Scripture Readings: Isaiah 7:10–16 | Psalm 80:1–7, 17–19 | Romans 1:1–7 | Matthew 1:18–25 

“Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.” (Matthew 1:23).
 
Can you believe Advent is almost over?
Christmas day is only one week away. Are we ready yet?
 
Over the past three weeks, along with Christians around the world, we have been reflecting on what it means to get ready for the coming of Christ: first of all, remembering the story of His birth, but also looking forward to His return as our Saviour King, as the One who is coming again to set us free forever.
 
Each year during Advent, we explore four gifts of God that Christ shares with us: first we looked at the gift of Hope, followed by the gifts of Peace, and Joy. And this final Sunday of Advent we contemplate the gift of Love… a gift that is deeply connected to this time of year, both inside and outside the Church.
 
For lots of folks, Christmas is the season we’re meant to spend with those we love: gathering together with family and friends… to throw parties… and exchange presents… to sing old familiar songs… to practice and pass on long-cherished traditions, to share in all sorts of delicious food… and basically do all of those things that help us feel warm and fuzzy inside, so to speak.
 
Of course, the holidays aren’t easy for everyone. Lots of us have painful memories wrapped up in this season too.
Perhaps we’ve been wounded by those who were once close to us, leaving behind angry scars where once we had peace. Maybe we’ve lost someone we love, someone we shared our lives with, and though we still cherish the gift that their life has been to us, we also feel the sting of grief that makes it hard to celebrate. Maybe we’re dealing with other losses… or loneliness, or struggles that seem to somehow overshadow the festivities that everyone else around us seem to enjoy. Perhaps we are struggling just to get by, and need to lean on the kindness of others for help.
 
If this is you today, please know that you’re not alone. Please know that your brothers and sisters here at St. Luke’s are here for you… to share in each other’s joys and sorrows. To celebrate with, and come alongside to lend our support and strength when things get rough. Not only during Advent, and Christmas, but all throughout the year, we are here to love one another… not just with words, but with our lives.   
 
But this is exactly where the kind of love that Advent calls us to contemplate and share in comes into focus, challenging many of the ways our world understands and practices love. Perhaps “challenges” is not quite right… it’s more like Advent, and the whole Christian story for that matter, invites us to love in ways that go far beyond what comes naturally… to go beyond the kinds of love we feel for those those who are like us… or those who are close to us… our natural relations, and friends, and those we feel drawn towards.
 
The German pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer says this about this natural kind of love:
 
“In loving those who love us, our kindred, our people, our friends, yes, even our own Christian community, we are no different than the Gentiles and the tax-collectors. That kind of love is self-evident, regular, natural, but not distinctly Christian… loving those who belong to me through blood, history, or friendship is the same for non-Christians and Christians. Jesus does not have a lot to say about that kind of love. People know all by themselves what it is. He does not need to light its flame, to emphasize it or exalt it. Natural circumstances alone force it to be recognized, for non-Christians and for Christians. Jesus does not need to say that people should love their sisters and brothers, their people, their friends. That goes without saying.”[1]
 
But God’s gift of love, the love that Advent and Christ Himself shares with us, goes far beyond this natural, reasonable kind of love… and it calls you and I to do the same.
 
In our Gospel reading this morning we were introduced to Joseph’s story, which starts out as a story of natural love: Joseph was engaged to a woman named Mary, getting ready for their new life together… but then he becomes aware that it seems that Mary has betrayed his love. She’s suddenly found to be pregnant, and he knows he’s not the father.
What else was he to believe?  And what was he supposed to do now?

It would have been well within his rights and ability in their culture to have her publicly disgraced, and possibly even put to death, depending on the lengths their community was willing to go to preserve their own purity.  After all, the Mosaic Laws given to Israel at Mount Sinai were pretty specific about adultery, which would have included infidelity after an engagement was established. Leviticus 20:10 dictates that “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death.” But even if he didn’t want to go that far, Joseph could have easily ruined her life, publicly shaming her to re-establish his own reputation and honour.
 
This might seem cruel to us… but how often might we be inclined to do the same kind of thing? If not in our outward actions, then at least in our hearts? To insist on punishing those who brought us pain, or shaming those who have insulted us… of insisting that those who have wronged us get a taste of their own medicine… all without going against the reasonable, natural expectations of our communities?
 
Joseph could have easily went down this road, and no one would have faulted him. And yet… knowing full well what the obvious explanation for Mary’s pregnancy was… knowing he could vent his anger and heap shame on her, and still wash his hands in innocence… Joseph, though confused, and hurt, and with all of his hopes for the future dashed to the ground… deep inside, he still doesn’t want to see Mary brought to harm, even if she deserved it. Joseph looked at her with compassion, and made up his mind to end things quietly.
 
What about justice? What about everyone getting what they deserve? What about the Laws of God? Doesn’t this kind of compassion spit in the face of holiness? I mean, what kind of a world would we live in if we all acted like Joseph?
 
We can wrestle with all of these questions, and how they might relate to our own stories… but St. Matthew, who cares deeply about God’s holiness, and our obedience to the ways of our LORD, explains why it is that Joseph responds to Mary the way he does: Matthew tells us Joseph “was a righteous man”… someone whose life was in line with the heart of the Living God.

And far from demanding that everyone, especially those who wrong us, ‘get what they deserve’, St. Matthew wants us to see that true righteousness is inseparable from compassion.
 
And this has always been the case! It’s not just a New Testament development. From the very first pages of Genesis, and all throughout the story of Scripture, the Living God is constantly moved with compassion towards His people, despite their constant betrayals of their sacred relationship, and complete disregard for His holiness and love.
 
Our first reading today, from the book of Isaiah gives us a great example of this. We heard how the prophet Isaiah was sent by God to Jerusalem to offer King Ahaz a sign… something to encourage him and bring hope to God’s people at a time everything seemed about to collapse for good.
 
The Northern Kingdom of Israel, the ten tribes cut off from Judah in the South by civil war, and the Kingdom of Aram, had made an alliance against Ahaz and Judah, and had planned to wipe them out. Now Jerusalem was under siege… surrounded by these enemy armies… but God wanted them to know they could still put their trust in Him.
 
Isaiah 7:1-4, “In the days of Ahaz son of Jotham son of Uzziah, king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and King Pekah son of Remaliah of Israel went up to attack Jerusalem, but could not mount an attack against it. When the house of David heard that Aram had allied itself with Ephraim [that is, Israel], the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.
 
Then the Lord said to Isaiah, ‘Go out to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shear-jashub… and say to him, ‘Take heed, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands, because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and the son of Remaliah.”
 
These words of assurance and hope would have been a great gift for anyone, but what makes it amazing is that Ahaz had been a horrible king, just like his forefathers… leading God’s people into all sorts of evil and unfaithfulness… worshipping idols of other gods, a betrayal often spoken of as adultery by the prophets.
 
Time and again, God’s people had betrayed their LORD, but He still remained faithful to them… exasperated, outright angry even, but faithful nonetheless.
 
So now in verse 10, God sends Isaiah to offer Ahaz another sign of hope, anything Ahaz might request… but Ahaz refuses to go along… so God gives to unfaithful Ahaz and all of the people a sign they had not even asked for… one they would never have dreamed up on their own, and one that would ask them to trust Him, even amid all their troubles, and to wait for the promise to be fulfilled: the sign would be that a young woman (the same word for a virgin), would soon give birth to a son, and His name would be Immanuel, ‘God-with-us’… and before he had come of age, knowing right from wrong, their dreaded enemies, Aram and the Northern Kingdom of Israel, would themselves be wiped away.
 
They would still have to wait… to endure the difficulties that lay ahead, and even greater dangers would need to be faced further down the road… but now they could hold on to hope with the promise that God Himself would be with them, and that with His help, they did not need to live in fear… and they would be saved.
 
Of course, God could have left them to destruction… to being humiliated, and brought down by the neighbouring nations. They had already broken the Covenant time and again, but God was still moved by compassion for His people. So He gives them hope. He gives them a sign that He still longs to save them.
 
This sign of hope is picked up by St. Matthew many centuries later… pointing to God’s plan, not just to rescue Judah from rival kingdoms, but to rescue the whole world from the powers of darkness and sin that seek to wipe it out. To rescue from all that prevents us from sharing in the full and blessed life of the Living God… and again, this sign comes into focus in the story of Joseph.
 
As we already know, Joseph felt betrayed by his beloved fiancé, Mary. But rather than call for her blood, he sought to dissolve their relationship quietly. Like Ahaz before him, Joseph’s future hopes seemed likely to collapse. But God had other plans, and so He sends an angelic messenger to Joseph in a dream, with a sign of hope he would never have asked for or imagined: Matthew 1:19-23,
 
“‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’ All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:
‘Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel,’
which means, ‘God is with us.’”
 
Just like in Isaiah’s day, God’s promise was an invitation to trust… an invitation for Joseph, and for you and I.
“Do not be afraid… God is with us.”
 
God reveals the truth to Joseph that Mary has not been unfaithful, and that the child she bore was to be the One promised long ago to save His people from their sins… rescuing them from all that they had done to betray God, their divine bridegroom. Despite all they had done, God still longed to have compassion on them… to bring them hope. To draw them near, and share His own blessed life with them forever. This child named Jesus would Himself be the sign of God’s love, not just for Judah, but for all the world, the sign that we do not need to live in fear… the sign that God is with us.
 
