Second Sunday of Advent
I would like to start this morning by talking about some of the behind-the-scenes workings of our worship services. For those of you who may not be aware of it, we do not simply randomly pick which lessons we will be using on a particular Sunday, although there are certainly other faith traditions which engage in that kind of practice. Instead, we use something called the Revised Common Lectionary. It was first published in 1974 and is used today by Catholic churches in Canada and the US, the Lutheran church, Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodists, Congregationalist churches, as well as some of the Baptist denominations. It’s also been widely adopted in Great Britain and Australia and, to a lesser extent, in a few other countries.
The lectionary is a three-year cycle of readings: Year A, Year B, and Year C. Year A focuses on the Gospel of Matthew. Year B focuses on the Gospel of Mark. Year C focus on the Gospel of Luke. And the Gospel of John is sprinkled throughout each of these years, as well. Because Mark is so short, there are more readings from the Gospel of John during year B. But for all three years, John makes appearances throughout Lent, Advent, and Easter.
A new cycle is started at the beginning of each what we call “liturgical year”, which has it’s beginning with the first Sunday in Advent. We just finished up with Year C a couple of weeks ago, and so last week we began with Year A, the year of the Gospel of Matthew.
I will say this for the lessons from the Gospel of Matthew: The planners of the lectionary basically decided to hit us over the head two weeks in a row, here! Last week we had Jesus using jarring apocalyptic language referencing Noah and the flood and talking about the Son of man coming like thief in the night and breaking into people’s homes. Then this week we’ve got John the Baptizer shouting in the wilderness calling certain people a brood of vipers and shouting about the Holy Spirit and fire and burning the chaff from the floor of the granary. I don’t know about you, but when I think about Advent, I think about things like, Advent wreaths, and cookie exchanges, and going caroling, and Advent calendars. Breaking and entering, fiery furnaces, and broods of vipers just don’t strike me as being particularly Advent-y. You know?
So, why include all this stuff then? Is it just to fill up space? The answer is, of course, no. The very learned individuals who put together the lectionary did so very intentionally. To get a better grasp of what the purpose of these particular lessons is and why they are placed where they are, we need to look at the accompanying readings.
So, let’s turn our attention toward the reading from Isaiah. It describes what you’ll sometimes hear referred to as “The Peaceable Kingdom”. “1 A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. 2 The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.” Such beautiful words. And do you know when we hear those words during worship? That’s right! Baptism! When the newly baptized person is blessed. And the other occasion? Confirmation! After the confirmand have made their profession of faith.
Isaiah continues: 3 His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see or decide by what his ears hear, 4 but with righteousness he shall judge for the poor and decide with equity for the oppressed of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. 5 Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist and faithfulness the belt around his loins. 6 The wolf shall live with the lamb; the leopard shall lie down with the kid; the calf and the lion will feed together, and a little child shall lead them. 7 The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den. 9 They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
What Isaiah presents to us here are two things, two images: First, The image of the ideal ruler. So what does a godly ruler look like? Well, just read the first half of this text from Isaiah “2 The spirit of the Lord shall rest on [them], the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.” It will be someone who’s thoughts and ideas clearly reflect the presence of God’s spirit.
The second part of the description delineates what the Godly person’s reign will look like: “3 His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see or decide by what his ears hear, 4 but with righteousness he shall judge for the poor and decide with equity for the oppressed of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. 5 Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist and faithfulness the belt around his loins.” It will be someone who’s judgment is based not upon what they see or hear, but, first and foremost, upon God’s righteousness.
And what does that righteousness look like? It has a distinct bias towards justice for the poor and equity for the oppressed. God’s righteousness and faith will be the principles and values with which they gird themselves. When such leadership comes to pass, then will ensue the vision of the peaceable kingdom that Isaiah lays out for us today. “6 The wolf shall live with the lamb; the leopard shall lie down with the kid; the calf and the lion will feed together, and a little child shall lead them. 7 The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den. 9 They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. 10 On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.”
