Preparation for the Advent of God
Advent 3, 14 December, 2003
Robert Whalley, M Div, St Peter's, Eastern Hill
And John said, 'One who is more powerful than I is coming.' (Luke 3:16)
This morning's Gospel is one of a series of proclamations and prophesies with which Luke begins the Good New of Jesus. There is almost a theatrical quality to the start of Luke's story, like the overture to an opera or a musical. He takes almost three chapters to do what Mark, for instance, does in half a chapter. But in this beginning he is stating themes and telling stories to get us ready for the great drama that is coming. For all the concerns to follow are softly touched on here: conversion, mercy, strength, food for hungry, help for the poor, promises fulfilled, knowledge and salvation, forgiveness of sin. And news of great joy to all people is being brought forth, a light of revelation and glory, new life with water and the Holy Spirit and fire. And this theme is sung out and echoed by a variety of people – pointing to the wideness of God's mercy that we see in Luke's Gospel – old and young, high and low, male and female, priest and prophet and people of all kinds proclaiming the glory of God revealed in our very midst. And this is only in the third chapter!
But even here Luke is giving us clues on how to live into the new creation! Be touched like Zechariah; respond like Mary and Elizabeth, like the shepherds and angles in the fields, and Simeon and Anna in the temple. Prophesy that a new word of God's compassion and justice and love and forgiveness, is coming into the world, very close to our hearts and lives. For God is coming to join us in the midst of our journey.
The Israelites are trying, as we all do, to prepare for the possibility of this living God in their midst, and they are finding some things difficult, as we all do. They come to John the Baptist with good questions: When will the Messiah come? How can we prepare a way? And he says to them: Do not practice extortion or lies, give food to those who are hungry and clothe those who need covering. Share your lives and livelihood, live justly and compassionately in the sight of a God who is the heart of justice and compassion.
And this is just the beginning! For John looks forward and sees that the world is coming alive with some new possibility of grace! And so do we! That is why we gather for this liturgy. With John the Baptist and all the others of the chorus taking up the call, to turn us around, get us started, help us to begin again, and make room for what is new. The advent of one coming into the world with spirit and fire: to inspire us into new life and fire us into a new wide world of life and meaning. That is our common call, our common ministry, and our new life of liturgy.
Now the term liturgy originally means "The work or worship of the people." From two Greek words, Laos and Orgos, literally meaning people work. The centre of our liturgy here, and in other churches of the catholic tradition, is the Liturgy of the Lord's Supper, the mass. It starts with that. And that celebration, that Eucharist, can spread out like water or fire to touch every aspect of our days and ways, every motion and moment of our daily lives. For in this place we see the centre of our lives here in Christ's great response to God's love, and we take that centre, that gift out to share it in ministry with the rest of the world. The American Book of Common Prayer puts it this way: the sacraments are "patterns of countless ways by which God uses material things to reach out to us." Bread and wine...flesh and blood... "Our souls and bodies to be a reasonable holy and living sacrifice." We are also those material things, sacramental presence, which God uses as signs of grace and presence in a world hungry for new life.
There is a double motion involved. For we come here to reach for Christ, and the Lord comes to us and uses our ministry to reach out to the world. We come to get a grip on him; and we stay to learn to hand him to the world and hand the world back to him. For the hands which grasp the body and blood of the Lord here, are the same hands – same bodies – that touch the world in the places where we make business, peace, war and love, touch the lives of friends and strangers, spend our days. The love of God in Christ uses our lives to reach out and into all our daily liturgies. And we come to move like Christ in all these places.
For our ministry is when we create, redeem, and relate like God, when we give our gifts of life. It doesn't matter whether it's throwing a ball, cooking a pie, writing a letter, fixing a fixture, applying an appliance, telling a tale or doing a deed. Because all ministry happens when you lovingly share the part of the world that you know well, share those things that are clear and important to you, and give that clarity and prominence and light to others, enlightening them so that they can take part in and enjoy that relationship. Some people heal with kindness, others love the stranger, others listen well. Some make justice, visit the sick, give to the poor, live cheerfully, and tell the truth. Sometimes we just show up, but we all do what we can and we do it for the glory of God, to participate in the coming reign of God's love.
For whatever we do, when we do it with the awareness of what we are doing and who we are doing it with, and who we are doing it for, then we continue the work of baptism and the great Eucharist; the task of washing up and giving thanks and remembering a loving ministry to a world that doesn't know how sweet it is. All this is in the service of Christ.
So in today's service we install the vestry and officers for the coming year and we honour some of the people who do much of their ministry in this parish church. A body of ministry that makes St Peter's Eastern Hill a sign and symbol of God's grace and presence. So we give thanks for the people who serve and read at early mass and Morning Prayer. Who spend ministry and time giving food, clothing, blankets, looking into the face of God in the breakfast program as well as the Icon School and I.S.S.; people who volunteer in the parish office and the book room, deal with money and meals and meetings, teach adults or children, paint the fences or work in the garden. As well as all who serve when we come together for worship here: by putting books out, lighting candles, reading the lessons, singing the music, preparing the altar, cleaning up after all, making a place to welcome and comfort the visitor and stranger and friend, all part of living out, singing out, this liturgy of love in all our days and ways.
And this is all valuable preparation for the advent of God into the daily pathways of our human lives in the advent of the life of the one Lord Jesus and, as well, in the face of everyone we see. For newborn face of forgiveness and reconciliation and hope and love are waiting to be seen and recognized, "in school or in lanes or at sea, in church or in trains or in shops or at tea." It is all in the waiting, in the preparation, whether preparation of the gifts or of the table or our lives, it is all preparation of the way of the saviour, Emanuel, the one who comes in the name of the Lord.
And John said, `One who is more powerful than I is coming.'
The Lord be with you.
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