Second Sunday in Advent

Summary

Deserts play a prominent role in today’s scriptures.  Deserts play a prominent role in the story of God and his people.  Deserts can test a person.

I have spent time in the Chiahuahuan desert of Northern Mexico.  It is harsh but beautiful country. When I took walks in the desert I remember thinking, I would not want to have to try and stay alive out here on my own.  Water is very scarce and not much grows there but cactuses, yucca plants and tough, brittle grasses.

One night I slept in the Mojave desert when I was visiting Joshua Tree National Park.  My brother and I, who were both living in Southern Cal at the time wanted to get in a full day of rock climbing, so we went out the night before and threw our sleeping bags down on the sand. It was one of the coldest nights I have ever spent, anywhere.  Of course by two the next afternoon we were sweating to death and wearing shorts.  The desert is truly a place of extremes.  It is a place that can put anyone to the test.

The desert put God’s people to the test numerous times.  The Hebrews fled slavery in Egypt for the desert to find freedom there, but they also found hunger and thirst.  The people grumbled because God did not provide for them as they wanted in the desert.  They wandered through its wastes.  The desolateness of the desert caused God’s people to despair and forsake him.

But it was also in the desert that God gave his people the law.  It was in the desert that they finally learned to trust God and to follow his guidance.  It was in the desert that the God cared for them and lifted them up from their despair.

It was in the desert that God spoke to Abraham, Moses, David, Elijah and numerous prophets.

It was in the desert that God spoke to the people of Israel through John the Baptist.  In the desert wilderness of Judea, they came to hear John preach of  the need for people to change their way of living.  He preached of repentance of sins.  It was in the River Jordan on the edge of the desert that the people came to have John symbolically wash away their sins.  It was in the desert that John told them about the coming of the one sent by God who would save them and who would baptize them with the Holy Spirit and fire.

As we see in today’s gospel scripture, John was a prophet sent by God to prepare the way for the Messiah, to prepare the way for Jesus.  He preached the wonderful and hard truth to the people in a setting that matched the reality of their hearts and lives, he preached to them in the desert.

Our lives can be deserts.  Deserts in which at times most nothing can grow and that which does is ultimately full of thorns and dust.  We do not have what it takes to truly make our deserts bloom, and so become full of life.

When the men come out from Jerusalem to ask John the Baptist who he is, and he admits that he is not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet, the men are confused.  The men are wondering, if the man John is not any of these who were foretold, then why is he preaching in the desert, and why is he baptizing people in the River Jordan?

His explanation which is a bit confusing, really comes down to the reality that he is the herald of the coming Messiah.  This means that John through his words, and in his actions is telling the world that Jesus, the promised Messiah, is about to come, and is about to change everything, he is about to make the deserts of people’s hearts, bloom.

John prepared the people for Jesus’ coming by preaching for them to turn from their destructive, and sinful ways.  He knew that they couldn’t simply stop sinning, but they could acknowledge their wrongdoing, and then symbolically through his baptism of water, show they wanted to be clean, and were ready to turn from their sinful ways.

This is what John meant when he declared to his questioners that he baptized with water, meaning…the one for whom he was preparing the way, would not call for symbolic change, but rather would make real and lasting change. In the Gospel of Mark, John says, “I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

In other words Jesus comes to water the dry lands of our hearts, and transform them, making them bloom with new life where before there was only thorns and barrenness.  Jesus wants to make of our hearts springs of everlasting life, gushing anew each day with the love of God for the world.

As Isaiah puts it, “my whole being shall exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. 11 For as the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.”

What Isaiah is describing is a transformation, specifically the type of transformation that only Jesus can create.  Isaiah speaks of the garments of salvation, and the robe of righteousness.  These are garments, and a robe that only Jesus can give us, our salvation and our righteousness, like kingly robes, can only be given, not earned.

The salvation that Jesus gives us through his forgiveness and love, are seen by God as his righteousness draped over us, like a king’s robe laid upon the shoulders of an unworthy, yet beloved slave.

In these days of advent I encourage you to look with new eyes at the ways that Jesus works transformation in your life. He forgives you of your sins and each day gives you new life. Take the time to ponder upon how God makes the dry places of your soul bloom by his everlasting love.  God’s love doesn’t leave you high and dry, for God’s love is unconditional.

Then look outward and rejoice with all people at the birth of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.  Celebrate Jesus as the greatest gift in the universe. Celebrate the transformation that Christmas heralds in our lives, and the transformation it heralds in the life of the world.

This is what Christmas is all about, and why the advent season of preparation is so important.  New life in the desert.

Amen.

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