Joseph would have to believe in God’s message, despite the whispers of his neighbours, and doubts that would surely rise up in his own mind from time to time. But the promise remains: “Do not be afraid… God is with us.”
 
Joseph would look at this child and simply see a normal baby… no halo hung about His little head… and despite what the carols may say, this baby would cry, and fuss, and wake up at 2AM, like every other baby. All signs of His saving destiny would have to wait… and as it turns out, Joseph would not see it come to pass in his lifetime. But even so, Joseph was called to care for this child, to love Him… as God’s own great gift of love.
 
“Do not be afraid… God is with us.”
 
There sure seems to be a lot for us to be afraid of today… maybe not enemy armies, like some of our neighbours in Ukraine, and elsewhere around the world have to contend with. Maybe not the complete overturning of all of our hopes and plans, like Joseph… but we all have our own struggles. Our own reasons to fear.
 
So, what does it mean for us to trust that God is with us in our darkest moments? What does it mean for us to believe in His love for us… even when we don’t deserve it?
 
When we don’t have it all together? When we haven’t been everything we know we should be? To believe that even in our brokenness, and the deep brokenness of our world, the Living God has reached out in His holy and righteous compassion to set us free, to be with us forever through the gift of His Son?
 
This is after all the message, the sign that we have been given. As St. John puts it in his Gospel: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
 
“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” (John 3:16-17).
 
Jesus Himself is God’s gift of love, sent to rescue the world and bring us His eternal life, drawing us into His love, even when we were far beyond deserving it. In Christ, God gives us a love which longs for reconciliation, not retribution… which strives to save, not to strike down… a love which is fully in line with the holy compassion of God that Jesus displayed on the cross, as He died giving His life in order to save His enemies.
 
God’s gift of love is for us, to save us from our sins… but it also sends us out into God’s world to share this same saving love, not only with people we like, or who are like us, our family and friends… the people it’s easy to love. No, God’s love sends us out to share His compassion and love even with those we would see as enemies.
 
Later on in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus Himself will unpack what it means to love the way God loves: Matthew 5:43-48.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
 
God’s perfect love calls us to go far beyond our natural inclinations… loving those who are unlovely… those who have hurt and even betrayed us, seeking their good… because that is the kind of love He give to us in Jesus Christ His Son.
 
As Advent draws to a close, and the celebration of Christmas draws near, let us remember that the love that makes this season so sacred is the love that led Christ to the cross. The perfect love of God that goes far beyond our expectations, and natural capacities… a love that even dares to embrace those of us who don’t deserve it.
​
To share in this sacred love… to actually put it into practice in our daily lives, we too need to take to heart the message that God shared with Joseph all those years ago: “Do not be afraid… God-is-with-us.” We are not all on our own here. God’s saving love longs to be at work in us… setting us free to share His life-giving love, not just with each other, but with everyone.
 
So may the rescuing love of Jesus not only reach us in our brokenness and need today… but may God’s love reach out through us and embrace those in our lives we find the hardest to love. Amen.
 


[1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Discipleship, 143.

​​And our Songs for this week can be found here:

Scripture Readings: Isaiah 35:1–10 | Luke 1:46–55 | James 5:7–10 | Matthew 11:2–11

“Jesus answered them, ‘Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.” (Matthew 11:4-5).
 
Does anyone remember Big Mouth Billy Bass?
 
Back in the late 90’s and early 2000’s it was all the rage: a fake fish mounted to a plastic plaque, that would suddenly burst into song when a button was pressed, wagging it’s tail and mouthing along to the words of Bobby McFerrin’s hit song: ‘Don’t worry… be happy!”
 
Sometimes the places we’re tempted to look for happiness seem just as silly and out of place as listening to the sage advice of a fake fish on a plastic plaque. The truth is, as much as we all want to be happy… many of us today don’t know, or forget where to look for it… especially when we want it most. When it feels like we’re the ones plucked out of our comfortable waters and hung up on the wall for all to see.
 
As we know, today is the third Sunday of Advent: the season of anticipation and waiting for the coming of Christ, not only at His long anticipated birth in Bethlehem, but also when He will come again in glory to bring God’s blessed Kingdom to earth at last. When every tear will be wiped away. Every injustice set right. Every wound and schism healed, and every sorrow turned to joy.
 
And this is the theme that we contemplate this week: the gift of Joy, following our explorations of the gifts of Hope and Peace. And just like Hope and Peace, we all have ideas about Joy, and how it’s supposed to fit into our lives… and into the Christian life, for that matter.  
 
For some folks, Joy just seems like an extra… an add-on… something fleeting that doesn’t really factor into our day to day duties. ‘What matters is getting things done’, they might say, focusing on the many challenges and tasks laid out before them. Feeling happy for these folks seems like a luxury, not a need. Much better to invest our energies into things that really matter… into things that will last.  
 
On the other hand, there are those who see happiness as the most important part of our lives. The goal that guides their actions and choices. We hear this a lot in our culture… where happiness here and now is the test being used to figure out what we should do. Am I unhappy? Then I should do whatever it takes we’re told, to change that… no matter who else might get hurt along the way, or what damage I might end up doing to myself down the road.
 
And to confuse the matter even more, both of these inclinations have bled into the Christian faith as well. Some want to reduce religion to serious spiritual matters only. There’s no time to worry about how we feel, when there’s so much kingdom work to do.
 
But I think, more and more, we can see Christianity and faith in general being used simply as a source of emotional support… simply a way to find comfort, connection, and celebration as the end in itself… the goal… the point of it all, so to speak. We can see this spirit at work when we hear people say: “If things like reading the Bible, or prayer, or going to Church, don’t bring me joy, then I don’t need to do them.’ In that case, we’re treating God like a joy-machine… instead of our Lord.
 
These are two rather extreme examples, and most of us fall somewhere in the middle… or bounce back and forth between giving up on Joy, and giving up everything else to chase after it.
 
But as we seek to understand how Joy fits into our lives and our faith, our Gospel reading this morning invites us to reflect on Joy in a surprising way: through the story of John the Baptist as he is left waiting in jail. How does Joy fit into his story? And how might this help you and I know where to look to find and fit the gift of Joy into our stories as well?
 
Our passage starts off with John in prison, arrested for speaking out against King Herod, the puppet ruler set up by the Romans over the region of Galilee, calling out Herod’s clear breach of God’s Covenant Law regarding his unlawful marriage to Herodias, his brother Philip’s ex-wife, who had left him for a more desirable match.
 
Today we might wonder why John would be worrying about who King Herod married at all. I mean, after all who is John to get in the way of his ruler’s happiness?
 
But as N.T. Wright points out, John’s point is not simply about someone’s unorthodox family arrangements… it’s about what Herod’s willingness to flout God’s ways and commandments says about his status as a king over the Lord’s chosen people. As much as Herod wanted his Jewish subjects to think of him as their rightful, God-chosen ruler, John’s willingness to call even Herod to repent was a real kill-joy.
 
N.T. Wright puts it like this: “King Herod had taken exception to John’s fiery preaching, and particularly to his denunciation of him for marrying his brother’s ex-wife. This was all part of John’s announcement that God’s kingdom—and God’s true king—were on the way. Herod wasn’t the real king; God would replace him. No wonder Herod put him in prison.”[1]
 
So here we find John, the no-nonsense, inspired preacher from the wilderness, in prison for sticking his neck out and standing up to speak God’s truth. And as we see him in his cell, the words from a few Chapters back in Matthew’s Gospel, in the so called Sermon on the Mount, are probably meant to be ringing in our ears: “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:10).
 
Right now though, it doesn’t really seem like John is feeling all that blessed. In fact, this intense messenger for God’s coming kingdom seems now to be unsure of the plan. He had once confidently pointed to Jesus as the long awaited One who would baptize God’s people with the Holy Spirit and fire! Burning away all unrighteousness, until only what is holy remains. But now, staring at his own prison walls, John the Baptist begins to doubt.
 
I mean, how would any of us respond in his place?

When we are suddenly caught off guard by unexpected setbacks… when we’re sure we’ve been doing all the right things, but it all seems to unravel… when instead of our best efforts bearing fruit and flourishing, we find ourselves stuck… stifled… and isolated?
 
In our own times of struggle, when all we can see when we look around are prison walls, so to speak, it’s so easy to lose sight of the larger story we’re in. To either become completely downcast by all of our troubles… or dig in and desperately get to work trying to keep what’s left of our fragile world from collapsing. Or on the other hand, to seek some kind of escape by chasing after whatever we think will satisfy our desires… what we think will bring us joy.
 
But John doesn’t fully despair. He doesn’t give up completely, or give himself over to simply saving his own skin. No, he sends his friends to go and speak to Jesus for him. Confused, suffering, facing an uncertain future, John reaches out through those close to him towards the One he had hoped really was the Christ, God’s chosen Saviour, and the true coming King.
 
What a precious gift it can be to have friends we can lean on and trust in dark times, isn’t it? To have those who understand our situation… who see our struggles, and share in our burdens? To know there are those who can help us reach out towards hope, and remind us of the reasons we still have to rejoice?
 
