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Isaiah 11:1-10 • Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19 • Romans 15:4-13 • Matthew 3:1-12

Christmas Day is just three weeks away, and I came across a W.H. Auden Christmas poem published in 1944 https://www.thepoetryhour.com/.../for-the-time-being-a... which seems to take place in a tired state right after Christmas, including these lines: “Stayed up so late, attempted – quite unsuccessfully – To love all of our relatives, and in general grossly overestimated our powers.” So, it’s not just me that has trouble loving all my relatives! I used to ‘joke’ that part of why I became a priest is so that I could not go back to Winnipeg for family Christmases.
With our Advent theme of peace today, we have another version of Isaiah’s peaceable kingdom prophecy: “The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.” Of course, there needs to be some kind of transformation of nature as well, since the next line tells us that “the lion shall eat straw like the ox”. In H. D. Thoreau’s 1854 book about Walden Pond, a farmer tries to convince him that he cannot be strong or healthy without eating meat … all while the farmer’s ox pulls the heavy plow to work the fields. “They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain” God tells Isaiah in a vision of a much more peaceable world. Of course, this reading is understood by Christians to be a prophecy about the coming of the Christ child – the Prince of Peace: “A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse … The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might …”
We hear more in our psalm 72 reading today about the people’s hopes for the King’s son who is to come: “May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the needy, and crush the oppressor. … In his days may righteousness flourish and peace abound”. We too, of course long for these same things – for justice to flourish on earth and for PEACE to abound. In our own lives here in Canada we are so fortunate to live without the horrible enemy advances of war that the people of Ukraine and other places deal with every day. And we long to be able to help remove wars from all of God’s good earth, but how?
In our gospel today we have John the Baptist coming to prepare the way of the Lord: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” To repent is to turn away from sin and turn towards God. William Barclay and others emphasize that this TURNING is essential to the process. In other words, we must turn our faces and our footsteps in a different direction than before. How can we really turn and see differently – see God’s world as God intended it to be – as a place of compassionate peace for all? We ask God’s Holy Spirit of Wisdom to help us turn our steps and hearts and minds onto a pathway of greater peace for all of God’s Creation.
The need for repentance, or more specifically remorse, plays an important part in the last encounter between Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort. BTW if any of you are wondering if it’s appropriate to speak of Harry Potter in a church sermon, please note that Harvard Divinity School had a five-year podcast looking at the sacred in Harry Potter. As Harry and the Dark Lord prepare to duel to the death in front of hundreds at Hogwarts school, Harry shocks Voldemort by saying: “But before you try to kill me, I’d advise you to think about what you’ve done … think, and try for some remorse …”. Voldemort is utterly shocked at this idea, and Harry goes on: “It’s your one last chance … it’s all you’ve got left … be a man … try for some remorse.” (p.606, vol 7). But of course, the Dark Lord is utterly incapable of even considering such a thing, so they have their final battle and Voldemort is killed, not by Harry, but by his own rebounding curse.
I’m sure that’s what God desires – for evil to fail and good to prevail. However, the Creator saw fit to give us all free will, and we are continually challenged in countless ways to keep choosing what is good. I’m quite sure that many of us, including me for sure, sometimes mistakenly choose evil when we meant to choose good. Just like in Harry Potter’s world, there’s so much deception and confusion out there, and when we choose what is more desirable or convenient, we might inadvertently be harming others unawares. For example, so many of our shopping and lifestyle habits harm the earth. And the poorest in the world, who’ve done the least to harm the earth, are often the ones who are most victimized by climate change. So many climate refugees or desperate climate migrants are fleeing homes that are no longer safe -- including many families with children -- taking horribly risky journeys in hopes of just staying alive. Oh, what they wouldn’t give to live in the peaceful comfort that most of us enjoy.
Going back to our readings, the gospel reminds us that peace must be preceded by ‘bearing fruits worthy of repentance’. What John the Baptist presents to us is not an easy route to a comfy, peaceful life, but rather a reminder that we must continually be vigilant about all the ways that selfishness, greed and apathy rear their ugly heads in our overly consumeristic world. Nonetheless we can feel assured that LOVE will ultimately win the day. God’s compassionate love for the world and all the creatures God created – will ultimately prevail. Love came down at Christmas, and that is what we are now preparing to receive again into our hearts and our world.
Let’s end by hearing again this lovely last line in today’s epistle from Paul’s letter to the Romans: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” May these gifts we are given as followers of the Prince of Peace – help us to know how to help peace to prevail in our tragically wounded world, Amen.