Rev. Steve Ellis
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.
Isaiah 40:1-11 – Comfort, O comfort my people,
says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and cry to her
that she has served her term,
that her penalty is paid,
that she has received from the LORD’s hand
double for all her sins.
A voice cries out:
“In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
and the rough places a plain.
Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed,
and all people shall see it together,
for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”
A voice says, “Cry out!”
And I said, “What shall I cry?”
All people are grass,
their constancy is like the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flower fades,
when the breath of the LORD blows upon it;
surely the people are grass.
The grass withers, the flower fades;
but the word of our God will stand forever.
Get you up to a high mountain,
O Zion, herald of good tidings;
lift up your voice with strength,
O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings,
lift it up, do not fear;
say to the cities of Judah,
“Here is your God!”
See, the Lord GOD comes with might,
and his arm rules for him;
his reward is with him,
and his recompense before him.
He will feed his flock like a shepherd;
he will gather the lambs in his arms,
and carry them in his bosom,
and gently lead the mother sheep.
Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13 Page 708, 709, BCP
2 Peter 3:8-15a – Do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed.
Sermon: A PLEASING EXPERIENCE FOR GOD
Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire? But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.
Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish; and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation.
Mark 1:1-8 – The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,
“See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way;
the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
`Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight,’”
John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
(Preacher has a thurible – an incense burner – ready as a prop.)
“Comfort ye, comfort ye my people” – so familiar from the tenor solo in the Messiah as well as the 2nd Sunday of Advent – is the declaration that well-deserved punishment is not the end of the story, that God has not abandoned his wayward people. We need that word and we cherish it from generation to generation – for 2700 years and counting. And that sets the tone for the day, but lets make our real beginning with the gospel lesson and the greatest man who lived before the Kingdom of God (for that is the way Jesus’ describes him).
Why did people who heard about John the Baptist go way out in the wilderness to see him? He wasn’t an amusement park, and even if they took a picnic lunch, he wasn’t a concert by their favorite band, so why did they go? They knew that he would be saying something about how their society had gone wrong, something about making their world better. They knew he would be saying that it wasn’t only the 1% who had to change. He would say everybody really needed a new beginning, 100% of them. Because John was a prophet, and prophets always say that God says something like:
I am troubled by your failures. I am hurt by your shortcomings. Some of you have been selfish and greedy. Some of you have hurt people with your thoughtlessness. I am disappointed. I made you for better, I blessed you for better.
So why did they go to hear that? You can answer that question as well as I can. They did go, crowds of them went. Maybe they loved John for telling them the truth.
This is a thurible. Thurible. We use it to burn incense in church sometimes. Some people think thurible rhymes with “terrible.” Of course the first reason for using it is to make the church smell good, because people, especially groups of people didn’t used to smell very good. Since people didn’t used to bath but once a year, unless they were very well off, a strong scent might be a very pleasant distraction!
Like a lot of things in worship, incense has come to mean much more. The scent is a symbol of our prayers, and reminds us that God receives our prayers as something lovely [deep breath through nostrils]. Sometimes we are afraid that God is mad at us. We know that God is troubled by our failures, and hurt by our thoughtless actions. We know that God is disappointed, that God made us for better than we do. So – thinking that the Father and Jesus and the Holy Spirit love the smell of our prayers and enjoy it helps us to worship. Isn’t it a good picture?
When God is disappointed in us, or hurt by the way we fail each other, by the harm we do to other people – that isn’t the end of the story. Jesus has shown us that God takes our lives very seriously, and is very pleased when we show love for others and very distressed when we fail each other, but that there’s more to the story. When Jesus says, “I’m disappointed in you,” he also says, “I still believe in you, and now you’d better walk with me, and we’ll make a new beginning.”
This is a thurible. Sometimes the “thurifer” comes around to face a group of people in worship, and bows to them out of respect for those for whom Jesus gave his life. And then swings the pot – the thurible – at them (three times for the Trinity) because they are offering themselves, their souls and bodies, their hours and days, their homes and schools and play and work, to be Jesus’ people. And when the thurifer “censes” them, that offering of self becomes a sweet smell for the Father, and for the Son, and for the Holy Spirit. We do need a new start. But God still believes in us. God still rejoices in us.