This is the gift of the community of faith, the Church. Brothers and sisters, friends in God’s family, who can share in each other’s sorrows… and in our lowest moments help us to reach out and look to the One who brings true Joy… even when He shows up in ways none of us expect.
 
And Jesus was not turning out to be what John had expected at all. Far from the bringer of fire, and overthrower of unjust tyrants, Jesus was spending His time with His handful of stumbling students, and crowds of hurting and hungry misfits. Where John had been deeply dedicated to the serious work of God’s coming kingdom, and ended up in prison, Jesus was out there having feasts with tax collectors and sinners.
  
John’s discouraged because he can’t see how Jesus could be the One he had been waiting for, coming to bring God’s good reign once and for all, and end our sorrows for good. “Are you the one who is to come,” he asks, “or are we to wait for another?” (Matthew 11:3).
 
But then again, unlike you and I, John didn’t yet know how the story will end, or how God’s good Kingdom was already at work all around him.  
 
Matthew 11:4-6, “Jesus answered them, ‘Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”
 
Far from wasting precious time and energy, Jesus was hard at work embodying and bringing God’s good Kingdom to life in the lives of those around Him. He was already turning our pains and sorrows to joy… repairing broken bodies and broken hearts, and bringing together a new family, and setting free from both their despair and unruly desires, to share in the New Life of God here and now, and forever.
 
And not only that, John didn’t know what was coming… what would soon await the Christ.
 
John didn’t know that the One who was bringing sight to the blind, healing to the sick, and raising the dead would soon Himself face the rejection, humiliation, and the cruel death of the cross. That rather than bringing fire from heaven to burn up the wicked, Jesus would bear Himself all of the brutal consequences of our world’s unholiness and sin. John didn’t know that the Saviour had come to suffer Himself to set us sinners free.
 
John didn’t know the whole picture, but Jesus’ response opens up the way forward: “Go and tell John what you hear and see…” what can John see and hear in that moment? Just prison walls, and his own doubts in the darkness. But John is invited to trust, not in what he sees, but in the message, the Good News being shared with him… the news of the sick made well, broken bodies remade, the dead raised to life… the joys of God’s Kingdom, come to earth at last through Jesus the Christ.
 
In his moment of despair and doubt, Jesus offers to John an invitation to believe… to trust and take heart… to rejoice in faith, confident in what the Living God is doing through Him, even when John can’t yet see it for himself.
 
And we too are invited to look to Jesus… to trust Him… even when things don’t look at all the way we had imagined. When we are tempted to just focus on all that is wrong with our circumstances, or to give up on God’s way, and simply chase after our own ideas of happiness… we can look to Jesus and find in Him God’s gift of life-giving joy, reminding us of all that the Living God has done, all that God is doing right now, even when we cannot see it, and of all that God’s promised to do in our own lives, and in our world.
 
Looking to Jesus, we can find joy, not just when everything is easy and as they should be, but even in the middle of life’s lowest moments, His joy helps us to carry on.
 
As the writer of the book of Hebrews puts in in Chapter 12:1-3,
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or lose heart.”
 
We don’t know every step of where our story is headed. We don’t know what challenges await us, or what temptations to give up on God’s way we will have to face. But whatever comes, God invites us to look to His Son, Jesus, and find in Him true joy.
 
To look to Jesus, and see God’s healing, life-giving power at work even now in His name.
 
To look to Jesus, and see God’s victory over the powers of despair and death once and for all, opening up the New Life God intends for His creation.

To look to Jesus, and know He is not far off somewhere… He is “God-with-us”. In the good times, and in the absolute worst times, to know He will never forsake us.
 
We are invited to look to Jesus, and to help each other continue to look to Jesus, and rejoice… trusting in the glorious future that lies before us in His Kingdom… so that we too can hold on to God’s way today and not lose heart.
 
I’ll end now with some words from Br. Roger, the founder of the Taizé monastic community:
 
“Don’t be afraid of sharing in others’ trials, do not be afraid of suffering, for it is often in the depth of the abyss that we discover the perfection of joy in communion with Jesus Christ.
​
Perfect joy is self-giving… It is sheer wonder renewed by the sight of the generosity of the Giver of all gifts, material and spiritual. It is thankfulness. It is thanksgiving.”[2]
 
 


[1] Tom Wright, Matthew for Everyone, Part 1: Chapters 1-15 (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2004), 125.

[2] Br. Roger of Taize, Parable of Community (London, UK: Mowbray, 1980), 25-26.
​

​And our Songs for this week can be found here:

Scripture Readings: Isaiah 11:1–10 | Psalm 72:1–7, 18–19 | Romans 15:4–13 | Matthew 3:1–12

“May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 15:5-6)

Last week we began our journey through Advent, the season of anticipation and waiting for the coming of Christ, not only at Christmas, the celebration of His birth, but also at His final arrival to bring the story of our present, conflicted world to its completion… ushering in the Kingdom of God and the rule of our Risen Prince of Peace.
 
Each Sunday in Advent, we contemplate a different aspect of the Christian life that Jesus has shared with us now, and that point us toward His future reign. Last week, we explored the gift of Hope. Today we contemplate Peace. And what better gift could we and our troubled world want to receive?

But the peace of Christ’s Kingdom might not quite be what we or our world would bargain for. His peace is not for the faint of heart… but for those who long for true life.
 
Most often, we tend to think of peace as merely the absence of conflict… the lack of waves rocking the boat, so to speak. But biblical peace is about a much deeper reality, not simply stillness on the surface, but the complete union… the coming together and working in harmony of those who could pursue conflict, but who instead create something more: a community where all alike are truly embraced and blessed.

This is exactly the beautiful vision Isaiah offered us this morning in our first reading, offering images of God’s promised peace that seem to have no place in our world today:
“The wolf shall live with the lamb,
the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze,
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,
and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.” (Isaiah 11:6-8)

Each creature in this vision remains what they are, but are no longer a threat to one another. Even the most natural and ingrained enmity and conflicts shall cease. This is the vision that Isaiah offers of the future reign of the LORD.

But as St. Paul reminds us, in our second reading, God’s future Kingdom has already come to us in Christ, opening up unexpected avenues for His peace to be at work in the lives of His people. As I mentioned last week, much of the Letter to the Romans deals with the coming together of two very different communities bound together by their faith in Jesus Christ: the Jewish Christians, descendants of Abraham who were the first to receive the truth of the Gospel… and the Gentile believers, non-Jewish Romans, Greeks, and other Mediterranean peoples who were now being drawn to towards the light of Jesus Christ.
 
St. Paul goes to great pains in this letter to show how both communities, with all of their differences, are now one in Christ, that their old suspicions and grudges and prejudices must be set aside so that they can share together in the new life of God.

St. Paul writes: “May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.” (Romans 15:5-7). Far from some future ideal, St. Paul claims that God’s peace is to be our Christian calling now. Our new pattern of life, even in the messiness of the present… and how the Living God is glorified, and His Kingdom made known.
 
And yet… today we have to ask: are we Christians really known for living together in peace? Are we able to come together despite our significant differences, and work in harmony? Or like everyday wolves and lambs, are we more likely to tear each other down, or simply hide and have nothing to do with our brothers and sisters who aren’t in our community?

How often have we struggled to live in harmony with our own fellow parishioners here at St. Luke’s? Perhaps not in open conflict, but in closing off our hearts to one another?

And how often are we Christians actively seeking the wholeness, the healing, the peace of our wider communities? Seeking out ways to share with our neighbours this gift we all truly need?

My sense is that we Christians can get pretty good at not rocking the boat… at avoiding outright conflict, if we want to. But I think many of us, including myself, have a whole lot to learn about practicing God’s kind of peace… which as our Gospel lesson this morning reminds us, calls us towards wholeness, completeness, and harmony well beneath the surface… and which will cause a stir, and even makes some waves if we choose to truly pursue it.

Today we heard, in Matthew Chapter 3, probably one of the least peaceful sermons, as John the Baptist confronts some members of the religiously devout Pharisee movement, and the well-connected Sadducees, who ran the Temple, when they came out to hear John and be baptized in the wilderness. Matthew 3:7-8 “But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance.”

Bear fruit worthy of repentance. Turn around. Don’t just go along with the crowds, or show off your piety. God’s Kingdom isn’t about the surface, appearance of holiness or goodness… or public opinion… its about lives realigned with the Living God… re-oriented to walk in His ways.

Change what needs changing beneath the surface, John says to them, and us, because one much greater than John is on the way to set God’s world right at last.

Matthew 3:11-12 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
 
Sifting, discerning, judging between what is true and false, what is godly and wicked, what is wholesome wheat and what is worthless chaff… to bring about true peace… harmony beneath the surface… John’s challenge reminds us that truth is itself essential.

Isn’t this what we see at work even today? When we try to hide our wickedness, our brokenness, our evil from the eyes of others, we cut ourselves off from any chance of genuine peace. When we prefer to live a lie, their can be no harmony… either inside our hearts, or between the people in our lives.
 
One powerful example of this was shared by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, on his recent trip to visit war-torn Ukraine. Despite vigorous attempts by the Russian leadership to reframe the story of what they have done, and are doing to their Ukrainian neighbours, and despite the many increasing pressures to bring an immediate end to the conflict, Archbishop Welby chose instead to call for our increased commitment to  the truth.

