Just Mercy, Just Jesus: A Sermon for 2 Advent

Right now, one of my favorite preachers – as well as one of my favorite persons to follow on Twitter – is Fleming Rutledge. If you aren’t familiar with her, look her up. She is a remarkable preacher, theologian, writer, and priest. She also was one of the first women to be ordained to the priesthood in the Episcopal Church.

Her wonderful book - “Advent: The Once and Future Coming of Christ” - is a collection of sermons and other writings related to the season of Advent. I highly encourage you to pick up a copy so you can experience the blessing to the Church that is Fleming Rutledge. One thing that she laments as it relates to Advent is the Church’s discontinuation of using the four weeks of Advent to explore the more deeply the biblical and theological themes of death, judgment, heaven, and hell. A while back, churches changed these admittedly dark themes to the more palatable themes of faith, hope, joy, and love. Of course, these “new and improved” themes aren’t bad things to celebrate – and they are part of the Christian story. But they are not what the church traditionally has explored and engaged during the four weeks of Advent. 

Rutledge fears – and so do I – that the present-day Church’s reticence to engage themes that don’t feel “positive” is a disturbing trend. If the church can’t give us the language and framework for understanding and coming to grips with the realities of death, judgment, heaven, and hell, then who or what will? Or to whom or what will we seek our answers?

So, in the spirit of the traditional theme of the 2nd Sunday of Advent, as well as in the spirit of our Collect of the Day and assigned scripture lessons, I 

would like to talk about judgment. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, the warning of judgment was a vocation designated for the prophets. In

today’s case we hear from the prophet Isaiah: “A voice cries out:

‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.’”

In our gospel lesson today, Mark declares of the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy when he writes, “John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins… And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.” But we must remember that as Christians, the theme of judgment must always be understood through the lens of the One for whom John the Baptizer was preparing the way  – the One who saves us from sin, evil, and death. Judgment and Jesus are never to be held separately. This truth is what allows us to engage the topic of judgment faithfully and – ultimately - without fear.

The authors of The Living Church Magazine’s “Anglicans Believe” pamphlet series remind us that “one of the most fruitful characteristics of medieval theology was the struggle to demonstrate how justice and mercy, both found supremely in God, are not contradictory, even if we find it hard to see how.”[1] Indeed, as Christians we are to believe that we can’t have justice without mercy, nor can we have mercy without justice. But what does that look like?

Over the past few days, we in the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast celebrated our 50thanniversary by means of a virtual revival. The theme that we have been celebrating all year has been Jubilee, which is a nod to the Levitical law that says, 

“And you shall count seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of the seven weeks of years shall be to you forty-nine years… And you shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants; it shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his family.”[2]

So, consistent with the jubilee theme of restorative justice, the name of this weekend’s revival was Just Mercy, Just Jesus, and the special guests were our Presiding Bishop – Michael Curry – and Bryan Stevenson, the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative and author of the book which has recently been made into a movie - “Just Mercy.” We recently read and discussed “Just Mercy” for our Adult Formation class here at Christ the King, so it was great to have Stevenson at our Jubilee revival. In a recent interview with Krista Tippett, Stevenson discussed how his growing up in the Christian tradition helped form his understanding of mercy and justice: 

“…In the faith tradition I grew up in, you can’t come into the church and say, ‘Oh, I want salvation and redemption and all the good stuff, but I don’t want to admit to anything bad. I don’t want to have to talk about anything bad that I’ve done.’ The preachers will tell you, it doesn’t work like that. You’ve got to first repent, and you’ve got to confess. And they try to make you understand that the repentance and confession isn’t something you should fear, but something you should embrace, because what it does is open up the possibility of redemption and salvation. And we have a very religious society, where we talk about these concepts on Sundays, on Saturdays, whatever, but we haven’t embraced them. We haven’t employed them in our collective lives. And I think that has to change.”

Stevenson went on to say that, “It’s necessary to recognize that we all need mercy, we all need justice, and — perhaps — we all need some measure of unmerited grace.” 

With words like that, the more I read and listen to Bryan Stevenson, the

more convinced I am that he truly is a modern-day prophet – someone who 

God sent to shine a light in the darkness, and to help “prepare the way of 

the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”

Perhaps the folks who are best able to authentically understand God’s

judgment in a healthy, theologically grounded way, are those who are active  

in 12-Step programs. Bryan Stevenson pointed this out when he said, 

“Twelve-step programs are built on this idea that first, you have to 

acknowledge the problem. [You begin with] confession: ‘I am an alcoholic.’ If 

you’re unwilling to say that, AA can’t help you.” 

Again, Stevenson’s words are profoundly prophetic and timely for all of us. 

Today’s gospel lesson proclaims for us that as Christians, we are 

always to begin with confession: “I am a sinner.” If we are unwilling to do 

that, Christianity cannot help us. We’d be better suited for Moral 

Therapeutic Deism, self-help books, or some other new age spirituality.

As Christians, we are invited in a life that is deeper, denser, and 

simultaneously more challenging and rewarding than what an easier, lighter, 

“less judgmental” spirituality has to offer. And Advent is a season that 

highlights this sort of Christian calling to enter into the darkness so that we 

may better see the Light. The season of Advent is the time for us to first 

enter into and explore the darkness that resides within and beyond us, so 

that when Christ’s light comes, we will be ready “to heed [the prophets’]

warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of 

Jesus Christ our Redeemer.

[1] “Four Last Things: Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell”. from the “Anglicans Believe” pamphlet series published by The Living Church magazine.

[2] Leviticus 25: 8-10