Year B Advent II Isaiah 40:1-11 Mark 1:1-8

“Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God.”

Beautiful words from the prophet Dutero-Isaiah (2nd Isaiah), words that are familiar to all of us, from Church, and from the opening of Handle’s “Messiah”. They are words spoken to a people in exile, to the Children of Israel. These are the words that put hope into their hearts as they languished in a foreign land, in Babylon, dreaming of home. These are the same words that would, someday, back in their own country under Roman rule, fill them with the conviction that One would come who would free and save them – One whom they called the Messiah.

It is difficult for us, living in this free country, to have any idea what it is like to be an exiled people, a people in captivity, a people under the rule of a foreign power. We can look back in our history, though, and see how our forebears responded to British rule. They strapped on any weapons they could find, and they drove the Redcoats out of our land so that we could become a free country. But what Isaiah speaks of goes beyond revolution to miraculous.

In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low;

the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

Not everyone will live to see the miracle, and many will live after it has come. The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the LORD blows upon it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever.

It is Advent and we are preparing to celebrate the miracle that has happened, that happens now, and that will live forever. How do we prepare, how can anyone be ready for the coming of God, for the birth of the Messiah?

“John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” “Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish.” John comes proclaiming repentance.

No matter what our idea of preparing for the holy birth may be, absolutely and positively the first thing we need to be is aware of who and what we are – sinners!

This is difficult for us, to think of ourselves as sinners. When I was a girl, my Roman Catholic friends would go to “confession” every week – no one dared miss it. Nowadays only 2% of Roman Catholics go to confession. It seems that more and more no one wants private confession, because most people can’t think of enough sins to confess, and even when they can, they don’t think they are important enough to bother taking the time to confess them. Roman Catholic or Protestant, we haven’t got a concept of ourselves as sinners needing forgiveness. We lack humility, and without humility, we haven’t got a hope of attaining holiness.

How do we become holy people? Holiness requires of us much and little. On the “much” side, it requires that we turn our lives around, that we change. My mother always told me that I’m “Just like your grandmother. She hated change too,” so I can speak as the voice of authority when I say that change is no small thing. It requires effort, and letting go – and neither is comfortable. But change is necessary if we are to become the people Jesus calls us to be, His people.

Some changes are easier than others, they require less of us, and can be implemented immediately. For example, most of us are eager to be heard, but because we are so eager, we tend to speak out quickly. Often we’ll jump into a conversation almost before whoever is speaking has finished. We can start our change by never speaking immediately, but by pausing, just the tiniest bit, to see what God might put into our minds and hearts to say.

Though right now only our eyes can be seen above our masks, they can still reflect the day we’ve been having. We’re still aware when someone is scowling, eyebrows drawn, eyes narrowed. Those scowling faces are common in our society, especially here in the northeast in winter and with the pressure of both the pandemic and the holiday rush settled on us. We scowl without even realizing it.

But we can be different from those who scowl, if we just smile. Our eyes light up and crinkle in a way that shows what’s happening with our face. Model Tyra Banks describes what our eyes do when we smile as “smizing”, encouraging her young models to practice it as they pose. Offering a smile to a passerby, to folks at the bank or the checkout counter, can change someone’s day. It will certainly change ours and our lives too, if we make a continual practice of smiling at others.

If we want to go a step further, there’s that wonderful “pay it forward” practice. Go the extra step to be helpful or generous. I recently handed a shopper my 30% off coupon, because I knew I wouldn’t use it, and she was buying an awful lot. She smized, the gal behind the counter smized, our eyes twinkled - we all enjoyed it. It certainly made my day, and it seemed to do something for theirs too.

What we sometimes forget is that, while we’re called to love the whole world, we actually do this one person at a time. It’s easy to send a check to a charity, or even several checks to several charities, and think that takes care of our Christian responsibility to love and care for others, but we know in our hearts that this isn’t so. Jesus told us to love one another, to love each person we meet, and He meant it.

The hardest change is often learning to stop, to be quiet, to be calm, to listen. Our world is fast paced, busy, noisy, and demands that we keep on the go all the time. We hear the warning to slow down, and the immediate worry is that we may be left behind. But taking things slowly gives us time to reflect on our actions, and it gives God time to offer us direction. It is in the silence of our hearts that God speaks to us. If we have no silence we cannot hear the still small promptings that guide us. God is always speaking to us, but because we are sinners, we are rarely listening. That’s something we must change – listening in silence is something we are called to do.

St. Francis de sales, a holy man, reminds us "Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit. Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset." Just listening to such advice makes it clear that changing from sinners to holy people is going to take work.

And another thing it will take is our repentance, repenting of our past ways, changing our lives, and giving ourselves up to God. This isn’t easy for us, but as we await the Shepherd of the sheep, the Lord to whom one day is like a thousand years, it is what we are called to do.

We all know that image of Jesus, the Shepherd carrying a tiny lamb. That lamb, tucked in the crook of the Shepherd’s rugged arm, is docile, compliant, yielding. We Americans aren’t taught to be any of these lamblike things. We’re rough and tough and strong. We fight revolutions. But as Christians this is not our strength. Our strength lies in our ability to get out of God’s way, to vacate the spaces we have filled with our own personal power and might, and misery, and to allow Jesus to totally overtake and fill us.

We are meant to divest ourselves of our sins, to be vulnerable to Jesus, totally open to the one who loves us, that we may be filled with His power and His might. It is His strength on which we are to rely – totally – and during Advent we must make room, in our lives, and in ourselves, for His coming.

All pf the above the “much” that we are required to give. Earlier I said that holiness also asks little – that little is simply that we do God’s will with a smile.

We need to think seriously about our sins. Sins are the things that hurt the heart of God, the things that stand between us and Jesus. We need to think of what we have done to hurt Jesus, who loves us totally, and be sorry. We need to ask Jesus to help us to be open, to be vulnerable to Him, that He may fill us with His joy and His love, that we may be prepared and ready for His coming.

“The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. [You] have [been] baptized with water; … He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

Let us pray:

O God, You prepare those who love and surrender themselves to you for your coming. We are sorry when we offend You. Make our hearts and minds ready to receive the birth of your Son our Savior, that we may be filled with Your strength and Your joy, and may worship and serve Him according to Your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.