Scripture Readings: Isaiah 7:10–16 | Psalm 80 | 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).
 
Our journey through the season of Advent is almost at an end. In a few short days, along with our Christian sisters and brothers around the world, we will celebrate the birth of our Saviour King: Jesus Christ, the Son of Mary, and the Son of God.
 
But as we face the final days of Advent together, awaiting not only His birth in Bethlehem, but also His coming again in glory to set all things right once and for all… we are invited to reflect on one of the most important elements of our faith and the Christian way of life: and that is love.
 
Love… offering oneself to another… and not just when it’s easy… when things are going great and we’re all getting along… but when it’s really hard… when tensions and divisions keep pulling us apart… when doubts arise, and dangers threaten, and when we’re really afraid. That’s when love’s needed the most.
 
And in our readings from Holy Scripture this morning we are reminded that even when things seem to be at their darkest, and our tensions and divisions seem to be the fiercest… God shows us that we are not left alone… and that, no matter what, we can trust that God’s saving love is still with us.
 
In our first reading from the book of Isaiah, we hear about a heated exchange between the prophet Isaiah and King Ahaz, the leader of the Southern Kingdom of Judah.
 
At the time King Ahaz was facing a serious crisis: two of his neighbouring nations, the Kingdom of Aram, in what is now Syria, and the Northern Kingdom of Israel… their estranged countrymen… had raised up their armies and allied against him, and were now threatening to conquer Jerusalem. And we can hear their response in Isaiah 7:2, “When the house of David heard that Aram had allied itself with Ephraim [another name for the Northern Tribes of Israel], the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.” And can you blame him? Judah was facing an invasion from two powerful kings right on his doorstep.

But through the prophet Isaiah, the Living God promises that Judah will not be conquered by the armies of Aram and Israel. And yet, along with these words of encouragement, God also calls Ahaz to do something… to trust Him. Isaiah 7:9, “If you do not stand firm in faith,” God says to the king, “you shall not stand at all.”
 
Of course, the LORD knew that would not be easy. God understood exactly how Ahaz and all his people were feeling. And so, to help strengthen their faith, God offers to give King Ahaz a sign… anything that would help him and his people to stand firm in faith. But instead of receiving this gift of encouragement with gratitude, Ahaz refuses… in what seems to be an attempt to appear pious… but has all the hallmarks of hypocrisy.
 
Exasperated by Ahaz, God decides to give him a sign anyway. In the middle of this war, and their city’s siege, God says that a maiden will give birth to a son, and the child will be called “God-is-with-us”… Immanuel. And this child’s life would become a sign of God’s salvation! Born in the hell of war, God promises that “He shall eat curds and honey [wholesome, rich foods, not war rations] by the time he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, [while still young] the land before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted.” (Isaiah 7:15-16). In other words, Judah was assured this terrible trial would not last forever: in a few short years, their enemies would be long gone. But in the meantime, the only path forward would be to place their faith in God their Saviour.
 
This episode reveals both the great tension that often existed between God and His stubborn, slow-to-faith people… and also God’s utter determination to remain faithful to them… to encourage, and coax, and urge, and even at times angrily offer them the help and hope they can only receive from turning to Him in faith… loving us, even when it isn’t easy to, and seeking our salvation in spite of our stubbornness. 
 
Turning now to our Gospel passage this morning, we find a very different episode unfolding in the life of God’s people… but one which has its own serious crisis and tensions at work. Instead of an impending war between neighbouring nations, we have a family about to fall apart: a man who feels betrayed by his fiancé, and an innocent woman facing a future of public shame and abandonment.
 
As St. Matthew tells us the story, while she was engaged to a man named Joseph, a young woman named Mary came to be with child through the power of the Holy Spirit alone. Discovering this, Joseph suspects his fiancé of being unfaithful to him. Understandably, he feels deeply betrayed… but rather than give in to the strong impulse to act against her out of spite and seek to ruin her, we hear that Joseph still wants to do right by her… to be as caring and kind as he could, under the circumstances, and break off their relationship quietly… that is, trying to avoid publicly shaming her.
 
How often do we see people like Joseph these days? People who, instead of lashing out at others when they are wounded, can act in love even towards those who they believe have hurt them? People who seek to be as caring and kind as they can be, even when they could easily pursue revenge. I pray we can all become a lot more like Joseph… even though he was plain wrong about Mary.

Thankfully, before he broke off their engagement, Joseph was visited by an angel in a dream, telling him not to be afraid to marry Mary. That she had not betrayed him… and God was at work doing something new in and through her. And this miracle child would be a sign of God’s love, not just for their little family, but for the whole world!
 
