The Second Sunday of Advent

Pay Attention
Isaiah 40:1-11
Mark 1:1-8

I’d like you to bring to mind a scene that you can undoubtedly imagine or remember. A child is trying to get the attention of a parent or teacher or some other adult. The child has just learned some great new skill or accomplishment or has made some wondrous discovery, and he wants to share it. But first he has to get his father’s attention. Speaking, poking, pestering, waiting… sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t work to get an adult’s attention.

And how often, even if the child succeeds in drawing his parents’ attention, does the parent say, “Yes, I’m watching, dear” and then immediately turn back whatever they were doing or talking to before?
In this scene, God is the child, and each of us is the preoccupied adult. God has wonderful things to show us if only he could get our attention.

Prophets are often thought of as soothsayers, people who predict the future. That is never the Biblical witness. They are spokespeople, individuals who speak for God. Or, the more I think about it, maybe the primary job of the prophet is to get the peoples’ attention. The prophet tries to shake the people out of their routine… To get them to stop whatever they are preoccupied with long enough to see or hear God.

The Old Testament prophets were good at getting peoples’ attention. There was a great example in the daily office readings this week from Amos. Amos painted a vivid picture of the dire consequences that would ensue if the people remained indifferent or oblivious to God.

In today’s Old Testament lesson, Isaiah, too, is trying to get the peoples’ attention, but in a different way. He paints a picture of hope and promise for those who focus on and follow God. But he’s still saying, “pay attention.” If you will only pay attention, God has great things in store for you.

It is not easy to get our attention.

I recently heard an interview on the radio with Harvey Weinstein. He’s a movie producer credited with “inventing” the modern Oscar campaign. These days producers actively advertise and campaign for their films to receive Oscars. In any case, I heard this interview and I thought “Advent.”

Weinstein said: “I… grew up in politics and I used to work for the Democratic party. When I first got into politics, I met Frank Sedita, who was the mayor of Buffalo … and he told me: ‘When I was young, Harvey, we didn’t have media TV advertising or any of those things to get a crowd. … It’s hard to get people’s attention. … What we used to do is throw a little bomb in the middle of the street. Everybody would come out of their houses in the 1920s to see what all the fuss was.’ [Sedita would] grab a soapbox, get up and say, ‘Hi, I’m Frank Sedita and I’m running for so-and-so.’

“The metaphor to me was: If you can make some noise, perhaps you can find a way to get people away from seeing the stupider movie that week or the movie that the kids want to go to. … You just say, ‘You know what? I’m sorry, guys, I’m going to go and nourish my mind instead’” (www.npr.org).

It’s hard to get people’s attention. But maybe if you throw a bomb into the middle of their lives… Maybe if you make enough noise… So God sent John the Baptist.

God want to nourish our souls. God wants to show us the wonder of the incarnation, the birth of God’s son among us. But first God needs to get our attention. And that is not easy.

Evidently, John the Baptist did a pretty good job of grabbing people’s attention back then.

By all accounts his physical appearance was an attention-getter, wearing sackcloth and eating locusts. Would that get your attention today? Outlandish dress hardly creates a ripple these days. At most, we might give it a passing glance.

John offered forgiveness for sins. Would that get your attention? Would you drop what you are doing to listen to sole voice preaching repentance?

John proclaimed that someone of immense power and majesty is coming. Would that get your attention?

What would it take to break into your awareness, to distract you from personal preoccupations? What would it take to really get your attention long enough to see and experience the wonder of God’s birth in the world?

And consider this: This Advent season, how can you be a prophet for someone else? What can you do to get someone else’s attention so that they can witness their Savior’s birth?