ADVENT 2:

Matthew 3: 1-12

Romans 15: 4-13 (Sermon 1: “Hope is a Choice”)

Isaiah 11: 1-10 (Sermon 2: “Better than Justice”)

Psalm 72: 1-7,18,19.

PREPARATION

On this second Sunday in Advent I greet you:

The Lord be with you.

And also with you!

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing,

so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

The theme for today is anticipating big outcomes.

Something wonderful is going to happen soon.

But these big outcomes will only be realised

through making hard choices.

There is a voice crying in the wilderness of daily life:

Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Prepare a way for the Lord,

make the paths straight for him.

OR -

This is the Second Sunday in Advent.

Get ready for the coming joy.

There is a voice crying in the wilderness;

“Prepare the way of the Lord,

make the paths straight for him.”

On the mountains there will be plentiful grace,

and peace shall prosper on the hillsides.

He shall defend the poor, defenceless people,

deliver the needy and crush the oppressor.

Let them worship him as long as sun and moon endure,

and love him throughout all generations!

PRAYER

God our holy Friend, hope and joy are prepared for those who love you. You sent your prophet John to prepare the way for the coming of your Son, our Saviour. By your Spirit, please make ready our lives, that by our worship and service we may open up paths for the celebration of his coming. Through us, and through those of like spirit, may his liberating love penetrate the world around us. In your name and to your glory.

Amen!

CONFESSION AND FORGIVENESS

Let us put aside the masks we wear in front of the world, and be honest to God.

Let us pray.

Because we are often blind to God’s ways; Lord have mercy.

Lord have mercy.

Because are often stubborn and unteachable; Christ have mercy.

Christ have mercy.

Because God’s love is greater than all our sins; Lord have mercy.

Lord have mercy.

Merciful God, we do not pretend to be either better or worse than other people. But because you have shown us true humanity in Jesus, we are especially conscious of how far we fall short of the real thing.

We do not pretend to be either wiser or more foolish than others, but because you have

shown us a new wisdom in Jesus, we are keenly aware that we fall far short of the real thing.

We do not pretend to be more worthy of your forgiveness and help than others, but because you have shown us universal love in Jesus, we come to you seeking the real thing.

Loving God, please continue to forgive our sins and heal the rifts in our human nature.

Set us free to be a buoyant and merciful people wherever we go and with whoever we meet.

Through Christ Jesus our Saviour .

Amen!

FORGIVENESS

God’s messenger said to Joseph: “You shall call the child’s name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.”

It is in the name of Jesus, the Saviour, that I declare to you the mercy of God. In the kingdom of heaven your sins are forgiven and will never be counted against you. Be at peace with God and with your neighbours.

Amen!

PRAYER FOR CHILDREN

Wonderful God, thank you for loving us,

not just when we are sweet and cuddly,

but also when we are sour and prickly.

Please help us to get rid of the sour and prickly bits,

and to start getting our thoughts and feelings ready

to celebrate the birthday of Jesus,

whose love belongs to everyone.

Amen!

PSALM 72:1-7 & 18-19

Fill the new King with understanding, God,

your humble Christ with your grace,

that he may serve your people with justice

and rule in favour of the poor.

Let peace flow from mount to mount,

and justice from hill to hill,

as he comes to save the abused child

and to crush those who oppress the weak.

As long as the sun and the moon remain

Christ will enlighten age after age.

He will come us freely as the rain

falling on the dry and dusty land.

Under him integrity will shine

and peace outlast the moon.

His realm shall stretch from sea to sea,

to the end of the river of time.

Awesome is God, our loving God,

who alone does wonderful things!

Awesome forever is God’s glorious name;

the universe overflows with glory!

© B.D. Prewer 1994

(an alternative version is found in

‘More Australian Psalms’ page 128)

Ó Open Book Publishers

email: enquiries@openbook.com.au

JOHN’S MESSAGE

Matthew 3: 1-12

Living out in the wilderness,

wearing a hair shirt,

not willing to compromise

or sell God short.

The time has come; Repent!

The axe goes to the roots!

Change, change, radical change,

not religious rites!

It’s not enough to feel sorry

and shed religious tears,

repentance must dig deep,

uprooting the tares.

