Sermon for the 4th Sunday in Advent, 2020
Sermon for the 4th Sunday in Advent, 2020
Fr. Tony Melton
We’ve arrived at the 4th and last Sunday in Advent. Whereas the theme and tone of prior weeks is the Lord will come again—get ready, the theme and tone for this Sunday is the Lord’s return is at hand. In other words, during Advent we identify with the long waiting of God’s people, but today we experience the climax of their anticipation. The Propers clearly point this out. In Philippians 4, Paul says, “Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I say, Rejoice. Let your moderation be know unto all men. The Lord is at hand.” The Lord is just about to burst on the scene. Ironically, the peak of anticipation happened for God’s people around the waters of Baptism.
On this 4th Sunday in Advent, our Gospel brings us to the banks of the Jordan River. The Pharisees question John the Baptist about his identity and his baptism. “John answered them, saying, I baptize with water: but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not: he it is who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose.” He says, “There standeth one among you.” You can’t get any closer than this. There, at the waters of baptism, they are on the cusp of something huge.
And the same is true for us. For not only are we gathered together around the waters of Baptism, but we stand in the end of days on the 4th Sunday in Advent. The sacraments themselves testify that Christ is here among us, even within me, behind me, before me, beside me, Christ above and beneath me, as we sing in the hymn. “There standeth one among you.” But our hearts burn for the even greater redemption that this One brings. So on the cusp of the Mass of Christ, our prayer surges out of our need and anticipation, “O Jesus, raise up thy power, and come among us, and with great might succor us.” We, too, at the waters of baptism are on the cusp of something huge.
I’d like you to imagine being there on the banks of the Jordan with John the Baptist. Sensing that this man brings a change in the course of God’s people, you’ve made a pilgrimage into the wilderness to express your repentance in a special way. You accept a baptism of repentance, you stand there wet with many others, watching this desert prophet, listening to his words. You overhear him say that the Messiah is standing among the crowd and a buzz passes through the people. I want to freeze frame that moment and spend some time this morning analyzing it, because I believe that it is paradigmatic for the people of God.
John the Baptist tells us that Jesus comes to baptize with fire, later explained as Water and Spirit. We are on the other side of this. We have seen it this morning. Yet, Paul says, “The Lord is at hand.” So Jesus, by Baptism, is in us, and He is also “at hand.” Theologians call this dynamic the “already, not yet.” The deliverance that Jesus will bring has been begun in the waters of Baptism, but the culmination of all things is “at hand.” The biblical writers stress repeatedly that the Christian is to see this 2nd Advent as very near, to live on the cusp of something huge, in the dynamic of “already, not quite yet.” What does it mean to live on the edge of the Day of the Lord? Let’s return back to our freeze-frame.
Look at John. What can we learn from John the Baptist about living on the cusp of deliverance? What jumps out from the Gospel passage from this morning is an Advent humility. Look at the humility of John the Baptist. The Jews ask him who he is. Notice the triple emphasis: “And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elijah? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that Prophet? And he answered, No.” Now we know from other parts of the New Testament that John was in fact the new Elijah that God promised through the prophet Malachi. Yet, he denied any claim to glory, but took every opportunity to elevate the coming King. “He it is who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose.” You might just say that John the Baptist was a really humble guy, but I think that this kind of humility is natural to someone who knows that they are on the edge of something huge.
Imagine that you are in a basketball game amongst your peers. Its the 4th quarter, a minute and half to go, your team is down by 5. And let’s just say that by some miracle, Lebron James shows up, puts on your team’s jersey, and is kneeling by the scorer’s table getting ready to come in. Would you be tempted to hog the ball, hot-dog, and save the game? No! The GOAT is in the building. Humility is the natural response to living on the cusp of redemption. “The Lord is at hand…He must increase. We must decrease. He is the solution. We are not. Look at Him. Don’t look at me.” We learn from the Gospel that humility adorns those on the cusp of deliverance.
Our Epistle shows us that Joy and Peace also find their place in our freeze frame. “Rejoice in the Lord alway; and again I say, Rejoice.” Why? The Lord is at hand! Knowing that Jesus is coming soon should result in us being a people full of rejoicing. And, Paul says, a people known for their gentleness and peace. The word is translated “moderation”. “Let your moderation be known unto all.” But the Greek word means “fair, gentle, equitable.” The opposite of this would be the type of rashness that comes when we are anxious or neurotic. Be calm. The Lord is at hand. When we recognize that the coming of Jesus is near, and that even now He is with us and hears all of our prayers, then an indescribable peace and joy guard us. People that live on the cusp of deliverance have humility, peace, and joy.
And, finally, hope. Hope more than anything, really, because help is close. The Collect for this Sunday is one of my favorites. It is so honest about our human experience. In the older form it was a prayer directly to Jesus. It read, “O Jesus, raise up thy power and come among us and with great might succor us.” We affirm that we are in need of a mighty Savior to come and give us relief. We affirm that we are weighed down by our sins in this race that we are running, and that the only solution is for God to act quickly with bountiful grace and mercy.
To return again to our freeze frame. What would your thoughts and feelings be after your pilgrimage into the wilderness, hearing that the One who will change everything is standing among you. This is why the Gospel reading is such a perfect story in which to end the Advent season. We all started this Advent season with the best intentions. This Advent, we are going on a personal pilgrimage to “cast away the works of darkness and put upon us the armor of light”. But then life happens, and COVID happens, and we cheat on our fast here and there, and then we miss a week of readings, and then its the 4th Sunday on Advent, and Christmas is right around the corner, and our efforts at repentance didn’t pan out like we hoped. And in this moment, we again are like the Jews on the banks of the Jordan trying to wash off our sins, but knowing that we will be dirty all too soon, and we are tired in the race that we are running, and our only hope is for God to act on our behalf. To do a work that changes our innermost being, to remove this hard of stone and give us a beating heart of flesh upon which His Law is written. And this is the hope that was given on the banks of the Jordan, and this is what we celebrate for Penton this Sunday. Her heart was changed today. By God’s grace, she was reborn of water and Spirit. God acted on her behalf, and she joins the rest of God’s children, elect by the waters of Baptism, as those waiting for God to rise up in even greater power to come and finish the work that He has begun in us, that we be made perfect, no more weighed down and exhausted by our sins. Maranatha. Lord, come quickly. Amen.