Thoughtful in our words

December 10, 2023

Year B; 2nd Sunday of Advent

Isaiah 40: 1-11

Psalm 85: 1-2, 8-13

Mark 1: 1-8

Mark 1:1-8

The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, “See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’”

John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

Homily by Rev. Megan Limburg

I pray this morning in the words of our opening hymn…….

“Prepare the way oh Zion…your Christ is drawing near.” Amen.

Advent is so brief, and so easy to miss in the world’s frantic rush to Christmas. And thus it is so easy to say, I’ll answer that invitation later, I’ll listen to Advent’s call, later. And in a moment it is gone.

So we are called in this holy season to wake up and keep watch and not slumber, not miss the invitations of Advent, inviting us to pay attention, to be alert, to be watchful and to prepare.

We are called to prepare for the birth of the Christ child, and to prepare for the 2nd coming of Christ, as our opening prayer notes:

“Merciful God, who sent your messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation: Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer….”

Advent is an invitation to consider afresh, to look with new eyes as to how we are living, and to discern if we need to change, an invitation from God, our God who so loved and so loves his people, loves us, that God drew closer to us, to know us more deeply, he sent his Son to live among us and with us and as one of us.

And to remember that God sent his Son not as an adult, and not just for a moment, and not as a king, but as a tiny baby, to live a life with us, to be vulnerable and small and in need, so we might notice better those who are vulnerable and small and in need.

Advent asks how are we living? How are we living as Christians, how are we following Christ’s call to care for the vulnerable and small and in need?

On a car trip a few years ago I heard a story that stayed with me.

I was driving a fair distance and thus had a book, an autobiography, on tape to listen to, the life story of a famous actor, who wonderfully read his own book in that beautiful, lilting, distinctive voice. The actor Sidney Poitier wrote of his life in his book: The Measure of a Man.

Poitier was born in 1927 in Miami, Florida, three months premature and not expected to live. But after several months of his mother’s care, his parents were able to take him home to the Bahamas, this last of their seven children. He grew up working on their farm, terribly poor.

And as that last child, seeming to always get himself in trouble, so much so that at age 15 Poitier’s parents sent him to live in Miami with one of his older brothers, in hopes that he might behave better.

But Poitier was restless and in the United States learned a little of acting and theatre and moved himself, at age 16, to New York, on the rash hope of becoming an actor. He got an audition at The American Negro Theater but was laughed out of the room, as he could barely read. Poitier was working as a dishwasher in a restaurant when he tells the story of an act of kindness that changed his life, after this humiliating audition.

One day he was in the restaurant before it opened, looking at a newspaper, laboring to read. One of the waiters, an elderly Jewish man, watched Poitier for a while and then came over and asked: “What’s new in the paper?”

Poitier replied that he could not say, as he could read so little. The elderly waiter then said:

“Let me ask you something; would you like me to read with you?”

Keep watch, prepare, be ready…..

“Would you like me to read with you?”

This gentle invitation changed Poitier’s life. Every evening after the restaurant closed for weeks and weeks, the two of them, a black Bahamian teenager and an elderly Jewish man, in New York City, in the mid 1940s, their heads together over the newspaper.

The Jewish gentleman taught Poitier grammar, punctuation, the priceless gift of reading and writing, that he went on to use all through his groundbreaking career.

“Would you like me to read with you?”

Would that 16-year-old have responded differently if the waiter had said, hey you can’t read; want me to teach you? Probably not, as there is nothing more bristly then a defensive, vulnerable teenager in need.

The words that gentleman chose, the words were crucial, and could have wounded or healed. He carefully chose words that invited, that opened worlds, that gave life and light.

In this 2nd week of Advent, in our world of 2023, where words are flung about like careless weapons, I suggest, I offer language as a place to focus our Advent, to notice how we use our words.

We are invited to be watchful, alert, to be thoughtful in our words, and to make the blessing of language perhaps the light shining in the darkness, for someone who is vulnerable and in need.

Prepare the way, oh Zion, your Christ IS drawing near…..

Amen.