Don’t listen to the excuses

of ego taking fright.

It’s time to face the hard truth

and bear some desert fruit.

John cleans up for the Advent,

baptising deep down,

hungry for the new age,

eager for the dawn.

Ó B D Prewer 98

COLLECT.

Most loving God, jealous for our happiness, you cannot bear to see us self-destruct. Please, in your relentless love, send us tough prophets like John the Baptist. Call us to repentance. Give us a divine discontent with all that is religiously shallow or secularly second-rate. Prepare us to suffer the pain of honest self knowledge. Let us recognise our deepest needs, and immerse ourselves in your grace, not expecting an easy fix but the costly joy of salvation. Through Christ our Saviour.

Amen.

SERMON 1: HOPE IS A CHOICE

Romans 15: 13

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing,

so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

The second Sunday of Advent offers us a gift.

It is called hope. Hope. Yes hope!

Decisions. Hope or anxiety, which is it to be for you and me?

In our daily lives? Hope or anxiety?

A CALAMITOUS FUTURE?

While I was preparing for this Sunday, I was in the process of reading “Killing Time” by Caleb Carr. The thriller is set in the year 2023. Much closer to our time than many such projections by science fiction writers. [Later note; as I edit this in 2010, some of Carr’s thoughts almost seem prophetic.]

The world represented in this story is a grim one. The spread of the so called “information technology” and especially the dominance of the internet for all information, has changed everything. Control of the net has been taken over by a few mega-rich players who basically rule the world. The masses are fed information but not knowledge, convincing stories but not truth.

The story starts in the year 2006 as the world is hit with a staphylococcus plague which wipes out over 40 million people. Then in the next year, 2007, Wall Street has a calamitous crash, plunging economies around the world into ruin. The President of the USA is assassinated by a Chinese agent in 2018, and in 2021 a devastating E coli outbreak puts meat off the menu everywhere.

For hundreds of miles off shore, the oceans are a revolting brown soup of human waste products. Further out, the seas are a little cleaner but there are no longer any fish or other creatures of the deep.

This not-so-distant future is thus depicted as dismal to the extreme. It is one which none of us would want to inherit. Certainly we would not wish it on even the grandchildren of our enemies.

Anxiety? Plenty of resource material to create anxiety and fear in that grim scenario!

A ROSY FUTURE?

On the other hand, we have some smiling futurologists.

These are the people who have made a profession out of analysing present trends, considering the most likely future developments, and advising big business. Evidently they make a handsome living out of it.

Almost without exception, these professionals seem to be optimists. They see the future as a brave new world. Everything will be okay. No! Much better than okay! It will be an era where science and technology will overcome all obstacles and things will always be on roll for humanity. It will be a mighty voyage of progress upon progress.

The main thing, as they see it, is to be pre-resourced and ready to make the most of that future. Making the most of it means making big dollars. Steering one’s course around the obstacles and cashing in big time.

Their optimism is almost infectious. But as one of my sons pointed out, they have to be optimists otherwise big business would not hire them. Literally, they cannot afford to be gloomy.

THE CHOICE IS OURS

So who is closer to the truth? The gloomier depictions such as those in Caleb Carr’s story, or the bouncing enthusiasm of the futurologists?

You may be tempted to say that it all depends on one’s genes. If we have inherited the genes that make one hopeful, we will enjoy the futurologists and see the future through rose coloured glasses.. If the genes of gloom are our lot, then we will see things through smoked glasses.

If you are tempted by the genes rule hypothesis, please don’t yield. We are much more than being slaves of our genes. We have marked degree of choice. Free will. We can choose how we will see the future.

BIBLICAL HOPE

This brings me to the Bible and hope:

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing,

so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

Hope is the gift of God through Christ Jesus. You can accept it and be committed to it by thought, prayer, word and deed, or you can reject it.

Just as the person with kindly genes can nevertheless choose to live cynically and greedily, plundering and despoiling the unfolding future,

so also the person with the less kindly genes can chose to live hopefully and lovingly, and by so living, help create a future that is better than may have seemed likely had they allowed their genetic predisposition to rule them.

