Anticipation: a Sermon for the Second Sunday of Advent delivered at Celebration Church, Regina, Saskatchewan—7 December 2025

By on December 14, 2025.

Source: GENEralities
Anticipation: a Sermon for the Second Sunday of Advent delivered at Celebration Church, Regina, Saskatchewan—7 December 2025
 Heavenly Father, we bow in your presence this Advent.  May your word be our rule, your Spirit our teacher, and your greater glory our supreme concern, through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
“Repent!” cried John!

2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” 3 For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’ ”
4 Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around hiswaist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.  (Matthew 3:2–4, ESV)

“The kingdom of heaven is at hand!” He must have cut quite the figure in his camel’s hair coat with a leather belt around his waist, wiping locust crumbs and wild honey from his chin. His was the long-foretold “voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.”

And people came from far and wide to hear this strange man and his gritty, abrasive message—and who was filled with the Holy Spirit before he was even born, Luke tells us.

But when RELIGIOUS people showed up he really let loose: 

You brood of vipers!  Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?  Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.  And do not presume to say to yourselves, “We haveAbraham as our father”; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.  Even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. (10)

Gulp!  

What is John saying the religious people of his day?  What is he saying to us?  

Repent ― First word of the Gospel. Turn yourselves around. Turn away from the sin that

Sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you mustrule over it.”  (Genesis 4:7, ESV)

…is crouching at our doors. Contrary, yet tempting. Desirable. Delightful to look at—just like it was for Eve and Adam in the beginning. 

To repent is not an easy thing.

What is meant is not a merely intellectual change of mind or mere grief, still less doing penance, but a radical transformation of the entire person, a fundamental turnaround involving mindand action and including overtones of grief, which results in “fruit in keeping with repentance.” Of course, all this assumes that our actions are fundamentally off course and need radical change. (Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Vol8: MML)

Bear fruit worthy of repentance. . . What kind of fruit is that? Good fruit—forgiveness—and the fruit of the Spirit:    

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22–23, ESV)

John is also demolishing any FALSE ASSURANCES they may have had ─ we may have.  False assurances of what?  

The Pharisees trusted in their descent:  

Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.  (Matthew 3:9, ESV)

They also trusted in the OUTWARD OBSERVANCE of their religion. Us Anglicans can be guilty of the same thing—loving Jesus with a slightly superior attitude since 1562! We can get tied up in the liturgy, or the prayer book to the point where that’s all that counts.  The words and actions can become so familiar that we don’t enter in to them any more.  We don’t get them off the page and make them our own.  Just reading through script and going through the motions does not a believable, convincing performance make ─ either to people around us, or to God.  Just as a director might say to an actor ─ “I don’t believe you.” ─ God might say the same thing to us if our worship is an empty surface thing.  

Going to church can be merely custom or “fire insurance” or even an attempt to bribe God.  (Interpreter’sBible, VII, 265) 

Not to be judgemental, but non-Anglicans can be just as bad. From time to time and depending on how much sleep we’ve had, we all pride ourselves in what we’re not! At least I’m not like her! I thank God that I’m not like those Anglicans, Catholics, Baptists—fill in the gaps. 

No! Stop! Follow the example of Jesus,

We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. 2 Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. 3 For Christ did not please himself (Romans 15:1–3, ESV)

How? Here’s an idea, let “Repent,” be a key theme as we observe a Holy Advent this year and ready ourselves for the return of our Saviour, The LORD Jesus Christ, when he comes in the clouds with great glory. Let our repenting be 

not a merely intellectual change of mind or mere grief, still less doing penance, but a radical transformation of the entire person, a fundamental turnaround involving mind and actionand including overtones of grief, which results in “fruit in keeping with repentance.” 

We don’t know when but we do know that we’re another day closer today. O yes, it’s 18 more sleeps to Christmas and we can enjoy that in the meantime. And, yes, just as John says, Jesus baptises us with the Holy Spirit—with that comes 

And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,the Spirit counsel and might,the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.  (Isaiah 11:2, ESV)

the wisdom, understanding, good counsel, might, knowledge and fear of The LORD we heard about in our Isaiah 11 reading, while

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit youmay abound in hope.  (Romans 15:13, ESV)

abounding in the Hope we heard about in Romans 15 and the fire John told us about in our Gospel reading—but that’s not the main event. They are all helps to make us alert and ready for that great day!

In the meantime, we wait, and we wait, and we wait. 

I’m reminded of the old TV ad about the ketchup which is so rich and thick that it takes a very long time for it to come out of the bottle. 

https://youtu.be/7GBTIeR4Z_M?si=JAnoYdzGrfCk0c8L

The song featured in the ad was Carly Simon’s Anticipation which includes this line:  

Her words seem sad and not very hopeful. She wasn’t singing about The LORD, at least not primarily although he is mentioned elsewhere in the song. Unlike Carly Simon, in our Advent anticipation we Christians do know something about those days to come. The Bible is very rich and thick with hope for our future. Jesus is coming back. In the meantime, as we think about those days to come, we live in the waiting here and now when the sauce hasn’t yet come out of the bottle.

The children wait impatiently at this time of year, avidly counting sleeps until the big day. We “grown ups” wait, too; for gift buying inspiration, the last minute, a call from a loved one, for it to be over, that special piece of Christmas mail, the results of medical tests, for a separated spouse or a wandering child to come home. Real life with all its joys, awkward inconveniences, hopes and fears, continues. It all seems especially emotional and poignant in Advent.

Carly Simon again: 

The temptation is to chase. The lights and glitter, carols and good cheer make us want to fast-forward to the bright sugar plum Christmas “finer day” right now. 

But then we miss the deeper, more restful “with you now” Advent rhythms of anticipation and appreciation of God’s rich, thick goodness which can seem so slow in coming. 
 
Just as Carly Simon sang, anticipation keeps us waiting. There are many things that vcan help us enjoy the anticipation. Advent Calendar devotionals, for example, especially with children. Spending less, worshipping more and giving Presence (Jesus in you and me, Immanuel); the gift of time spent with the people in our lives.

In the midst of the “with you now” realities of your life may you have a slow, rich Advent full of delightful anticipation and, when the time finally comes, a lovely Christmas, thick with joy, wonder and all the goodness of Jesus Himself. Some things are very much worth the waiting.

41
-40