An Advent to Remember: Luke 3:1-6 - Second Sunday of Advent

jordan river by Eli Duke.  Creative Commons image on flickr

¹In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, ²during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. ³He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, ⁴as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,
 “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
 ‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
  make his paths straight.
 ⁵Every valley shall be filled,
  and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
 and the crooked shall be made straight,
  and the rough ways made smooth;
 ⁶and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’ ”

How are you going to remember this Christmas?  What’s going to make 2015 stand out in your memory?

For me, Elizabeth, and Becca, we’ll remember this as our first Christmas together as a family.  For many, this Christmas will be marked by the celebration of new births, marriages, or adoptions.

On the other hand, many others will remember it as the first without a loved one.  It will be remembered by the ATI lockout, or for the economic hardships affecting so many.  This Christmas will arrive on the heels of the worst refugee crisis since WW2.  All over the world, people have no food, no place to go, nowhere to belong.

If we think our times are tough, we can only imagine how difficult the times must have been when John the Baptist began his ministry.  We know that simply by the names that Luke drops at the beginning of today’s Gospel:

[It was] “the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas…”

These weren’t nice men.  They wielded power and privilege through force, enslavement, and murder.  The mere mention of these names stoked fear and foreboding in the hearts of most people.

But in the shadows of these great evils, a man receives the Word of the Lord in the wilderness.  His name is John, son of Zechariah.  He goes all throughout “the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”

Through John, God speaks—and people listen.  God begins turning the tide against evil, though not in the way you’d expect it.  It all starts with the ordinary people who hear God’s Word; who receive the gift of baptism, who are then radically transformed by God’s saving grace (what we call repentance).   These are the ones who will see the salvation of God, by faith.  These are the ones who will see beyond their fears to the God who loves them. 

Let’s be clear: the bloodthirsty rulers won’t be going anywhere.  They’ll all die eventually, and be replaced by men who are every bit as ruthless. 

Things are no different for us.  Who wouldn’t rejoice to see ISIS lay down their weapons and become a massive humanitarian force?  Who wouldn’t celebrate a cure for cancer?  Who wouldn’t love to see the mills and factories throw open their doors and offer safe and meaningful work to everyone who needs it?

I don’t want to sound pessimistic, but these aren’t going to happen, at least not in the short run…

Yet today, God’s Word announces that suffering, pain, and evil will end.  The world will be at peace.  We’re not there yet.  But God’s salvation is for now.    Salvation begins with the forgiveness of sins liberating us from our sin and turning to our God.  Today, death and evil have no ultimate power over us.  The Lord is come.

The challenge before us then is to prepare ourselves and our lives to receive this salvation; something that will not happen if we continue on as usual, losing ourselves in the chaos of what Christmas has come to be about in our society.  And let’s be frank—if we think Christmas is all about the glory of fancy presents and family togetherness like we see on TV, we’re all going to find ourselves disappointed sooner or later…

We need a wilderness place like John the Baptist had; a place of quiet communion of prayer and study of God’s Word, so that God may speak.  But we also need to be every bit as ready to be changed.  God’s will is for you and I to be filled to the full with God’s saving grace.  This will hardly mean a return to business as usual.  Instead, we are sent back into the world so that God’s grace to us may overflow to our neighbors “who dwell in darkness and in the shadow of death…”

We’ll all remember this Christmas for the things that happen to us, be they good or bad.  But this time of Advent is a time for us to be made ready for what Christ’s birth is meant to be.  God’s love comes to you wrapped in strips of cloth, lying in a manger…  God’s love comes nailed to a tree.  God’s love comes in a Savior who hears your prayers and dwells with you by faith.

So will this be the Christmas that your faith is born anew?  Where you experience his presence like never before?

Will this be the Christmas when someone sees the love of Jesus because of you? 

Will this be the Christmas that hope and the peace that passes understanding overshadows the pains of the year past and the fears of the year to come?

So let us pray God’s grace to make this an Advent to Remember, for God’s will to be done, that we see the salvation of God.