Sunday, December 5, 2021
/The Second Sunday of Advent
Malachi 3:1-14; Canticle 14 (Luke 1:68-79); Philippians 1:3-11; Luke 3: 1-6
The Rev. Jeff Bohanski
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way. You, my child shall be called the prophet of the Most High. You, my child shall be called the prophet of the Most High.
In what seems like a lifetime ago, I attended college in Saint Paul, Minnesota. I went to The University of Saint Thomas, a Roman Catholic university. While I was there, I was part of Saint John Vianney Minor Seminary. What’s a minor seminary, you ask? A minor seminary is like a house of formation for men discerning the call to the priesthood. During my time there we attended daily Mass, we were encouraged to attend Morning Prayer, we met monthly with a spiritual director. In those years we formed a rule of life that included regular prayer and study. Those life skills I learned back then have served me well over the years.
One summer As part of my formation experience, I found myself serving as the Roman Catholic chaplain for a Boy Scout camp in northern Wisconsin. This part of the state is a very thick pine forest. The entire time I was there I would see open sky that was free of trees only once a week. It was when I would drive the Catholic junior camp counselors into the town of Rhinelander to attend Saturday evening Mass, do laundry, and to have dinner. It was a world almost the exact opposite of the city of Saint Paul.
In the Roman Catholic version of Morning Prayer, one prays The Canticle of Zacharia every morning. So, for me, this canticle is like an old friend who I’ve known and lived with for a very long time.
Please bear with me as I pray it one more time. As I read the canticle, I invite you to close your eyes and pay attention to what words or images strike you.
Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; *
he has come to his people and set them free.
He has raised up for us a mighty savior, *
born of the house of his servant David.
Through his holy prophets he promised of old,
that he would save us from our enemies, *
from the hands of all who hate us.
He promised to show mercy to our fathers *
and to remember his holy covenant.
This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham, *
to set us free from the hands of our enemies,
Free to worship him without fear, *
holy and righteous in his sight
all the days of our life.
You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High, *
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way,
To give his people knowledge of salvation *
by the forgiveness of their sins.
In the tender compassion of our God *
the dawn from on high shall break upon us,
To shine on those who dwell in darkness and the
shadow of death, *
and to guide our feet into the way of peace.
The sentence, You, my child shall be called the prophet of the Most High., always strikes me. Now, tradition holds that when Zacharia was saying these words he was proudly gazing at his newly named son, John, and praising God and prophesizing with the words. But for me, these words strike me as a commission, a call to action for me and to all those who call themselves Christian. I believe we, all God’s children, are loved by a very proud father/mother God. I believe we are called to be God’s prophets, to bare witnesses to that love. I believe prophets bring hope to the world.
Malachi preached to the people of Israel around the time of Ezra-Nehemiah. As Ezra and Nehemiah were rebuilding the temple at the time of the exiles return from Babylon, Malachi prophesized to to bring about reform of the priests that would serve in this temple. He spoke of God scrubbing away of impurities of the priesthood as a loving parent would scrub out a road rash injury their beloved child received from a fall off their bike. A painful but necessary cleaning that brings about healthy life. I suspect all of us here today have at one time experienced this healing power of God. I believe we are called bear witness to this kind of restorative love.
If one looks for N.T. Wright’s commentaries on Paul’s letter to the Philippians, one finds it in the section entitled, Paul, the Prison Letters. Scholars believe Philippians, along with Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon were most likely authentic Pauline letters because he wrote them while he was imprisoned in Rome awaiting his execution. In these letters, Paul near the end of his life, bears witness to God’s lifegiving, forgiving love.
In the days when Paul was in prison, the government provided no food for the prisoners. The family of the imprisoned provided food for the prisoner. If there was no family, the prisoner starved. Since Paul was unable to continue his tentmaking business from prison he would starve. The Philippians had sent him money to be able to feed himself. Paul wrote this letter to the Philippians to thank them for sending money him food money. I believe the Philippians prophesized; they bore witness to Jesus when they sent money to feed poor unemployed imprisoned Paul. For in the kingdom of God the poor are fed and the imprisoned are visited.
I submit that Luke, the great storyteller, prophesized about the kingdom of God Jesus was about bring in. One commentator I read this week suggested Luke listed these important names of people of the day to show that Jesus, the Messiah, was about to turn everything people expected Messiah to be on its head. Instead of the Good News coming from the important people of the day, the message first came from someone the world would describe as a lowly unimportant person. In this story, Luke prophesized what the Kingdom of God would look like.
So, how do we who are living in the time of Covid, in the time of great social, political, and economic uncertainty prophesy about God’s love for the world? We get vaccinated. We build a garden, raise food, and donate it to a food pantry. We donate to the MAM toy drive. We take part in the Christmas Market. We greet people we do not know at the grocery store; we make a point to greet a person who doesn’t look like ourselves. In a group of people, we look for those who are alone and engage that person.
My friends, I suspect we have at one time, or another felt the mercy, the forgiveness, and the love of God in Jesus. I invite us all to look at all others as people loved by God as he has loved us and go prophesy about it.