And this child will be called “God Saves”… Yehoshua… shortened to Yeshua, or Joshua… or as we know Him, Jesus… “for he will save his people” not from invading armies… but “from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21)… from everything at work in them that keeps them cut off from one another, and from the LORD. He will save them through the gift of forgiveness… offering His life in love at the cross to make atonement for us… reconciling the world to God through the gift of Himself.
 
And St. Matthew sees Jesus in the same light as the child in Isaiah Chapter 7: a sign of God’s saving love for His people… graciously offered when they deserved it the least, but needed it the most. But St. Matthew recognizes that Jesus is more than a sign of God’s saving love. He’s God’s love personified… God’s love embodied and walking around in our midst. In other words, Jesus is Emmanuel… Jesus is God-Himself-right-here-with-us! And in Jesus, we see God’s saving love in action… especially at the cross.
 
In Romans 5:8-11, my favourite passage of Scripture, St. Paul unpacks what Christian love… what the love of God really looks like in action: “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.”
 
Jesus is God-with-us… giving Himself at the cross to save us while we were still enemies… in order to reconcile us to God… and to each other. Taking those who were far apart, and bringing them together once and for all.
 
And this is where God’s love gets really hard for us. It’s one thing to believe in and receive God’s saving love at work in our own lives… welcoming Him in to heal our hurts, forgive our sins, and graciously embrace us when we don’t deserve it. As hard as that all can be… and believe me, believing in God’s saving love for ourselves can be really hard at times… it’s another thing entirely to share God’s love… this Christ-shaped, cross-shaped love with those around us… especially when they are the ones who have hurt us… and sinned against us… and when they seem to be our enemies.  
 
But the miracle of God’s saving love that we have come to know in Jesus Christ is given to us for this very purpose! To reconcile us to God, and to reconcile us to each other… overcoming our deepest divisions so we can share in the blessed life of God together. This is a central part of the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus… the one place where we can stand firm in faith. 
 
Turning at last to our reading from the first Chapter of St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, where we are given a glimpse of the incredible scope of God’s reconciling love in action… in the overcoming of the deep divisions between Israel and the Gentiles.
 
Throughout the letter to the Romans, St. Paul is addressing a deeply divided Church… where tensions between Jewish Christians and Gentile… non-Jewish Christians were particularly problematic. This powerful letter works through the implications of the Gospel… the Good News of Jesus Christ, who He is, and what He has done… within the context of a community struggling to find a way forward past all their differences… differences in language, in diet, in cultural practices… in their own understanding of their place within God’s story… in contrast to ‘those people’ over there.
 
And throughout Romans, St. Paul makes the case, again and again, that in Jesus our Saviour King, God is with us overcoming the apparent chasms between Israel and the rest of the nations… embracing everyone through Jesus, and joining them together into God’s family of faith.

From the start… in the opening lines of St. Paul’s letter, which we heard in our second reading today, we see the Apostle tying both Israel and Gentiles together in Jesus.
 
St. Paul begins by proclaiming that he is a servant of Jesus Christ, set apart to share the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus, the Saviour of God’s people… the Messiah of Israel, who is the fulfillment of the LORD’s promises through the prophets, and the whole story of the Old Testament Scriptures… descended from King David, and proven to be God’s own son by His resurrection.
 
And then Paul insists that he has been called by God’s grace to share this Good News with Gentiles too… in order that they too might come to know what he calls the obedience of faith… walking in the holy ways of the Living God, and placing their faith in His saving love.
 
And then, addressing this deeply divided community, he says this simple, but world-changing phrase: “To all God’s beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
 
To all God’s beloved… both Jews and Gentiles… distinct in part, but now united and embraced together by God’s saving love in Jesus Christ.
 
In Jesus, Paul sees that God is with us all… to save us all from our sins, so that in forgiveness we can all find the way forward to live in God’s love side by side… standing firm together in faith, trusting that as hard as it might be at times, His saving love really will see us through.
 
And so, when we are faced with our own times of great trouble, and find it really hard to love those around us… may we look to Jesus Christ and receive from Him the gift of God’s saving love in all its fulness… so that we can truly share it with God’s messed up but still beloved world, and help them come to know that in Jesus Emmanuel, God the Saviour is with them too. Amen.

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

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

“When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?’  Jesus answered them, ‘Go and tell John what you hear and see’” (Matthew 11:2-3).
 
