Isaiah 40:1-11

Mark 1:1-8

NUCC

Advent 2

December 4, 2005

            Back in 1966 the great jazz alto saxophone player Julian Cannonball Adderley introduced a tune written by his sideman Joe Zawinul.

Cannonball said:

“Sometimes we’re not prepared for adversity.  Sometimes we don’t know what to do when adversity takes over.  I have advice for all of us --- what you’re supposed to say when you have that kind of problem:

Mercy, Mercy, Mercy!

            In August and September folks down along our American Gulf Coast and in the mountains of Pakistan must have been crying out “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy!”  They were facing adversity ---- and for that matter they still are, especially in Pakistan where winter is coming.

            Way back in ancient Iraq ---- then called Babylon ---- some exiled Israelites, now called Jews, must have cried out “mercy, mercy, mercy” as they yearned to return to their homeland near Jerusalem.

Isaiah spoke to them of comfort ------ and mercy.

            A few hundred years later the descendants of those exiles, now back home in Israel, must also have cried “mercy, mercy, mercy” as they yearned to be set free from the occupying troops of the Roman Empire and the rigid laws of the religious elite.

John the Baptizer spoke to them, offering news of a merciful one to come.

            Mercy, mercy, mercy.  Wouldn’t the black people of Darfur in Sudan like to receive some of that instead of vengeance at the hands of the Arab militia?

            Mercy, mercy, mercy.  Wouldn’t that be nice to see in the halls of Congress instead of the acrimony and bitterness we see now?

            It is for these situations and many others two prophets named Isaiah and John speak today, offering comfort, forgiveness and hope.

Comfort

When Isaiah says “comfort, comfort my people” he is also being realistic.  Later on he acknowledges, “All people are grass.”  Those of us who have faced death in our lives know the truth of both phrases.  This life is relatively brief.  We will not live forever.  We will be stung by grief.  But we will also be enveloped in the comforting arms of loved ones and assured that we are not alone.  Then as we move, every so hesitatingly, out of the grip of grief, we learn to be more merciful.   We put ourselves in the shoes of the grieving ones, even those who find this Advent and Christmas season to be more blue than white.  The call of Christmas is to show comfort and mercy to one another.

Forgiveness

            When the ascetic John preached repentance and offered forgiveness out there in the wilderness, he was challenging his hearers to imagine a new way.  Turn your life around, Leave behind the ways of bitterness and vengeance.  Let the waters of forgiveness wash over you and make you clean.

            During this Advent season we also have this opportunity to change our lives.  Perhaps you have entered into a spiritual discipline of Morning Prayer and have used an Advent calendar to do some small act of kindness and mercy each day.  Perhaps you have answered one of the pleas from organizations like the Salvation Army or our own church’s Christmas Fund and given again, even thought you dug a little deeper for hurricane aid earlier in the fall.  In doing so you have shown mercy, and not just thrown up your hands in frustration, saying “mercy, mercy, mercy!”

            If you have allowed yourself to hear these words of comfort and forgiveness from the prophets you will be filled with Advent hope, knowing that you are empowered by the God who comes to us in so many surprising ways ---- even in a small baby.

            One of the ways in which God comes to us this very day is through a “Meal of Mercy.”  We call this “meal of mercy” Holy Communion.  Today you are invited to enjoy some “comfort food.”  As you eat the bread and drink the cup may you receive the merciful comfort and forgiveness which God bestows upon us through this sacrament.  As you receive God’s mercy, may you be strengthened to go out of this church and practice mercy in some surprising way to some surprised person, who is even now exclaiming “mercy, mercy, mercy!”