December 6 & 7, 2003 - Advent 2C

Sermon preached by Father Armand John Kreft
Associate Rector for Family Ministry
Episcopal Church of St Paul in the Desert, Palm Springs, California

Advent 2C, December 6/7, 2003

I suppose after the rector's trailer last week, you would be expecting me to preach about the End Times and the approaching hoofbeats of the apocalypse. I'll get to that latter. In Jesus' time there were lots of prophets. People were calling others to follow them, to join in rituals and change their lives. As the rector said in his sermon at 8:00, John was preaching against the government. He was calling into question the sins of Herod and his court. And he was murdered for that. So in reality, not a lot of people listened to the prophets. Today we have modern prophets on television who claim for $153 a month you can lose an enormous amount of weight, or get great muscles or save money on your insurance. Dr. Atkins is a modern prophet who espouses a belief and offers life changing results if you follow his advice. I will freely admit that I followed the South Beach Diet ... for a while. Let's see, a couple of years ago we were told that steak and eggs were not good for us. Now, certain diets call just for red meat and the modern prophets have decided eggs are not bad for you. So what prophets do we listen to today? Why do we listen more closely to Alan Greenspan and his prophecies about the economy rather than the prophecy of John the Baptist. Why are we willing to listen to the television prophets rather than the messages of Isaiah and John? All of them are calling upon us to make life changes. All of them are promising something better than what we've got now.

What all prophets have in common is they point to something beyond themselves, to something that has yet to take place. As a promise of a better life comes from advertisements, an even better life is promised by John the Baptist. The longing, the dreams, the hoped for Messiah is on his way, the wait is over. John is warning us that what is approaching is life changing. The world will never be the same again. Just stop and think for a moment. Whatever kind of Christian you are, look at the changes that the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ has made on the world. The changes in art, in music, in justice...but most of all, the way we look at our life here and our relationship to others who share our time on earth.

But this Messiah, this longed for hope, will not just fit into our lifestyles and culture. The prophets call us to empty ourselves of the obstacles to God in our lives, to empty ourselves of the petty and allow ourselves to be filled with the new. In the prophecy we hear today, the valleys will be filled and the mountains made low... in other words, it's going to be a level playing field. All will be equal and all will be judged in the same way. But a level field not only sets us as equals, a level field removes the obstacles, low valleys, high mountains, all the obstacles from getting in our line of sight to Almighty God. The prophet Isaiah is quoted as saying "everyone will see the saving power of God." There are no obstacles, unless we put them there, no obstacles, to seeking and finding God. For the past two weeks, we've heard Jesus tell us not to be anxious about temporal things, and yet we listen to the modern prophets more closely when they speak of our physical comfort than when the Scriptural prophets speak of the state of our souls.

The saving power of God doesn't mean much to most people today. Even the thought that they might need salvation is offensive to some believers. The prophets are saying things we know, but do not want to accept. Yet all we have to do to look at the direction our lives have taken to realize John's cry of "turn back to God, be baptized and your sins will be forgiven." Salvation doesn't mean who's getting into heaven and who's not. Salvation means being able to look at God face to face with a clean heart. To know you've done your best to usher in the kingdom of peace and justice, of trying to right the world's wrongs, and for us, to accept Jesus Christ as our Savior. And also to accept the wrong things in our lives that can be put right with God. I mentioned a few weeks ago - statistics prove that more relationships break up at Christmas than any other time of the year. So look at your relationships that have gone sour through anger or jealousy or resentfulness or hurtfulness or moodiness or dishonesty or selfishness or a hundred other human emotions. Of disappointments in our lives, that things haven't turned out the way we had hoped they would or disappointments with others or institutions or any of the myriad things that turn our sight away from the abundance of God's gifts to us.

How can these things be put right? Firstly by recognizing that you want and desire to be right with God. Secondly by looking at what has gone wrong and by admitting perhaps we may have had a part to play in the state of our life and any problems involved. And then thirdly, and most simply, ask God to make us right with him. You see God wants us, just as we are. He wants the bits we don't like in ourselves and the bits we do like. And once the whole self is turned over, the way is prepared, the walk to the riverside is done and like the words of Baruch, "the people can return home safely on level ground and we will show God's glory to the world." We cannot possibly have peace with God or peace with each other in the world or even peace within ourselves until we do something about the sin in our lives. Heed the prophet's warning. Look into your hearts and see the prophets you follow. Do they promise a life changing experience without any change from you? John the Baptist called for action on our part....turn from sin, be baptized and see the glory of God.

The prophets call us out of what's expected into the unexpected. John prepares the way for us. He calls us to the riverside. The same riverside that Jesus walked to and where God recognized him and claimed his as his own. So to are we recognized and claimed as God's own when we turn back to God and take heed of the prophets warning.

So this Advent as we expect the coming of the Savior, in the birth at Bethlehem or with the approaching hoofbeats of the apocalypse....let us first pray to heed the prophet's call and for the return of Christ into our hearts. For there can be no peace in the world without peace within ourselves. And peace comes to us when we allow Jesus to take once again his place in our lives in the stable of our heart.