The following comes from a recent BBC article: While visiting the city of Bucha, “He suggested there could be no peace in Ukraine until Russia "stops lying" about what it is doing, including the massacre of civilians in Bucha…
‘There were atrocities committed here. There will be no peace until we stop lying.
We have to tell the truth however painful. There can be no way forward based on lies.’
Before leaving Bucha, the archbishop lit a candle in a chapel beneath St Andrew's church and began a prayer with the words, ‘our hearts cry out in anger and protest’, and [he] called for peace and for justice.”[1]

There can be no true peace without truth. This is true in Ukraine, and in our own lives as well.
 
We dare not settle for surface level calmness, while our wounds and our wrongs go unchecked underneath, where no one sees. We too need to turn around, to change what needs changing… to deal with the damage we’ve done, and which has also been done to us.
 
We not only need to take seriously the Christian practice of confession… of regularly telling the truth to ourselves, and each other, and especially to God… but we also need something more than telling the truth… to we need a Saviour. We need Someone who knows the truth about us all and can put us all back together. Someone who can sort out the mess we have made of the world, once and for all.

This is precisely the promise that we affirm each week when we confess our faith using the words of the ancient Creeds of the Church, when we say we believe that Jesus Christ the risen Lord will return “to judge the living and the dead”.
 
We are confessing that Christ will come again, to shed God’s light on everyone, establishing the truth forever, and exposing every lie... even the ones we don’t even know we believe, but are still getting in the way of our attempts at peace. As the scholar Ben Myers reminds us: “The judgment that Christ brings, moreover, is not just a division between two kinds of people. When Christ’s light shines into our lives, it creates a division within ourselves. None of us is entirely good or entirely bad. Each of us is a mixture. The bad grows up in our lives like weeds among the wheat, and the two are so closely entwined that in this life we can’t easily tell the difference (Matt 13:24–30). Sometimes our worst mistakes turn out to produce good fruit. And sometimes we discover that our virtues have produced unforeseen collateral damage. Our lives are not transparent to ourselves. We cannot easily tell where the bad ends and the good begins.”[2]

We can’t have peace without the truth… but none of us knows the whole truth. All of us get tripped up at times by lies.
 
Which is why it’s such Good News that Jesus is coming again “to judge the living and the dead”… that nothing can be hidden that will not be brought to light and properly dealt with. That all wrongs will be made right. That all injustice will be sorted out once and for all. That Christ is coming as God’s chosen one to clear the way for everlasting peace. As Isaiah put it:
 
“He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
or decide by what his ears hear;
but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist,
and faithfulness the belt around his loins.” (Isaiah 11:3-5)

In short, the Prince of peace is not coming simply to make us play nice, but to bring wholeness and healing and harmony to our broken world. To uncover every lie, that the truth may be fully known. But beyond Isaiah’s and even John’s wildest expectations, at His appearing Christ came not to slay the wicked, but to be slain for them… and for us all… completely offering up His life to win our full forgiveness.  

He allowed Himself to be crucified to reconcile us to God… to completely repair the shattered relationship between us and our Creator.
 
His gift of love at the cross completely exposed our human unwillingness to live God’s way… as we killed the Prince of peace in the most barbaric and public display.
 
But it’s precisely through this atrocity that Christ was working to bring about God’s complete peace… providing for our pardon and forgiveness through His broken body and poured out blood.
 
Knowing full well how horrid we humans have been to ourselves, to each other, and to our world… Christ was and is completely committed to our re-creation… our transformation… our participation in the Peace of the Living God, He alone can share.
 
“So it is a comfort” Ben Myers goes on to say “to know that one day someone else will come and lovingly separate the good from the bad in our lives. The confession that Christ will come as judge is not an expression of terror and doom. It is part of the good news of the gospel. It is a joy to know that there is someone who understands all the complexities and ambiguities of our lives. It is a joy to know that this one—the only one who is truly competent to judge—is “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). He comes to save, not to destroy, and he saves us by his judgment.”[3]
 
True Peace is a precious gift of God in Jesus Christ… offered to us now at the cross, and which will one day fill the whole world completely when He returns. And we are invited to take part in God’s peace today by receiving His forgiveness: by allowing His light to shine on our lives, so we can see and confess our need for our Saviour, trusting in Christ’s mercy and saving love at work in the cross.
 
And as we receive His pardon and peace, Christ begins to share His peace through us… drawing us together to take part in God’s truth, and embody His forgiveness… not only with each other, but with our troubled world. Pointing forward to the day when the reign of the Prince of Peace will be complete, and helping all those around us experience this precious gift even now… so that they may join us in praising God, and preparing for His Kingdom to come.
 
So, this Advent, in the words of St. Paul: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13). Amen.


[1] Sarah Rainsford in Bucha and Andre Rhoden-Paul in London Archbishop of Canterbury: Russian invasion must not succeed (BBC News, Friday December 2, 2022) https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-63833573
 
[2] Ben Myers, The Apostles’ Creed: A Guide to the Ancient Catechism, ed. Todd Hains, Jeff Reimer, and Sarah Awa, Christian Essentials (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2018), 92–93.

[3] Ben Myers, The Apostles’ Creed: A Guide to the Ancient Catechism, ed. Todd Hains, Jeff Reimer, and Sarah Awa, Christian Essentials (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2018), 93.
​

​And our Songs for this week can be found here:

Scripture Readings: Isaiah 2:1–5 | Psalm 122 | Romans 13:11–14 | ​Matthew 24:36–44

​“Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.” (Matthew 24:42-44)
 
Have you ever pulled an all-nighter, staying up until the sun rises again?
 
I don’t really recommend it. But when I was younger, it was kind of an exciting thing to attempt on certain occasions… and I still remember the first time I was able to stay awake all through the night: way back in middle school, along with a handful of friends, I was invited to an overnight birthday party, and as you might expect, we found lots of ways to have fun and wind each other up, and several of us decided to try to stay up all through the night.
 
But slowly, one by one, my friends all started to turn in… until only myself and one other friend were left awake. While the others all snored in their sleeping bags, the two of us quietly talked for hours. We looked out the window and together stared into the heavens… I saw my first shooting star that night too. We talked about all sorts of things… keeping each other company, and deepening our friendship… until we started to see the light of dawn slowly filling the sky. After all that waiting, we had made it. And what started off as a childish challenge turned into a special and treasured part of my story… a memory of friendship that even now remains close to my heart.
 
Staying awake can be hard work. It can take lots of effort, especially when all is dark around us. But of course, it’s much easier to stay awake when we have company.
 
As we know, today is the first Sunday of Advent: a season of anticipation and waiting for the coming of Christ.
We wait for His coming, at Christmas… for the celebration of the incarnation of Jesus Christ, as the eternal Son of God takes on our humanity… and is born as a helpless babe.

But we also wait for His coming again in glory, as we say in the Creed… for Christ’s return not as a child, but as our Saviour King, coming to bring God’s eternal Kingdom to completion. To rescue and restore His creation for good.
Each week in Advent, we contemplate a different aspect of the Christian life in this time between Christ’s first arrival, and His final return… and this first week we reflect on the gift of Hope.
 
Hope is deeply intertwined with waiting. It is impossible to hope without also having to wait… and it is intolerable to have to wait without having hope.  It is something essential. Something we can’t do with out, even though we don’t always understand it. In fact, there’s a lot of confusion these days about the nature of hope.
 
Hope is not simply wanting something to happen… that’s just a wish or a fantasy. A dream or desire we have that has no real roots in reality. There are lots of things we may want in life that will never occur. And to be honest, that’s a not a bad thing… because so much of what we humans tend to want would actually cause us more grief than good.    
Hope is much more than wanting something to happen. And it’s also not simply expecting something to happen. That’s called optimism… choosing to “look on the bright side”, which sounds great, but can at times be just as disconnected from reality as our fantasies are. Optimism assumes that things will work out on their own, or that all the troubles we see aren’t as bad as they might seem. But the danger of optimism is that we just ignore the real challenges that lie before us, not taking them as seriously as we should. In other words, if we just expect things will work out, we’ll be blindsided when they don’t… setting us up not just for disappointment, but maybe even despair.
 
So what is hope?
We can say hope is the willingness to act in accordance with what has not yet come about. To not just want, or expect, but to behave… to live in line with what we’re hoping for… to reorient what we do each day towards its guiding light.
 
And hope is hard. It’s much easier just to dream of days gone by, or idealized visions of the future. Or to lean on optimism to try to stay positive… seeking for signs of something good on the horizon, or gazing at the dark clouds in search of a silver lining. Ultimately, dreaming and optimism ask very little of us… but Hope can be hard work.
Hope calls us to hold on… to endure… even when we can’t even imagine how things might get better… and even when we can’t see any signs of a silver lining… when we’re surrounded by the dark. Hope calls us to carry on and trust in what cannot be seen… to not give up because we believe in Someone who will truly see things through.
 
Hope means enduring even in the darkness, and choosing to act as though the dawn is on its way.
 
Our Scripture readings today all invite us to hold onto the Christian Hope… which is grounded firmly in the light of what the Living God has done… and what He has promised to do.
 
In our first reading from the prophet Isaiah, we hear the word of the LORD pointing His people ahead to a time when they would become a beacon of hope for the nations… when their lives would serve to invite those from far and wide to draw near to God, saying:
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” (Isaiah 2:3).

