2023 12
10 ADVENT 2B
Isaiah
40:1-11 • Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13 • 2
Peter 3:8-15a • Mark 1:1-8
The second Sunday in Advent we light the candle of
Peace. As we light it this year, we do
so acutely aware of a lack of peace in the world, which can’t help but beg the
question; Where is the Peace that the Angels proclaimed at Jesus’ birth?
In our Psalm we find the famous imagery of
Righteousness and Peace kissing. In the medieval
period there were many great art works depicting Justice and Peace
kissing. Often, they were depicted as
two women embracing. The image, so
capturing the imaginations, does little to capture the magnitude of what is
implied in the text that we read today.
Psalm 85:10 and 11, in one Biblical translation reads;
“Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet; righteousness and peace will kiss
each other. Faithfulness will spring up
from the ground, and righteousness will look down from the sky.” What does that mean and what is it saying to
you?
In other versions, Love is translated as mercy and
righteousness is translated as Justice.
Faithfulness is commonly translated as “Truth”. Do these subtle word changes help in
understanding what is being proclaimed in this Psalm or do we just enjoy the
wash of imaginative language? It is a beautiful
imagery where it seems all is in harmony!
and even in our limited understanding we can sense the promise of
something wonderful that is to come. And
in this we sense the spirit of Christmas.
I decided to have a look at the Orthodox Jewish
version which says this:
Chesed (true loving kindness) and emes (truth) will meet together;
tzedek (justice) and shalom (peace) will kiss each other. Emes (Truth) shall titzmach (sprout)…
and this is where the
translation gets important. In the
Orthodox Jewish version there is a commentary in brackets that explains that
the word titzmach (sprout), while being used as a verb in this context, is also
the understood code name for the Messiah and indicating the role of the coming
Yeshua - Jesus. Due to this psalm being
written when the Israelites were under Persian rule, this prophecy about a
coming King needed to be disguised from the rulers, but understood by the
people.
Another commentary
explains that the word translated as “kissing” is also a little misleading, as
the actual word – nasaqu (?) has several translations, including “Kiss”,
“fight” and “fought against each other”.
It is a dynamic type of contact – not unlike when we battle within
ourselves over some choice we need to make.
This makes a lot of
sense when we think about the aspects of Justice and Peace, Mercy and truth. Justice demands accountability and
restitution. Whereas Mercy, or loving kindness, overlooks wrongs and forgives,
and Peace is a state without any angst where all is in order.
Truth is an
absolute. Regardless of popular opinion
about truth being relative and each of us having our own truth, the Biblical
understanding is that truth is a definitive… and plumbline…. And it sprouts… or,
it is what Jesus is. He himself said, “I
am the life, the truth and the way”. The
way to what? The Father. “No one comes to the father except through
him… an absolute.
Love and truth,
Justice and Peace. We need to understand
that these traits, personified in the great artworks and in scripture, are not
simply personified to be beautiful images for inspiring art, but they are deliberately
personified because they each describe a person who embodies all of them
perfectly – Jesus the Messiah.
In Jesus, the truth
and justice of God knew that we had all at some time turned away from God and
Justice and truth demanded that mankind be held accountable for this sin – for the
turning away from God. The Mercy, and
loving kindness of God, had compassion on mankind and said, I will become
mankind and make restitution for them.
Justice and truth were satisfied, and through mercy, Jesus brought about
the situation, such that we could be in a condition of Peace – Shalom – Not
just our understanding of peace, but peace where all is in the order and
harmony in which God created all to be.
Truly this is the Good News and the core and foundation of our
faith. This is why the Angels
proclaimed, ““Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those
on whom his favour rests.”
Now that we understand
what Jesus has done for us, we can understand why God tells Isaiah to cry out
to the people, “Comfort, comfort my people”… the mercy and love of God, longed
to have us in a “right relationship” with the himself, but Justice demanded
accountability – The prophet proclaims that a saviour is coming and recompense
is with him – A harsh word…. Because
Jesus had a harsh job to do… but Jesus is our good shepherd and his care for us
is loving and protecting.
