The Second Sunday of Advent 2022

The Christmas gospel, the message that God has come among us, has invaded our world to reclaim it and make it new is to some a threat and to others a welcome promise.  It is to all a message about how God has turned the world upside down, has upset both the power structures of this world, and the assumption of how things ought to be.  It is the story, the announcement about how God in Christ is dramatically and radically reworking, reclaiming God’s creation.  We’ve done a pretty good job of sanitizing and domesticating the gospel, of trying to make the message a bit easier to swallow and to make God manageable and useful for our agendas.  But, John the Baptizer, this strange character we encounter in this week’s reading from Matthew (3:1-12), will not let that be.  Our religious institutions and traditions cannot and must not be used as a defense mechanism to protect ourselves from the purging fire of God’s love.  No, this strange holy man boldly proclaims that God is coming, like an earthmover, leveling mountains, raising valleys, building a highway straight to us.  God is coming to bring peace to us and to the world, says John, be ready.