Sermon from the Second Sunday of Advent – December 8, 2024, at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church – Buffalo, NY .
Sermon Video | 8:30am worship & 10:30am worship
Sermon Text | Luke 3:1-6
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen!
One of the many things I like about what I do as a pastor is being with people through the many preparations of life. If you think about it, we’re all preparing for something. You might be preparing to do something small like running an errand or something big like preparing for surgery or a major life decision.
Think about the things you’re preparing for. I’m sure you can come up with a long list of things.
A peculiar fact about most preparations is that we say we’re preparing for a “thing” … an event, but that isn’t the whole story. We’re preparing for all that comes after the thing, too.
The birth of a baby, for example. There’s so much to do! Doctor’s visits, good nutrition, baby showers. Before the birth, there’s so much we don’t know, like what the baby’s actual birth day and time be. We don’t know what the child’s interests and personality and favorite color be. The one thing we DO know before birth is that they will be Bills fans … Go Bills!
The actual “thing” that happens, in this case, the birth, is a moment in time … a catalyst that sets in motion a future forever touched by that moment.
Marriage, Christmas, getting a degree or certification, and even going to the grocery store for peanut butter … all of our preparations are about much more than one event or one moment in time. Our preparations lead us beyond a specific moment to also consider the resulting future.
The Bible tells us that John the Baptist was “the voice of one crying out in the wilderness; ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight’” (Luke 3:4). John and his message were about preparing the way of the Lord both as he waited for that moment AND as he looked forward in hope to a future forever touched and catalyzed by that moment.
The season of Advent is a time of preparing, of watchful waiting, a season of hope. I’ve found myself thinking a lot about “hope” this Advent. There is a lot going on that seems to work against hope. So, I wonder: Can this Advent be a time of “Preparing for Hope”? But how can you actively prepare for hope, especially if we are also watchfully waiting, which seems so passive?
Consider first responders. They are watchfully waiting for a call to action. And, when that call comes, they drop everything and they depend on their training and on their team to respond.
Watchfully waiting when you are a first responder might involve a mental state of readiness, exercise, training … even hanging around talking with colleagues is watchful waiting because relationships are built and solidified there. One thing watchful waiting is NOT is being disengaged or passive.
John the Baptist was out in the wilderness “preparing the way of the Lord.” Because of his faith, his watchful waiting included actively proclaiming a message of hope and confidence that the One he was proclaiming would be coming soon.
For us, preparing for hope involves actively making room in our lives for hope – or, at least, making room for the possibility of hope. Preparing for hope, like first responders, involves being in a mental and spiritual state of readiness. It involves working out our spiritual muscles. It involves building relationships with one another.
As much as we prepare for hope, hope is not something that happens at one moment in time. Hope is a catalyst the sets in motion a future forever touched by that hope. Hope comes to us. Hope is the Holy Spirit at work in us.
Right now, we are preparing for the event of Christmas, but we’re not actually preparing for event of the birth of Jesus or the remembrance of his birth alone. We’re preparing for the catalyst that sets in motion a future forever touched by Jesus.
How can you and I join John the Baptist in a posture of watchful waiting? How can we, too, be the voice of one calling out to prepare the way for the God of hope?
May WE be part of the continuing impact of that future forever touched by Jesus – a future in which Jesus continues to bring love … bring light … bring hope through us because WE have been forever touched by Jesus. May WE be part of that hope that catalyzes a future with MORE hope.
In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Epicurious Lutheran 