Of course, this was God’s purpose for His people all along: for them to become a sign of hope for the whole world… their lives in communion with Him shining out into the night, so that all would be eager to share in His fellowship and eternal life.
 
This message from God is a wonderful promise, but at the time it must have seemed more like a fantasy. Far from being a holy community united in God’s love, in Isaiah’s day, God’s people had fragmented into two rival kingdoms… and both were living in spiritual darkness… chasing after their own desires instead of seeking God’s ways.
 
And rather than the nations recognizing in God’s people the brilliant New Life they had been longing for… drawing them near to share in its glory, the nations were gathering like storm-clouds, ready to pour out a flood of violence and destruction, washing away these two tiny kingdoms into Exile.
 
There was no way to draw a straight line from where they were standing… spiritually compromised, cut off from each other, and encircled by threatening empires… to the promised future God had offered to them: as agents of His world-saving love.  
 
But even so, Isaiah invites God’s people to hold onto hope: to act in line now with the LORD’s promised future… to put into practice now what He says will one day come about. Isaiah 2:5 “O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!” Though on their own, they could not hope to bring about this hope-filled promise, the right response to God’s promise is to live now in His light.  
 
God called His people to endure… to turn from the darkness, and choose to act now as though the dawn was on its way.
 
This leads us to our second reading from the letter to the Romans. Through much of this letter, St. Paul was walking his fellow Christians in Rome through the message of the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ, and the amazing implications of His death and resurrection.
 
But just like Isaiah, St. Paul was writing to a divided community: the Churches in Rome we made up of Christians from Jewish and Greek or Roman backgrounds , who were struggling to stay connected, and had all sorts of issues getting in the way of their fellowship… which also got in the way of their mission to share the Gospel  of Jesus with their neighbours too.
 
One serious issue he explores has to do with deep disagreements about how to live as a Christian… the dos and don’ts of disciples, so to speak. Did they all need to obey the Laws of Moses? Or was it enough just to believe the right things, and then they could do whatever they wanted, like their non-Christian neighbours?
 
We don’t have time to unpack all of the letter to the Romans this morning, but this is the context for our reading today: a letter to Christians confused and fighting about what God was calling them to do with their lives.
 
St. Paul’s response throughout this letter is to point his readers to Jesus, the Risen Lord… to what He has done to rescue, not only Israel and Judah, but to fulfill His promise through Isaiah to draw all nations to Himself… to reveal to them what it means to walk in His holy ways… and share in the New Life Jesus has won for us all through His cross and resurrection.
 
So, St. Paul writes to this divided and confused community, and calls them to live together in hope:
“you know what time it is,” he says, “how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near.”
It's so tempting at times to sleep in. To hit the snooze button and stay in bed. Especially when it’s cold and dark outside. As Christians too, it can be so tempting to stay spiritually asleep. To let our hope of God’s Kingdom, which calls us to take part in its work here and now, begin to drift into dreams of our own, disconnected from God’s calling on our lives.
 
But St. Paul reminds us, that even though it still may feel like the middle of the night, it’s actually time to get up. Like an alarm clock, beckoning these believers to shake off their spiritual doziness and get ready for the work of the day, St. Paul reminds them, that the object of their hope, Christ’s coming Kingdom, is truly on its way, calling them (and us) to put this hope into practice… not simply by following religious rules, or by rejecting them… but by choosing to behave each day as those who belong even now to the Kingdom of Jesus Christ: “Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” (Romans 13:11-14).
 
In short, we are being summoned to keep the hope of God’s salvation awake in our hearts by keeping our lives in line with the light of God revealed in Jesus Christ our Lord. This is not the time to become spiritually sleepy, but to be alert and active. Walking daily in God’s ways, and actively awaiting Christ’s coming Kingdom.
 
This leads us to our Gospel reading this morning, from Matthew Chapter 24, which takes place within a much longer passage where Christ is calling His followers to faithfully endure even the dark days ahead, holding onto hope, knowing in the end God’s salvation is assured.   
 
What stands out in this passage, supported by the dramatic imagery of the suddenness of the flood, is the call to be ready… to not be distracted or lulled away from the work of the Kingdom of God… whose final arrival will be even more world-changing than the flood, or the COVID-19 pandemic combined.
 
We aren’t given the time or date, in part because the point of the Christian life isn’t for us to puzzle together clues to predict how or when Christ’s Kingdom will come in all its fulness. The point is that we don’t put off the good work we are called to do today… faithfully enduring even incredibly difficult circumstances because we have placed our hope in God’s promise not simply to rescue us, but to bring an end to all the injustice and brutality and evil in our world,  trusting His word to us that Christ Jesus the Crucified and Risen Lord:
“shall judge between the nations,
and shall arbitrate for many peoples;
they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more.” (Isaiah 2:4)
 
One final word: Even so great a hope can be hard to hold onto alone. Each one of us, no matter how strong our faith, face dark nights when we struggle to endure. That’s why along with the gift of hope, we were given the gift of each other… the gift of the Church… of a community, a family of believers, our brothers and sisters in Christ, who share our hope, and who can help us stay awake while we wait for the dawn to break.
 
In this time between Christ’s first and final arrival, we are meant to lean on each other, to lift up each other, to draw near to one another, and strengthen each other against the challenges we all face in this world. Without one another, the hope of God’s salvation can easily grow cold and drowsy. One by one, we can simply drift away, and spiritually fall asleep. But if we endure together… if we learn to share this hope more and more with one another, we will find our fellowship deepen, and our love grow stronger, and our longing to share the hope of the Gospel with those around us grow brighter.
 
Brothers and sisters, we need to stay awake. So let’s stay awake together, looking forward in hope for the dawn of Christ’s good kingdom at last. Amen.

Our service of Morning Prayer, Bulletin, and Sermon can be found here:

​And our Songs for this week can be found here:

Scripture Readings: Micah 5:2–5a | Psalm 80:1–7 | Hebrews 10:5–10 | Luke 1:39–55

“Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.” (Luke 1:48-49).
 
What do you want for Christmas?

If we ask some of our younger members of St. Luke’s this familiar question, we might expect to hear, with some excitement, about their gift wish list… the presents that they’re hoping to receive from those who love them.
 
If we ask this question to some of our less-young Christian brothers and sisters, the answers might get a bit harder to gift wrap, but not at all less longed for… like spending time with family and friends, and other festive traditions.
 
This year, no matter our age, I think we’re all longing for some normality this Christmas… for being able to celebrate this special time of year with freedom and ease. Not anxious about each other’s health… or the stability of our whole community. I think it’s safe to say we’re all longing for those seemingly simpler days we all took for granted.
 
Even so… even now as we head into our second COVID Christmas, we have much to be grateful for, and much to look forward to… especially as we consider the Good News that Advent and Christmas have to share.
 
Today we mark the fourth Sunday of Advent, the last before we celebrate our Saviour’s birth, and today we are asked to contemplate the theme of love… a word that we often associate with giving, and which stands at the centre of the sacred story we Christians believe. In our reading today from the first Chapter of the Gospel of Luke, we hear of God’s gift of love… to Mary, to Israel, and to us all.
 
In today’s passage we heard how Mary travels to see her cousin, Elizabeth, right after a visit from the Angel Gabriel, who tells her that she will give birth to God’s Messiah, the Christ.  Elizabeth herself was expecting her own miracle child, a gift to her and her husband Zechariah in their old age… a baby destined to take part in preparing his people to get ready for God’s salvation, and the coming Saviour.
 
We heard how as soon as Mary spoke, the baby inside of Elizabeth jumped for joy… and how Elizabeth confirmed the Angel’s message to Mary, calling her blessed. And in response, we heard Mary bursts out in praise of God: “My soul magnifies the Lord,” she says “and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.” (Luke 1:46-49).
 
Why would she respond in this way to the words of her cousin Elizabeth? The bishop and scholar N.T. Wright offers us this helpful insight:
“Mary and Elisabeth shared a dream. It was the ancient dream of Israel: the dream that one day all that the prophets had said would come true. One day Israel’s God would do what he had said to Israel’s earliest ancestors: all nations would be blessed through Abraham’s family. But for that to happen, the powers that kept the world in slavery had to be toppled… God would have to win a victory over the bullies, the power-brokers, the forces of evil which people like Mary and Elisabeth knew all too well, living as they did in the dark days of Herod the Great, whose casual brutality was backed up with the threat of Rome. Mary and Elisabeth, like so many Jews of their time, searched the scriptures, soaked themselves in the psalms and prophetic writings which spoke of mercy, hope, fulfilment, reversal, revolution, victory over evil, and of God coming to the rescue at last.”[1]
 
She was still wrapping her head around the story that she was being drawn into, but the beautiful truth had begun to sink in: the Living God was giving to her and her people the gift they had all been longing for… God’s rescuing love was on its way through the child growing in her womb. Though insignificant in the eyes of the world, she now knows she is deeply blessed, “for the Mighty One has done great things” for her, and through her.
 
She didn’t have to see things this way, or to respond with words of praise. In fact, from the outside it might seem like the Mighty One had actually ruined her future. How would she explain her pregnancy to her fiancé, her family, and neighbours? What about all of her own plans for a simple, normal life?