This is not mere pitiful, pious prattling by a preacher with an easy life. I am one of those who have received some of those unkindly genes. But I’ll be damned if I will be ruled by them! (Correction, I’ll be damned if I do let myself be ruled by them!)

Living by hope, placing our confidence in God’s irrepressible grace, is a gift most precious and most powerful when treasured common human hands.

JESUS IS OUR FUTURE

From the point of view of our faith, the Christian knows what the shape of the future will be finally like.

I have no crystal ball. All I would see in one is my own face. (These days that would give me no cause for bouncy enthusiasm!)

Yet we have something far better than a crystal ball. We have hope. Our hope is in Jesus. Jesus is our future. Not only ours, but of the world. He will always be the future of this world. His whole life, his values, his compassion, his saving love, is the shape of the ultimate future. All that he was and is, is what will finally carry the day.

As for the year 2023, I don’t know what the world of that era will be like. But I do know Christ will be there. By his grace, so will his followers be, bringing faith and love to bear on situations of either hardship and prosperity.

As for the year 2023, I don’t even know what the shape of the Church will be like. But I do know Christ will be there, feeding his people and nourishing hope and joy.

In all this, you and I must choose. We must choose again and again. And then put our choice into action... If it’s just a religious theory, it’s useless; just pious balderdash! Hope is not real unless it is lived.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing,

so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

The second Sunday of Advent proclaims to us the gift of joyful hope in the Christ who came, who comes, and who will finally consummate all things.

The choice is ours.

Over a decade ago I published a prayer for the new millennium:

Lord Jesus, you come like a genius far ahead of his time.

You come as a miracle, not breaking the laws of nature

but fulfilling them.

You are the future towards which the Spirit draws us,

the salvation offered to all humanity,

the joy exceeding all exciting pleasures,

the destiny which was prepared for us

before the foundation of the world.

You come as the humble Perfection outside our grasp

yet graciously within our reach.

You are the Beauty that is to come;

the Beauty that calls us into that most natural

of all miracles: the ministry of love!

O God’s unique Genius, we welcome you

as Saviour, Friend and Lord.

Amen!

SERMON 2: BETTER THAN JUSTICE

Isaiah 11: 1-9

The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,

and the leopard shall lie down with the kid............

the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of God

as the waters cover the sea.

Are you ready to jump out of your skin with hope?

Isaiah gives us a breathtaking view of a world where shalom ,God’s peace, has conquered all. Shalom is not the mere absence of conflict (although in this world such would be a remarkable blessing) but the total, harmonious, well-being and fulfilment of societies and individuals.

[Isaiah does not actually use the word shalom in this passage, yet these verses are arguably the greatest expression of shalom in the Old Testament]

Isaiah’s vision of what was to come is breathtaking. Familiarity has not lessened its impact on my being; I can never read it without being moved. Isaiah sees God’s reconciliation embracing the whole of creation. Even the animals, both domestic and wild, are caught up in the new world harmony.

The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,

and the leopard shall lie down with the kid,

and the calf and the lion and the yearling together,

and a little child shall lead them.

The cow and the bear shall feed side by side,

their young shall lie down together;

and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

The suckling child shall play over the hole of the cobra,

and the weaned child shall put his hand in the adder’s den.

They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain;

for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord

as the waters cover the sea.

Such peace, such reconciliation and fulfilment, will come through a new kind of person and a new version of justice. It will come through the arrival of a most remarkable person, a member of the family tree of Jesse and king David.

There shall grow from the stump of Jesse a new shoot,

a new branch shall spring from old roots.

Isaiah puts his hope in this new shoot from the family tree of Jesse.

SOCIAL JUSTICE IN OUR ERA

Over the last 50 years much has been spoken and written about social justice. Both in the secular world and from within the church; about the rights all each person. For that I am grateful. I am glad that some progress has been made in achieving a degree of justice for some of those who have been badly treated. I rejoice that so many Christians have been at the front in pursuing social justice. Some of the victories in have been large; most have been small. There is still a long, long way to go.

Always these victories have been won at a cost, both to the victims and to those who stood with them in the struggle for a fair go. In some churches the struggle has caused pain and division, as in the movement for the right of women to become ordained ministers and priests.

