A sermon for Advent 2 Year B preached at St Joseph the Worker Northolt
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Joe wicks - who here remembers Joe Wicks?
During the pandemic -Joe Wicks ran his daily fitness routine and when everyone was trapped in their houses he got the exercising. Well at least I am pretty sure everyone in the country started exercising with Joe Wicks even if not everyone kept it up.
And for many people Joe Wicks was exactly what they needed - a kick up the backside to do some much needed exercise….
Well in 2020 I was one of the very first people to get Covid. I think I came down with it on Valentine’s day - long before we were meant to be getting it, although afterwards my doctor said “Yes that was almost certainly Covid”. So by the time lock down happened I had just recovered from this horrible illness. At the time I didn’t know if I had had Covid or not. I thought to myself - if that WASNT covid then I really need to make sure I am super fit and healthy so if I do get it I can fight it off. So I decided to do Joe Wick’s exercise.
I kept it up for about a week, struggling more and more as I got more and more fatigued. I had thought I had fully recovered from the virus, but clearly I had not fully, and all this exercise was too much for my system and I went into a terrible year of Long Covid.
For some people what they needed was Joe Wick’s Tough Love kick up the backside, and for other people like me what they actually needed was a much more gentle “be kind to yourself approach”.
What’s that got to do with today’s readings?
Well our readings are all to do with Advent. Just like you open your advent calender each day opening a window and taking a chocolate out counting down to Christmas- these readings are about helping us prepare - prepare for Christ’s coming at Christmas, prepare for Christ’s coming again at the end of the world.
They have THAT in common - but apart from that they are very different.
Peter’s Message is quite a scary one
“the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed. 11 Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire?”
Similarly Mark’s Gospel - although it starts with the lovely sounding phrase “the beginning of the Good News” - it rapidly goes on to talk about the wild ascetic John “clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey” and he calls people to “Repent”
John’s very much the “Joe Wicks- Tough Love- kick up the backside” approach.
Contrast that with Isaiah
“Comfort, O comfort my people,
says your God.
2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and cry to her
that she has served her term,
that her penalty is paid,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins.
This is too is about preparation - but a so much more gentle approach is here.
Let’s start with John the Baptist’s tough approach. The fasting on pretty awful food (locusts?) And no I don’t personally buy the argument that they weren’t really insects but some weird sort of food. Of course they were insects - John the Baptist was hardcore. As we are told elsewhere (Matthew 11:18) John “came neither eating or drinking”. He wears rough clothes, lives in the wilderness and calls people to prepare “repent and be baptised” because “after me comes one who is more powerful than I. I am not worthy to untie his shoes”
As I said Advent is about preparing. Getting ready for the coming of the “one who is more powerful” - getting ready for the coming of Christ at Christmas and also for his second coming at the end of the world.
Once upon a time that’s what advent was like. Go back to the middle ages and you wouldn’t be eating mince pies in Advent - it was a time of fasting. Indeed less than 100 years ago Christmas trees would not go up until Christmas Eve itself. Christmas Day and the month that followed were for feasting but before that was a time of Spiritual discipline.
But as you might have noticed, over the years Christmas has been creeping earlier and earlier. First a couple of weeks earlier, then right back to the beginning of December, then the Christmas songs start appearing of the radio in mid November, Then - well in early October I was wandering down Regent Street in Central London and found the lights were already up!
My son has a theory that each year Christmas is going to start earlier and earlier going back through October, September, August, and so on - and eventually Christmas will start so early that it will start in February … January.. And back to December 25th of the previous year - “and that” says my son “is when Jesus will come again!”
Well seriously though - it doesn’t really matter when we start celebrating Christmas. But Perhaps … perhaps we lose something if we don’t have a time of preparation beforehand.
If this really is the son of God coming among us? If this really is someone who even John the Baptist feels humbled to await “after me comes one who is mightier than I - I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals”
Well perhaps we should be listening to the challenge of Peter “Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, 12waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God”
Perhaps we do need a time of hard core preparation.
