LC, Second Sunday of Advent; A Sermon by The Reverend Alice Marcrum

December 06, 2009

Today we celebrate the love of God for us. This love begins with the love of our Heavenly Father, who loved us so much that He sent us His Son, Jesus, to be our Savior. The story of the Father’s love for us is something that is not always easily accepted. In fact, many will tell you that no father would ever knowingly send any of his sons, let alone his only son, to die for someone else. Yet, that is exactly what our Heavenly Father did for us.

Then there are those whose fathers’ hurt them so much that they cannot even bear to call God Father. Instead, they call God Mother or they refer to God as a being with no gender. Yet, that is not how Jesus revealed God to us. In the Lord’s Prayer, which is said by Christians all over the world, Jesus taught us to address God as our Heavenly Father. 

Many years ago when I was a child of six years, my father left my mother for another woman. We learned of his departure when we returned home from church one Sunday morning. My father, who usually went to church with us, had decided to not go that day. We found out why my father hadn’t gone with us when we got back home and my mother found a letter from him. 

I remember sitting in my mother’s lap with my twin sister as we all cried together. That was a very sad time in my life. Given the timing of my father’s leaving, I could have easily turned against God for letting my father leave us when we were in church worshiping the Lord.  Thankfully, that is not what happened to me.

Instead, one night as I lay in my bed crying over the loss of my father, I began to pray. In my prayer, I asked God to be my father like He was to His Son Jesus my Lord and Savior. God’s response to my prayer was immediate. God poured out His love into the empty hole in my heart that my father’s absence had left.

As an adult, I look back on the prayer I prayed as a child who looked to God to fill the hole that was in my heart. I want to say to the child in me that God was already my Heavenly Father. Yet, I know that there was a spiritual change that took place that night when I prayed the prayer of a broken hearted child. God responded to my desire for Him to become a part of my life. No longer did I see the Father God as somewhere out there too far away to help me. Instead, God the Father like His Son Jesus became a real Presence in my everyday life. God’s heart of love began to heal my heart with His love. Even though I was a child, I knew that God had answered my prayer.

In today’s gospel reading, John the Baptist proclaims God’s gift of salvation. John uses the words of the prophet Isaiah to tell the people of God’s coming Presence into their lives. Out of the wilderness, John preaches these words,

“'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.'"

When taken out of context, Isaiah’s words sound like instructions for highway construction, but it is not a new highway that God is interested in building. Instead, the Lord God wants our hearts to be remade so we can receive Him into our lives. It is God’s desire of restoring a personal relationship with humanity that caused the Father God to send us Jesus His Beloved Son. Yet, God in His great wisdom knew that if our hearts were not recreated, then we would not be able to receive His gift of Love for us.  God also knew that we as humans are incapable of recreating our hearts.

So what can we mere mortals do to receive this Holy Gift of Love from our Creator? We have to come before the Lord in humility, even in the humbleness of a child, and seek God’s presence in our lives. The psalmist in Psalm 51 tells us what we need to do to prepare ourselves. He writes,

“Going through the motions doesn't please you,
      a flawless performance is nothing to you.
   I learned God-worship
      when my pride was shattered.
   Heart-shattered lives ready for love
      don't for a moment escape God's notice.”

If we truly want God’s presence in our lives, then we have to come to Him in a spirit of humility and with a heart which understands that only God can help us. This is how we are to prepare ourselves to receive our Father’s gift for us. It is the tears of a broken heart that melt our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh. We can live our entire lives obeying the Lord’s commandments; but if we are full of self pride and have hearts of stone, then we will never know the comfort of God’s love.

At Christmas time, some of us exchange gifts. We would not even dream of giving away our trash to someone and expecting them to give us their treasure. Yet, that is exactly what God wants us to do. God wants us to give Him our sorrows so He can give us His Love. In the Old Testament reading for today from Baruch, we read God’s promise,

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.

When we give our Father God our sorrows, He then covers us with His robe of righteousness which has been purchased by the blood of the Lamb of God, Jesus His Son, but God doesn’t stop there. Like any good father, our Heavenly Father then shows us off, because of His love for us. Our Heavenly Father delights in us. This is how much God loves us. He is not angry with us even though we had to be ransomed from our own mess that we created. Instead, our Heavenly Father wants us back in relationship with Him. We are His treasure. We are His pride and joy!

Our Heavenly Father has done everything possible to show us His Love. He has placed us above all other creatures and sent His Only, Begotten Son to rescue us. Now God is waiting…. waiting for us to respond to His Gift of Love. Are our hearts ready?