A Carefully-Placed Comma
A Sermon preached by Anna Pinckney Straight
At University Presbyterian Church,
December 2, 2007
Matthew 3:1-12
In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of
It is a carefully-placed comma that makes a big difference.
In Isaiah, the text which was our call to worship, the text which John the Baptist quoted a moment ago, it says (Isaiah 40:3a), “A voice cries out: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD’”
Then in our reading from Matthew for today, something slightly different, some punctuation that is not present in Hebrew but does find its way into the Greek. (Matthew 3:3b) The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord.”
I don’t know if you caught it or have ever thought about it before, but this comma, or colon, depending on your translation, makes a difference. In Isaiah, the common translation tells us we’re supposed to prepare in the wilderness. In Matthew, the additional punctuation tells us it is the voice which is in the wilderness.
This little shift, a reminder that the Bible is not a forgone conclusion or a single-minded text.
One sentence, two different meanings. A subtle change, and if we read too quickly, we miss it, this little comma and the variation is brings.
Of course, this is the time of year when most of us Do. Move. Quickly.
Christmas is coming, as I suspect you already know. I’m not sure you could have avoided it, even if you tried. The carols and displays started in October. And they tell us- this is the time of year for:
decorating
shopping
sipping
wrapping
driving
visiting
scheduling
studying
holidaying
vacationing
merry-making.
This is not the time of year to slow down.
Except that it is.
In the church year, there is a very large comma placed right here, at the beginning of Advent, a comma indicating that we need, for this short period of time, to live life, practice faith differently.
To slow down and pay attention in a very particular way.
Not a holiday or Sabbath, although God knows we need that too, but a time of repentance. Preparation for the child who is coming. The grown-up the child will become.
These are weeks when it is easy to tell the difference between the church and the world. We’re not Merry Christmas-ing yet, because for all evidence to the contrary, it is not yet Christmas. This is not pre-Christmas. It’s Advent.
In his article, “Going Against the Stream,” William Willimon writes,
“That’s why the church generally refrains from singing Christmas carols during Advent. That’s why purple, the color of penitence, adorns [the sanctuary] our altar and the neck of your preacher. We dare not rush to greet the Redeemer prematurely until we pause here, in darkened church, to admit that we do need redemption. Nothing within us can save us. No thing can save us. We’ve tried that before. No president, no bomb, no new car, no bottle, no white Christmas can save.
No! to all false consolation, we say. No! to the empty, contrived merriment of a terminal world. Our hope must be in someone out there who comes to us. We find our way only because One comes, takes our hand and leads us home.
No thank you, we shall wait here, in yearning and silence, in darkness and penitence, for that One.[i]
And so we prepare. We repent and prepare, just as John the Baptist told us to do. And John the Baptist isn’t fooling around. Brood of vipers and unquenchable fire. This preparation is not to be belittled or short-cutted or postponed.
Only, the preparation for Advent isn’t anything like the preparation we do for anything or everything else.
Normally, when we prepare, we work to anticipate all of the possibilities. Normally, when we prepare, we work to eliminate the possibility of surprise.
It is like the almightily Leatherman.[ii] The icon of American preparedness. This little tool can help you do just about anything, from building a shelter to hanging a picture. It is hard and tough and rugged. You have this and you are ready for anything.
This is what we normally think of when we think of being prepared.
Preparing for God is different. It is not about anticipating every possibility. Preparing for God is about peeling away the layers and becoming vulnerable to the possibilities.
Preparing for God is not about being able to handle whatever comes your way, it is about bringing to the surface the vulnerable believer within who can be overwhelmed with the wonder of God’s love and truly believe that God was born in a little baby, a baby who grows to live and preach and point us the way to God, the One who is truly our Alpha and Omega.
The weather worn cynic cannot believe it, and that is why we need and are given this time. Why this comma is placed here.
To strip away the calluses brought through experience.
Let go of our cynicism.
Discard guilt and shame.
Disregard grudges and assumptions.
Allow the hurts that protect us from potential hurts to be healed.
Choose not to listen to the fear that keeps us from faithfulness.
Take off the masks we wear sometimes or every day, the masks we wear because we think we are supposed to, and show instead the creation God placed within each and every one of us.
Take all of these things off, layer by layer, until we are nothing more and nothing less than what God created us to be, beloved, forgiven, gifted children of God for whom nothing less will do than changing the world. Who hope in spite of knowing the facts.
To live out this gift, this carefully-placed comma, Advent, is to get down on our knees and to pray for forgiveness because we do not deserve a messiah, so that we can, in a few weeks, embrace the messiah that God will send anyway.
The Coming of God is not something we can handle or absorb. It is Impossible! It is exactly the kind of thing that blows us off of our perches and takes us to places that we would never, when we were our former selves, thought of going.
So let us seize this time. Let us repent. Let us prepare. Let us be present in this time of Advent. Amen.
[i] William Willimon, “Going Against the Stream,” in Christian Century December 19-26, 1984, p. 1192.
[ii] What is a Leatherman? Leatherman is a trademark for a line of multitools produced by the Leatherman Tool Group. The tools are usually slightly larger than a Swiss Army knife of similar functionality; each generally includes a knife, pliers, screwdriver, and assorted other devices. A primary distinguishing feature between a Leatherman tool and a Swiss Army knife is that the Swiss Army knife is essentially a knife with other tools stored in the handle while a Leatherman tool is essentially a pair of pliers with other tools stored in the handles. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leatherman
Share this page:
