Lectionary Living for Sunday, Dec. 9, 2018

Advent 2, Year C, Luke 3:1-6

Ainsley

Preparation is a part of life. Participation in any event requires some sort of preparation. You can’t just show up, and if you do, you’ll miss out on the full experience.

If you’re going to watch a football game for the first time, you’ll want to have some sense of the object and the rules. If you’re going to the symphony, you’ll need some guidance on what to listen for, how to attune your ears, proper attire, etc. So, if we have to prepare for such things as these, how much more to encounter the living God?

This principle of preparation is found throughout Scripture. For example, when the Israelites are on the bank of the Jordan River ready to finally enter the Promised Land, Joshua, the successor of Moses, says to them: “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you” (Joshua 3:5). Israel needed to prepare to encounter God, and so do we. And that preparation is called repentance.

In this season of Advent, God calls us to repent. And this call to repentance, as the Collect aptly notes, is an act of divine mercy leading us towards the joy of salvation:

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; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.  – Collect for the Second Sunday of Advent

God in his mercy lets us know when we are out of tune so that we can become attuned to His ways and participate in the symphony of salvation. He doesn’t want us to miss out. He wants us to hear and heed that “voice of one crying out in the wilderness” (Luke 3:4).

Now John the Baptist may seem to some a strange figure to feature so prominently during this season, but he perfectly encapsulates what Advent is all about – repentance and joy; themes which are not disparate but inextricably linked. In fact, the former is the prerequisite for the latter. There is no joy without repentance. For repentance makes possible that joyful anticipation of the arrival of our Lord.

So, as we prepare for Christ’s arrival in the Christian Year and, ultimately, at the end of the age, let us do so with confidence. Let us repent not in a spirit of despair but of hope, resting in God’s transformative power. For we know “that the one who began a good work among [us] will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).

– Father Matt Ainsley is assistant to the rector at Church of the Ascension, Orlando.