Notes on “The Fear of Home”

This week we come to the Second Sunday of Advent, finally reading and hearing the familiar text of anticipation for Christmas. Finally we’re getting ready! Finally we’re hearing the voice in the wilderness!

So why does the sermon title talk about fear?

Perhaps home is a comfortable place for you and therefore unassociated with fear. And perhaps we might acknowledge that it’s not that way for everyone. The Irish rock band U2 includes a lyric in the song “Walk On” that notes how hard it is to know what home even is for those who have never had one.

It’s more than that, too. What if gathering with family means having to face someone you’ve had an argument with? What if it means feelings of anger or pain at being wronged; or the guilt of having wronged or hurt someone? What if it’s a reminder of judgement, neglect, a sense of being unloved?

We want Christmas to be happy, a time of celebration of joy! And for the most part, it is! And for those whose return home is fraught with anxiety, it is an opportunity: for reconciliation, for healing, for peace. Christmas is a chance for the paths to be made straight, the valleys to be filled, the mountains and hills made low, so that all flesh shall see the salvation of God.

Malachi 3:1-4 (NRSV)

¹ 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. ² 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; ³ 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. ⁴ Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.

Luke 3:1-6 (NRSV)

¹ 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, ² during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. ³ He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, ⁴ 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.
⁵ 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;
⁶ and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”

Consider these questions:

1. The text from Malachi references refining and purifying. Is this a positive image for you? Is it a negative image for you? If it’s negative, does it feel like judgement or something else? Whichever way you imagine this, what in your life influences this?
2. Compare and contrast the words refine and judge. Which seems more spiritual? Which seems more comforting? Why? Is it possible they could both be words of hope?
3. Why does Luke put John’s preaching in the wilderness? What echoes of Israel’s story does this conjure for you, and what could this connection mean spiritually?
4. How does John’s ministry prepare the way for Jesus?
5. What does it look like to you to prepare the way of the Lord?