Advent 2 - Preparing for Death

Advent 2 - 2011
Psalm 85: 8 - 13 / Isaiah 40: 1 - 11 /  Mark 1: 1 - 8

Very soon your life here will end; consider, then, what may be in store for you elsewhere. Today we live; tomorrow we die and are quickly forgotten. Oh, the dullness and hardness of a heart which looks only to the present instead of preparing for that which is to come! Therefore, in every deed and every thought, act as though you were to die this very day. If you had a good conscience you would not fear death very much. It is better to avoid sin than to fear death. If you are not prepared today, how will you be prepared tomorrow? Tomorrow is an uncertain day; how do you know you will have a tomorrow? [i]

I know that it seems wrong.  I knew it as I sat down to prepare this sermon.  I know it as I stand here to deliver it.  It’s Christmas-time (more accurately it’sAdvent time – but we really don’t do Advent… see last weeks’ sermon) and we’re thinking about the birth of the baby Jesus. We’re thinking about the life he lead and the life and light that he brings, and – even though it seems wrong – I’m going to talk about death.

Advent is a time of waiting. Or it should be, though we don’t wait for much. Advent is also a time of preparation. Our lectionary texts this morning all have that as a theme running through them.  “Prepare the way”

We heard it first in the Psalm (though it’s hidden towards the end of the reading…)

I will listen to what God the LORD will say; he promises peace to his people, his saints-- but let them not return to folly.
 Surely his salvation is near those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land. Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other. Faithfulness springs forth from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven. The LORD will indeed give what is good, and our land will yield its harvest.
 Righteousness goes before him and prepares the way for his steps. [ii]

We heard it as we lit the second candle of the advent wreath – in the words of the prophet Malachi:

"See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come," says the LORD Almighty. [iii]

We heard it more fully from the coal-seared lips of the prophet Isaiah:

Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins.
A voice of one calling: "In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.
And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it. For the mouth of the LORD has spoken."
A voice says, "Cry out." And I said, "What shall I cry?" "All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field.
The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the LORD blows on them. Surely the people are grass.
The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever."
You who bring good tidings to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who bring good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up, do not be afraid; say to the towns of Judah, "Here is your God!"
See, the Sovereign LORD comes with power, and his arm rules for him. See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him.
He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young. [iv]

And we heard it again in the telling of the good news from Mark:

The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
It is written in Isaiah the prophet: "I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way"--
"a voice of one calling in the desert, 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.'"
And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.
John wore clothing made of camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.
And this was his message: "After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.
I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." [v]

There is preparation going on here. We are getting things ready for Christmas.  We are waiting and we are preparing.  Something wonderful is coming and we must be ready. We must prepare.

But, you will ask, how is it that I will now speak about death?

It struck me as I was reading these texts and thinking about what I might say today that death hangs in the air around these texts.  The shadow of death creeps in around the edges of their pages. 

Let’s start with John the Baptizer – Mark does. He skips over the birth of Jesus and goes right to John – out there in the wilderness with his tangled mane of grizzled hair and his wild eyes, shouting his fiery sermon “Repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins!”  We have this image of John as a wild man, caught in a burning religious fever.  And this may not be totally inaccurate.  It might be an exaggeration, but he was out there in the wild place, wearing wild and wooly clothes, eating bugs and honey and shouting “Prepare! Prepare for the coming of the Lord!” 

As a tonic to this wild-eye religious fanatic image we have a John, it would be good to remember that John had a huge following.  Crowds of people came to hear him speak. He may have had more (!) followers than Jesus.  When the apostle Paul made his way to the city of Ephesus, in what is today the country of Turkey, he found a community of John the Baptizer’s disciples.  He may have been wild – but he wasn’t out of control.

 John was a popular and compelling religious figure who challenged the people to prepare themselves for the coming of the Lord.  He called them to repent and do the good things they already knew to do.  And he challenged those with political and religious authority to live according to the laws.  And this is what got him killed.

He may have been the one in the wilderness crying out “Prepare the way of the Lord, make smooth the rough places….” but he didn’t have a smooth and easy road to follow.  Instead it was rough and wild and lead straight to his death.

John’s message, as described by the Gospel of Mark, is drawn from the prophet Isaiah, so let’s turn our attention there.  Isaiah was a prophet 800 years before the birth of Jesus.  He spoke the words of God to several of the kings of Judah before his death.  Now, we don’t have anything in the bible itself about the death of Isaiah, but in the pseudographical book The Ascension of Isaiah is recorded the legend that as king Hezekiah was dying, the prophet Isaiah warned him that his son, Manasseh, would not be a good king.  When Manasseh took  the throne of his father, Isaiah and a group of prophets fled into the wilderness, but they were tracked and hunted down.  Isaiah attempted to hide inside a hollowed out tree, but was discovered.  And, using a large saw, they cut right through the middle of the tree with Isaiah still inside.

The author of the letter to the Hebrews may be referring to this story in chapter eleven – the heroes of the faith chapter – where it says:

Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison.
They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated--
the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. [vi]

So we have this tradition of the prophet Isaiah’s death as well.  But even if we were to exclude this, perhaps, legendary story of Isaiah’s death, we still have a confrontation with death in the lectionary text.

A voice says, "Cry out." And I said, "What shall I cry?" "All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field.
The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the LORD blows on them. Surely the people are grass.
 

And if we consider the larger story – who is that all of these texts are about?  Jesus.  And even though it’s his birth that we are preparing to celebrate, it’s his death that we’re being led to consider.

We praise You, Lord, for Sister Death, from whom no one living can escape. Woe to those who die in their sins! Blessed are those that she finds doing Your will.
No second death can do them harm.[vii]

Last week I quoted someone[viii] who said that  “the Christian faith is a thing of unspeakable joy.” And I paraphrased him a little to say that Christmas (Advent!) is a time of unspeakable joy.” 

“But” the quote continues, “it does not begin with joy but rather in despair.  And it is no use trying to reach the joy without first going through the despair.”

There is great joy in this season.  The birth of that “little lord Jesus” as a helpless little baby is something that we rightly celebrate.  We should sing. And we should shout.  And we should make the earth and skies echo with our praises for what happened.

But…

Perhaps we should begin by preparing the way.  Perhaps we need to think about death a little before we begin to celebrate the life.

I know that the holiday season is difficult for many people. Instead of celebrating, they are suffering. Instead of joy they have depression.  The death of family members and friends strikes especially hard during these times when everyone else seems so stinking cheerful.

So this morning and this week as we are waiting and as we are preparing ourselves for the Christ-mas, let’s think, at least for a moment, about death.  Let us remember that we too will die.  All that lives must die. The grass withers and the flower fades.

And then…

And then…

And then… after we have paused to remember those who have died and we have given a careful consideration of our own deaths, and after we have thanked God for the sacrificial death of his eternal Son Jesus,

Then…

Then… we will be able to truly celebrate the birth and the life of that baby Jesus.  We will more fully celebrate the light and the life that he brings to each one of us.

The grass withers and the flower fades… but the word of our God stands forever!

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[i] Thomas a Kempis – The Imitation of Christ – Book 1 Chapter 23 “Meditating About Death”

[ii] Psalm 85:8-13 (NIV)

[iii] Malachi 3:1 (NIV)

[iv] Isaiah 40:1-11 (NIV)

[v] Mark 1:1-8 (NIV)

[vi] Hebrews 11:36-38 (NIV)

[vii] St. Francis – Canticle of the Sun

[viii]  I found the quote online – attributed to C.S. Lewis – but without a source.  I can’t confirm that it was or wasn’t Lewis…. Does anyone know?