Second Sunday of Advent: What God Are We Preparing the Way For?

Today's Scripture Readings

Malachi 3: 1-4 (NRSV)

See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight-- indeed, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?

For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the LORD in righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the LORD as in the days of old and as in former years.

Canticle 16 (BCP., p. 92)


Philippians 1: 3-11 (NRSV)

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. I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to think this way about all of you, because you hold me in your heart, for all of you share in God's grace with me, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how

I long for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.

Luke 3: 1-6 (NRSV)

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around 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,

"The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:

'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.'"

Blog Reflection

This weekend I attended the Trinity Wall Street's 42nd National Theological Conference with speaker Sr. Joan Chittister, OSB.   During this conference the question was raised: What is the Radical Christian Life?   In her answer to this question, Sr. Joan referred to the evolutionary God.  The God that is forever changing our understanding of who God is, and what God is doing as one age dies and another is coming to life.

There were two statements Sr. Joan made that struck me among many, that I think are relevant to today's mediation on this Second Sunday of Advent as we read about St. John the Baptist preparing the way for God to come.  

1. We have to be careful about how we summarize God.

2. What we believe about God is how we relate to God.

Now to break them down a bit.

1. We have to be careful about how we summarize God.  If we believe that God is the One who has no beginning or ending, then all of what we write or say that tries to define God will always fall short.  Many languages, cultures and religious traditions have made many attempts to define a Being who is beyond ourselves and yet very close to us.  Whether we define God in Christ as Christians do, or as Allah as the Muslims might do, our definition is our own.  What may be true for one, may not be for another.  

Does this mean there is no God to believe in?   Or a God who came to us in the Person of Jesus Christ?   No, it does not mean that there is no God, or that God did not come to us in Christ..  As Christians we do believe in a God who is real, tangible, and who became God's perfect revelation in a Man of Nazareth, born of Mary and Joseph and changed the world forever more. 

What we have to be careful about is how we define (or prepare the way for) a God by our own definition.   The God who is the vending machine who we pray to, to give us what we want, will always disappoint us.   The God who is defined by Biblical literalists who want to continue to subordinate women, oppress LGBT people, people of different cultural or religious practices, because "that's the known law of God" will always leave them, disappointed and feeling that they must martyr themselves, when things do not go their way.

2. What we believe about God is how we relate to God.    If all we believe about God is that God is a vending machine or the mighty law giver, the writer and author of the Bible as God's sexual penal code, etc, then that is how we will relate to God.   It is also how we will relate to others who do not see things our way.   We will never be satisfied with newer understandings of who God is, because God fits into a nice Pandora's Box, and so does everyone else.   We form a sense of self-righteousness and arrogance.

But if we believe that God is calling upon us to be the John the Baptist's of the second decade of this the 21st Century, who are preparing the way for the evolutionary God, we will be open to the movement of God's Holy Spirit.   We can read the Bible, celebrate our traditions and look forward to new developments as opportunities to encounter and become re-acquainted with God who comes to us in Christ, anew and ready to welcome all who want to come to him.  We will be the one's who speak out about the abuse of the environment through global warming and the neglect of the sick and the poor.    We will look for ways of working towards a greater equality fo LGBT people, women, people of different races, religions, economic statuses etc.  Because God is always evolving upon us to prepare new places for God.

As we prepare to welcome the Christ child at Christmas this year, we would do well to pray for ourselves to be open to receiving Christ in however he shall come to us.  That we will never let go of Emmanuel "God with us" and realize that whatever new and evolutionary means by which God makes God's Self known to us, that our hearts, our minds, our prayers and our lives are ready to embrace, receive and make her/him find at home in us.

What God are we preparing the way for?

Amen.


Prayers

Merciful God, who sent your messengers the prophets to
preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation:
Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins,
that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our
Redeemer; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy
Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Collect for the Second Sunday of Advent, Book of Common Prayer, p. 211).


Gracious Father, we pray for they holy Catholic Church. Fill it
with all truth, in all truth with all peace. Where it is corrupt,
purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in any thing it is
amiss, reform it. Where it is right, strengthen it; where it is in
want, provide for it; where it is divided, reunite it; for the sake
of Jesus Christ thy Son our Savior. Amen. (Prayer for the Church, Book of Common Prayer, p. 816).

St. Joseph: Father 2 in a very Non-Traditional Family

Today's Scripture Readings

2 Samuel 7:4,8-16 (NRSV)

The word of the LORD came to Nathan:

Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant David: Thus says the LORD of hosts: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep to be prince over my people Israel; and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may live in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and evildoers shall afflict them no more, as formerly, from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover the LORD declares to you that the LORD will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. When he commits iniquity, I will punish him with a rod such as mortals use, with blows inflicted by human beings. But I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever.

Romans 4:13-18 (NRSV)

The promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation.

