Homily for
The Second Sunday in Advent
Sunday 4 December 2016
The Episcopal Church of the Holy Cross
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
A Parish of the Diocese of Bethlehem and The Episcopal Church
Readings:
The prophet Isaiah speaks of the coming of
a shoot that shall grow out from the stump of Jesse. The prophetic message is the hopeful one that
promises that a new David is coming.
Isaiah explains why the anticipation of this Son of David is such a
wonderful thing. When this one comes,
says the prophet, the Spirit of God will rest and remain upon this one. And when this happens, the Son of David will
be filled with the Holy Spirit, and will act accordingly. By his words and deeds, he will show himself,
to quote Isaiah, as one blessed with “the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the
Lord;” whose “delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.”
Isaiah goes on to describe how this Son of David,
this one filled with the gifts of the Spirit, will look and act. And what a wonderful vision it is that he
rolls out before us! As Christians we
find great beauty in this because we immediately jump ahead from Isaiah to
Matthew and Luke. There is little doubt
in the mind of Christians that clearly here Isaiah is speaking of none other
than Jesus of Nazareth, Son of God, Son of David. And when we read Isaiah again expecting to
encounter Jesus in the Scriptures, as he assures in the Gospel will happen, it
seems crystal clear that we are hearing a description of Jesus. How else can words like “He shall not judge
by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear” or “with righteousness
he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth” and
“righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt
around his loins” be understood?
Only remember from the Epistle for today
that the Apostle Paul has something to say to us along these lines. In that portion of Romans which we have heard,
we are reminded that the Christian ought to look, sound and act like the
Christ! Jesus lived among us as a model
of what godly living looks like. His
presence is intended to inspire us to aspire to live in such a way that we
reflect Jesus Christ to the world. This
is a reminder then, my friends, that we are loved in order that we might love,
that we are blessed in order that we might be made a blessing, that we receive
the gifts of God, including the gifts of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, in
order that we might never be emptied-handed not so much for ourselves, but for
the sake of those in our midst who like us need the abundance of the blessing,
grace and mercy that God alone can provide.
Now go back to the prophet Isaiah with
me. Remembering that we are called to
mirror Christ to the world, the words of the prophet ought to sound forth in
our ears not only as words of the Christ but of the Christian also. In baptism, we have been clothed in Christ
and anointed by the Holy Spirit. We are
a people who have been blessed with the gifts of the Spirit of God. And each and every time we receive the Bread
of Heaven and the Cup of Salvation, the true and precious Body and Blood of our
Lord Jesus Christ, gifts present in our midst through the outpouring of the
Holy Spirit, we are renewed as the Spirit-filled people of God.
All of this happens for a purpose. Isaiah longed for his people to take this
vision of the promised offshoot of Jesse and do two things with this assurance. The most obvious was that the prophet wanted
the people to be on the lookout for the fulfillment of that promise. But just as important, maybe even more so,
the prophet also wanted the people to embrace the fruits of the Spirit of God
that he said would be observed in the Son of David when he comes. Why is this so important? Because Isaiah knew that unless those who
read his words are so filled with the Spirit of God and aware what the gifts
and blessings of God look like, the Son of David whom he foretold could appear
and go unnoticed.
It is no coincidence that the Evangelist
Mark, in telling us about the beginning of the ministry of John the Baptist,
the Forerunner to the Son of David, links this last of the prophets to
Isaiah. John embodies the hopes of
Isaiah that those who see the vision with him of Messiah will strive to embody
that very vision and thus be able to point to Messiah as the hope of the whole
world and the proof that God’s Kingdom has broken into our midst for the sake
of our redemption. He is able to do this
because the Forerunner has first sought to live under the blessing of the gifts
of the Holy Spirit in order that he might have not merely human wisdom and
understanding but rather divine assistance to recognize and point to him whose
coming the prophets have long foretold.
Having said that, then, my friends, let me
remind you that as this vision laid out by Isaiah is for us as well as about
Jesus, so too we are called to follow the example of St. John, Baptist and
Forerunner, pointing the world to Christ.
John prepared the way for Christ to come as a child born of Mary, in
fulfillment to the promises of the prophets.
We are called to prepare the way for Christ when he breaks not only into
the world at the end of days but when he breaks into the lives of every
individual when they come to the day of their death. The Scriptures are quite clear that all will
stand before Christ. Are we, the ones
called to point to Christ as did St. John the Baptist, who are called to mirror
Christ to the world, preparing the hearts and minds of those whom we encounter
to stand before Christ? When at last
they meet him, will this encounter be with a friend or a stranger?
In these Advent days, my friends, let us
seek to mirror Christ in such a way that, under the blessing of the Holy
Spirit, those around us will come to know the wonder of the Gospel and the
unconditional love of God by receiving that gift from God through us. May our presence be such that those around
us, in encountering Christ in us, will find with joy that Christ is the friend
in our midst who longs to love us and claim us as his own forever.
Father
Timothy
Alleman
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