Pr. Ben Adams
Second Sunday of Advent
December 5/6, 2020
Setting the Stage
Ohhh we’re halfway there! OhOh living on a prayer! Ok that’s it, I don’t want to sing too much of that song because I know how contagious it is and before you know it, it’ll be stuck in everyone’s heads if it’s not already. And this song is ubiquitous, Living on a Prayer by Bon Jovi has been played at countless weddings and high school dances since it’s release in 1986, and I’m not gonna lie, as much as I roll my eyes when it comes on, I always sing along. It’s an earworm for sure and some of you might already have it stuck in your head the rest of the night, and for that I do apologize.
But folks, we are halfway there. This is our second of four Saturday’s/Sunday’s of Advent and Christ is coming soon. And, I know it’s been a while since any of us have been to a live concert or show, so we may have to reach deep into our memories to connect with this metaphor, but at this halfway mark, Jesus’ opening act has taken the stage and it’s none other than John the Baptist.
Now, let’s be honest, opening acts are often taken for granted and not remembered, but we shouldn’t overlook the power of opening acts. Sure they are used to provide value for the price of the ticket and cross-promote different artists for venues looking to increase concert turnout. But more than anything, opening acts 'warm up' the audience, making them ready and appropriately excited and enthusiastic for the headliner.
And that’s what John the Baptist is doing in our Gospel today, he’s setting the stage for the headliner, and if he were performing at a concert he might be up there looking like Jerry Garcia and it might sound like this, “This next one is gonna be my last of my set and I hope y’all are having a good time, and I’m so excited to be here proclaiming a baptism of repentance for y’all, but coming up next is one who is even more powerful than me. While I’m happy to be with him on this tour, I am not worthy to tune his guitar. I mean, I have baptized you with water; but he’s gonna baptize you with the Holy Spirit. Wilderness, are you ready?!”
John’s opening set built a buzz, it created anticipation, and because of his work people were eager to experience Jesus the one who will make all things new. And even outside of scripture, or concerts, there are many stories of opening acts, trail blazers who prepared the way for the ones who come after them, the headliners who then take the stage and get all the credit and glory.
Take for instance Sarah K. Evans. Many people might not have known that name until August 1st of this year when the Sarah K. Evans Plaza opened in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina.
Now Sarah Evans, known formerly as Private Evans, is now 91 years old, but it was her seemingly unremarkable trail blazing event that has led to public recognition almost 70 years later. In 1952 Private Evans was on her way home from her first military assignment, when she refused to move to the back of the bus. Upon refusing, she was taken to jail and detained for 13 hours. She sued the Interstate Commerce Commission for discrimination. Despite a judicial victory in November of 1955, the ruling was not enforced until 1961.
Furthermore, in March of 1955, a young black teenager, Claudette Colvin, refused to give up her bus seat to a white person. Claudette had been exposed to the actions of Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman, Colvin and was emboldened to resist the injustice she experienced on the city bus. As a result, she too was handcuffed and arrested. And like Evans, her story was hidden until recent years.
You see, before there was a Rosa Parks, the Civil Rights icon attributed with prompting the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955, there was Sarah Evans and Claudette Colvin. These trailblazing young women set the stage for the historic resistance which would be later attributed to Parks. Their names are scarcely, if at all, associated with the Civil Rights Movement, yet their actions precipitated one of the most pivotal events of the time. Evans preceded Colvin who preceded Parks. Just as John preceded Jesus.
And if we look at our own personal histories, I’m sure we can point out many ancestors and friends in the faith who paved the way for us, setting the stage for what would eventually be our own journey of faith. It is the work of those folks who we can find strength from when we are nervous about taking the stage ourselves.
Because we are all now the opening act for those who will come after us. Are we preparing a place for them at the table where they can know the love and grace and forgiveness of God?
Furthermore, beyond being the opening act for others, we are also an opening act for our future selves.
This week in Bible study I heard this great quote and it really hit home in these colder, darker, winter moths, and especially as we experience these months in a pandemic. It goes like this:
“I keep trying to tell myself keep working, because when this is all over, you’ll be glad for the work you’ve done.
It’s like the long winters of the past, when the granaries would slowly empty and people started to fear spring would never come again: during the dark days you do things. You repair your tools. You enjoy each other’s company. You sing old songs and write new ones. You make ropes and nets and weave blankets and do anything you don’t have time for in the summer. And it’s hard to do it and hard to stay hopeful, but that way, when spring comes - and spring does come, spring will come - you can start working in the fields with a brand new plow and good boots and a head full of songs.”
Our heads might be filled with only one song right now, Living on a Prayer by Bon Jovi, and again, for that I do sincerely apologize for opening the sermon with it, but let us also open our ears to the song that John the Baptist sings today, knowing the one for whom he sets the stage will set everything back in it’s rightful place, and as we work through the dark winter months that will give way to spring let us sing and write our own songs with evergreen hope. Like Sarah Evans and Claudette Colvin who didn’t know their song of resistance would inspire Rosa Parks, we might not who is listening in the audience and is being inspired by our song, but we can comfort trusting that because of our song the world will be ever more excited and enthusiastic for the headliner who is coming after us, the one who is making and will make all things new, the one in whom we live and move and have our being, the one, the only Jesus Christ. Amen.