For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, as it is written, "I have made you the father of many nations") -- in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become "the father of many nations," according to what was said, "So numerous shall your descendants be."

Luke 2:41-52 (NRSV)

Every year Jesus' parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival. When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. Assuming that he was in the group of travelers, they went a day's journey. Then they started to look for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, "Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety." He said to them, "Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?" But they did not understand what he said to them. Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor.

Blog Reflection

All this talk about the meaning of love, marriage and family these days, seems to forget that Jesus was born into a non-traditional family.  At least according to their version. 

In Matthew 1:18-25 from today's Morning Prayer, we read of how Joseph was planning to dismiss Mary, because she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit.  Mary could have been exposed in shame, or even stoned to death for conceiving another child out of wedlock.  Joseph would have been complying with the laws of the day.  He was in his right to do so.  God, however, has a really good sense of humor.  Just when ya think following the rule book is the best thing to do, an angel shows up to tell Joseph to not be afraid to take Mary as his wife.  The child that Mary would bear, would be Jesus who would be the Savior of the world.  Once Joseph is aware of God's plan, he accepts God's call and takes Mary to Bethlehem.  And, we know the rest of the story.

The Gospel narrative from Luke about Jesus being found in the temple, ends with him saying something very peculiar.  "Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?"   It seems that the young boy Jesus is aware that there is more than one Father in his life.  Very interesting, no?

Joseph may have been born of the noble line of David, but Jesus who was conceived by the Holy Spirit in Mary, was born in the City of David, yet was the Son of God. 

It appears that Joseph was father number 2 in a very non-traditional family.  One in which things were not so logical, as in, made sense.  It was by God's will that what came to pass happened.  If God was so concerned about the rules, God would have chosen to act on them, right?  Not necessarily.

God is not bound by time or laws, nor is God limited by how humankind thinks or writes about God.  Therein lies the real problem with the Bible.  It is a book written about God's acts, by imperfect human beings, though inspired by the Holy Spirit, yes.  But, the views written are still accounts from a human perspective. Words, accounts and meanings are rightly met with a little bit of skepticism.  So are the things we interpret from them.   The messages contained within, do inspire us as the Holy Spirit seeks to move us with her grace.

Whether our family is one of a man and a woman, with or with out children.  Or a family of two women, with or without children.  Or a family of two men, with or without children.  Each family is one that has been brought together by God's grace and design.   Family, however it is defined, is built around individuals loving each other, caring about one another and seeking to create a community of compassion and companionship in a world that is all too scary and lonely for way too many people.  

The negative atmosphere that Christianists and other arch-conservative groups are casting around LGBT families, couples and individuals is based on false information, biased opinions and facts that simply do not exist, only in their minds.  Yet, they are willing to go State by State, to destroy marriage equality laws in States that have passed them, or wage campaigns for ballot initiatives against marriage equality to pass them.  The Roman Catholic church and their hierarchy of authoritarianism disguised as religious zeal for the House of God, insists on arguing for religious freedom, while violating it for others who do not share their opinions.   Whether the issue be abortion, contraception or marriage equality, there is no stopping their political maneuvering to make their ways, the "American way." 

It seems to me that Jesus came into the world, because a man who was dedicated to following the rules, was suddenly open to God's will, once it was made clear to him.  And because he acted on God's will and not his own, the Savior of the world was born, and through him, the Church.  The Christian religion is not one of a list of major rules or one way moral codes.  Our Faith exists not because of some thing, but because of some One.  His Name is Jesus Christ. 

Jesus came as one who brought with him, God's love for all people.  Including those, who were thought to be unlovable and unwanted.  Even the eunuchs, the gay men.  Even women.  Including the sick, the lonely, and the discouraged.  Those considered unclean or non-traditional.  Jesus even put a human face on the dead, by giving of his own life, and raising them up in the resurrection. 

In what ways are we open this Lent to God shattering our expectations?

How does God meet us in the midst of made plans, and changes our hearts so to better follow God's will?

How do we see others who are different from ourselves in light of God's salvation?

As we remember St. Joseph and his willingness to be open to God, let us all pray for one another to be open to the call of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and lives.   If God did such amazing things through Joseph's openness, imagine what God could do through our own openness?


Prayers

O God, who from the family of your servant David raised
up Joseph to be the guardian of your incarnate Son and the
spouse of his virgin mother: Give us grace to imitate his
uprightness of life and his obedience to your commands;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with
you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Book of Common Prayer, p. 239).


Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have
made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent: Create and
make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily
lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness,
may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission
and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives
and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever
and ever. Amen.  (Collect for Ash Wednesday, Book of Common Prayer, p. 217).


O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us
through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole
human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which
infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us;
unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and
confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in
your good time, all nations and races may serve you in
harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ
our Lord. Amen.  (Prayer for the Human Family, Book of Common Prayer, p. 815).