Sermons
Advent 2C
I talked last week about buffaloes and geese. Buffaloes follow one strong leader who heads up the herd, goes ahead, shows the way, and often dies from exhaustion in carrying out that role. Having served his purpose the job done, the rest of the herd, the followers reach their promised land of new pastures, but the leader has served his sacrificial purpose. By contrast geese when they migrate, get up into the air and set off with one at the front and the others following, but then after a while another one comes up to the front and swaps with the leader, and again a little later another comes forward, and so on, leadership is shared, the geese almost act as one organism, each takes up the strain when needed and then drops back.
Over the four weeks I am preaching on the Advent theme of the coming kingdom of God and trying to relate it to our actual experience and needs here at St Andrew’s. I want to encourage a sense of renewed vocation, of calling by God to each of us to ministry, to roles of leadership in one form or another; the Christian community has to be a place where ministry is shared, the parish community need to work together like the geese each taking a leading role at different times, each moving the whole flock forwards, all going the same direction, interconnected working almost as one organism, sharing a common purpose, supporting each other. God calls each of us to ministerial roles within the community and our purpose together is the building of the kingdom, the nurturing of the signs of the kingdom here among us.
So what might today’s gospel, the portrait of one crying in the wilderness tell us about being a minister for the kingdom. Last week we had a dramatic vision of the end of all things, this week a dramatic vision in which the forerunner of Christ John the Baptist cries out in the wilderness that the way of the Lord needs to be prepared, and that his coming is the beginning of the end
Before the dramatic prophecy of the coming kingdom, what does Luke give us? A list of the rulers of the kingdoms of this world. He begins with the most important person in the world, the Emperor, Tiberius, ruling the known world, head of an intellectually vibrant, corrupt, successful, violent, and worldwide culture; the same straight roads, the same aqueducts, the same design of theatres and the same design of torure could be seen in Cirencester and Constantinople and Carthage. Roman rule was everywhere and the image of the Emperor was as common a sight as the golden arches of the MacDonalds sign are now.
Moving down the food-chain, Luke next gives us the local expression of that universal rule, Pontius Pilate, long serving governor of Judea, whose role included dealing with the uncultured Jews, the little troublesome sect with their strange eating rules, their strange farming rules, and their neglect of the Olympian gods. Luke then lists the other local rulers Herod and his brother Philip and then moving down another notch in importance the religious leaders of the Jews, the High Priests, drawn from the priestly families, constantly compromised in their desire to keep the intrusions of the Romans at bay whilst discouraging religious forment.
Into this scene, full of power brokers, full of the men who held the fate of thousands in their hands, men who had important things to do, business to get on with, deals to negotiate, into this arena of power comes the isolated figure of John the Baptist, arrayed in the garb of an Old Testament prophet, crying out in the wilderness, heralding the coming of the kingdom, preaching repentance and the forgiveness of sins. What a contrast! So why does Luke give us all this context, his dates don’t even seem to add up, so why is he telling us all about these rulers when we want to hear about John the Baptist and Jesus?
Luke places the Baptist in the context of World history, he says to his readers that this lone voice, prophesying in an outlying province of the Empire, is pointing to something that the rulers of the world are most likely to miss. Luke tells his readers that what is happening is likely to be very difficult for this tremendously cultured and educated society called the Roman Empire, to understand, that it will be almost impossible for them to see that the future of the world actually depends on a member of this barely tolerated race and that a bedraggled figure in the desert might have the most astounding news for all of these rulers.
In Luke’s picture of the prophetic role then, the prophet is a loner, up against the world, a figure at the very margins of society, whilst the rulers have their ears stopped up and their eyes closed to the message because their lives are so full of the cares of the kingdoms of this world. This is a picture painted with broad brush strokes, a picture with one good man standing out for what matters against the wicked conglomerations of power that wish to ignore or crush him. John is the hero, he is the man standing in front of the tank refusing to move. But as so often with Biblical imagery it seems quite a long way from how we actually live here in our normal lives, we may all have a desire to be the prophetic voice, to be the one standing up for the principle against the unthinking weight of corporate or stately power. But most of the time we are not living in that role, most of the time our building of the kingdom is much more likely to be akin to the flocking geese, all moving in roughly the same direction, all doing his or her bit. So I ask again, what can this gospel tell us about being ministers of the kingdom? Two thoughts. Firstly that John is driven to action by the word, the word of God came to John in the wilderness, when we feel we need to take a stand to prophecy either within the Christian community or without, our action must be driven by God, not by a desire to be the hero. Secondly, the prophet needs hearers. Here we must learn that like the Roman rulers, the Emperor, the governor, like the religious rulers, the high priests and the scribes and the Pharisees, we may be rushing through our busy lives missing that essential message. With deals to be done, money to be made, kids to look after, houses to be paid for, meals to cook, we might need to stop and listen, stop and say to ourselves, what was that message, that essential thing, the one thing that explains the rest, the thing that drove John the Baptist into the desert to proclaim repentance.
So the theme changes today, the flock is influenced by the prophets in its midst if it can recognize their voice.
Over these weeks I would like you to pray about your own vocation from God, ask him what he is calling you to be in the life of this church, the life that seeks to build up the kingdom. Perhaps you are being called to be a priest, or a prophet, or a Christmas tree decorator, or a mediator, or a member of the choir wanting to sing His praise.
Pray that God will find that, when he comes again,
we may be ready to greet him
with joyful love and firm faith;
active in his service
To whom be the glory now and for ever. Amen.