From the Sunday Note, with additional thoughts:
Advent prepares for Christmas, but Advent is about more than Christmas.
God is leading Israel in joy
by the light of his glory,
with his mercy and justice for company.
Baruch 5:9 from the first reading for this Sunday
Last Sunday we concluded that for followers of Christ his 2nd coming called for joy instead of terror. The readings for this Sunday sound this note of joy in a major key: “joy” and “rejoicing” occur no less than 11 times before we conclude with the Gospel from Luke. Note that this Gospel reading (Luke 3:1-6) is not about Christmas coming. It’s about the first public revealing of the Savior:
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar,
when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea,
and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee,
and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region
of Ituraea and Trachonitis,
and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene,
during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas,
the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert.
John went throughout the whole region of the Jordan,
proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,
as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah:
A voice of one crying out in the desert:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight his paths.
Every valley shall be filled
and every mountain and hill shall be made low.
The winding roads shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth,
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” (Quoting Isaiah 40:3-5)
Some 30-odd years after the birth of John the Baptist (and, therefore, around 30 years after that first Christmas) it is time for John to begin preparation for “all flesh” (that is, “all humankind”) to have the chance to “see the salvation of God” (that is, “the Messiah, the Savior of all”).
This happened in history, publicly, so Luke ties down the date when John began his work and does it neatly by identifying the major political and religious leaders in Jesus’ trial and death. This reminds us that John the Baptist’s actions start to bring to light a Savior many do not expect.
Yet this Savior-who-brings-joy has been prepared for in God’s interaction with his Jewish people. Luke provides everyone with a source for clues about this surprising Savior by quoting “the words of the prophet Isaiah” from a particular place in that book, chapter 40:3-5. There, in these center chapters (40-55) of the book by the prophet regarded by the Jews as the greatest prophet of them all, Isaiah describes the coming Savior in language that was not normally applied to the Messiah: that he would suffer greatly and would somehow bless the non-Jewish nations, for instance.
Keep in mind—only a handful of people were there to rejoice at the actual birth of the baby Messiah our Christmas feast celebrates. The rejoicing will expand exponentially, later, after John the Baptist begins to announce his coming to all humankind.
For further reflection:
Are you feeling “Christmas-y?” All excited and full of joy? Or are you looking out at our world, our country, our cities, and thinking in a rather different direction? John the Baptist is speaking directly to the second group, to Israelites who were carrying burdens and wondering whether God still acted in Israel’s history. People burdened by their own sins and the historical sins of their people which left them defeated, colonized, and under the greedy thumbs of tyrants. John’s message is repentance, trust, and hope. It applies to us, too. Those three things–repentance, trust, and hope–are necessary if our Savior is to come live within us now. Act on them–he will come.