The Savior is Coming: A Sermon by Deacon Terry Hurlbut

​Don’t you feel special? Don’t you feel Blessed?
The reading FR. Harvey read included words from the prophet Isaiah.
These words are words, we hear each Advent.
Yet, each year a new Blessing comes from them.
“Behold, I send my messenger before thy face,
who shall prepare thy way;
the voice of one crying in the wilderness:
Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight—”
Your parents, your grandparents, your great grandparents and all the saints before them, heard these same, hopeful, and preparatory words.
Words telling them to prepare the way of the Lord.
I have a weakness – well actually I have many, but here is one.
During the Advent & Christmas seasons, I become nostalgic. I reflect on childhood memories. Remembering the excitement of the season.
And reflecting on how my parents struggled through life, yet always found a way to make Advent & Christmas everything a child could want. I can remember my mother licking S & H green stamps to help fund the Christmas gifts, I can remember the cardboard, yes cardboard fireplace in our living room each Advent season.
I can remember Aunt Lola, Uncle Karl & Aunt Mary at our house every Christmas eve and again Christmas morning. I can still remember the turkey in that old broiler thing, coming out and tasting so wonderful.
My sister & I, positive we heard Santa on our roof.
In their own way, our parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends were preparing the way of the Lord.
 
So here on December 10th 2023, we gather on this the second Sunday of Advent with the joyful expectations of another Christmas season with the sacred and secular traditions that Christmas brings.
We can see the excitement in the faces of our kids & grandkids who patiently wait for Christmas Day.
Kind of like looking in a mirror, isn’t it?
It is becoming harder for them to concentrate on their school work when their heads are filled with visions of gifts, goodies, and surprises.
Something wonderful is about to take place and we are all going to be a part of it. It is exciting, not only for the kids, but for us also.
It often means times of family fun, feasting, and a beautiful time of wonder and miracles.
Then we hear the Gospel of Mark that Fr. Harvey just read.
There does not seem to be any joy or anticipation of excitement in this gospel.
This Gospel was the first written and the shortest.
Mark wrote in a hurry, giving a bare-bones account of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection.
In this first gospel there are no shepherds, no magi.
It seems confusing, what happened to the shepherds?
The Gospel of Mark begins with Jesus’ baptism, by saying:
“The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet: I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way.”
In ancient times, before a King visited any part of his realm, there was a messenger that was sent before him to prepare the way – to announce that the King was coming.
According to Mark, the people understood that John the Baptist was living in the wilderness like an Old Testament prophet;
He wanted to prepare the hearts of the men and women of Israel for the new king.
We know that Jesus and John the Baptist were cousins, and about the same age;
John the Baptist was older by a few months. But there are some parallels in their lives.
• They both experienced miraculous births, John from a woman way past child-bearing age and Jesus from a virgin.
• There was general publicizing and rejoicing at their births
• There are interesting aspects of their naming and circumcisions in the temple
• There was a public presentation and prophecy of destiny for both in their early years
• There was a description of their growth as young children into adulthood
• There was the martyred death at the hands of worldly authorities.
Yet in every case, Jesus is described as greater than John.
In Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan River; an event that signaled the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.
John the Baptist had been preaching in the wilderness for years, wearing camel skins, never shaving, eating locust and honey – anything he could find in the wilderness.
To us he would seem a freak or insane. He preached throughout of repentance, and to make ready, make ready the way of the Lord, make his path straight.
Announcing to all that the King was coming. By the time he baptized Jesus, hordes of people had come into the wilderness to listen to this bizarre and powerful preacher and most of them had been baptized by him, as a sign of repentance.
John the Baptist proclaimed that someone was coming, someone so spectacular that it was not enough simply to just wait for him to arrive.
He called upon the people to be honest with themselves, to step back from their daily routines and prepare their hearts to receive the one that God was sending, who would redeem them from their sin, and offer them new life.
He challenged them to repent, and embrace the Son of God.
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.
And again, each year when I read this account, I cannot help but say to myself, and I have said in a few sermons past. How much of a hero, I believe John the Baptist is. He is a true example of servant of God, humble and UN egotistic!
I say the same thing each year. How could any of us, having the spotlight, being given all the accolades give up that fame and say” it is not about me, it is about one who is to come, of whose sandals I am not fit to tie.” I think about our athletes, politicians, movie stars that cannot get enough of themselves on TV or on social media, yet John steps back and says he is not the focus.
Could we do that? Could we step back like that when everyone was giving us all the attention?
Sort of like our parents, grandparents, aunts & uncles did preparing the way, stepping back – not being about themselves.
Indeed, there are many amazing and wonderful things about this season of Advent and Christmas.
There are many things in the biblical account of Jesus’ birth that we have come to realize are unsubstantiated in facts, or probably in truth:
The nativity story has morphed and mingled so much over the years with fairy tales and traditions that it is difficult, at times, to make sense of it at all.
Christmas has become a time for feasting and family, parties and friends, gift giving and child-like magic, Santa Claus, angels and wise men, decorated trees and caroling choirs.
Advent & Christmas also prepare us for the hope, though Christ’s death and resurrection reuniting with those who prepared the way for us.
Like most of human life, it is a great mix of the sacred and profane.
So, what can we find at the core of it all?
I would like to suggest we take a slightly different view this Advent season
So that in a very real way we can all be John the Baptist.
We MUST be the ones:    Along with John the Baptist.
Crying in the wilderness!
Against evil and injustice!
We are not messiahs; we cannot save the world. But what we can do is be like John the Baptist
– bear witness to the one who can save the world
– to the teachings and life lessons of Jesus, which, if followed, gives us joy, peace, faith, and assurance that this wilderness life we lead, it is not all there is.
We can bear witness that there is one greater than we, who can make the sick well, the wounded whole, the blind to see.
One who can bring us, with the Holy Spirit, through the wilderness to the Jordan River and beyond.
So perhaps, amidst our gift wrapping and candy making this Advent, let us bear witness to all . . . especially those who have lost loved ones and are grieving, for those who are hopeless and sad.
– let us bear witness to the one who calls us out of the wilderness to a life of love, forgiveness, joy, and grace.
It is also our turn, our turn to be more like John the Baptist, like our parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends before us to prepare the way for our young ones, our friends and family members,
There was one thing I didn’t mention earlier when I was reflecting on my nostalgia.
Love – it was all love, the sense of how much I was loved is the glue that keeps these wonderful memories alive.
Step Back – take a breath – be surrounded by love and surround those around you with love.
Create those memories and become John the Baptist and let those we know that the savior of the world is coming.
AMEN