Well, here we are, already celebrating the third Sunday of Advent, and reflecting on the theme of Joy as we anticipate the coming of Jesus Christ our Saviour King.
 
But right from the start, we’ve been thrown a bit of a curveball… we’ve been given a challenging story to wrestle with today as our Gospel reading confronts us with the suffering and disillusionment of one of Christ’s earliest advocates and faithful witnesses: John the Baptist. 
 
After playing a key role in the exciting beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry… baptizing the One he had wholeheartedly believed to be God’s Messiah in the Jordan River… John’s story had taken a much darker turn that was seriously starting to shake up his faith. As you may remember, John had been thrown into prison for speaking truth to power: publicly calling out King Herod’s unfaithfulness, and hypocrisy… and like so many of God’s prophets before him, John’s honesty earned him some enemies in high places.
 
But as John expected Jesus of Nazareth to be the Chosen One sent to set God’s people free… sent to overthrow tyrant kings like Herod… to judge all unjust rulers, and vindicate those who stood up for the truth, and walked with holiness and integrity… there should be no problem! If the Messiah had finally come, now was the time for God’s faithful ones to be rewarded… right?
 
And yet, there John was, locked away in prison… seemingly abandoned for fighting the good fight, while Jesus went about eating and drinking with outcasts and sinners. And so, John starts to wonder: did he miss something? Did he misread the signs, and misunderstand the Spirit? Jesus was not at all following the plan that John had in mind. Was Jesus really the Chosen Saviour King after all?
 
Matthew 11:2-3, “When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?’”  
 
Have we ever felt like John did that day, when our own expectations and hopes are dashed?
 
Lots of people sign up for Christianity thinking that it will make our lives easier: suddenly offering us more clarity… more hope… and peace… and love… and joy. And yet, we still end up facing great difficulties… sicknesses, injuries, estrangements, isolation, and failures. And as a result, many of us struggle with our faith, wondering if we had missed something… and are tempted to see our painful experiences as signs that Jesus is not really there for us. That we are either on our own, or that we should look elsewhere for the help and the hope that we need.
 
And yet, as strange as it may seem, our Gospel passage today is an invitation to embrace joy, especially for those like John who find themselves in the midst of some really dark circumstances. Our passage today does not deny the reality of the difficulties that we all will face. Instead, it calls us to trust that our times of suffering are not a sign of our abandonment, and that they can be endured faithfully and even joyfully when seen in the light of God’s good Kingdom at work.
​
In short: while the way of Jesus will not always be easy, even in the darkest times it still offers us real hope, and peace, and joy… as we start to see and share in what God has been up to all along.
 
Turning back to our Gospel passage, let’s take a moment to focus on one of John’s major concerns: that unjust and ungodly rulers seem to be calling the shots, while the innocent suffer at their hands. Now I know many of us here at St. Luke’s share John’s concerns… and that tyrants still seem to be running amok in our world. 
 
And just like John, we Christians throughout the centuries have looked to Jesus as the final Judge who will one day bring an end to all injustice and evil… coming again to sort out the living and the dead, as the Creeds call us each week to confess. And all throughout the Holy Scriptures, we see that justice and righteousness are clearly on the God’s agenda.  
 
But He also has far more in store that we tend to lose sight of when we insist that He adhere to our agendas… and closely follow the plans and timelines that we are expecting.

Matthew tells us that John was discouraged and started to doubt when he heard what Jesus was up to. But what was Jesus up to? Not yet toppling tyrants… He was instead giving the world a long-awaited taste of and a glimpse into what the joyful victory of the Kingdom of God is like!
 
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.”
 
In His response, Jesus is pointing John to the fulfillment of God’s promises of salvation spoken of through the prophets, like we heard this morning in our first reading from Isaiah 35:5-6,
“Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
then the lame shall leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.”
 
Far from failing to fulfill His calling as God’s Chosen Messiah, Jesus was doing far more than John had expected… enacting God’s salvation even before the tyrants of the world were overthrown. And Jesus chose to enact God’s salvation in the lives of ordinary, hungry, and hurting people… offering signs of the New Life of God’s New Creation… the beautiful future that Christ came to bring about from amid the ashes of our worlds selfishness and sin. 
 
And Jesus’ healing ministry among the poor, and the outcasts was not just a gift to those who experienced His healing touch first-hand… excluding all others, as if He didn’t care about all those who did not encounter Him face to face… or those, like John, who continued to suffer under the power of unjust tyrants. No, through His acts of mercy, and healing ministry, Jesus was hard at work pointing us all towards the coming victory of God’s Kingdom: the joyful release from all captivity… the ending of all divisions… the healing of all wounds… the forgiveness of all sins… and life in all its fullness. 
 
