Baptized in Expectation

Sermon Text || Year C: Advent 2

Baptized in Expectation

Exile is more than just being displaced from one’s land, as if that isn’t bad enough. Exile means a loss of identity. The worship, culture, language, and even names of a people is forcibly or naturally transformed into the worship, culture, and language of the conquering power.

Judah returned from Babylonian exile just seventy years after they were taken from their homeland, but even though they were allowed to go home and rebuild, the effects of exile were seemingly irreversible. It’s like when someone’s house is broken into. They may replace the locks, purchase a security system, or even get a guard dog, but their home won’t feel safe for some time.

So the people looked for a Messiah.

This Messiah would baptize them in the Spirit and inaugurate a new covenant in which all of their sins would be forgiven, even those sins which caused the land to “spew them out” in the first place.

There were even prophets who meticulously laid out the circumstances for this Messiah’s arrival. By the time of the first century, the people just knew that God was about to do something amazing. There were prophets, priests, and preachers who were discerning the signs of the times. There were rebels who thought that they just may be the ones to fulfill the prophecies. And then there was a man named Zechariah, a man baptized in expectation.

Zechariah’s Prophecy

Our psalm for today was composed by Zechariah, who was John the Baptist’s father. Because he didn’t believe the promise of an angel concerning the birth of John, the angel caused him to be mute until his promised son would arrive. When he finally did, Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit, his mouth was opened, and he said,

“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them. He has raised up a mighty savior for us in the house of his child David, as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us. Thus he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors and has remembered his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham, to grant us that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness in his presence all our days. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give his people knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins. Because of the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to shine upon those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” Luke 1:68–79

This prophecy is saturated with imagery from the prophets. The prophecies Zechariah references are all about the restoration of Israel under the son of David. They are about life and resurrection and justice. And these prophecies are the ones all of the people had been quoting and singing and passing down to new generations because all of the people were baptized in expectation.

And You, Child

Zechariah‘s son John would indeed be the prophet of the Most High, but this young man didn’t receive the word from the Lord in the temple like his father; instead the word of God came to John in the wilderness (Luke 3:3).

I find it interesting that John was in the wilderness. As a son of Levi and around the age of priestly ministry, John had every right to be serving in the temple like his father, but as the forerunner of a new exodus, John was drawn to the ancient exodus story and the place where Israel first step foot into the land: the wilderness around the Jordan.

John was also someone who was baptized in expectation. His expectation was that the kingdom of God was at hand. As John taught, he proclaimed a baptism of expectation, a baptism that called people to change their minds, transform their lives, and receive the forgiveness of sins.

This forgiveness of sins didn’t come through bulls, goats, or any other kind of sacrifice. In fact, it wasn't connected to the sacrificial system at all. Instead, this forgiveness was a repudiation of a corrupted system and a foreshadowing of the new, a kingdom and covenant John taught was at hand.

His water baptism for the remission of sins was a picture of a greater kind of baptism foreseen by the prophets, a baptism in the Spirit of God.

In fact, John’s entire ministry was rooted in the prophets:

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.’  Luke 3:4–6

This is a quotation of Isaiah 40:3-5, a passage that is all about a new kind of exodus. This language of making the paths straight, the valleys filled, and the hills made low is about preparation for the arrival of the Messiah. It may even be looked at as a kind of purification or period of repentance where wrongs are made right and injustices are rectified.

One other passage that had baptized the people in expectation is Malachi 3:1-4.

Refining Fire

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 washers’ 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. Malachi 3:1–4

This passage opens up by talking about the messenger who would prepare the way, which the New Testament writers interpret as John. This messenger would prepare the way of “the Lord whom you seek.” Again, these passages, and the season of Advent, are all about expectation and anticipation.

Now, notice that the prophet asks the rhetorical question, “Who can endure the day of his coming?”

Besides Herod, there weren’t many people afraid of Jesus’s birth. Even Jesus’s earthly ministry started off subtly, with Jesus telling those whom he healed to keep things quiet for a while.

It makes more sense for John to prepare the way for Jesus’s first and second advent, which the Hebrew Scriptures rarely, if ever, distinguish between.

But it is important to note that this “endurance” isn’t needed because the Lord is coming to burn up the Levites but to purify them, to cleanse them. Certainly, this refining process can be difficult and even painful—I think we are all familiar with that—but it is a process of discipline rooted in Divine love and in the formation of a new covenant.

This is why John uses fire imagery throughout his teachings. He’s drawing from these very prophecies concerning himself and his ministry. When he began to teach and use this “fiery” language, Luke tells us “the people were filled with expectation and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah…” (Luke 3:15).

This passage, and this question, is outside the scope of our reading today, but it sets us up nicely for next week. For now, it’s enough to notice that the people were baptized in expectation.

Are we baptized in expectation in this season? As we try to internalize the expectation of Elizabeth and Zechariah, Mary and Joseph, and the first disciples of Jesus, let’s try to picture what our own world would look life if God came “suddenly” into our present situation. What systems may we be asked to step away from? What might be our wilderness, our place to hit the reset button? In what ways do we need to change our minds? What sins have we not acknowledged? What truth needs to be proclaimed?

May we also be open to the working of God and be baptized in expectation in our own lives.

Lectionary Reading: December 8, 2024 - Second Sunday of Advent

Old Testament: Malachi 3:1-4
Psalm: Luke 1:68-79
New Testament: Philippians 1:3-11
Gospel: Luke 3:1-6

Weekly Church Bulletin: That Your Love May Overflow

Imagine our congregation received a letter from Paul. I bet you’re already a little nervous about the very idea; I know I am. We know from reading some of Paul’s earliest letters that he was’t afraid of conflict, especially if it meant that his audience would be able to grow closer to God.

It may come as a surprise, but Paul’s letters were not all critical. In fact, he wrote several letters in which he spent the majority of the time praising his audience. Philippians is one of those letters. Paul’s prayer for the church in Philippians 1:3-11 is worth the read. It starts off, “I thank my God for every remembrance of you…”

In this prayer, Paul delivers one of my favorite lines of the whole letter: “And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what really matters…” (Philippians 1:9–10).

Notice that knowledge and insight can’t increase without our love overflowing more and more. The problem with so many people in our world is that they long for their knowledge to increase, but they don’t pay attention to what really matters, which is overflowing love. Knowledge without action isn’t impressive, but love gives meaning to all things.

But this passage isn’t all about love and thanksgiving. It’s also about expectation. God had begun a good work in them, and Paul expected God to finish that work until the day of Christ. Paul was able to tell them to work out their own salvation because it was God who was at work in them (Philippians 2:12-13).

This work would produce a bountiful harvest of righteousness, which is good news for them and for those around them (Philippians 1:11).

Does are love for each other overflow more and more? What kind of harvest is produced in our lives? Have we taken the time to determine what really matters?