December 7, 2025 "Prepare for the peacemaker"

2nd Sunday in Advent

Isaiah 11:1-10

Psalm 72

Romans 15:4-13

Matthew 3:1-12

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,

grace and peace to you from our coming peacemaker. Amen

Today we lit the second candle on the Advent wreath,

 the candle of peace,

and in our scriptures

we have a vision of the peace

 that the messiah will bring from the prophet Isaiah,

 most vividly imaged in the pairs of animals

 that are naturally at odds with one another,

or rather one usually serves as a food source for the other,

but in this vision there is no natural enmity

 but harmonious living,

 wolf and lamb, leopard and kid, calf and lion,

even young children will be able to play with venomous snakes

 and not be harmed,

such is the extent of the peace brought about by the knowledge of the Lord,

 not just an absence of violence

 but a whole natural way of life. 

Now that sounds like a vision worth hoping for

and it is the tradition in which John the Baptist stands

 as he bursts onto the scene in our gospel proclaiming

 “‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

Not only does John fulfill the expectations set by Isaiah

 of one in the wilderness preparing the way,

 but he is also dressed and acts much like Elijah,

the prophet taken up to heaven in a whirlwind

 whose return is supposed to precede the day of the Lord

 so we hear that Jerusalem and all Judea,

and all the region around the Jordan were going out to him,

everyone is excited

could it be?

The day of the Lord?

 the time of peace is coming?

And no one wants to miss out,

 even the Pharisees and Sadducees,

the powerful religious elite come

but when John sees them

 his message seems decidedly less peaceful

 “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?”

 he demands of them,

and this gives us pause

because where does wrath figure in this peaceful image?

And all of a sudden

we are taken from wolf and lamb snuggled up together

 to images of an ax at the root of an unproductive tree

and a winnowing fork separating grain from chaff,

and the chaff being burned,

how does this figure into peace?

 And in this question

 we strike at the heart of why John the Baptist is necessary,

 why someone must prepare the way,

 because we need to be prepared

 for the fact that the journey to peace

 is going to be less than peaceful shall we say,

and it requires our participation,

because the ways we have been living

have contributed to the lack of peace,

if peace is to come

 things will need to change,

 we will need to change,

 we will need to repent,

change our minds, change our hearts, change our lives,

and we all know how much we humans like change….

but the hope for peace is a hope for change,

 real honest change,

change so deep that predators live in harmony with their former prey.

And it’s going to take some less than peaceful actions to get there. 

This last spring I heard a sermon preached by the Rev. Dr. Cynthia Hale

at the festival of homiletics,

and I am still pondering something she said-

 I know I’ve mentioned it in a previous sermon

but it was so powerful I’m still mulling it over.

In her sermon she made a distinction between peacemakers and peacekeepers saying: “peacemakers are painfully honest about the lack of peace and are willing to upset the status quo vs peace keepers who don’t want to rock the boat”

John knows that when push comes to shove

 the Sadducees and Pharisees will turn out to be peace keepers

 and end up in opposition to Jesus the peacemaker

 who will definitely upset the status quo,

and John is preparing the way,

 starting to rock the boat,

 starting to stretch people’s imaginations for what is possible

 and what the day of the Lord means,

 and actually in this too he is right in line with Isaiah,

 who when we look back at the reading,

we realize prophesied that the peace comes

because the shoot coming out of the stump of Jesse

 will serve as a judge,

the most just and fair judge ever not being swayed by ear or eye

 but guided by righteousness and equity and “he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.” 

only then will the wolf live with the lamb

as knowledge of the Lord covers the earth.

God is coming to bring peace,

and God will remove those who stand in the way of peace

 which sounds a bit daunting

especially if we worry about being on the receiving end of the wrath of God

 but God also sent prophets to prepare the way,

 to give us a chance to repent, change our minds, hearts, ways.

 John calls the people to repent,

and marks their repentance with baptism,

but even as he fulfills his call

he knows that it is only the start,

 there is more to come,

the one coming after him will baptize with Holy Spirit and with fire,

that as much as we humans commit

 to changing our ways on the way to peace it

 will have to be God who makes the complete transformation,

 and yet we humans still have a role to play to prepare the way.

Last week we lit the candle of hope,

and so strong is our hope in the promised future of God

that we want to start living it right now,

this week John invites us to follow through on that desire,

 proclaiming that if we want the vision of peace on offer

 that we hope for

we will need to participate in it,

starting with examining our own lives,

repenting,

changing our minds,

our hearts,

our lives

as best we can,

 even as we know

 and hope in the one more powerful that is coming

who will bring true peace. Amen