A sermon preached at Croydon Minster at the Service of Words and Music for Advent on the Second Sunday of Advent. Gospel Luke 1.5-25
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‘Prepare
the way of the Lord. ‘
That
is the title of this service of words and music for this great season of
Advent.
It
is also the opening message of St Mark’s gospel when the evangelist has
announced ‘The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.’
(Mark 1.1).
Having
made that wonderful statement, Mark goes on to quote Isaiah to say that a
messenger is being sent ‘who will prepare your way’ (1.2) and that a voice will
cry out in the wilderness ‘Prepare the way of the Lord’ (1.3).
Advent
is a time of preparation, of clearing out distractions, being ready, alert so
that the Lord’s way may be prepared.
It
calls for you and me to have a posture of
preparation. So what’s your Advent posture of preparation?
Is
it the preparation of the athlete: on your marks, get set…?
Is
it the preparation of the artist: with the canvas tight, with paint on the
brush ready to make the first strokes?
Is
it the posture of the musician, the violinist with bow poised above the
strings, or singer having taken a breath, ready for the conductor’s hands to
summons the music from you?
That
moment before the starting gun, before the paint is smeared on the canvas,
before the conductor’s baton moves – that is Advent, a moment held over these
four weeks, and it’s a moment of expectation of what is to come, or rather Who
is to come.
We
stand, as the poet Malcolm Guite reminds us, between two comings: the coming of
Christ as incarnate, Word made flesh, born in Bethlehem and the coming of
Christ in glory at the consummation of all things.
Preparation,
expectation, attention, waiting, yearning is our response to God’s initiative
to come amongst us.
This
church of all churches, dedicated as we are to St John the Baptist, should be
imbued with Advent character: expectant, attentive, prepared and proclaiming.
John
is an intricate and complex character, born of the priestly line, and therefore
by heredity a priest, and yet also standing clearly in the tradition of the
prophets.
The
priest offers sacrifice to God for the people; the prophet represents the voice
and vision of God back to the people.
Priesthood
and prophecy are not at odds: Isaiah’s own call came in the Temple as the
presence of God, in incense, filled the house. Likewise, Jeremiah was a prophet
born from a priestly line and yet called to be a prophet too.
‘Prepare
the way of the Lord’ is a prophet’s cry; receiving and making present the Lord
is the priestly task.
It’s
in the Temple that Zechariah encounters Gabriel, the archangel, like the
prophets before him, telling him of the birth of the one who will prepare the
way of the Lord out in the wilderness. Zechariah, husband of Elizabeth, is John
the Baptist’s father. This news struck Zechariah dumb!
After
John’s birth Zechariah rejoiced and burst into song.
Usually
in the evening at Evensong we hear the Song of Mary and of Simeon, the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis. Tonight, this service will close with a canticle
usually associated with the morning, the Benedictus,
the Song of Zechariah, which speaks of preparation and what is to come:
And you, child,
shall be called the prophet of the Most High,
for you will go
before the Lord to prepare his way,
To give his
people knowledge of salvation
by the forgiveness
of all their sins.
In the tender
compassion of our God
the dawn from
on high shall break upon us,
To shine on
those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death,
and to guide
our feet into the way of peace. (Luke 2.7-10)
May
we be prepared to meet the one who comes.
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