Sermon preached by Fr. Tom
at St. Thomas Episcopal – Plymouth
December 8, 2013
Second Sunday of Advent
Isaiah 11:1-10
Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19
Romans 15:4-13
Matthew 3:1-12
“May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be an acceptable offering in your sight, Oh Lord, my strength and my redeemer.”
John the Baptist and Jesus went way back together – back before either was born.
The Gospel of Luke tells about their births. John was the elder, born several months earlier than Jesus (Luke 1:36). Jesus was the younger, but, as often happens in the Bible, the younger turned out to be the greater of the two.
But they were both great. Luke tells their birth stories in parallel. First, an angel announces the birth of John (Luke 1:5-25), and then an angel announces the birth of Jesus (Luke 1:26-38).
Both were miraculous births. John’s mother, Elizabeth, was too old to have a baby, and Jesus’ mother, Mary, was young and unmarried. But both women, by the grace of God, became pregnant with children destined to change the world.
When Mary learned that she was pregnant, she went to visit Elizabeth in Elizabeth’s hill country home. Elizabeth was a relative of Mary’s. She was Mary’s cousin or maybe an aunt given the difference in their ages
Mary may have gone to visit Elizabeth to escape the wagging tongues in Nazareth, but it could also be that God told her to go to see Elizabeth. When Mary arrived at Elizabeth’s home, she would have received the hospitality due any guest. The people of that time and place took hospitality seriously.
But Mary should have been the one honoring Elizabeth. For one thing, Elizabeth was older, much older – and the people of that day respected their elders. For another thing, Elizabeth was married and, as far as we know, Mary was not yet married. Being unmarried and pregnant didn’t bring you much honor in those days.
But when Mary arrived at Elizabeth’s house, a strange thing happened. Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and cried to Mary:
“Blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
And why has this happened to me,
that the mother of my Lord comes to me?
For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting,
the child in my womb leaped for joy” (Luke 1:42-44).
So, on the occasion of their meeting, it was the younger woman who was honored not the older woman. It was the unmarried woman, not the married woman. That was God’s doing. God made it clear to Elizabeth that there was something special about Mary’s baby. Elizabeth called Mary “the mother of my Lord.” Elizabeth’s baby, John – not even born yet – leaped in her womb for joy when Mary, pregnant with Jesus, came to visit.
Once John and Jesus grew up, John became a prophet who foretold the coming of someone greater than he, and that someone was Jesus (Luke 3). John baptized Jesus, and heard a voice from heaven saying of Jesus:
“You are my Son, the Beloved;
with you I am well pleased” (Luke 3:22).
So John had always known that Jesus was someone special to God. He had known it even before he was born. At Jesus’ baptism, John heard the voice of God confirming that Jesus was God’s Son.
John was a prophet, a spokesman for God, and God had called John to rebuke King Herod for marrying his brother’s wife. Herod might have let that pass, but his wife pushed him to arrest John and ultimately, to have John killed (14:1-12).
In today’s Gospel, John is telling people that one is coming more powerful than he is. John had thought Jesus was to be the Messiah. Everyone thought the Messiah would be another David a warrior to defeat Israel’s enemies. They wanted a king to set things straight. It does not go exactly as John expected in a couple of ways. He gets thrown in prison eventually, and Jesus is not a military leader.
I have to say I can identify with John in that sometimes things don’t turn out the way I expect they will either. I suspect all of you have had points in your life when, to quote the Rolling Stones, “You don’t always get what you want.” I will give you a moment to ponder this idea, and while you are pondering, I will tell you about a sign in the sacristy at St. Paul’s in Mishawaka. It says “We plan. God laughs.” Now I do not pretend for a minute that God laughs in a mean or sarcastic way. I do believe though that God has a much fuller sense for what the future holds. He rejoices at our opportunities. He understands context and we do not.
How many times in your life have you been thrown a curve? Things don’t turn out exactly as you intend. You can be ready for everything you can think of. Then something you never considered happens instead. I will let you provide your own examples here. I bet you can think of a few. The next question is “How did you respond?”
I was having breakfast with a friend not too long ago, and we were talking about one of these events in his life. He wanted to know “So what do I do?” I responded with a reference to the Rule of St. Benedict. I’ll explain about this rule, so you will understand the reference. St. Benedict was an early monastic. When Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire in 300 or so, suddenly there was a social component to the faith. There were a lot of people who were going through the motions for the sake of a job or because it was expected. Some people left to go to the deserts of North Africa. They were called the desert fathers and mothers. They were people a lot like John the Baptist.
Many of these people lived by themselves, but some gathered to live in small communities. These were a lot like monasteries and convents. As you can imagine, these groups needed some rules to govern the community life. In about 500 or so, St. Benedict came along, and he wrote a set guidelines. He is understood to be the father of western monasticism.
One of his rules is one I have often thought of. When an unexpected guest arrives at the gates of the monastery, or there is a knock at the door, and you don’t know who it is, St. Benedict says we are to exclaim “Thanks be to God!” and answer the door.
This is some serious wisdom, and I often think of it, because I often don’t have things turn out exactly as I intend. There are unexpected guests at the spiritual door. Things happen the way they do, and we often have no control. We need to welcome the opportunity to serve God in an unexpected way and not over-analyze it. You remember the response of Mary when the Angel told her she would be the mother of Jesus. She said “Let it be with me according to your Word.” This is how we are called to respond to God’s will too.
Now the theme of Advent is preparation and readiness. We are preparing the way of the Lord, and we are doing it in our hearts as well as in the world. I preached last week on the practice plan for readiness. This week I am preaching about what happens when God has a surprise for us. I believe God has a purpose for each of us. It is a matter of welcoming that purpose and being glad when it it revealed instead of dwelling on circumstances we can’t control.
My takeaways this morning are these.
- We have to be ready.
- We have to be open to God’s will even though it may not be what we intended.
- We are blessed in so many ways with work to do for the kingdom.
“Thanks be to God!”
I have said these words in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen