Advent 2: John the Baptist
Invitation to Worship
A voice cries out:
“Prepare for God’s arrival!
Make the road straight and smooth,
a highway fit for our God.
Fill in the valleys, level off the hills.
Smooth out the ruts, and clear out the rocks.
For our God is coming!
Let’s worship together.
Hymn: On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry
1 On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry
announces that the Lord is nigh:
awake and listen for he brings
glad tidings of the King of kings.
2 Then cleansed be every life from sin,
make straight the way for God within,
and let us all our hearts prepare
For Christ to come and enter there.
3 For you are our salvation, Lord,
our refuge and our great reward
without your grace we waste away
like flowers that wither and decay.
4 To heal the sick, stretch out your hand,
and bid the fallen sinner stand;
shine out, and let your light restore
earth’s own true loveliness once more.
5 To God the Son all praises be,
whose advent sets your people free;
whom with the Father we adore
and Holy Spirit evermore!
John Chandler (1806 – 1876)
We come to God in prayer
Advent God,
you prepared your people for your coming,
you gave your Word to us through prophets and priests,
through stories told and retold,
through the history of time,
through the written word,
through the spoken word,
but always your word.
As Christmas lights begin to dazzle us,
we know that your glory is way beyond their transfixing power.
Yet amidst the dazzle are signs of God and we take no notice of them,
there are voices that cry out and we pay no attention to them.
There are signs of people’s need and we turn away from them,
and cries of those in pain and we pass them by.
These are signs of God’s kingdom to be seen,
and the voice of the Holy Spirit to be heard:
O God, forgive us when we ignore you
and ignore our neighbours, near and far
Advent God, who hears our prayer and offers us forgiveness,
we adore you, and we bring ourselves before you just as we are. Amen
Bible reading: Luke 3:1 – 6
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, 2 during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, 4 as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,
‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.
5 Every valley shall be filled,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth;
6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”’
Hymn: StF 201 Good news, good news to you we bring
Good news, good news to you we bring, hallelujah!
News of great joy that angels sing, hallelujah!
Tender mercy he has shown us, joy to all the world;
for us God sends his only Son, hallelujah!
- Let earth’s dark shadows fly away, hallelujah!
In Christ has dawned an endless day, hallelujah! - Now God with us on earth resides, hallelujah!
And heaven’s door is open wide, hallelujah!
Graham Kendrick (b.1950) Music and words © 1988 Graham Kendrick/MakeWay Music Ltd
Reflection
Luke’s story of John the Baptist’s ministry begins in a surprising place. He names no fewer than six important leaders with military or religious power in the area. These men would have lived in palaces and worn rich clothes. But then Luke’s story focuses down on one man who lives in the desert, whose clothes are made from camel hair, and who has no power at all – apart from the word of God.
It’s easy to be overwhelmed by the power of those in authority. People need their landlords to repair their houses, but find themselves waiting for years. Children need school support for special needs, and are unable to access it. Refugees and asylum seekers are entangled in Home Office processes. We are surrounded by the power held by Pilate and Herod, and it can be a scary place to be.
John stands over against this power, in the tradition of the Old Testament prophets. He announces the arrival of a greater authority, to whom even the mountains and the valleys give way. This might seem a visionary, abstract image, but Luke’s story goes on to describe how John makes his teaching concrete. It turns out that he is not talking about geography at all, but human behaviour. Stop being selfish and learn to share! he tells his hearers. Stop stealing! he tells the tax collectors. Stop extorting money! he tells the soldiers. This is how he sees his prophecy coming true, as human behaviour and human hearts change in light of the commanding power of God’s word.
And people listened to him – people with some power, such as soldiers and tax collectors, and even people with considerable power, such as Herod. They recognised the truth and authority of what he was saying, because his words came from God and resonated in the hearts of people made in God’s image.
Where does this leave us as God’s people, living in a world where many abuse power, and where even those of goodwill find themselves frustrated by ‘the system’ which so often seems to shut down the possibility of change for the better? Like John, we can pay attention to the word of God and tell out the good news of God’s son, coming into the world with the challenge to ‘make the paths straight for him’. We need to begin with ourselves – as he did. Where in our lives are there tangled, bumpy roads? Where are there potholes to fill?
