Sunday 08/12/24

Second Sunday of Advent           

 Luke 3:1-6    Malachi 3:1-4

Today our focus is the prophets.  We may remember the so-called Major Prophets, like Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, but the other prophets, like Malachi, should not be overlooked.  The latter offer a complementary perspective of what God is telling his people.  What about the role of the prophet?  Prophets speak as they are led by God.  Although they might speak of the dramatic intervention of God in historical events in all periods, their messages were more common in the time after an exile.  Perhaps that has something to do with the condition of the people who needed intervention and transformation of their conditions.  Some of the prophecies are about the end time but others are of more immediate concern or possibly both.  In Malachi we find words about God’s reliability – with a call to repentance and returning to God.  Its final words about Elijah as messenger are interpreted in the Gospels and in Christian tradition they foreshadow Jesus as the Messiah, the Christ.  In today’s passage from chapter 3, Malachi announces ‘the messenger of the covenant – he is coming, says the Lord of hosts’.  Then it continues with a promise of ‘sorting out the situation’, as it were.  I find verse 6 very interesting: ‘I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, have not perished.’  In other words, God is reliable; he can always be counted on to welcome his people back.  It is his steadfastness that has saved them.  Like in chapter 4, verse 2: ‘But for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings.’ 

Today, when we are reminded of the prophets in an ancient world, telling the story of the new age that is to come with announcements of the Saviour, we do so against the backdrop of the present time, with lots of disasters and rumblings of them.  That may make us wonder about the message for today.  In Luke’s Gospel, we hear another announcement, echoing one from the book of the prophet Isaiah: ‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’  John the Baptist quoting from the prophet Isaiah, as he proclaims a baptism of repentance.  The Gospel writer, Luke, sets the events in historical context, with the names of the rulers of the day, under the Roman Emperor.  The nation was oppressed, under foreign rule.  Resistance movements had been crushed and people were struggling.  What they did have, however, was the prophecies of the past, promising a time of renewal and hope.   Those clinging to that hope, didn’t really know what it would look like, but John’s ministry at the Jordan made them interested.  It had echoes of the Exodus, the famous moment when God led his people out of slavery in Egypt and into the Promised Land.  How could they now escape their new slavery – their oppression – and which the old prophets had declared was the result of Israel’s sin, worshipping idols rather than their true God.  The baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins that John was proclaiming, was a way to escape their condition.  As the prophets had said, the people had to ‘return to God with heart and soul’ which is what ‘repentance’ means: to turn around.

John was preparing the way for the Lord, according to the prophet Isaiah, in the act of restoring the people to God.  Just like the words of the prophet Malachi.  God was going to act, in a totally new way, for the deliverance of the people, including the rest of the world, as all of humanity was in peril. 

We know what happened later: Jesus was born and performed his ministry of healing and reconciliation, culminating by his ‘enthronement’ on the cross and his resurrection.  We are now in between that moment and Jesus’ return in glory. 

We have been given the hope of rebirth in Jesus through faith, and also the hope of God’s action in the future.  His kingdom is here and not yet.  We are living within the tension of holding on to the promise in the future, because we have already received it in the past.  The season of Advent reminds us of that.  And so we wait and we watch, for God to act in the next phase of his rescue plan. 

Advent is the time of watching and waiting for the Lord God to be with his people. 

The prophets had proclaimed the preparing of the way for the Lord.  But, as with any journey, it begins with the first step.  God has made his.  So how are we going to respond?  May we do so with faith and a new understanding of his love for us; a love that is never changing, even if undeserved.  Amen.