Sermon for the 10th of December - Second Sunday of Advent
I wonder what you think of when you hear the word prophet.
Today is the second Sunday of Advent where we think about the prophets of our faith so I’ve been wondering what it really means to be a prophet, and how we can understand them and learn from them.
The tricky thing is that prophets usually make us feel profoundly uncomfortable. They are people who speak truth to power – they challenge and confront, they don’t accept the status quo, they warn us of the consequences of our actions.
How do you react when someone challenges you about the way you live, the things you say, the decisions you make? Most of us do not react well!!
We have our own internal barristers in our heads – either defending or prosecuting. I wonder what yours does most naturally – defend or prosecute?
We are often our own most tenacious prosecutors – condemning ourselves for what we do or don’t do. But we can also have a strong internal defence, whereby the minute we are challenged, our instant reaction is to defend our actions and try to justify them.
It can be the same when looking at others – it’s very easy to attack others in our minds, especially those who have hurt us. But we can also be quick to defend those we care for.
And it’s good to recognise these internal dialogues going on in our heads, because it’s when we recognise we are doing it, that we are able to press pause.
Press pause long enough to listen to what others are trying to say, listen long enough to understand where these people are coming from, what their hopes and fears are, listen long enough to understand them a little better, as we take the focus away from ourselves.
Perhaps one of the reasons prophets shout so loudly, challenge us so abruptly, is because only then do we stop our own noise and listen!
Yes, prophets are people who cause upset – they can hurt people’s feelings, cause offence. But they get people’s attention.
The Bible and our entire history is littered with God’s prophets – from people like Isaiah and John the Baptist, to Gandhi, Oscar Romero, Nelson Mandela, and maybe even people like Greta Thunberg!
These are all people who speak truth to power, including to people who really don’t want to listen – to the point some of them were killed for their outspokenness.
Yet God uses them to communicate with his people...they have an important role to play in bringing God’s kingdom here to earth.
In the passages we heard today from Isaiah and John the Baptist, we hear the call to repentance, to turn again to God and change the way we live.
But we also get a sense of God’s love for us.
“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.”
It can be hard to hold together these two images. On the one hand we have warnings of judgement, and on the other hand, we hear of God’s constancy and love for his people.
In Advent we hear again and again, the call to repent, to follow God’s ways and do his will now so that when we face the final judgement, it will be that little bit easier. A little bit easier looking back on our lives and seeing the impact of the decisions we made, the actions we did or didn’t take, the words we did or didn’t say.
The more we can repent and follow God today, the fewer things we will need to repent of at the final judgement.
We might all have little barristers inside our heads, but it is God who is the final judge.
And let’s remember – as the prophets do, that God’s judgement is one of mercy and kindness. It is a judgement which is sanctifying and redemptive – which allows us to be enfolded into his love completely.
And so, whilst the prophets might provoke and challenge us, they also point towards God’s redemptive light and forgiving love.
They are constantly reminding us of the hope we have. The hope that God’s light will break into the darkness, the hope that whilst we might feel we are in the wilderness, God has not forgotten us and is coming.
The prophets help us to both be honest about our sins, whilst also having hope in God. Hope in a God who will speak to us in the wilderness. A God who will use the desert times in our lives, the hard times when the road is rough and the journey feels too much, to speak most clearly.
For it is only when we are honest about ourselves, when we take the time to stop, listen, see and be truthful about our transgressions, it is only then, that God’s light can start to shine in.
As Debie Thomas writes:
“We can’t get to the manger unless we go through John, and John is all about repentance….
“Maybe, if we can get past our baggage and follow John out into the wilderness, we’ll find comfort in the fact that we don’t have to pretend to be perfect anymore.
“We don’t have to deny the truth, which is that we struggle, and stumble, and make mistakes, and mess up. We can face the reality that we are fallible human beings, prone to wander, and incapable of living up to our own ideals.
“And — most importantly — we can fall with abandon and relief into the forgiving arms of a God who loves us as we are. We can live into the tenacious hope of our Biblical ancestors — the hope of restoration. The hope of abundant and overflowing grace. The hope of salvation.”