2nd Sunday of Advent, 12/8/2024

Text: Malachi 3:1-4, Philippians 1:3-11, Luke 3:1-6
Grace, Peace, and Mercy from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
We are all called to prophesy, meaning we declare God’s desired future for the earth. Yet we hear this word of prophesying with trepidation. We don’t prophesy because it’s convenient, nor do we prophesy without purpose. God demands from certain times that the vision of His incoming Kingdom be before us, so we know where we should stand in the challenges we will face. We should not ignore out of our fear the moment to prophesy beloved. If there is something I learned to appreciate in my recent travels to DC and New York City this past week, it is that we have much to be thankful for in the form of siblings in Christ through which we are reminded that we never prophesy alone or individualistically. We should remember that beyond this gathering, we have many siblings out there sharing the fruits of the gospel alongside this very community. Paul says in his letter to the Philippians today: “I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now.” We are a part of a large communion of people, liberated by the grace of God, proclaiming what God has provoked in our lives, namely a thirst for freedom, justice, hope, mercy and love. This past week I had the chance to see the work of the wider church on behalf of justice through offices in DC and NYC that represent each and every one of you in the unity of faith, advocating for the most vulnerable and making present the values that the Gospel instills in us. But how important that is, to remember, to be mindful that this church is not alone in its work to proclaim God’s Kingdom, but that each and every one of you are part of a global family of 78 million Lutheran Christians. This church is an outpost of a Christian movement that proclaims the liberation of people by the grace of God thus equipped by the Holy Spirit to be signposts of God’s Kingdom in the world. In grateful response to our own liberation, we seek out justice and mercy since we ourselves are witnesses to the overwhelming love of God in Christ.

So in this season of Advent, in this season of waiting and expectation, one of the questions we might be thinking about is about the outcome of prophecy: when, Lord, when will the world be made right? When will you come again as You had done before to make all things new and restore us to wholeness and justice and peace? We rejoice in the promise that these good things will come, because they are part and parcel of God’s own desire for human beings. Yet in the waiting, we are confronted with our finitude, our powerlessness to turn things around just by ourselves. There is a mass movement from God that is required, a community of people who have been breathed to live anew in God’s way of doing things. Waiting for God however does not entail silence in the face of the world’s problems. Today’s texts that center on the calling of John the Baptist, it reminds us that God calls His people to proclaim the coming of the Lord and His justice in a time when the Kingdom is not yet visible, yet the signs of it’s arrival are unmistakable. They are unmistakable because they exist in the voices and acts of those that are yearning for God’s Kingdom to be made present in our midst. And thus how precious is that remembrance, that God has called people to prophesy in the wilderness moments, that in these times when things look hopeless, God has called people that bring to mind the proximity of God’s promised kingdom ever closer. The church has been given that task to prophesy, to proclaim the repentance and forgiveness of sin, that reconciliation and reparation is possible by the Spirit’s movement in us. And you do not need to wait for the ELCA, or a bishop, or a pastor, or somebody else to tell you to proclaim the coming of Christ’s reign. Each and every one of you is tasked to be prophetic proclaimers, in whichever way that is authentic to you, in whichever hidden place God has called you to be. It is good to remember both that you are not alone on the task, that God calls prophets at every necessary level, but that you yourself are a participant. In this liturgy words are in your mouth that proclaim God’s love and mercy, that proclaim the advent of God’s reign of peace. We share in proclamation in this very gathering of a reality that God has brought about in Christ and that He will continue to bring about because His Kingdom continues to grow. “‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every 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; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’ Your faithfulness to Christ witnesses to that very proclamation, your life preaches that God saves and loves beyond measure. So do not be shy, beloved, be bold like John the Baptist, for your witness refines the whole community, it refines us in the ways that lead each of us toward greater love of neighbor.

Now, we might think, we can’t be prophets, we don’t have the voice, or the skills or the experience, to be prophets. But we would be paying attention to the wrong thing. It is not about us, it is about God. It is about God having done something already, this is not something that you will build from thin air. No, you are a messenger of something that God has done for all life, and you are a joyful sharer of that reality. We grow in the rich soil that has been tilled by God in Jesus Christ. You are growing into a reality that God has gifted to you. The roots of your life and work take their nutrients from Christ having dwelt among us, dying for us, risen and coming again for us. The challenges presented in our waiting do not require us to come up with solutions, it requires us to be faithful proclaimers of God delivering on His promises, and us being testaments to God’s deliverance of our lives. That we were once lost in the mire of our own sins, but God has done something new, and no longer are we constrained by our death-dealing tendencies, rather we are given a new vision by which the world will be saved by love, and that the God that is Love will come and make a new thing that surprises the world with its old antics. We should pray like Paul when he says that our “love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help us to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ we may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.” And thus, beloved, in our waiting for all things to be made right, we exist in the context of Christ reigning in our hearts now, and even more fully when God comes again to be all in all. For as we wait, love will teach us, love will guide us, love will form us into the beloved community. Let our love of Christ lead us into more love of neighbor, and thus to proclaim and prophesy boldly of God’s incoming Kingdom, not yet fully here, yet inevitably growing in our midst. Let us pray.