Advent week 2

Psalm: Luke 1:68-79

Old Testament: Malachi 3:1-4
Gospel: Luke 3:1-6
Epistle: Philippians 1:3-11

Welcome to the second week of Advent.  It finally feels like winter over here and we are both freezing when we go outside.  Still no snow, though.  Last week, we explored the idea of waiting during this Advent season.  I ended with the statement that we are not just to wait quietly and passively for Jesus’ return, but we are to serve God and be about his business.  So this week, I want to explore the idea of preparation.  As we wait, we are to be preparing the way of the Lord.

It is a bit humbling to think that the God of the universe needs someone to prepare his way, yet that is just the case.  In our reading from Malachi, Malachi prophesies concerning one who would prepare the way before the Lord.  It is interesting that even though there is a messenger to prepare the way of the Lord, he comes as a refiner and a laundryman’s soap to do even more purifying.  Malachi reminds us that the Lord is holy and requires a holy people.  Even when we think we have God figured out and think we are ok, there is always more room to grow.  As a side note, Malachi means ‘messenger’ in Hebrew.  I found it interesting that Malachi writes, “I am sending my Malachi to prepare the way.”  I just have to imagine that he envisioned himself in some sense as part of that preparation for the Messiah to come.  We must remember that Malachi was the last prophet of the Old Testament and after him there was over 400 years of silence before John the Baptist.  Which brings us to our readings from Luke.

There are 2 readings from Luke this week because 1:68-79 acts as our Psalm.  This passage is the Song of Zechariah, John the Baptist’s father.  One thing I picked up on was verse 73, which says God will remember his oath which he swore to Abraham.  God swore to Abraham that he would make him a great and large nation.  This had been accomplished and Israel had been a great nation.  Yet, through its disobedience, it had been exiled and went through 400 years of silence.  So, in a sense, this is about the restoration of Israel as God’s people.  But, God’s oath to Abraham also said that through Abraham and his descendants, all the families of the earth would be blessed. (Gen. 12:3) This hadn’t really happened yet.  Perhaps Israel tried, but they weren’t really successful in this department.  So I think Zechariah’ Song is a reminder of this promise and a hint that God is about to do something to bless all the earth.  I wish we had time to explore Zechariah’s and Elizabeth’s story because it so fascinating, but we have to move on.

In Luke 3, we have a little bit of the fruition of Zechariah’s Song because his son John begins to preach and prepare the way for the Messiah to come.  Zechariah knew his son was going to be someone special; he had been told so by God.  And now in John’s preaching, he is acutely aware that the time has come when God was going to begin a new work in Israel.  John got the message of Malachi.  He knew the Messiah needed someone to prepare the way for his coming.  The Messiah wasn’t just supposed to show up and say “here I am.”  John had already begun to work and call people to repentance.  He had already begun to soften people’s spirit so they were aware of their need of repentance and ready to accept God when he came to them.

Like I said earlier, it is a humbling thought that God would need us to prepare anything for him.  Yet, if I can do a substitution for our Epistle reading, and I think I can, 2 Cor. 5: 18-21 reads:

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

God has given to us the ministry of reconciling the world to himself.  How incredible.  It is almost incomprehensible that we, and I mean myself and each one of us, are called to be ambassadors of Christ’s Kingdom here on this earth.  If we follow the analogy, then that means Christ has no presence here on earth outside us.  I think this image is prevalent throughout the New Testament.  The Church is called Jesus’ body, so, how is Jesus present outside his body?  He needs his church to do his work.  It is scary, it is humbling, and it is motivating all at the same time.  This week, I think the exhortation is simple: are we being ambassador’s for Christ’s Kingdom?  Are we preparing the way for Christ, through his Spirit, to come into someone’s life? Or are we even preparing the way for his second coming, whatever that means?  I don’t know how we can truly prepare anything for the God of all creation, yet God has deemed that he will work in partnership with us.  So let’s keep up our end and work in obedience to him by his Spirit because we know God will always keep up his end of the agreement.

Grace and Peace.[1]

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[1] Stain glass window from Cathédrale Saint-Etienne de Bourges in France of Elizabeth and Zechariah.