Even so, even with all the complications and upheaval, Mary believed… she trusted the LORD’s word and had faith in His rescuing love, even if it would change everything. And as Elizabeth had said: “blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”
 
None of us will bear and give birth to the Messiah like Mary, but we may all have our lives turned upside down by His rescuing love… raising us up beyond expectation… humbling us as well… experiencing the goodness of God at work within us, and through us in ways we never would have asked for or imagined.
 
That’s because love goes way beyond giving us what we want. Love gives us what we need… even, and maybe especially, when we have no clue what that is.
 
Everything that Mary said in our reading today was true of course, but she had no clue at this point how God’s rescue would actually be accomplished. She knew that her baby would bring about the salvation she and her people longed for, but not that it would completely consume the life of her child.
 
Like her people, Mary had expected God’s Messiah to come and bring victory, to rescue Israel right away from all its enemies. But as the Gospel story goes on, we find that Jesus, God’s true Messiah, actually gives up His life to rescue His enemies… dying not only for His own people, who had rejected and abandoned Him, but also to reach out and rescue all the peoples of the earth… including oppressive and ungodly nations, like the Roman Empire… and places as far away in distance and time as Gondola Point. Jesus, God’s Messiah, gave His own body to be broken, and His blood to be shed to draw us all together in His rescuing love… even when it was the furthest thing from our hearts and minds.
 
In his letter to the Christians in Rome, St. Paul the Apostle wrote these life-changing words:
“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.  Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (Romans 5:6-11). God proves His love for us in that Jesus His Son gave His life to save us while we were sinners… while we still wanted nothing to do with Him, God wanted us to be with Him.
 
This passage from Romans has played a huge role in my own story of receiving God’s rescuing love… which He first made known to me at the moment I felt the least lovely. The Good News of Jesus Christ is that God really loves the real you… the real me… our real family members, and friends, our loved ones, and strangers… the people who hate us, or drive us to distraction… God loves them all too. There’s plenty we all do that He doesn’t love… and He longs to set us free from all that stuff… but none of it keeps Him from loving us all, and offering us New Life.   
​
This may not be what we had expected or asked for, but this is what the Living God has given to us in Jesus… what He knows you and I and everyone around us needs, not just for Christmas, but always.
 
And what does it look like to receive the gift of the rescuing love of God? That’s actually what the whole Christian life is all about: Again and again encountering and believing in the love of God given to us in Jesus Christ our Lord… and empowered by His Holy Spirit, sharing His love with our world.
 
So whatever this Christmas looks like for us… and whatever else happens after it, may we believe and be transformed by the love of God in Jesus Christ. May we be convinced that in Jesus, God has given us everything we truly need. And may we start to see everybody around us as beloved by the Lord, who gave up His life on the cross, and rose again from the dead so that they too can be reconciled to God, and receive the blessed New Life in Him. Amen.
 
 
 
 


[1] Tom Wright, Luke for Everyone (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2004), 15.
​

​Our service of Morning Prayer, Bulletin, and Sermon can be found here:

​Our Advent Hymn can be found here:

​And our other Songs can be found here:

Scripture Readings: Zephaniah 3:14–20 | Isaiah 12:2–6 | Philippians 4:4–7 | Luke 3:7–18

“John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits worthy of repentance.” (Luke 3:7-8a).
 
Today we mark the third Sunday of the season of Advent, and we also reflect on the theme of Joy: which along with Hope and Peace is so essential… but often misunderstood.   
 
And what a great passage from our Gospel reading to help us contemplate joy, am I right? I mean, what brings ‘joy’ to mind quicker than calling people a “brood of vipers!” But as strange as it may seem, John’s passionate words of warning do have quite a lot to tell us about joy… about the particular understanding of joy that Christians have, and where we can find it.
 
I think it might be helpful to remember right off the bat that we can all to easily confuse joy with happiness. Both words can be used to describe a positive state or experience… a ‘good feeling’, that most of us want more of in our lives. But many people today think about and pursue happiness in ways that have little to do with what the Christian family would recognize as joy.

This time of year, there can be all sorts of pressure to create a ‘happy holiday’… to pour ourselves into pursuing the things that are supposed to make us feel great: special meals, gifts and gatherings, practicing treasured traditions… all the things that pull at our heartstrings, and that bring a smile to our faces.
 
At least for a while. At least until the food runs out, and the dishes start pilling up… ‘til the gifts are all given, and the guests are starting to get on our nerves a bit. Now I’m no grinch. I really love Christmas, and I’m looking forward to sharing in all these good things. But we all know the good feelings they bring don’t last forever. They’re lovely… but temporary. And so happiness has often become connected with feeling good in the moment. With experiencing or holding onto an enjoyable state ‘hear and now’. Which means we have to keep looking for more ways to be happy, or maintain the good times as long as we can. To make our ‘now’ the best it can be, again and again.
 
This pattern goes way beyond the hype around the holidays. We can see something similar in the way people talk about ‘seizing the day’: striving to ‘make the most of each moment’, and to just pursue whatever makes them happy. Again, there’s nothing wrong with looking for fulfillment, or living each day intentionally. It’s probably better than wasting the time and energy we’ve been given. But I think there is often the problem of becoming too focussed on the ‘here and now’… of losing sight of what’s come before, and of where we are headed. When we’re caught up in trying to find happiness over and over again, we can forget or ignore the bigger story, and our own place within it.
 
But what I want to call Christian Joy is not based on our feelings or experiences ‘here and now’… this joy a gift that comes to us from the Holy Spirit, and that is deeply connected to our faith: to trusting in what the Living God is up to, not just ‘hear and now’, but for all of time.
 
This joy can be seen in our first reading today from the Prophet Zephaniah, who calls God’s people to rejoice for:
The Lord, your God, is in your midst,
a warrior who gives victory;
he will rejoice over you with gladness,
he will renew you in his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing
as on a day of festival” (Zephaniah 3:17-18a).
The Living God Himself will rejoice over them with gladness. The prophet proclaims this good news to God’s people, telling of how Yahweh has promised to show mercy, to rescue them, and set everything right. But our reading today is not the whole story: it follows strong words of warning that the Lord would first deal firmly with the sins of His people[1]… that it is being made right with the Living God that will be their path to joy. His good news of rescue, and redemption would also involve His people being remade. No longer pursuing whatever ‘makes them happy’, but finding joy in what is right… in being made right.
 
In this light, John’s words of warning don’t seem so out of place anymore: he stands in the line of Israel’s prophets, calling for God’s people to repent… to turn around and reject the lies that they had come to believe, and turn instead to the Lord who longs to share His joy with them.
 
One of those lies that John brings to light is still a big problem for us today: the lie that human happiness comes from what we can acquire. Whether we’re talking about possessions, relationships, experiences, insights, or whatever… time and again, we’re told to believe: “if I just have…” fill in the blank… “then I’ll be happy”. What ways have we believed this lie? What do we assume will bring us lasting happiness?
 
Right now, I could answer: “if only we stay in Level 1 of our Province’s COVID-19 Winter Plan for Christmas… THEN I’d be happy.” But again, for how long? Until the next challenge? Until the next unmet desire? Until the next heartache? Until the next distraction? How much of our lives do we spend chasing after the things we think should make us happy, only to get them, and find ourselves still longing to be satisfied?
 
John calls us to turn away from this lie… and instead to turn to the Lord: to have our hearts, our desires, our lives realigned with the Living God which opens us up to take part in the joy we were created for… and created to share.
 
When asked what it looks like to “bear fruit worthy of repentance”, John told the crowd to not seek their own comfort and happiness, but to care for those in need: “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.” To the tax collectors, who made their livings at their neighbour’s expense, and the Roman soldiers who used their position and power to simply seize what they wanted, John told them to not take more than their due… to be satisfied with their wages. This was all a huge part of what John believed it meant to live one’s life in line with the Lord. For John, living God’s way was inseparable from living well with those around us… with actually loving our neighbours, not just doing what makes us happy.
 
But John does not settle for telling his listeners to take better care of one another. He points them to God, and to the one God will send to ultimately set things right. Looking back to the prophets, John reminds those who had gathered (and us as well) of God’s promise to come and rescue His people… to reclaim their hearts, and restore their fortunes. John looks beyond the ‘hear and now’ to the coming of God’s Messiah, His anointed one, who will bring the Holy Spirit and purifying fire to remake His people once and for all.
 
Jesus is the one John was waiting for… the one he points us to who has come near to save us and our world. To set things right at last between us and God by dying on the cross, and rising again from the grave. In Him, death has been defeated. In Him, we find God’s forgiveness. In Him, we are offered New Life… enduring peace and hope… forever! In Jesus, God has drawn near to us to draw us all close to Himself, and also to draw us into His work of reaching out with His love to those around us.
 
We have been told again and again that if we just had ‘this or that’, then we would be happy. But in Jesus, God has already given us absolutely everything! Not just for ‘here and now’, but for all eternity.
 
When this reality… when this beautiful truth is remembered… when we begin to grasp the scope of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the joy of the Lord can begin to break through to us… no matter what else we’re going through ‘here and now’.
​
When we know and trust in Jesus Christ, and all He has done for us… even as we face moments of grief, of sadness, and pain, we can rejoice. Not because these things don’t matter, but because we know our place in the story. Looking to Jesus, the Risen Lord, we know how our story is going to end. And we know the One who is with us ‘here and now’, and will be with us forever.
 
