Advent 2A | December 8, 2013
A Gospel Reading: Welcome the Wild One
Matthew 3.1-12
Stephanie:While Jesus was living in the Galilean hills, John, called “the Baptizer,” was preaching in the desert country of Judea. His message was simple and austere, like his desert surroundings: “Change your life. God’s kingdom is here.”
Tim: This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said,
“The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.’”
Elizabeth:Welcome the wild one, the desert declaimer,
urgently, awesomely, crying his news:
“Now, listen now! There is One who comes after!
I am unfitted to fasten his shoes.”
Stephanie:Camel-hair coated, unkempt and unbending,
living off grasshoppers, honey, and briars,
knee-deep in water, he hails the impending
flame-giving Spirit’s enveloping fires.
Tim:John dressed in a camel-hair habit tied at the waist by a leather strap. He lived on a diet of locusts and wild field honey. People poured out of Jerusalem, Judea, and the Jordanian countryside to hear and see him in action. There at the Jordan River those who came to confess their sins were baptized into a changed life.
Elizabeth:Hear from the herald the king who’s expected:
world-ending wrath is the power he describes,
God’s own anointed, outspoken, uncensored,
judging the palace, the priests, and the scribes.
Stephanie:See now the young one who lingers and listens,
standing intent in the buzz of the throng,
waiting in line, on the brink of decisions,
seeking the Spirit that beckons through John.
Tim:I’m baptizing you here in the river, turning your old life in for a kingdom life. The real action comes next: The main character in this drama—compared to him I’m a mere stagehand—will ignite the kingdom life within you, a fire within you, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out. He’s going to clean house—make a clean sweep of your lives. He’ll place everything true in its proper place before God; everything false he’ll put out with the trash to be burned.”
Elizabeth:Gaspingly drenched by the people’s baptizer,
drowned in the grief of our groanings and cries,
bowing beneath God’s unfettered outsider,
rising envisioned, he opens his eyes.
Stephanie:Welcome God’s Love-Child, anointed, invested,
desert-impelled by the Spirit within.
World-making, love shining, tempered and tested,
now is at hand—let salvation begin!
Tim: The word of God for the people of God.
All:Thanks be to God.
Matthew 3.1-12 New Revised Standard Version and The Message
Brian Wren “Welcome the Wild One” from Advent, Christmas and Epiphany: Liturgies and Prayers for Public Worship.
A Prayer Reading: Come, Lord Jesus
Elizabeth:Thou son of the Most High, Prince of Peace, be born again into our world. Wherever there is war in this world, wherever there is pain, wherever there is loneliness, wherever there is no hope, come, thou long-expected one, with healing in thy wings.
Tim: Turn on the porch light,
dazzle the dark night.
God is coming soon.
God is coming soon
through someone, somehow,
next year, here and now,
midnight, morning, noon.
Stephanie:Just like a snowplow,
scraping a road now,
Prophets clear away
our shame and sadness,
blame and busyness,
calling us to pray.
Elizabeth: Holy Child, whom the shepherds and the kings and the dumb beasts adored, be born again. Wherever there is boredom, wherever there is fear of failure, wherever there is temptation too strong to resist, wherever there is bitterness of heart, come, thou blessed one, with healing in thy wings.
Tim: Here is a newsbreak
healing our heartache:
Christ will bring us home!
Christ will bring us home,
where no one’s outcast,
and we’ll have at last
freedom and shalom.
Stephanie: Born in a stable,
straw for a cradle,
now the baby cries
and the baby’s cries
bring down the tyrant,
break the arrogant,
sifting truth from lies.
Elizabeth: Saviour, be born in each of us who raises his face to thy face, not knowing fully who he is or who thou art, knowing only that thy love is beyond his knowing and that no other has the power to make him whole. Come, Lord Jesus, to each who longs for thee even though he has forgotten thy name. Come quickly.
Tim: Amen.
Stephanie: Amen.
Elizabeth: Amen.
Frederick Buechner “Lord, Jesus Christ: December 31” from Listening to Your Life: Daily Meditations with Frederick Buechner.
Brian Wren “Rejoice, Give Thanks!” from Advent, Christmas and Epiphany: Liturgies and Prayers for Public Worship.