Christ’s whole time on earth… all that He says and does serves as a sign, a window into what God has in store… and it is so good! And no illness, no tragedy, or tyrant will be able to keep God’s good Kingdom from coming!
 
And it was for this reason… for this joyful future set before Him, that Jesus Himself endured the incredible suffering and pain of the cross… abandoned and betrayed by His friends… falsely accused and condemned by His own people... Jesus freely chose to take the failures and shame of the whole world on His shoulders… the Judge of all accepting the full price of justice on Himself in order to release us all from the power and hold of sin over us… setting us free by His cross so that we might share in the joys of His New Life. 
 
Jesus pursued joy… not just for Himself, but for us all… by remaining faithful to His Father even unto death… and was raised again on Easter morning as the firstborn and first-fruits of God’s New Creation. 
 
And just as Jesus was raised to this eternal joy, so will those of us who remain in Him. His glory becomes our glory… His victory becomes ours… and through faith, we begin to share in the joys of His New Life, even now. 

Jesus shows us that joy does not come from avoiding the darkness and pain of life in our broken world. It comes from believing that all darkness and pain will one day be healed and overcome for good by God. Joy is holding fast to this Good News, and letting it sink in, and take root within us… like a seed buried in the ground, but bursting through the soil to bring new life into being.
 
And this is where our second reading today, from the letter of James, comes into play, calling us to endure even our days of darkness patiently, trusting that in God’s time our joys will be complete.
 
James 5:7-10, “Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. Beloved, do not grumble against one another, so that you may not be judged. See, the Judge is standing at the doors! As an example of suffering and patience, beloved, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.”
 
As we await our Lord’s return, to set all things right, and bring us to His eternal joy, James calls us to patience… to remain faithful to Jesus by holding fast to the hope we have been given… even as we face days of discouragement, and our own great difficulties.
 
Our struggles and concerns may not be like John the Baptist’s… we might not get locked up, or lose our lives for standing up to unjust tyrants. But many of us have had to face other dark challenges, like serious health concerns… or tensions in our relationships… or seasons of not having the resources we need… or times of isolation… or destructive temptations… or a whole host of others trials. 
 
And these struggles are all important to God. He’s not ignoring us when we face them, or asking us to smile and pretend everything’s alright when it’s clearly not. But God does invite us to hold our concerns up to the light of what Jesus has done for us and our world… and to trust that in Christ, true freedom and real release from these struggles is on its way… calling us to hold onto Him in joyful anticipation that all of these struggles will one day be resolved and sorted out for good by our Saviour King. 

And while we wait, we are called to become living signs of joy for our world. I don’t mean walking around as if nothing upsets us, or that nothing is wrong… but living as those who are always in touch with the Good News of Jesus, even when everything around us seems to be shrouded in gloom… speaking and acting as those who know that the good Kingdom of God is on its way, and that despite all the troubles we and our world faces today, Jesus our Saviour King really is coming to the rescue, and nothing in all of Creation can stop His complete victory.
 
And so, with the help of the Holy Spirit, may we all become living signs of joy for one another, and for all those around us… offering a taste of God’s New Life at work in us even now… even when things seem their darkest... and patiently anticipating the joyful arrival of His good Kingdom by being Christ’s faithful witnesses in the world, His active hands and feet working to share His Good News with everyone, any way we can. Amen.

Scripture Readings: Isaiah 11:1–10 | Psalm 72 | Romans 15:4–13 | ​Matthew 3:1–12

“In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’” (Matthew 3:1-2).
 
A lot of people are talking about peace these days… probably because it’s one of those things that so many of us are longing for, while so few know how to practice it.  
 
In the headlines, we hear all about the seemingly endless negotiations and politicking at work between nations striving for peace… but where the ‘peace process’ often looks a lot like a bunch of bullies pressuring the vulnerable until they give in to unjust demands… and powerful leaders boasting and posturing to make themselves seem great while others pay the price…  suffering and struggling to put back the pieces of their broken lives.
 
But it’s not just world-leaders who have a hard time practicing peace. It’s a problem for lots of us… in our own communities, and relationships, and even within our own hearts and minds. So many of us are searching for a path to peace… but it still seems to elude us.

And the problem just might be that we keep on searching for peace on our own terms. Imagining that we humans are the best judges of what needs to be done to put things right… either in the wider world or inside of us.
 
