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Sunday 8 December 2024 Advent 2
God will make a way
Baruch 5:1-9; Philippians 1:3-11; Luke 3:1-6
Context: A Service of the Word in a large rural village (a favoured retirement area) for a regular, predominantly white older congregation
Aim: to illustrate the variety of provision God has made to offer all humanity everlasting life
Advent is a season of expectation and preparation when the Church prepares to celebrate the coming of Christ as a human infant but also looks ahead to his second coming. So should we.
ACCESS HAS BEEN CLEARED
Looking at our readings in chronological order, we start in the era of the Old Testament prophets and the time of exile to Babylon. Baruch acted as secretary to Jeremiah but seems to have been distinctly more cheerful! He encourages the Israelites to dress to reflect their position in God. Not to mourn but to rejoice in the expectation of an in-gathering of the people to Jerusalem in much improved circumstances. God had made possible their return to Jerusalem and the presence of God in his temple.
Our passage from Luke’s Gospel is not dated by year but by ruler and High Priest. To this community of Jews living under Roman occupation comes John the Baptist. He certainly dressed to reflect his position in God, wearing the traditional costume of a prophet. He was the last of that succession after a gap of 400 years. John fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah -preparing the way for Jesus by opening hearts and minds to the concept of forgiveness of sins by repentance. At this point Isaiah’s idea of ‘all people seeing God’s salvation’ was utterly incomprehensible. Expectation did not extend beyond a new Jerusalem for Jews.
By the time the church in Phillippi was established, believers had a new long-term aim and a very different perspective. Membership was mixed, Gentile as well as Jew, all tasked with spreading the gospel by word and by lifestyle. Paul is confident in their continued growth as Christians right up to ‘the day of Christ Jesus’ so that their lives may be lived ‘to the glory and praise of God’.
THREE AGES OF FAITH
From the earliest times believers, who down through the ages became Israelites and Jews, were worshippers of Yahweh. These were the people to whom the prophets were sent with God’s message. After several millennia, we see the final message delivered in this way as John the Baptist marks the turning point to a new age.
Three years is all God needed to bring about the most amazing transition. Jesus preached a gospel which brought a new way of living the Kingdom of God. Cheered on his entry to Jerusalem as the popular conquering hero concept of Messiah, this Son of God was condemned to death by a fickle population. By his death and resurrection, he opened a new route to salvation and God. The Mosaic Covenant with its impossible requirements was superseded by the New Covenant which relied solely upon the blood of Christ. Now the salvation of all people is possible.
Truly, the Kingdom of God was already established upon earth, and none of the New Testament writers expected the vast work of evangelising the whole world to take place easily or quickly, but did they for one moment imagine that two millennia later we would still be in the same position? Yes, we are in the same age as the church in Philippi to whom Paul wrote. We have the same expectation that the personal return of Christ will usher in a new age when he comes to make all things new in fulfilment of his work of salvation.
GOSPEL PARTNERSHIP
Paul’s prayer for the Philippian church applies equally to every Christian church or individual believer today. Paul gives thanks for every member of the Church as we continue to grow in maturity, being confident that the change which God has begun in our lives will be continued until the ‘Day of Christ Jesus’. His prayer asks that love for Christ and one another may engender in us the ability to use wisdom and knowledge in our daily lives, to enable moral discernment. In our culture, where moral judgement is often distorted, we need to live differently. By resisting peer pressure each of us can live in a way that is both pleasing to God and suitable advertisement for his Kingdom.
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