Year B Advent 2 2023 Preparedness

Year B Advent 2, 10 December 2023

St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA

“Preparedness”

Collect: Merciful God, who sent your messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation: Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. 

2 Peter 3:8-15a

Do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed.

Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire? But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.

Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish; and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation.

Mark 1:1-8

The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,

“See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,

who will prepare your way;

the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:

‘Prepare the way of the Lord,

make his paths straight,’”

John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

A man had a dream that he was in heaven, and even more, he was in the presence of the Lord. In flabbergasted awe and silent before the grandeur, the man waited for the Lord to speak. The Lord looked down with love and compassion, and welcomed the humbled man and asked if he had any questions. The man not knowing where to start said that, in fact, he did have something he was always curious about. “Lord, Scripture teaches that time and even money have no meaning to you.” The Lord smiled, and responded, “Yes, my son, that is true. A million years is like a second to me, and a second is like a million years.” The man nodded, pretending like could even comprehend this. “And money, Lord?” The Lord responded, “The same. A billion dollars is like a penny, and vice versa.” The man nervously asked the Lord, “Lord, if that is the case, may I have one of your pennies?” The Lord smiled, and said “Of course, my son… in a second.”

I trust you recognized part of today’s readings being the foundation of that joke. And despite what some Prosperity Theology friends may say, Jesus did not come for us to be “winners” or to get what we good we deserve (and notice they always assume it is the best that they deserve). We are put on a path to free ourselves of the things that get in our way of following Christ and walking on his path. 

The longer I live the more I find it is about letting go and finding that fewer and fewer things are necessities. When I lean on less it is more about relying on God and God’s rule in my life. Less is more, I can honestly say. This goes against the rules our society teaches us to play by, where he who dies with the most toys wins. 

John was in the Wilderness, doing a baptism of Repentance. A baptism confessing sin and letting go of those distractions in our lives, those sins that cling so closely.

Last week we talked about how Advent is about Jesus’ birth as well as his return. The there-and-then and the perhaps here-and-now, and being ready. This week we continue in the HOW? of that. How do we prepare ourselves? How do we get ready for Christ to come back?

In the II Peter reading it talks about the end of time:

…the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed. Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire?

It is a pretty simple argument, all these possessions we hoard beyond measure only serve to possess us. If everything will come to naught, then why bother with it. All that you have is your soul. And even then, you don’t have your soul. You are your soul. You, that core essence, your seat of decisions, that thing that is you, is all there is. And when Jesus comes, we need to have the “Me that is You” in the best shape it can be. As II Peter puts it,

Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish; and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation.

Without spot or blemish. And as we talked about last week, that Jesus has not come in 2,000 years is a God-send, not a problem. God’s patience is our salvation. God wants to give us the time that we need. But our culling of the detritus that has piled up in our lives and even worse in our souls needs to begin today.

John came to do that, calling for people to change their way. To make a U-turn in the way that they were going. The best time to change our direction is as soon as we know we are going the wrong way.

Thinking about changing our direction will not do. Forming a planning committee to come up with a strategic plan or a mission statement will not either. When we are going the wrong way we make a U-Turn as fast as we can.

Waiting on Jesus has been hard. Two-thousand-years is a long time. Empires have come and gone. Languages, nations, religions, too, have formed, conquered, and disappeared in the time we have been waiting on Jesus. It would be easy to think that we can just keep on keeping on, give polite lip service in the Creeds, “Jesus will come again,” and then go on about our business. But in all things, there comes a time when the time is up.

My mother was raised by her grandmother. When I was young, we would always go and visit her.  Thanksgiving, Christmas, and a week or more every summer, we would traipse down to Burlington, North Carolina and visit the family matriarch.  Having raised my mother she was more of a grandmother to me than a great-grandmother, and some of my favorite memories are of her.  She was a caring and compassionate soul. She always reminded me to mind my mother. She taught me how to roll out and make apple hand pies using her bottle as a rolling pin, a bottle that predated the Civil War. She taught me that okra was one of the greatest gifts of God, boiled, stewed, and best of all, fried. When I would get a cut or a scratch outside, I would come in and seek attention more than a band-aid.  She would love on me and she had a phrase, “Don’t you worry.  It will be better before you get married.” All that time, marriage was so far away to be non-existent.

That phrase stayed with me through my teenage years, and it just stuck in my mind, and it would come out when I got a nick or cut. When I cut myself shaving on my wedding day, I was about to say it out loud, “It’ll be better before your wedding day!” It was then that it struck me that it would not.  It would not be better on my wedding day. It was my wedding day! The thing so far away as to be non-existent was imminent. The waiting was over.  The future, what always had seemed so far away, was now.

And one day, maybe in your lifetime, Jesus could come back. And you will probably think, “We always said that it could happen.” We will see; won’t we? But the more important question remains, will we be ready?

As we “Prepare the ways of the Lord, and make his paths straight,” we are not talking about a quick clean-up, a tidying because the relatives are coming over.  We are also not talking about setting up Potemkin villages, to trick the visiting monarch, some Disney facade that gives a feel and not a reality.  What we are speaking of is wholesale change.

In our Preparation for the Lord, we are flattening mountains and leveling valleys.  Or so encourages Isaiah and John.  As John waited for Christ to come, and we are waiting for Christ to come again, are we immersed in the Holy Spirit, steeped with God in our lives?

When we look at who we should be in our Preparation, we need a metaphor shift in our brains.  We are not preparing for an event, but for a new way of being.  When the Lord comes, everything is changed.  We are changed.  That is why a tidying will not do.

We are not looking at waiters setting up for an evening meal.  Those are not the preparations we are calling for.  Rather, think of people who have to prepare for any and every eventuality.  

Think of ER doctors who never know what is going to walk through their doors.

Think Firemen and Soldiers.  They need to train and practice.  They do drills and training exercises.  They are always in a state of readiness, or they cannot be who they are supposed to be.  Firemen and Soldiers do not get to use phrases like, “When I get around to it.”  

Trumpet players and Singers, they never know what music they will get handed.  They practice and take care of their instruments.  I remember when I played tuba in college,  my professor talked about his daily routine.  He played scales for an hour a day.  An hour a day.  He was someone who could do these scales in his sleep.  After so many years, he could probably play these scales in a coma.  I found it amazing that something I took for granted, was something that he took as assumed. I was the player I was, because a couple of times a week I would warm up with scales for a few minutes. He was the player that he was because he started his day with an hour of scales before he began to practice. He was the master, and I was the student. He still is the Master, and probably still does an hour of scales a day.

In our Preparation this Advent, think on who you are.  Who do you want to be?  How do you practice your faith?  How do you live out what you believe?

There are many places where we could start.  But, we will stay with our theme for the day.  If Jesus were showing up here today, how would you be?  What would you do?  Where would you go?  How would you act?  What would you say to your children?  How would you spend your day?

If Jesus were coming back in, say, 15 days, on December 25, what would you do differently between now and then?

If he were coming back in 100 years, what would St. James the Less do to prepare the way of the Lord?  

How about this, why don’t we live today like he is coming back tomorrow, and decide that together we will try to make Ashland, Hanover County, and metropolitan Richmond the way we would want him to find it in 100 years.  I think between those two ideas, our preparations would be grand.  Amen.