I mean, our commercial economy runs on this assumption, and tries to sell us this message, insisting that ‘If I only buy this new produce… or take up this special offer… or share in this once in a lifetime experience… then I’d finally be at peace.’ And yet, these products and programs which can seem so promising… still leave us longing for more. And how much of our conversations about politics… about the shape of our common life, boils down to something like ‘If they would only do this… or concede to that… then we would all be at peace.’ And yet, most of these paths that seem so obvious to us don’t seem to pan out in practice.
 
But thankfully, the second Sunday of Advent which we celebrate today calls us to look for peace elsewhere… to turn around and instead of pursuing peace on our own terms, to find it by coming face to face with the Prince of Peace Himself. 

Someone whose whole life’s work was to prepare the way for and point us towards this Prince of Peace is the man our Gospel passage this morning introduces us to: John the Baptist… a prophetic messenger sent from the Living God to call His people to repent… to turn around… seeking not only forgiveness but also a new way forward… starting over again as God’s people devoted to doing His good will. 
 
And despite being someone who was not at all afraid to rock the boat and disturb the peace of his neighbours, John’s message seems to have been pretty well received! And that may have been because John’s challenge actually rang true. Many of John’s fellow Jews were well aware that things were not exactly going well. Their people were living under the thumb of a powerful and violent Empire… whose leaders proclaimed themselves to be the great bringers of peace… but who did so primarily by silencing all opposition with the edge of a sword, or publicly displaying their ultimate power by hanging trouble makers on a cross. In other words, violence and the threat of death were the Roman tools for clearing the way for the paths of peace. Not unlike some places today.

But in addition to the dangers posed by the Romans, there were also concerns that the leaders of John’s own people were not really trustworthy either. After all, King Herod’s whole dynasty were little more than puppets of the Caesars in Rome. And the High Priests and their backers, the Sadducees, were largely preoccupied with maintaining their own positions and power as those in charge of the Temple, and were seen by many as completely compromised and corrupt.
 
And then there were more grass roots, but deeply influential movements like the Pharisees, who offered their own solutions… confidently offering their own specific interpretations of the Laws of Moses, the Commandments, spending their time disputing and despising those who didn’t go along with them, or who somehow didn’t measure up. 
 
And so, recognizing how deeply divided and broken their communities and their lives had become, crowds of God’s people from all around Judea were open to a better way forward… and they came to be baptized by John… to begin again… placing their hope in the mercy and promises of the Living God spoken of by the prophets… by responding to John’s message about turning around… repenting of their old ways, and sins… and pursuing faithfulness instead. 
 
And as we heard today, John had some harsh words for those who were not sincere in pursuing this new start, singling out large groups of both the Sadducees and the Pharisees… both the Temple elites and the popular pietists… who came to him seeking baptism… accusing them of hypocrisy, and calling them both a “brood of vipers”… a biting allusion to Genesis Chapter 3:15, where God says to the snake in the garden after the Fall:
“I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”
 
This conflict between the descendants of the snake and the descendants of the Woman… that is, those who were devoted to the ways of darkness and sin, and those who were truly faithful to God… would go on until one offspring of Eve, the Messiah… the Chosen One, would crush the snake’s head for good… setting all things right at last… bringing about the ending of God’s enemies once and for all, and establish His peace forever. 
 
And as we heard, John himself was full of anticipation about this coming Messiah, eagerly awaiting and preparing the way for the One who would come to baptize people with the Holy Spirit, and with fire… finally burning away all that’s wrong with the world, and rescuing all those who remained true. “Even now”, John says in Matthew 3:10, “the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” 
 
And John was right… the Messiah was coming to completely sort out our world, and to burn away all of the evil at work in it… but not in the ways that John himself seems to have imagined. And so even God’s faithful messenger, dedicated to calling God’s people to repent and return to Him, would himself have to be turned around… to let go of his own ideas about what God was up to, and what the path to God’s peace actually looks like in practice. 
 
And this is a good reminder for you and I: just because we may have been faithfully trying to follow God and walk in His holy ways for some time now… it doesn’t mean that we are the ones who have all the answers… or that we already understand the whole story of what the Living God is up to. 
 
The Sadducees, the Pharisees, John the Baptist, and even Jesus’ own disciples were in need of a whole a lot of turning around… and we will too, I’m sure. 
 
And often, it can seem like our ways of seeking peace… for our world, our country, our communities, our families, and even ourselves… run completely counter to what we know of God’s ways. And in those times, we must make a choice: Will we keep going our own way, or turn around and take God’s way instead?
 
