The Second Sunday of Advent, December 8, 2024

Whenever I think of The Second Sunday of Advent, my memory goes back to my college days, to 1973, when the musical Godspell was released. I visualize people running to an urban fountain, throwing off shoes and suitcoats, briefcases and stylish outfits, dancing, splashing, frolicking, experiencing the joy of the good news of God’s Realm of Shalom. Advent is not just dour, it is also about liberating our spirits to claim our vocation as God’s companions in healing the world.
“Prepare Ye The Way of the Lord.” The Second Sunday of Advent introduces John the Baptist, the way preparer and prophet, who calls us to awaken to God’s coming in Jesus the Messiah and in our daily lives. As I ponder a sermon topic for this Sunday, I think of two possible titles “Prophetic Preparation” and “Prophetic Providence.” In reflecting on the Advent message, I see it as involving our preparing to become part of a new world order. Divine Providence is at work in the world inviting us to imagine an alternative vision, as Walter Brueggemann asserts, to the injustice and chaos of our times and then to live into the vision of a world in which truth, goodness, and beauty guide our nation and the planet. “We are the ones we have been waiting for,” as poet June Jordan says in her tribute to South African women protesting the violence of apartheid. God is at work in the world. God is luring us forward, but the divine lure will not be fully incarnate without our response. We are the Agents of Advent Adventure.
The Prophet Malachi speaks of God’s messenger bringing a refining fire to Earth. At first the prophet’s words are threatening. A divine fire can burn, and the purgation of the dross of our lives and communities may be painful. A new athletic regimen in response to a potential health crisis can be painful, but the goal is greater energy and a longer, healthier life. Similarly, the refiner’s fire is intended to purify our spirits and values. As I reflect on the refining process, I am reminded of a traditional description of the mystic’s journey: illumination, purgation, and union. Illumination awakens us to our relationship with God, our identity as God’s beloved children, always in communication, even when we are unaware of it, with the Holy One. Purgation is the process of simplification and letting go of everything that stands between us and God, grounded in the recognition of the distance between our actions and our society’s values and God’s aim for us, our nation, and the planet. In letting go of what stands between us and God’s vision, we experience a unity with God: God’s vision becomes clearer, God’s aim is brought to consciousness, and we align ourselves with God’s transformative presence in the world. We become illuminated by Advent possibilities.
From Malachi, we move to Zechariah and John the Baptist. Zechariah encounters an angelic messenger while he is serving in the Temple, receives the promise of an impossible possibility, and is silenced due to his doubts. This theophanic passage alerts us to God’s coming when we are doing other things and have other priorities, and when our expectations are far different than God’s. Zechariah has accepted that he and Elizabeth will remain childless: the current reality of barrenness is permanent. Zechariah’s amazing encounter challenges us to consider what realities we deem unchangeable in our personal lives and body politic. What scarcity and barrenness do we accept as natural, or at least permanent. Poverty, injustice, war, political chaos, alienation, environmental inaction, spiritual lethargy in our churches: these realities seem insurmountable and unchanging and yet…like Zechariah, we may be astounded into silence, realizing that our negativity and limit setting may be part of the problem and that we need to be still, follow God’s vision, and become Agents of the Impossible. Mute, Zechariah goes home, sleeps with his wife, and behold – John the Baptist, the way preparer, the prophetic challenger, the messenger of God’s new age, is conceived.
Fast forward three decades and John the Baptist emerges from the wilderness to preach a message of creative transformation, to use the language of John Cobb. He calls his fellow citizens to repent in preparation for the emergence of God’s Realm. God’s realm is already here, but we are unaware of it. Our senses are blind to God’s presence and our values prevent us from experiencing God’s call. Repentance involves a transformation of values, a turning from death to life, a willingness to let go of everything that hinders God’s reign in our lives and the world. John the Baptist is the prophet of preparation. God calls – God’s grace is prevenient – and when we respond, our lives are transformed, and the process of healing and sanctification begins both at the personal and social level. There is refining and simplifying – a change of direction – that gets us on the right path, the path of God’s realm, the pilgrimage of abundant life for us and all creation.
Philippians 1:3-11 describes the process of prophetic providence. God is at work in our lives and in the early Christian community and today in our communities. God has begun a good work. The aim of the universe toward the production of beauty is moving through our lives. The moral and spiritual arcs of the universe constantly provide guidance. The challenge is commitment to God’s vision of beauty and justice. The work is going on quietly, like a germinating seed or the process of gestation, and our personal and community, congregational, calling is to bring it to consciousness and claim our role as God’s agents of healing and wholeness. The good work of Divine Creativity has begun. God has initiated a process, and the good work will come to fruition as a harvest of righteousness. There is hope for us and our congregations. God is calling us forward to become more than we can imagine. We cannot wait for others to carry forth God’s Realm. We are the ones we have been waiting for.
Let there be joy today! Let us discern a new world order beyond our sacrifice and simplification, beyond our repentance. Let us frolic and dance, sing and hug, and celebrate the gift of impossible possibility, of hope beyond fear. Prepare the Way of God’s Realm. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. Hallelujah!

Bruce Epperly is Theologian of Residence at Westmoreland Congregational United Church of Christ, Bethesda, Maryland. A theologian, professor, university chaplain, and seminary professor and administrator, Epperly is the author of over 80 books, including “Homegrown Mystics: Restoring Our Nation through the Healing Wisdom of America’s Visionaries,” “Saving Protestant Theology to Save the World,” “Jesus: Mystic, Healer, and Prophet,” and “The God of Tomorrow: Metaphysics, Mysticism, and Mission in Whitehead and Teilhard.” He is also of six volumes of 12 Days of Christmas meditations, the most recent being “Once Upon a Time: The 12 Days of Christmas in Story and Film.” He may be reached at drbruceepperly@gmail.com.