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December 5, 2010
The Second Sunday in Advent
Pastor Dena Williams
Good Shepherd Lutheran, Denver, Colorado
Isaiah 11:1-10
Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19
Romans 15:4-13
Matthew 3:1-12

The Holy Gospel according to the Community of St. Matthew

in the 3rd Chapter . . . Glory to you, O Lord
In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of
Judea, proclaiming,

Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’*

This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he

said,

The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:

“Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” ’

Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt

around his waist,

and his food was locusts and wild honey.

Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to
him, and all the region along the Jordan,

and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan,

confessing their sins.
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But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for

baptism, he said to them,

‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath
to come?

Bear fruit worthy of repentance.

Do not presume to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as

our ancestor”;

for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up

children to Abraham.

Even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees;

every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut
down and thrown into the fire.

‘I baptize you with* water for repentance, but one who is

more powerful than I is coming after me;

I am not worthy to carry his sandals.

He will baptize you with* the Holy Spirit and fire.

His winnowing-fork is in his hand,

and he will clear his threshing-floor and will gather his wheat
into the granary;

but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.’

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The Gospel of the Lord . . . Praise to you, O Christ

Peace, Faith, Repentance

180 teenagers gather for a weeklong retreat in California.

The young people are purposefully selected from across the
state,
from a variety of religious, ethnic, social, cultural, and
economic backgrounds.
The goal is for the teens to develop new understandings
and new friendships, to build peace in community.

Such an effort doesn’t sound strange to us at all.

It happens all the time in our day and age.
Teenagers are brought together, by churches,
universities, community programs,
not only from all over the United States,
but from all over the world to grow in their understandings of
our global community.
We hear or read about such events regularly.
The above gathering, however, took place in 1955,
at the very, very beginning of the Civil Rights Movement in
this country,
the year Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus.
It was at that youth gathering,
perhaps one of the first of its kind,
in the California mountains—
two song writers, a husband and wife,
Sy Miller and Jill Jackson, were commissioned to provide
music for the event.
It was there, at that workshop, in 1955,
in the California mountains,
that people gathered in a circle, locked arms, and, for the
very first time, sang,
“Let there be peace on earth,
and let it begin with me.”
It wasn’t long before the country erupted in violence
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as the movement toward equal protection under the law for

all people began in earnest.

Long before those teenagers gathered,

the prophet Isaiah described for us, a peaceable world,
the kingdom that comes with the prince of peace.
You have seen artists’ interpretations of this text.
Pictures of peace:
a wolf standing calmly next to a lamb,
a leopard lying near a small goat,
a cow and a bear grazing together,
a lion eating hay from a manger with an ox,
an infant fearlessly holding a snake.
These pictures of peace are surreal to us,
images not be believed,
scenes impossible to imagine.
Pictures of peace.

Now, thousands of years since the Prophet Isaiah proclaimed

a peaceable kingdom to come,
over fifty years since those young people first sang,
“Let there be peace on earth”,
pictures of absolute, global peace seem as remote as ever.

Peace.
As I sat writing these words,
writing and thinking about peace,
my husband, John came in the door.
I asked him,
“When is really the only time
that you have heard people say about someone,
‘He is at peace?’”
He responded immediately . . .
“When they’re dead.”

A few minutes later,

John said, “or when we see a sleeping baby.”
It is when a person has died,
or when an infant is sleeping,
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that we look at them and say,

“She is at peace.”

Somehow it seems that when we are closest to birth,

the beginning of our lives,
or when we die,
at the end of our lives
people say we are at peace.
This may be true.
It may be true because it is at those times,
near birth and near death, when we are closest to God.
It is when we are closest to God, then, that we are at peace.

We are at peace when we are closest to God.

In the in between time,
as we live out our lives,
we wait, we hope, we long for peace.

Peace that is found, it seems at birth and at death,

when we are closest to God.
Lutherans have a word to describe our closeness to God,
our relationship with God.
We call it “faith.”

The closer we are to God, we say,

the stronger our faith.

The stronger our faith, it seems,

the more at peace we will be.

We sing:
Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.

We cannot be at peace with others

until we are at peace with ourselves.
The deeper truth is that we cannot be at peace with
ourselves
until we are at peace with God.
Why is it that we say to people who are dying:
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“It is time to make your peace with God.”

Making peace with God to get ready to die is one thing.
Making peace with God to get ready to live is another.

How do we make peace with God?

the peace we need to live?
John the Baptist, in today’s Gospel tells us exactly where to
begin in our quest for peace.
In this season of Advent,
we are looking forward to Christmas.
We expect stories about fluffy angels and starry skies,
woolly sheep, a tiny baby, a silent night.
What do we hear from John the Baptist?
“Repent you brood of vipers!
The ax is lying at the root of the trees.
The chaff is thrown into the unquenchable fire.
Bear fruit worthy of repentance!”
Welcome, once again, to Advent.
Welcome, once again, to the Gospel according to St.
Matthew.

Matthew’s John the Baptist calls us to repentance.

Advent is similar in its focus to the season of Lent,
a time of repentance and reflection.
We’re not as good at this sort of focus in Advent as we are
during Lent.
We want to jump ahead,
to sing Christmas carols,
to put that baby in the manger,
to ring the bells and light the tree.
We are reminded on this second Sunday of Advent
that it is not yet time,
that there is work to be done.
Not work that is necessary for our salvation,
but work that will bring us the peace that comes from faith,
that grows from our relationship with God who redeems us.
It is the work of repentance.

What is the work of repentance?

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The word repent means to “turn around.”

To repent, to turn away from sin, to turn toward God.
Repentance calls us to name our sin,
to seek forgiveness,
to make things right with those who have suffered as a
result of our sin,
to vow to turn from our sinful ways.
Repentance will bring us faith,
will bring us into closer relationship with God.
Repentance will bring us peace.

Why does John the Baptist call us to repentance during this

season of Advent?
Why, when we long to hear only of Isaiah’s peaceable
kingdom,
are we hearing fire and brimstone from this prophet in
Matthew?
Why?
Because the prophet knows that it is through repentance
that we will find faith, that we will find peace.
It is through repentance that we will come closer to God.

When repentance brings faith that brings peace we will

know.
For when repentance brings faith that brings peace
a mother will be standing calmly next to a rebellious son,
a father will be sitting near a sleeping child attending to his
needs,
an adult brother and sister will be having lunch together for
the first time in a long time.
When repentance brings faith that brings peace we will know
—
a community of faith will come together to the table in
harmony of purpose,
focused on God’s work.
The people will come in peace with one another.
When repentance brings faith that brings peace,
world leaders will fearlessly shake hands,
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sit at the table together and work together toward genuine

global peace.
Real pictures of peace,
images to be believed,
scenes possible to imagine
when the prince of peace comes.
Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.
Amen