Trinity Metropolitan Community Church of Gainesville (Trinity MCC) - A Season of Preparation for Standing Strong

A Season of Preparation for Standing Strong

Part 2 in the Advent Preaching Series, “A Season of Preparation

Rev. Jim Merritt

December 6, 2009

Trinity MCC, Gainesville

Introduction:

Today we enter a bit of new territory for our study and thinking together. I imagine many of us have been exposed to readings from the collection of books known as the Apocrypha before, and since this is the first time we’ve used one, I want to make sure we all understand some basics about these books.

Our word, “Apocrypha” comes from the Greek noun apokrypha, which in its simplest form means, “hidden.” In our context it refers to a group of books on the edges of the Canon of scripture. It refers to numerous Jewish writings dating from about 300 B.C.E. to about 70 C. E. These books were considered authoritative and inspired by many early Jews, and although they are not included in many mainline publications of the Bible, they certainly are contained in Bibles used by our Catholic sisters and brothers and by most Biblical Scholars. The Harper Collins Study Bible that I used throughout my studies at Episcopal Divinity School and I still use today does contain the books of the Apocrypha. They have a lot to offer us and I’m glad we have an opportunity to explore one brief passage from the Book of Baruch this morning. I encourage you to get a copy of the Apocrypha, particularly related to this morning’s message, the Book of Baruch.

Readings

These are wonderful and encouraging readings for today and when I first looked at them many weeks ago I immediately began singing from Handel’s Messiah, “Every Valley, shall be exalted…” Every valley will be filled and every mountain and hill made low and the crooked path straight…prepare the way of our God. Jesus is coming soon, morning or night or noon, Jesus is coming and this is our Season of Preparation for Standing Strong!

Notice with me what the writer of the Gospel of Luke does. He is very careful to set John carefully in his exact historic and cultural context. He tells us a little bit about who John was, about who his people were, about who the governmental rulers were. Luke helps us understand John in context. I like that because all of us come with history and in context. We live in the context of our times. We live in the context of our people. We live in the context of our culture. And having had the privilege of traveling to other places you and I can certainly agree that not everybody does it the way we do it. Not everybody thinks the way we think. And we know that even in this very moment we stand as beneficiaries of what others have done. John called out, Prepare ye the way of our God, make the valleys straight, make the hills low, straighten out these crooked paths! Prepare a way of peace. Martin Luther King, Jr. cried out Prepare a way for equality and justice for African American People. Cesar Chavez cried out Prepare a way for just treatment of farm workers. Metropolitan Community Churches and Rev. Elder Troy Perry and many of us who have followed him have spent our lives crying out for equality and justice for all people, including our people. As with John, members of the LGBT community are often on the margins advocating for a transformed society. Shively T. J. Smith adds, "The gospel reading forces us to face the reality that the emotional pain and estrangement that groups like the LGBT community and various ethnic communities face do not spring from the Gospel message of love and acceptance. Rather, it is the result of the Christian community's failure to truly follow the model of John as a prophetic voice that 'makes [Christ's] paths straight.'" It is a difficult task, but this text reminds us that it is an important one. Peace making is never easy.

We are following the example of John, the example of our ancestors and we know that every success we enjoy is partly due to the work that those who have come before us have done. We stand strong on this legacy of activism. We stand strong with those who have cried out for the way of our God. We stand strong in the face on ongoing injustice and we do it without shame from our own contexts. We stand strong in the face of those who choose to make war rather than peace. A Season of Preparation for Standing Strong in the name of Jesus and in the names of our godly ancestors; A season of preparation for peace.

There is also an intense personal element in this passage. Luke is strongly calling of us to repent of our sins and receive forgiveness. We are called to turn from our hate-filled behavior to peace-filled behavior. Daniel Batcher says there are two unique features of this passage, first is this call to repentance and forgiveness. What is sin? I like to think of sin as my own behaviors that trouble me. Behaviors about which I thing, “O Jim, I wish you hadn’t done that,” or “Oops, you did it again.” Sins for me are behaviors that interfere with relationships with other people. My sins are behaviors that interfere with my relationship with God. Sins for me are behaviors that push me out of what I call, “the zone.” I know that feeling inside of me that very quickly lets me know I need to pay better attention to what I have done. Are you familiar with an experience like that? Do you get feelings like that? I imagine so and I think probably most of us by this point in our lives know what sin is. It’s not fun to think about, and it is absolutely necessary that we address the sin in our own personal lives and in our lives together during a Season of Preparation for Standing Strong.

Batcher says the other unique aspect of this passage is a radical “newness” that is unfolding here. The experience of forgiveness is radical. The best comparison I can think of is like having 50 pound removed from my body in a flash. When we come to God in repentance and receive the forgiveness God has promised, we are radically changed. We are radically re-energized. Suddenly we know we have the ability to handle whatever comes our way…with God’s help. Suddenly we know that we know that we know that we really CAN make it. We know that we are ready to stand strong in the face of adversity. We know that having done all we can do, sometimes we are called to stand and to continue to stand. Stand up, Stand up for Jesus.

            Stand strong in the face of adversity, my sisters and brothers, Stand Strong.

            Stand strong in the face of sickness, stand strong

            Stand strong in the face of attempts to marginalize us, Stand Strong

            Stand strong for peace in our world

Stand strong in the face of those who say you can’t because you know you can in the name of Jesus.

Stand strong when others revile and persecute you because you KNOW that you are a child of God.

Stand strong in repentance because God is on our side.

Stand strong in forgiveness

Stand strong in turning around.

Prepare ye the way of our God! Jesus is coming soon. Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction, O Jerusalem,   and put on for ever the beauty of the glory from God. ²Put on the robe of the righteousness that comes from God; put on your head the diadem of the glory of the Everlasting; ³for God will show your splendor everywhere under heaven. ⁴For God will give you evermore the name, ‘Righteous Peace, Godly Glory’.

A Season of Preparation for Standing Strong; a season of peacemaking. Is there room in our hearts for Jesus? Let us prepare and let us be ready. AMEN.

ENGLISH

APOCRYPHA

GREEK:

apokrypha

Baruch 5:1-9 NRSV

5Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction, O Jerusalem,    and put on for ever the beauty of the glory from God. ²Put on the robe of the righteousness that comes from God; put on your head the diadem of the glory of the Everlasting; ³for God will show your splendor everywhere under heaven. ⁴For God will give you evermore the name,
   ‘Righteous Peace, Godly Glory’.
⁵Arise, O Jerusalem, stand upon the height; look towards the east,
and see your children gathered from west and east at the word of the Holy One, rejoicing that God has remembered them.
⁶For 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.
⁷For 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. ⁸The woods and every fragrant tree have shaded Israel at God’s command. ⁹For God will lead Israel with joy, in the light of God’s glory, with the mercy and righteousness that come from God.

Gospel Reading

Luke 3:1-6 NRSV

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, ²during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. ³He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, ⁴as 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. ⁵Every 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; ⁶and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”

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