In the secular world - people over indulge and then they feel guilty about it and spend January desperately giving up this or that…. But the Christian Approach has always been the opposite. We do our fasting and preparation first. First Advent - then Christmas. First Lent then Easter.
John the Baptist and Peter challenge us to do a bit a Spiritual Workout. Perhaps you give something up - if not in December then in November instead. Perhaps you take up some extra bible reading and prayer. Perhaps you set aside a day to fast. Perhaps you book an appointment with Fr Valmore to make your confession before Christmas. “Prepare the way of the Lord - make his paths straight”
But - well I began by sharing my experience of Joe Wicks during lockdown - how coming out of Covid I pushed myself way too far and ended up with eighteen months of Long Covid.
I don’t know where you are all at - but what I am pretty sure of is that you are all at different places. Some of you - well perhaps some of you have got a bit spiritually flabby and need a bit of a John the Baptist kick up the back side! But some of you have been through really tough years this year. For some of you the last few months have been … hell! And the last thing you need is for someone to be telling you to try harder.
The words YOU need to hear are “Comfort, O comfort my people,says your God. 2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and cry to her that she has served her term”
The bad stuff is over!
And if there are people who have been treating you terribly, people who have been making life awful for you … like the Emperors of Babylon made life awful for the ancient Israelites. Well “all flesh is grass and the grass withers and the flower fades but the word of the Lord endures for ever”. Those who think they can treat you like that - well they won’t last for ever - they will fade just like the grass.
But if you need his help - well “Here is your God!’ 10 See, the Lord God comes with might,and his arm rules for him; his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.”
This is a message of Hope to those who perhaps very little hope. When people oppress you don’t worry because who is charge? {take answer} God is in charge!
Our God is an intimate God. In some religions God is majestic and distant - God is the Great Sultan in the Sky. You know - when you enter his throne room you are not allowed to make eye contact with the great King [mime]. When you leave the throne room you cannot turn your back to the king but have to shuffle out backwards. Many religions teach that sort of God.
And yes our religion Christianity does teach that God is a great king - who is in charge {God is in charge} God is the one whom even John the Baptist is not worthy to untie the thongs of his sandals. BUT it also teaches that God is intimate
“He will feed his flock like a shepherd;
he will gather the lambs in his arms,
and carry them in his bosom,
and gently lead the mother sheep”
God is the one who gives us tough love when we need it. But he is also the one who when you are broken he puts his arms round you and gives you a great big hug.
Even the account in Mark 1 end with the line “he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.
When I was 18 years old I had been a Christian for about 5 years. I had heard people talking about this “Baptism in the Holy Spirit”. They talked about an intimacy with God which though I loved God I had not yet experienced. And which I longed for. And when I was 18 I heard about a day labelling itself an “Anglo-Catholic Charismatic Day of Renewal”. I went along. The morning was a very lively mass with GREAT music. The afternoon had some fantastic bible teaching. The day ended with a service of “Benediction” when the blessed Sacrament (the special bread in which Jesus in present) was placed on the altar. And we sang songs of praise in his presence. And suddenly it became like - well although there were 100 other people in the room - like it was just me and Jesus. I felt so - peace. Joy. I kept saying “Jesus I love you. Jesus I love you” My eyes closed and i was praising him and it was like there was no one else in the room - I was standing - I don’t know whether anyone else was standing or sitting. It was an intimacy I had never experienced before. It was the next chapter in a great adventure.
For some of you God wants to kick you up the backside with tough love.
For some of you, God wants to wrap his arms round you, say “comfort, comfort my people” and give you a great big hug.
For all of you - If you have not experienced it yet, or if you need to experience it afresh - God wants you to experience that intimacy. Hewill baptise you with the Holy Spirit
He will feed his flock like a shepherd;
he will gather the lambs in his arms,
and carry them in his bosom,
and gently lead the mother sheep.
He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit!
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