The Preachin' Deacons - Second Sunday of Advent, Year B, December 6, 2020

The Preachin' Deacons are back for the Second Sunday of Advent, with Deacon Bill Bauer and Deacon Mike Meyer preaching. For those who prefer to read, a text of my homily is posted below the video, although this one might be more effective on video!

Readings: Isaiah 40: 1-5, 9-11; Psalm 85; 2 Peter 3:8-14; Mark 1: 1-8

 

                                                                           

Prepare (phhh, puht)!

         When the Danish Comedian Victor Borge arrived in the United States, he didn’t speak English at all. He said many times that the hardest thing about understanding English was that people spoke too quickly; he wanted them to use punctuation when they spoke so he could follow along better. So he invented a way to hear punctuation, as well as see it. Here’s how it works. A period sounds like this: puht; A dash like this: phhh. An exclamation point is a vertical dash with a period under it: phhh, puht.  A comma is a clicking noise: click, and a semicolon is a period with a comma underneath it: puht, click. So if we were to take a few lines from today’s readings, it would sound like this: “Go up on to a high mountain (click), Zion (click), herald of glad tidings (puht, click); cry out at the top of your voice (click), Jerusalem (click), herald of good news (phhh, puht)!” You get the idea. Why all this attention to punctuation? Our readings explain.

 If you look at all of the readings for the four weeks of Advent, you see a lot of exclamation points—15 altogether, and 4 in today’s readings alone. That’s because Advent is the season of exclamation and excitement. We’re excited about Christmas, of course, but there’s more to it than that. In Advent we joyfully await not only Christ’s coming at Christmas, but also the parousia, when Christ will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. We don’t know when Jesus will come again, so for the time being, we wait.

 Now, if I were to channel my inner teenager, I would say, “Waiting’s boring (phhh, puht)!” Well, not if we listen to our readings. All three of our readings tell us that now’s the time to prepare. They call us to “prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths!” They instruct us to conduct ourselves in holiness and devotion.” What does all of that mean? Well, remember, when Jesus comes again, we’re going to be judged. We’re going to find out, as we heard a few weeks ago, whether we’re the sheep who get into heaven, or the goats who land in H-E- double hockey sticks.

 You may be wondering, then, “If we’re going to be judged, how is our expectation joyful?” The answer’s simple, we wait joyfully because Jesus gave us all we need to prepare ourselves for his final judgment and to pass it with flying colors. Jesus gives us Scripture and liturgy, so we can prepare ourselves by conforming our lives to his teaching. Jesus gives us the Sacrament of Reconciliation, so we can prepare ourselves by seeking forgiveness for our sins. And Jesus gives us himself in the Eucharist, so we can prepare ourselves by receiving his grace and carrying it out into the world. You see, we have every reason to await Jesus’s second coming joyfully. We just need to listen to the exclamation that resounds throughout today’s readings: “Prepare (phhh, puht)!”