Happy second Sunday of Advent and happy St. Nicholas Day! The signs of the season are all around, even if I am still waiting for it to get cold. Today is the Feast Day of St. Nicholas, the Bishop of Myra in the fourth century. That right there is about all of the information that anyone really knows about St. Nicholas, everything else is an elaborately colorful guessing game. Stories of Nicholas range from him fasting as an infant, by only nursing once a day on Wednesdays and Fridays, providing dowries for three impoverished sisters, calming raging waters, and rescuing children from being pickled in a vat of brine. He is remembered as one of the most benevolent men the church has ever known. What we know for sure is that he was a Bishop in what is now Turkey, and that he is the patron saint for children and sailors. So exactly how does the saint who is the basis for Santa Claus become a patron saint for both children and sailors? The Episcopal priest Sam Portaro suggests in his book Brightest and Best that the connection is found in the helplessness that they both share. Living as close to the Pacific Ocean as we do, we can all see very clearly not only the tremendous beauty but also the immense danger that a huge body of water can be. Imagine the sense of helplessness that ancient sailors felt as they set off on their journeys, not knowing what adventures they might encounter or whether they would live
to return home again. It is no wonder that sailors prayed to the most benevolent saint they were aware of, in the hopes that Nicholas would intervene on their behalf. The sailors saw very clearly that we as humans live a life bounded by birth and death, a life in which control is mostly an illusion and in which we only really gain sanity when we acknowledge and surrender our illusion of control. Today, we get to have one small story of a biblical figure that wrestled clearly with that illusion of control. We heard the Song of Zechariah, from Luke s Gospel, in place of the usual Psalm, but we missed out on the rather fascinating narrative that lead up to the Song. Zechariah, a Jewish priest, was the father of John the Baptist, the original Advent man, who came to prepare the world for the coming of the Messiah. Zechariah and his wife were childless in what seems to be the tradition of the Old Testament matriarchs. An angel of God came to Zechariah to proclaim that Elizabeth would give birth to a son, named John, who would be the forerunner for the Messiah. Shockingly Zechariah expressed some doubt at this prophecy, for who wouldn t question an angel that showed up in the temple when you were simply tending the altar quietly by yourself? When Zechariah expressed doubt about this prophecy, he lost the power of speech. Elizabeth, hid herself
away when her pregnancy began to show, so now we have one who is not socializing and one who cannot speak. Imagine what the neighbors must have though! Eight days after the baby was born he was brought to the temple for his naming ceremony and bris. The community was surprised when Elizabeth declared that the child was to be named John. Zechariah could have continued to hold out, to not believe that his son was called to a really difficult ministry, but Zechariah acquiesced, confirming that the child s name was to be John. The words in the Song of Zechariah were the first words he said upon regaining his voice but he couldn t speak until he accepted the call to ministry of the child that God had given him. Zechariah proclaims through his Song the prophecy that the angel gave to him, about the vocation and ministry of John, and gives us an idea, perhaps, of where John gets his rather fearless and radical approach to his ministry. John was the last of the Old Testament style prophets. He came to awaken the world to a new reality. Today we will commission the formation ministers of the Parish of St. Matthew s, who are called to follow in John s footsteps and to awaken all the ministers of this congregation. But do we really know what this idea called Christian formation is? My assumption is that even for those of you who grew up in a church, Christian formation
might be a new term for you. This summer the Episcopal Church formalized it s definition of Christian formation at the General Convention to state, Christian Faith Formation in the Episcopal Church is a lifelong journey with Christ, in Christ, and to Christ. At its core formation is really about the ministry of the Messiah. God came to be with us in human form to be more fully in relationship with us. God sent an alarm clock for this new reality in John the Baptist. Serving as a minister of formation is entirely about relational ministry. The most important characteristic for a formation minister is a willingness to walk on a shared path for a time, confident not in your own ability to have answers but your willingness to discover answers together in community, and to realize that behind those answers are dozens more questions. I have had my own interesting formative moments this week, as I realized again the profound difficulty of standing here on this Sunday morning. I confess I was seduced by the power of the dark side when I agreed to give the sermon this week, as I am in my own Advent place of anxiety. Tomorrow I leave for Washington, DC to pack up my worldly belongings, meet movers and sign papers finalizing the sale of my condo there. Virtually
my entire being is focused on that process and finalizing the purchase of a condo here in Los Angles. As I have sat, prayed and studied with these readings for three weeks, I find myself able to focus for small periods of time, between the readings and thinking about all the things that have to get done, along with my profound sadness at saying good-bye to my community in DC once again. In this midst of all of this I was missing that formative moment that God was offering up to me. I was missing my opportunity to do that which has always been my Advent mantra Slow down, be quiet, it is Advent. I got seduced by this pulpit and the combined anxiety, glee and curiosity that I feel here, seduced by this act of preaching publically which is still very new to me, rather than taking the opportunity to be in my Advent of waiting for the completion of my move which in so many ways is my Christmas. I didn t pay attention to my own formation to respect Advent for the transformative process that it is and instead pushed through to what I saw as a zenith, all of this only increased my anxiety level. I nearly missed the forest for the trees. My role here is to do that which God created me for, in the same way that God created John the Baptist for a ministry and God created all of you for ministries. My ministry here is to crack open a little piece of this, to wonder aloud with you, to play with the texts in ways that might shed a different light, but most importantly to create at least a little
space in which the words of God can form you in your journey with Christ, in Christ and to Christ Amen. Baruch 5:1-9 Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction, O Jerusalem, and put on forever the beauty of the glory from God. Put on the robe of the righteousness that comes from God; put on your head the diadem of the glory of the Everlasting; for God will show your splendor everywhere under heaven. For God will give you evermore the name, "Righteous Peace, Godly Glory." Arise, O Jerusalem, stand upon the height; look toward the east, and see your children gathered from west and east at the word of the Holy One, rejoicing that God has remembered them. For they went out from you on foot, led away by their enemies; but God will bring them back to you, carried in glory, as on a royal throne. For God has ordered that every high mountain and the everlasting hills be made low and the valleys filled up, to make level ground, so that Israel may walk safely in the glory of God. The woods and every fragrant tree have shaded Israel at God's command. For God will lead Israel with joy, in the light of his glory, with the mercy and righteousness that come from him. or Malachi 3:1-4 See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight-- indeed, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the
LORD in righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the LORD as in the days of old and as in former years. Canticle 16 Page 92, BCP The Song of Zechariah Benedictus Dominus Deus Luke 1: 68-79 Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; * he has come to his people and set them free. He has raised up for us a mighty savior, * born of the house of his servant David. Through his holy prophets he promised of old, that he would save us from our enemies, * from the hands of all who hate us. He promised to show mercy to our fathers * and to remember his holy covenant. This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham, * to set us free from the hands of our enemies, Free to worship him without fear, * holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life. You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High, * for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way, To give people knowledge of salvation * by the forgiveness of their sins. In the tender compassion of our God * the dawn from on high shall break upon us, To shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, * and to guide our feet into the way of peace. Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: * as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. Philippians 1:3-11 I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to think this way about all of you, because you hold me in your heart, for all of you share in God's grace with me, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that
in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God. 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, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, 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. 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; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'"