problem, we’re only a week into advent, and then yesterday, a house mate came home with all her Christmas shopping done, and I started to wonder if I was a little too unprepared. I haven’t even finalised who I’m spending the day with.

The busyness of term has been monopolising my time and I’ve neglected to make necessary preparations.

Maybe in your own way you, like me, feel unprepared for Christmas?

Or maybe you are more like my housemate, presents wrapped and waiting for their recipients, meals planned and food ordered?

However prepared or unprepared we are for celebrating Christmas Day, our readings have good news for us all.

They have good news for the those of us who are looking forward to Christmas, and for good news for those of us for whom this season holds sadness.

Our readings today tell us that there is something better coming, better than the hard parts of human existence, but also, exponentially, better than even the most joy-filled celebration.

They remind us that whilst Advent is about preparing to celebrate Jesus’ birth, it is also about preparing for Jesus Christ’s return.

Our texts from Matthew and Isaiah tell us three things:

They tell us who we are preparing for

What he will he do when he comes

And how we are to prepare for his arrival 

Both of these texts are layered with the now and not yet of prophecy.

Isaiah is speaking to Israel, suffering under the Assyrians, telling them of coming redemption from enemy rule, but he is also speaking to an unknown time in the future when this prophecy would be fully completed.

John is telling those gathered around him in the Judean wilderness what Jesus would do when his ministry began, but also what Jesus would do in the final end-times culmination of that ministry.

So who is it that both Isaiah and John the Baptist see coming on the horizon?

In Isaiah the one to come is both the root and the shoot of Jesse, the beginning and end the of the story, He is one upon whom the Spirit of the Lord rests, One with wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, and the fear of the Lord. One who is righteous, just and faithful.

Matthew writes of the Lord for whom paths are to be made straight, One the sandals of whom the Baptist is not fit to carry, One who will baptise with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

This is who we are preparing to welcome.

So far so good, if the passages stopped there it would be quite easy to be excited for this arrival.

But they go on: Matthew tells us that this coming one will gather wheat and burn chaff, metaphorical language for future judgement. Isaiah tells us, that he will judge the poor, decide for the meek, strike the earth and kill the wicked.

Maybe at this point you’d rather go back to planning Christmas. I for one can find these prophecies of future judgement daunting, I’m tempted to skip past them and concentrate on the ‘nice’ stuff still to come. I’d much rather think about wolves and lambs living peacefully together.

But it is worth taking the time to see what judgement means in the context of these passages and in the wider biblical story.

When we hear the word judgement we often think of arbitrary condemnation. Perhaps the relative who will spend Christmas making barbed comments, criticising our clothing, our life choices, or even our eating habits. Or maybe the friend who spends too much time telling us how our opinions are wrong.

These cultural understandings of judgement are not what Isaiah and Matthew are writing about.

The judgement they speak of is not harsh, unkind, or unfair, it is just, righteous, faithful, and rooted in love. The Jesus Christ who will return to carry out this judgement is the same Jesus Christ who so loved the world that he died on the cross for us. The God who judges is the God who saves.

And this is why both Isaiah and John describe the one to come before telling us what he is coming to do. They do this so that when we read that he will judge we already know how he will judge.

Because it matters that he will judge in wisdom and understanding, with righteousness, justice and faithfulness, This is a good judgement. A verdict which brings perpetrators the right consequences for their actions, and brings those they have oppressed into freedom. Under his rule there will be no more oppression by the powerful, but rather justice for the meek.

And - with this righteous judgement - will come the fullest expression of the Kingdom of God. The knowledge of God will fill the earth, bringing with it a peace beyond anything we could imagine. Isaiah’s poem paints a vivid picture of the extent to which this judgement will change the world. Predators and prey will eat and lie down together, children will play safely with lions and snakes. The world will be radically transformed. And this will come as a result of just and righteous judgement, bringing true peace and the final end to death.

So we have heard who is coming, we have heard what he will do, how then are we to prepare?

John the Baptist calls the people around him to repentance, baptism, and confession of sins. This is the ongoing work of the Christian life, and this is where our preparation begins, in repentance we turn our lives towards Christ and find that in him we are already made righteous. That because he shares his righteousness with us, we do not need to be afraid, but are able to to prepare for his return with joy.

The Advent season sharpens our focus on this ongoing preparation, and invites us anew to participate in God’s now and not yet kingdom. Practically, living this out during Advent might look like sharing our joy, inviting someone isolated to join in our Christmas celebrations. Coming here on a Thursday and making people feel welcome in the warm space the church is hosting. Buying an extra gift for someone who might otherwise go without. Supporting one of the initiatives detailed in this week’s Tidings. And doing these things in the name of the one who is to come.

And because, for some of us, Christmas brings reminders of grief, loneliness, or relational tension, this participation might also look like making space around the table for those for whom this season is not joyful. Remembering that Advent leaves room for lament, and extending the grace of that to others.

In doing these things we are able, as a community, to usher in the coming kingdom, and reflect the welcome we receive as we gather around this table for the Eucharist, where Christ has made space for us all.