The world still has a long way to go before there are equal opportunities, a just sharing of the earth’s resources, the end of racism and sexism, the removal of all oppression and exploitation, the end of child labour and child prostitution , the banning of imprisonment without trial and of widespread torture of political detainees; and so on.

However, even if we did achieve the full aims of social justice for all, we would still fall far short of the kind of justice implied in Isaiah’s shalom.

Isaiah looked for, and proclaimed, a new kind of human being and a new kind of justice. It is a justice which is more than justice. The transformation of the world would come through God’s action in and through a unique individual--- the new branch on the family tree of Jesse.

And the Spirit of God shall rest upon him,

the spirit of wisdom and understanding,

the spirit of good counsel and strength,

the spirit of knowledge and awe for God.

His delight shall be in the awe of God.

And then comes the crunch:

He shall not judge by what his eyes see,

or decide by what his ears hear.

We do! We do make superficial judgements. We are fond of saying: “We saw it with our own eyes!” or “We heard them say it.” In our social justice efforts, we are still limited to the criteria of the world: we judge by what we see and hear.

God’s new human being will go far deeper.. The shoot from the stump of Jesse will not deal with surface issues, nor use the world’s criteria. He will introduce a deeper level of righteousness, a new kind of equity, a novel version of a fair go. There will be a radical change.

JESUS: THE PERSON WHO DISPENSES ‘BETTER-THAN-JUSTICE’

Jesus came among us as that unique Person who did not judge by what his eyes saw nor decide by what his ears heard. He was on about more that justice, better than justice.

He saw Simon Peter, a bumptious and fickle character, and told him he was going to be a rock of faith.

He saw an agent from the hated Roman authorities, Zacchaeus the tax collector, and with a justice beyond justice, Jesus went to dinner with him.

Jesus saw a woman at his feet, and heard her accusers declare that she had been seized in the act of adultery. He saw a person who needed some true love, and sent her on her way as a forgiven person.

Others, even his own disciples, saw tough street children as a nuisance. He saw them as signs of the kingdom of God, and placed his hands on them in blessing.

The Jewish nationalists around Jesus saw Roman soldiers as scum, but Jesus said if a soldier makes your carry his gear for a mile, be generous and willingly go a second mile.

Jew, Roman and Greek, all saw a cross as the ultimate shame and most cruel defeat. But he saw it as a way of redeeming love.

This brand new way of seeing and living, this unique life style that is Jesus’ thing, is the way of grace. Free grace is God’s version of justice. Grace is Divine generosity, abundant as a cup that is full and running over. Jesus was not content that people treat each other with what we Aussies call “a fair go,” he offered much more than a fair go. Grace overflows with goodwill.

Jesus does not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear. He pours himself out in love for humanity, neither knowing nor calculating when to stop.

THE WAY WE MUST GO

As Christians, we are called to share in this “better-than-justice” mission to the world.

As we set about it, please write the following comment in your mind and heart:

The justice of Christ is never—I repeat, never—less than common justice. Grace is not some patronising compassion, offering people less than strict justice.

We are called to emulate the Divine generosity, to be agents of abundant grace; to be merciful even as our heavenly Father is merciful. We are those whose mission is to go beyond what their eyes see and what their ears hear.

We are to be like the Father who welcomes home the prodigal son, even though that son had squandred any rights he once had.

We are to be like the Good Samaritan who puts himself at risk in order to help a wounded stranger by the roadside.

We are to be like the generous host who invites to his dinner parties, not those who can return the honour, but those who cannot repay him.

We are to be like Jesus, forgiving his enemies even when they have abused him, and nailed him to a torture stake.

Common justice is not sufficient.

CONCLUSION

The ‘grace of our Lord Jesus Christ” is radical. Grace is something new. Grace is pure gift . This free, healing grace can finally lead us to the fulfilment of the brilliant vision of Isaiah:

The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,

and the leopard shall lie down with the kid,

and the calf and the lion and the yearling together,

and a little child shall lead them.

The cow and the bear shall feed side by side,

their young shall lie down together;

and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

The suckling child shall play over the hole of the cobra,

and the weaned child shall put his hand in the adder’s den.

They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain;

for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord

as the waters cover the sea.

THANKSGIVING