We can and should be thankful for the things that bring us happiness: for everything that we enjoy, and helps to brighten up our daily lives, and for the special moments and seasons that we eagerly anticipate. But let us remember that in Jesus, we have been given a source of joy beyond compare… one that has the power to sustain us when our ‘here and now’ is hard to bear: the joy of sharing the New Life of God, both ‘now’ and for all time.
 
With this in bigger picture in mind, I’ll close with these words from the Apostle Paul:
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near.  Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Amen.


[1] Read Zephaniah 3 in it’s entirety.

​Our service of Morning Prayer, Bulletin, and Sermon can be found here:

​Our Advent Hymn can be found here:

​And our other Songs can be found here:

Scripture Readings: Malachi 3:1–4 | Luke 1:68–79 | Philippians 1:3–11 | Luke 3:1–6

“In the tender compassion of our God the dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace” (Luke 1:78-79).
 
The season of Advent is meant to stir up our anticipation… our desire for the coming of Christ… of God’s good Kingdom, and all it entails. This week we are invited to reflect on the theme of peace… a precious gift that seems to be in short supply these days.
 
Our communities and society as a whole are wracked by deep divisions, with widespread mistrust and hatred making true public co-operation seem like a dream. This has been a growing problem for years, but the pressures brought on by the pandemic have certainly thrown more fuel on the fire eroding our common good-will. Now all we hear is “it’s us vs. them”, as we circle the wagons, and point fingers… seeking security by looking out for “me and mine.”
 
But as we know, our homes are not necessarily places of solace either, with tensions tearing hard at the bonds of family too. Again, the pandemic has intensified this trend, and cases of domestic violence and abuse, already far too high, are rising sharply.
 
We know as well that so much of these interpersonal conflicts come from our own inner battles and lack of peace... reflected in the veritable tidal wave of mental health challenges. Cases of high anxiety, depression, and suicide are everywhere, but they are especially showing up among our youth.
 
These are all serious reasons for concern… reasons to take seriously our need to pray and work for peace in every area, in every facet of our lives.
 
But as we turn to our Scripture readings today, we are given a vision of a different, deeper kind of peace than we often imagine. A kind of peace that’s going to turn everything upside down.
 
Our Gospel reading today from Luke starts off with a list of names, introducing us to the ‘who’s who’ of political power. First off is the Roman Emperor, Tiberius, successor to Augustus Caesar, then comes Pontius Pilate, the local Roman governor. Next Luke lists for us the puppet rulers, the sons of Herod the ‘Great’ who were put in charge of various parts of his old ‘kingdom’ after his death. And finally, we’re given the names of two of Judah’s High Priests.
 
At one level, by giving us these names, Luke is helping us locate his Good News within the scope of history. The story he’s telling us did not happen ‘once upon a time’, but in our own world, with all of its tensions, challenges, and conflicts. But Luke is also introducing us to a particular group of people: to those who would have been seen as responsible for providing and maintaining peace. One of the primary concerns of those with any authority in the Roman Empire was upholding the Pax Romana… the so called ‘peace’ of Rome: the relative stability of their wider society… often enforced ruthlessly with the cross and the sword.
 
It’s worth noting that Luke lumps together the High Priests, Annas and Caiaphas, with the political Roman rulers. As a High Priest, one was supposed to be the recognized spiritual leader of Judah… the designated liaison between them and the Living God, ensuring that God’s people stood in right relationship with Him… not only in how they worshipped, but in how they lived each day. Long ago, the High Priests would have all descended from Aaron, the brother of Moses… but by this time, the High Priesthood had become highly politicized. The Roman authorities now claimed the right to choose the High Priest, selecting those that knew how to serve the interests of the Empire. Their sacred role for guiding God’s people had become a tool to appease the Emperor, which also put them in the position to find prosperity for themselves as well. Though they had wealth and political influence, Annas and Caiaphas and their crew were seen by many as corrupt… unfit to lead God’s people and guide them into life.
 
In complete contrast to all those powerful people, Luke then points us to John the Baptist: the wild man from the desert calling God’s people to turn around. Through John and his message, Luke is setting the stage for us to see the coming conflict between the ways of our world’s Empires, and the Kingdom of God… which in many ways will be what the rest of his Gospel, his ‘Good News’ story will be about… calling us to place our trust in God’s own Chosen King.
 
Luke tells us John “went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,” (Luke 1:3), which Luke then connects to the ancient prophetic word about preparing the way for God’s coming rescue.
“Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” (Luke 1:4-6).
Leveling mountains, hills, and valleys. Making straight crooked ways, and smoothing out the rough paths… all so that all flesh shall see the salvation of God.
 
That doesn’t sound easy. That sounds like disruption. Upheaval. Not to mention, hard work.
 
 And how does this fit with how we tend to imagine peace in our own lives?
 
It can be so easy to equate ‘working for peace’ with ‘keeping quiet’… with ‘not rocking the boat’, and ‘not making a fuss.’ In some ways this makes straightforward sense: it seems unchristian to be contentious, so we try to avoid any conflict. Of course there’s a vital place for patience, gentleness, and longsuffering love in the Christian life, but there’s also a very real danger of distorting peace… of simply seeking to keep things running smoothly, of maintaining the status quo, even when that means allowing crooked ways to go unchecked, covering up abuse… and even enabling injustice. If the price of peace means doing nothing to stop the destruction at work around, and even inside of us, we need to stop and reflect on what kind of peace God really wants for us.
 
So what might God’s peace look like?
We can catch a good glimpse by looking closer at the Hebrew word for peace: shalom, which means far more than the ‘easy, unsteady peace’ that we too often settle for. According to John Goldingay, and Old Testament scholar, “The word shalom can suggest peace after there has been conflict, but it often points to a richer notion, of fullness of life.”[1] And another scholar goes even further explaining what this peaceful fullness entails: “It describes the ideal human state, both individual and communal, the ultimate gift from God.”[2]
And another scholar writes: “The concept of shalom… implies much more than mere absence of conflict. At root shalom means wholeness or well-being… shalom implies absence of conflict due to an absence of those things that cause conflict.[3] The peace that God is after does not come from covering up corruption, or refusing to look at and deal with the difficult things in our relationships, and in our lives. God’s peace calls us to seek wholeness, completeness, fullness of life… not just for me and mine, but for all. For everyone.
 
The Pax Romana, the peace of Rome was about what’s best for Rome. It worked pretty well for their economy, and for all those at the top, maintaining a fairly reliable status quo, with many benefits. But in doing so it perpetuated a society built on slave-labour, and the violent suppression of conquered people, and any who ‘stepped out of line’. It was driven by greed, and fear, and only upheld by bloodshed. But God’s shalom aims to set things right. God’s peace is pure peace.
 
Our Old Testament reading today from the prophet Malachi gives us this image of God’s coming messenger as one who will purify His people:
“For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; 3 he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness. 4 Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.” (Malachi 3:2-4).
Refining silver requires first melting it down, then removing all of the dross, the non-silver bits, so that all that’s left behind is pure. Malachi’s vision is one of God coming to cleanse and purify His people. Removing everything from them that gets in the way of true life. Fast forward to John the Baptist, who called all God’s people to wash in the waters of baptism… to repent, to turn from their crooked ways and find God’s compassion and forgiveness. To prepare for the coming of God’s Chosen King, the Messiah, who would not simply cleanse them with water, but with the refining, sanctifying fire of God’s Holy Spirit… purifying them inside and out so they can share God’s shalom.
 
God’s shalom, His pure peace is not about avoiding conflict, but being remade… the hard work of having our hills and mountains brought low, our valleys filled in, our crooked ways straightened.
 
What are some of the ways this cleansing work needs to happen in us? Where have we made peace to easily with the crooked ways of our world? Maybe we too have been guided by greed, or driven instead by fear? Maybe we just go along with it all because we simply can’t see any other way?
 
Thankfully, Luke’s whole Gospel shows us another way… the way of the Good News of Jesus Christ, God’s Chosen King, the Eternal Prince of Peace. Luke wants us to see that in Jesus, the Living God
“has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them. He has raised up a mighty savior for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us.” (Luke 1:68-71).
John was to prepare God’s people for the pure peace that Jesus would bring: God’s great rescue, not through hiding our crookedness, but through forgiving us. Not imposing peace by shedding the blood of others with the sword, but creating shalom, cleansing us from all that stands between us and the LORD by taking our sins upon Himself on the cross, shedding His own blood to bring us life.
 
At the cross, Jesus did for us what we could not do: He gives us His own pure peace, so that His saving work can remake us. And continue remaking us more and more as we await His return. St. Paul makes this point in his letter to the Christians in Philippi, “that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.” And he goes on to say: “For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 3:6, 9-11).
 
The pure peace God longs to share with us is His gift of wholeness, of holiness, of fullness of life through Jesus our Lord. It is the result of His Spirit at work in us, remaking us to share in His Kingdom… to rid us of all that keeps us from truly loving and striving for peace within ourselves, with those closest to us, and even with our enemies, just as our Saviour Jesus Christ did for us to set us free.
 
At this time, when so many are finding themselves sitting alone in darkness, may the work of pure peace Christ has begun in us continue to grow more and more, not just for our sakes, but so that through us, God’s compassion and salvation might be known by all, and in all that we do may our Risen Saviour guide us into the way of His peace.
 