It’s such a beautiful and glorious vision. And we can’t wait for it to happen, right? Who doesn’t look forward to a time like that?? Well, I can think of a few. Anybody who makes their fortune on the backs of the poor. Anybody who has a vested interest in seeing to it that inequity remains the rule of the day. Anybody who stands to lose billions, if not trillions, of dollars in order that all people might have enough to heat, adequate shelter, adequate clothing, adequate education, adequate healthcare, equality of opportunity. Just take your pick.
Allow yourself to role that description around in your mind: “3 His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see or decide by what his ears hear, 4 but with righteousness he shall judge for the poor and decide with equity for the oppressed of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. 5 Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist and faithfulness the belt around his loins.” Do a thought experiment and allow that scenario to play out in your mind and what its consequences would be… An all-powerful ruler who rules by principles of righteousness for the poor and equity for the oppressed… I’m sure it won’t take you very long to come up with a pretty substantial list of those upon whom that kind of government might have a negative impact.
The other thing about this beautiful image of the peaceable kingdom is that it’s not enough to simply wait around for it. As the body of Christ, we are called to play a pivotal role in the ushering in of that kingdom.
“You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Therefore, bear fruit worthy of repentance, 9 and do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Enter John the Baptizer… John the Baptizer knew! He knew that the ushering in of the peaceable kingdom, the kingdom of God, required more than just waiting around for something to happen. He knew that what it required was repentance. Remember, repentance isn’t just feeling bad for something you’ve done and saying you’re sorry. Repentance means a change of heart. It means a radical reevaluation and reorientation of your life. But he also realized that this was not something that we could do all by ourselves. This is why he points beyond himself to the person of Jesus. 11 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is more powerful than I, and I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
When individual grains of wheat are separated from the stalk, they still have a stiff outer covering that’s not edible. Back in Jesus’ day, they would gather all the grains together on a flat surface, the threshing floor. And they would toss the grains of wheat up into the air and in doing this they’d be rubbed against one another and that useless outer husk would be rubbed off and would float away, while the heavier grain fell back down to the floor. It’s that useless husk, the chaff, that would then be burned up.
Now counter to how this text is often interpreted, this is not about separating the righteous and the sinners. It’s about us. It’s about allowing Jeus, through the power of the Spirit, to strip away that which is useless, that has no nutritional value, so that we can be completely available to serve Christ in his ushering in of the peaceable kingdom. And it’s not easy. It’s not easy, allowing yourself to be whittled down the essential you. Yet it’s only by permitting ourselves to be stripped down to our essential being that we are finally truly freed to serve Christ as Christ calls us to serve. Says the man who owns 25 guitars…
Yes, it’s hard work. And I am by no means successful in all ways when it comes to it. But I keep trying, and that’s what John asks of us. Because a grain of wheat on the threshing floor doesn’t get thrown up into the air just once. It happens again and again and again, until we are finally freed. But that lack of perfection doesn’t prevent us from doing the work of ushering in the peaceable kingdom.
In the meantime we do what we are able to do, and we do it to the best of our abilities. We do it by making economic choices that have the best possible outcomes for as many people as possible. So, for example, we avoid fast fashion, which tends to have the greatest negative environmental impact, and which also tends to happen in factories that are rife with human rights abuses. We do that by voting for leaders who are not swayed by the flavor of the moment, and judge by what their eyes see or decide by what their ears hear, but instead operate with a clear and discernable sense of righteousness for the poor and equity for the oppressed. We do our part by doing our best to operate out of those same sets of principles, so that the hungry are fed, the naked are clothed, the sick and imprisoned are visited, the marginalized are incorporated into community, and the needs of all are met. We do our part by seeking to embody the life and principles of the very same Christ, whose birth we are preparing to celebrate. So that in all hope, we may finally experience the true peaceable kingdom. Come, Lord Jesus, come. AMEN