Before the Messiah was
to come, there came the voice of one crying in the wilderness, “Prepare the way
of the Lord”. This voice came from John
the Baptist who proclaimed a baptism of repentance.
Baptism was not
something invented by John and then unique to the Christian church. The Jewish people were very familiar with
baptism and they used it for their converts and also for those entering a new
direction in their lives - very much involving God in the process. It was symbolic of washing away the old and
beginning on something new. We talk
about the ONE baptism for the forgiveness of sins…. And there IS only one
baptism for the forgiveness of sins, but baptism in John’s time was an
understood ritual. The one baptism for
the forgiveness of sins, was the baptism of Jesus as he was baptised with the
sins of the world…. And being emersed in, and taking on the entirety of that
sin, he made restitution.
John’s baptism was a
call to repentance. What do you suppose
that meant? To repent means to change
your mind. The call was for the people
to turn back to God. These WERE God’s
people, but in their business of life, much like ours, sometimes they became
caught up in other things…. Or maybe they had some emotional hurt that kept
them bitter and not practising God’s ways.
Perhaps it was mere selfishness with a desire to live in their own
delights and comforts…. Afterall, we are
all primarily concerned about our own comfort – it is only natural, and it can
be all too easy to simply forget about God.
For all these things, and
the fact that God the Son was about to make His entrance, there came a voice in
the wilderness that proclaimed that the coming of God’s kingdom was near and it
was time to prepare by repenting and being baptised – setting into motion a new
course in life.
As we celebrate the
season of ADVENT, we call to mind the promises of the prophecy in Isaiah. It wasn’t just for the first coming of the
Messiah, but also proclaiming the second coming. We still wait for that second coming and the
ultimate fulfilment of the prophecy, and we understand, as our message from St.
Peter tells us, that with God a thousand years is like a single day… etc…, but we
still need a voice proclaiming the message of St. John. Who is now, the voice that is crying out in
the wilderness? Where is it, and what is
the message of that voice?
The message is always the
same; “Prepare the way of the Lord”!
“Repent and be baptised”, but now although we remember and listen for
that voice, we are called to BE that voice.
We are John. John means “Graced by God”. We are those who have received God’s grace
and we need to be the voice declaring that God is near. God’s Kingdom IS near! Not just because Jesus is coming again, but
because God lives in you and me. For
each of us, we do not know when we will meet Jesus. Regardless of whether Jesus’ second coming is
today, tomorrow or years away, we need to be people who are always prepared,
and a people who are a voice of hope in this crazy wilderness of brokenness and
hurt, varied opinions and opposing ideologies.
A voice that declares God’s message and encourages people to repent –
ie. Change their thinking and turn back to God.
Saint Peter tells us that the day of the Lord will come like a
thief, and the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will
be dissolved with fire. It is a world of
trouble. When we face our world of great
trouble, we ought to be so trusting of our God who loves us, that these things
do not shake us. We should not be
troubled and despairing. We have been
told the end of the story…. Christ will come and His reign will be one of
Justice and Peace.
We are living in troubled times, but the Kingdom of God is near….
And remember, He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world. AND that right there, is the challenge,
because, I don’t know about you, but I can get seriously distraught over the
tiniest of things. So today, this
message is like a serious lesson to myself.
This Advent, let’s prepare ourselves to be ever prepared to meet
our Lord, by remembering that he is closer than a heartbeat in all our
troubles. He is the King of Kings, the
Prince of Peace ….and we have ultimate Peace with God, not because of our own
righteousness, but because with the sprout or branch for Jesse – ie Jesus - Justice and Peace “kiss” – Justice, truth, and
love are in harmony and there is Peace because of the work that Jesus
accomplished. Today we remember, we
rejoice and we give thanks to God.
Today, we recognise we have become John… a recipient of God’s Grace and
a proclaimer of the Good News that we know by heart…. We, the church of God, are a voice in the
wilderness, declaring the word of the Lord, as we point the chaotic world towards
a beacon of hope and the bringer of Peace.
Prepare the way of the Lord.
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