And beyond our individual lives, we are part of the Methodist Church, which longs to be a justice-seeking church. We stand together in proclaiming that change is needed as we listen to God’s word of justice and truth. The paths in our communities and societies need to be made straight as we prepare for the coming of God’s Son, our Lord Jesus, proclaimed by John, born in a stable, light of the world.
Prayers
As we have lit candles to celebrate Advent and as we have reflected on your words so, Lord God, our thoughts turn now beyond our needs, beyond our pains to those of your children’s, whose cries and anguish trouble and disturb us.
Merciful, caring God Hear our prayers.
News seems to surround us piling one tragedy on top of another, the world seems a hard place and our tears are for those whose pain is etched deeply within their being.
Merciful, caring God Hear our prayers.
For those who trudge through strange lands looking for guidance
with hope for a better future;
for those who have nothing but what they stand in and walk with;
for those who risk life and limb in fragile boats seeking escape from poverty and tragedy but so often finding neither safety, welcome, or security.
Merciful, caring God Hear our prayers.
For the homeless nearer to home who have no walls to shelter them, no place to cocoon them, no safety to protect them, no warmth from the winter weather, no family to support them and little hope for a settled future.
Merciful, caring God Hear our prayers.
For those who live with hunger, not just of the spirit, but of the body;
for those families who can’t manage proper meals and nutrition,
who eke out the pennies the best they can;
for those who have the courage to seek foodbank help and for those who greet and meet them when they stretch out for the food that is given;
for those who are cold and hungry, not just in body because they can’t afford heating and food, but cold of friendship and the warmth of love.
Merciful, caring God Hear our prayers.
For countries at war with others and with themselves,
where peace is a distant memory and a very distant prospect;
for those who keep the candle of hope burning
believing that in the end peace will prevail.
Merciful, caring God Hear our prayers.
For those striving earnestly for climate change to be tackled with care and justice,
acknowledging the inter-dependency of nature, of plants and animals, microbes and humans;
for all who seek to quell the needless destruction of our fragile world
and who strive for the best that humanity can be;
for those nearer to home feeling the impact of climate change,
snow and storms and gales beyond what is expected.
Merciful, caring God Hear our prayers.
For those who have never heard the message of Advent hope,
who have never encountered the presence of the Christ child,
who have never felt their hearts moved by the Christmas story of Emmanuel, God with us.
May their lives be touched by those of us who meet them, whose lives touch ours and ours theirs.
Merciful, caring God Hear our prayers.
Amen.
The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven
Hallowed be thy name
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from evil
For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory
For ever and ever
Amen
Hymn: StF 188 There’s a light upon the mountains
There’s a light upon the mountains, and the day is at the spring,
When our eyes shall see the beauty and the glory of the King;
Weary was our heart with waiting, and the night-watch seemed so long;
But his triumph-day is breaking, and we hail it with a song.
There’s a hush of expectation, and a quiet in the air;
And the breath of God is moving in the fervent breath of prayer:
For the suffering, dying Jesus is the Christ upon the throne,
And the travail of our spirit is the travail of his own.
He is breaking down the barriers, he is casting up the way;
He is calling for his angels to build up the gates of day:
But his angels here are human, not the shining hosts above;
For the drum-beats of his army are the heart-beats of our love.
Hark! We hear a distant music, and it comes with fuller swell;
‘Tis the triumph-song of Jesus, of our King, Immanuel:
Zion, go ye forth to meet him; and, my soul, be swift to bring
All thy finest and thy noblest for the triumph of our King!
Henry Burton (1840 – 1930)
Blessing
May the road we travel be smooth and straight,
any diversions easy to navigate,
any obstacles easy to manoeuvre round.
May good companions share our journey,
and may we be voices for good in the world,
a sign of Jesus’ love for all.
We pray in Jesus’ name.
Amen.