I’ll end now with the well known prayer attributed to St. Francis:
 
Lord, make us instruments of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let us sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is discord, union;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
Grant that we may not so much seek to be
consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.


[1] John Goldingay, Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone, Old Testament for Everyone (Louisville, KY; London: Westminster John Knox Press; Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2010), 204.
 
[2] Mark Allan Powell, ed., “Shalom,” The HarperCollins Bible Dictionary (Revised and Updated) (New York: HarperCollins, 2011), 942.
 
[3] Joanna Dewey, “Peace,” ed. Mark Allan Powell, The HarperCollins Bible Dictionary (Revised and Updated) (New York: HarperCollins, 2011), 763.

Scripture Readings: Jeremiah 33:14–16 | Psalm 25:1–10 | 1 Thessalonians 3:9–13 | Luke 21:25–36

​“Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” (Luke 21:28).
 
Today we celebrate the first Sunday of Advent: a season of anticipation and preparation… getting ready for the coming of Jesus, first of all at His birth, but even more so His coming again at the end of time to bring God’s good kingdom to completion at last. It is a season meant to get us excited, but also to get us going… to inspire us to act, and remember what it means to share in Christ’s Kingdom today.
 
The Lutheran pastor and theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer puts it well: “The Advent season is a season of waiting, but our whole life is an Advent season, that is, a season of waiting for the last Advent, for the time when there will be a new heaven and a new earth.”[1]
 
Our Scripture readings today also invite us to reflect on what it means to await God’s Kingdom, and to do so in hope.
 
This morning our first reading comes from the prophet Jeremiah, who shared a message of hope for God’s people at a time when things looked pretty bleak. Within Jeremiah’s lifetime, the kingdom of Judah would fall to Babylon. The city of Jerusalem, and the Temple of Yahweh would be destroyed, and its people would be killed or carried off into exile.
 
But even so, the Living God gave these words to His people: “The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.  In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety.” The LORD would be true to His word. Though they suffer, God would not abandon His people.
 
Though it was not in our reading today, Jeremiah’s prophecy goes on: “For thus says the Lord: David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel,  and the levitical priests shall never lack a man in my presence to offer burnt offerings, to make grain offerings, and to make sacrifices for all time.
…Thus says the Lord: If any of you could break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, so that day and night would not come at their appointed time, only then could my covenant with my servant David be broken, so that he would not have a son to reign on his throne, and my covenant with my ministers the Levites. Just as the host of heaven cannot be numbered and the sands of the sea cannot be measured, so I will increase the offspring of my servant David, and the Levites who minister to me… Thus says the Lord: Only if I had not established my covenant with day and night and the ordinances of heaven and earth, would I reject the offspring of Jacob and of my servant David and not choose any of his descendants as rulers over the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will restore their fortunes, and will have mercy upon them.” That was Jeremiah 33:17-18, 20-22, 25-26.
 
At a time when the kingdom of David’s descendants, and the priesthood of Israel were all in serious jeopardy, God was re-affirming His covenant promises, assuring His frightened people that even though they were headed for exile… that would not be the end of their story. They would return, and God’s kingdom and priesthood would never come to an end.  
 
Several centuries later, during the time of our Gospel reading this morning, the people of Judah were back in the land, but things were not yet as they should be: they had a royal family, but not from David’s line. Herod the “Great” and his sons had served as Israel’s rulers for some time, but only under the rule of the Roman Emperors who used them to “keep the peace.” A few weeks back we heard how Herod had rebuilt Solomon’s Temple, but by this time the priesthood had become compromised in the eyes of many… enmeshed in all the political power-games of the day. Though it was better than sitting in exile, God’s people were still waiting for the LORD to fulfill His promises… to bring in His ultimate, and unending Kingdom at last.
 
But Jesus’ words in our Gospel reading don’t seem to offer a hopeful picture. Instead, He’s warning His followers about the hard times to come. The words we heard today mark the conclusion of a much longer passage in which Jesus predicts the downfall of Jerusalem… it’s leaders, it’s Temple… and many of those who live there.
 
Right before our reading today, Jesus says this to His disciples in Luke 21:2-24, “When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. Then those in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those inside the city must leave it, and those out in the country must not enter it; for these are days of vengeance, as a fulfillment of all that is written. Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing infants in those days! For there will be great distress on the earth and wrath against this people; they will fall by the edge of the sword and be taken away as captives among all nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.”
 
Jesus goes on, as we heard, to speak of “signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations… People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.” (Luke 21:25-26). In other words, chaos. A world where everything that seemed steadfast and sure would suddenly come undone. Where even heaven and earth, it seems can no longer be counted on.
 
Doesn’t exactly seem like a hopeful message… but it’s one we might be able to appreciate a bit more these days, especially after COVID. So much of what we had trusted in has proven to be unsteady, leaving us longing… waiting for this season of fear and uncertainty to end.
 
But here is where Christ tells His disciples, including you and I today, to hold onto hope… to “stand up and raise [our] heads, because [our] redemption is drawing near.” For the Son of Man, the LORD’s Messiah, is coming in power and glory to bring about the Kingdom of God. Jesus calls us to trust, to place our hope, not in our own leaders, or piety, or power… but in Him, whose words are more faithful and enduring than Heaven and Earth.
 
He is the one we’re hoping for. He is the one we’re waiting for. The Son of God and Son of Man who will come again one day to bring God’s glorious redemption… the one who will fulfill the promises God made to His people. Jesus is the King of Kings… the Righteous Branch of David’s family, who as the Risen Lord will never leave His throne empty again.
 
Jesus is the Eternal High Priest, who offered up His own life at the cross as the ultimate sacrifice to save the world. In Jesus, God’s promised salvation has come, but not just for Judah and Israel, but for all nations… all people everywhere.
 
And as we hope and wait for Him to renew Heaven and Earth, Jesus puts His own Spirit within us so we can share in His rule and ministry. In Him, we are drawn together into what St. Peter called: “a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that [we] may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called [us] out of darkness into his marvelous light.” (1 Peter 2:9). As the Church, the body of Jesus, filled and empowered by His Holy Spirit, we are graciously being made a part of God’s promise through Jeremiah for kings and priests without number… called to make God’s kingdom and mercies known in every way we can.
 
In his book, Surprised By Hope, the bishop and scholar, N.T. Wright makes this point: “what we can and must do in the present, if we are obedient to the gospel, if we are following Jesus, and if we are indwelt, energized and directed by the Spirit, is to build for the kingdom.”[2] We’re called to actively participate in God’s mission here and now, resisting the real temptations that can so easily distract us.
 
In our Gospel reading, right after reminding us to place our hope in Him, Jesus tells us to “Be on guard so that [our] hearts are not weighed down with dissipation (that is, indulgence)… and drunkenness and the worries of this life” but to pray for the strength to stand before the Son of Man when He returns. And St. Paul, in our reading today from 1 Thessalonians, prays for these Christians to “increase and abound in love for one another and for all…” that the Lord may “strengthen [their] hearts in holiness that [they] may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.” (1 Thess. 3:12-13). Resisting the traps of overindulgence, and preoccupation with life’s distractions. Living lives of holy love, for one another and for all. These are the hallmarks of what it means to share in God’s Kingdom. This is how we anticipate and prepare for our LORD’s return.
 
Advent offers us hope that our Risen Lord is coming again to redeem Heaven and Earth, but it also invites us to put this hope into practice here and now… even in the midst of our own times of fear and uncertainty… when we are tempted to distract ourselves, and get caught up in other things… or when we are tempted to give up on the work of holy love. But in Jesus Christ, God calls us to take our part in His Kingdom. To place our hope in Him, and put our whole lives in His hands.
 
I’ll end now with another, longer quote from N.T. Wright, encouraging us not to lose heart as we wait for the Lord and get to work: “what you do in the Lord is not in vain. You are not oiling the wheels of a machine that’s about to fall over a cliff. You are not restoring a great painting that’s shortly going to be thrown on the fire. You are not planting roses in a garden that’s about to be dug up for a building site. You are—strange though it may seem, almost as hard to believe as the resurrection itself—accomplishing something which will become, in due course, part of God’s new world. Every act of love, gratitude and kindness; every work of art or music inspired by the love of God and delight in the beauty of his creation; every minute spent teaching a severely handicapped child to read or to walk; every act of care and nurture, of comfort and support, for one’s fellow human beings, and for that matter one’s fellow non-human creatures; and of course every prayer, all Spirit-led teaching, every deed which spreads the gospel, builds up the church, embraces and embodies holiness rather than corruption, and makes the name of Jesus honoured in the world—all of this will find its way, through the resurrecting power of God, into the new creation which God will one day make. That is the logic of the mission of God. God’s recreation of his wonderful world, which has begun with the resurrection of Jesus and continues mysteriously as God’s people live in the risen Christ and in the power of his Spirit, means that what we do in Christ and by the Spirit in the present is not wasted. It will last all the way into God’s new world.”[3] Amen.
 
 
 
 


[1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, God Is in the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas, ed. Jana Riess, trans. O. C. Dean Jr., First edition. (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010), 2.

[2] Tom Wright, Surprised by Hope (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2007), 218–219.

[3] Tom Wright, Surprised by Hope (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2007), 219–220.