Today we mark the second Sunday of Advent, the Church’s season of preparation for the coming of Christ. Our readings and music express hope and expectation as we move toward Christmas. This is a very rich season. But we all know that there is another dynamic at work once we leave church today. This is also the season of waiting in line.
Long lines form before dawn outside retail stores when holiday bargains are promised. Media photographs zero in on huddled figures in dark parking lots, ready to shop as soon as the mall doors open. Lines form at the check-out counter and the gift wrap department. Lines are queuing up all across the country today. Here at Trinity we hope for happy lines in Copley Square next weekend as Boston turns out for our Candlelight Carols.
But it is a particular line that claims my attention today. A line is forming in the Judean wilderness around an eccentric preacher named John, John the Baptist. People come out from the city and the surrounding villages and flock to the boondocks to hear his message. John wears animal skins and eats a diet of bugs and honey. He does not ask his audience to fill out welcome cards nor does he invite them to coffee hour. Instead, he offers to dunk them in cold water and tells them to shape up before it’s too late. “Repent!” he yells. He singles out the religious leaders for a special message. “You brood of vipers!” Don’t think that you get a break because you are special, he cautions them. He addresses the leaders all alike, the liberals and the fundamentalists and the Republicans and the Democrats.
John the Baptist would never make it in today’s seminaries. His message would need major marketing revision and you just cannot tell modern congregations that they are a bunch of snakes. It is not done. However, the people keep coming and the lines in the wilderness grow longer and longer. They can’t hear enough of John’s message. You have to wonder what drew the people to this extreme man and his rough edges.
First, understand what John means when he orders the people to “repent.” He is not just telling them to say “I’m sorry.” The word he uses literally means to turn around. If you turn around right now in your pew you are going to see something different from when you are looking towards this pulpit. You will see a neighbor, you may see artwork, and depending upon where you are sitting, you may see out the glass doors into Copley Square. John the Baptist says to turn around and see something new in your life. Turn and see your life differently. Repentance is about changing the way we see ourselves and the way we live.
I do not need to tell you that we live in a world that is constantly changing. Change is the norm, whether it occurs at the molecular level or in human society. A well known business man has said that “Change is inevitable — except from a vending machine.” As much as we acknowledge the reality of change, we are less eager to embrace it, sometimes for good reasons and sometimes not. So the biblical vision of the prophet Isaiah and that wild man John the Baptist guide us in understanding change, and not just any change, but God’s call for the transformation of creation.
Isaiah looks at one of the grand old families of Israel that has fallen on hard times. The House of Jesse and King David’s descendants are in tatters, either on the brink or in the aftermath of war. This long line of faithful leaders was to produce the Messiah and now it can barely tend to itself. It is so pitiful that Isaiah refers to this great family tree as a stump. That’s as low as it can go. But Isaiah also says “A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.”
God’s spirit is going to hover over this little shoot growing out of the stump and something new will emerge. There will be a leader, but not just any leader. This leader will be shaped by God’s spirit and will rule with wisdom and compassion and righteousness. This leader will dispense justice at a level never seen before, thanks to God’s spirit. The new justice will produce so much change in how the community operates that even the animals will be affected. Lions and lambs will live side by side in peace. Cows and bears will dine happily together and not on each other. Children will be safe wherever they go. All the change takes place because of the spirit of God. That spirit, or wind, as the word is also translated, blows through the human community and transforms all of creation.
John the Baptist opens his sermon in the wilderness by quoting the words of the prophet Isaiah. And when he does this and commands the people to repent, to turn and to change, they remember. They know their scriptures and they remember God’s promise to send a new leader. They remember that God’s spirit blows and surprises and can change anything, even the stump of an old family tree. If a shoot can grow there, it can also grow in their families. God’s spirit can also transform them. They flock to the wilderness to hear John because they know that they need to change. He is telling them the truth and they are relieved to hear it. It’s worth standing in line to have someone look them in the eye and say “Your life can be better if you will let God’s spirit change you.”
That was then and this is now. What about us? Where is God’s spirit blowing in our lives and stirring up change? There are many stories right here today. Perhaps you are in a transition in your professional or personal life, making a change or thinking about it. Or maybe it is being made for you, which is an uneasy situation. God’s spirit blows through your life and touches it. Where is the shoot growing out of the stump? Where is the tiny new life growing out of a dying situation?
In our families and close relationships, dead wood can build up and turn into a forest fire of anger and disappointment. Where is the new green shoot of hope or change that you can point to as a sign of God’s presence? How is God’s spirit shaping you in relation to those around you?
God’s spirit blows through all of creation and changes our way of seeing ourselves in the created order. We are belatedly seeing that we must change the way we relate to the earth and its creatures for the well-being of all. Endangered species cannot live peaceably with anyone, and the earth’s resources do not reflect God’s justice when they are not fairly shared. Change must occur in the use and distribution of creation’s abundance.
Change happens when God’s spirit blows through creation. Today it could be a change in how you turn and see the people in your life. It may be a change in how you see yourself in relation to the wider community. Our experience is only that, and everyone else’s is not the same. Maybe we can turn and learn from the experiences of people who are very different from us as we share God’s creation.
The message of the prophets today is look for God’s spirit as we live in a changing world. Look for shoots to grow out of the stumps of our own lives and in the broken places of the world around you. Turn around and see something new. We are not interested in change for change’s sake. We embrace change for God’s sake. We look for signs of God’s spirit at work in the world.
So take your place in line as we witness the renewal of God’s spirit in Jesus Christ. There will always and already be room for you and for the rest of creation. This is the time, this is the season, and this is God’s promise. Amen.
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