Sermon Luke 3:1-6 Advent 2 Prophets

12-9-18 

Two of the four Sundays of Advent are dedicated to John the Baptizer.

Next week we’ll learn what John says;

today we look at the prophetic part of this story, 

because the Hebrew Bible readings for Advent all come from the prophets,

and today’s John the Baptizer story includes a quote from the prophet Isaiah.

There are many prophets in Hebrew scripture.

Some of them have books in their name:

            Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and the 12 minor prophets.

(Minor means their books are shorter, not that they’re less important.)

There are earlier prophets too, who show up in the stories of the kings:

Samuel, Nathan, Elijah, and Elisha.

Moses is also considered a prophet,

and we could add Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther as well.

The role of the prophet was to know God’s thoughts,

and communicate them to the people—usually to the people of God

but sometimes also to other kings and peoples

who did not follow the One God of Israel.

Sometimes the words were warnings, sometimes promise,

sometimes an explanation of why they were in the mess they were in, or an accusation,

sometimes visions of God fulfilling the promises.

Most of the time a prophet was chosen for this role by God,

and they responded in various ways,

but many of them tried to get out of it,

including Moses, Jonah, and Jeremiah.

They were important to keeping God’s people

on track in their faithfulness,

but they were not always popular,

among the people or with the rulers.

In Advent we look forward to God fulfilling the promise of a savior

in the birth of Jesus.

So, in Advent, we hear prophetic sayings

about God fulfilling that promise,

about God saving the people.

Originally the mess they needed saving from was the exile.

The temple and the holy city of Jerusalem had been destroyed.

The leaders of the land had been relocated to Babylon,

while some people remained in Israel; the community was divided.

They didn’t know where to find God in a foreign, pagan land.

They needed prophets to remind them of God’s

goodness, faithfulness, and steadfastness.

They needed something to hold on to,

and that something was the promise of God.

In the time of the gospel of Luke,

the Jewish community was similarly unmoored.

Lutheran scholar Richard Swanson describes the significance of the

temple: the Holy of Holies in the center was where the finger of God held the universe secure.

When it was destroyed, therefore, everything was up for grabs.

Not only was God on the loose

and they weren’t sure where to find God,

but the balance of the universe was off;

everything was shaken, as sure as the earthquake in Alaska.

In first century Palestine, before and after the birth of Jesus,

before and after the destruction of the temple—again!—

people needed a promise to hold on to,

and again the prophets brought it to them.

As we wait in Advent for this promised savior,

we hear the words of the prophets, giving us something to hold onto:

Jer 33:14  14 The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made

Is 40:5 Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together (Luke 3—“all flesh shall see the salvation of God”)

Mal 3:1  See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple.

Zeph 3: 15 The Lord has taken away the judgments against you, he has turned away your enemies. The king of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; you shall fear disaster no more.

Mic 5:4-5 4 And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall live secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth; 5 and he shall be the one of peace.

These are good words that we need to hear.

Whether we are at a good place in our lives or struggling,

we need to be reminded that God makes and fulfills promises.

We need to be reminded that God is near, God is here.

We need to know that we don’t have to be afraid,

that God works every moment of every day of every generation

for peace so that God’s beloved people can live in safety.

We need to know that when the world seems off-balance,

God comes in to set us right again.

When I was on internship, I reflected on why pastors visit people in the hospital.

I could not do what medical professionals could do.

I could not give them the time they needed to heal,

or the patience to wait it out,

or the money they needed to pay the bills.

I do visit people in the hospital, but why?

I landed on this: when I, as pastor, walk into a hospital room,

patients and staff are reminded that God is present.

I do not bring God with me, but I am a tangible reminder

that God is paying attention to what is happening in that hospital,

in that body.

That’s what John the Baptizer does in Advent:

            he is a tangible reminder that God is paying attention.

He reminds us of the words of the prophets

who spoke long before him.

He reminds us to keep trusting, hoping, watching

for the ways God fulfills those promises, again and again.

He reminds us that God does not forget us even when we forget God. 

He keeps us on the path, which is rough, crooked, hilly, deep—

filled with obstacles; but it is the path nonetheless—

the path the Lord takes to get to us.

The prophets of olden times, the prophets of Advent,

give us a promise we can hold on to:

the promise that God is holding on to us, and will not let us go. 

Thanks be to God!