This is not just a choice we make at the start of our journey as Christians… before our baptism, or confirmation… or whenever we first decide to place our faith in Jesus. It is a choice we Christians must make every day… and maybe many times a day. The choice to pursue God’s path of peace every step of the way, all the way to the end. 
 
And Advent points us forward to the arrival of the One who is the true Prince of Peace: Jesus, God’s Son… the One who reveals God’s good ways to us, and who will return to set our world right once and for all… judging the nations with truth and righteousness… sorting through every lie and act of evil… and exposing all of the corruption that rots and erodes the life of His beloved creation. 
 
Jesus is the One spoken of in our first reading from the book of the Prophet Isaiah 11:2-5,
“A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
 
His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.
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.”
 
Jesus came to baptize us with the Spirit of God and with fire… but not quite as John and others had envisioned. Not as an instrument of terror and destruction… as One bent on wreaking revenge against sinners, but rather, as One determined and devoted to refining us… purifying us… burning away all that keeps us from sharing in His holy life and the path of peace… and while we were still sinners reconciling us to God and one another… making peace for us… by shedding His own blood. 
 
Jesus turned the world’s program for seeking peace on its head… not demanding reparations or concessions from those who have been violently overthrown… but paying the price Himself for all of our world’s spiritual and moral bankruptcies. In self-giving love, Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God gave up His life at the cross… suffering and dying for us, and in our place, all to bring us God’s peace:
 
Exposing our failures… but by forgiving them. 
Challenging all our lies… by showing us the truth. 
Bringing our divisions to an end, not through violence, but by embracing us all… conquering God’s real enemies… the devil, the powers of sin, and the seemingly invincible threat of violence and death itself by innocently enduring their full force, dying and rising again for us… breaking the chains of fear and shame forever, and setting us free to move forward together. 
 
At the cross, Jesus reveals the heartbeat and the power of God’s peace as His holy love in practice. And He shows us that the only true path of peace is the commitment to letting His holy love play out in all our relationships. This path doesn’t deny that there are still those who seek to use violence and power and the fear of death to get their own way… but the cross and resurrection of Jesus reveals that these ways don’t stand a chance against the victory of God! And one day, the Risen Lord Himself will sit down and sort out all that’s been done, calling everyone to account for the course of their lives, and answering to Him for what’s been done.
 
But as we await that day, we must actively resist the impulse to look on others as enemies to dismiss or destroy… remembering that the path of peace that Jesus Himself leads us on is the path of reconciliation… bringing those who were formerly foes together into God’s one family.
 
Remember Isaiah’s vision of God’s ultimate peace project, in Chapter 11:6-10, how those who were once completely at odds with one another will one day be completely at peace:
 
“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.
They will not hurt or destroy
on all my holy mountain;
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.”
 
And this is much more than noble poetry… this is the story of the Church… the community of those who have received the Spirit of Christ, and have been baptized into His new life.
 
In our second reading today from Romans Chapter 15, we heard the Apostle Paul speaking to a deeply divided Church, made up of both Jewish and Gentile Christians, reminding them of the unity and peace they have with God and one another through their faith in the Messiah, Jesus… overcoming almost impossible social and historical obstacles to create this brand new community dedicated to practicing Christ’s peace together, here on earth. 
 
And in Romans 15:5-7, he says to them, and to you and I today:
 
“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.”
 
With this high calling in mind: What are the ways that Jesus our Messiah is calling us to practice His peace today? What divisions are we to seek to overcome? What prejudices or preoccupations are we to set aside, and even what pains are we called to endure in order to share His holy love with those around us? Those whom God commands us to love, and whom Jesus Christ gave His own life to save?
 
This second Sunday of Advent calls us to ask these kinds of questions, and to place our hope, not in our own ability to answer them, but in Christ’s own power and peace at work in us through His Holy Spirit. So, as we await His coming again to set our world right, and establish His unending peace, 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 15:4-13). Amen.

​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

“Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.” (Matthew 24:44)
 
Do you have any favourite holiday traditions? Practices that help you feel well prepared for this special season?
 
Maybe it’s putting up lights, or decorating a Christmas tree. Maybe it’s baking some tasty treats, or putting on a festive album or playlist. Maybe it’s getting together with friends and relations, and taking time to reconnect.
 
One tradition that I absolutely cherished as a child was counting down the days to Christmas with our family’s special Advent calendar: sort of a woven banner, with the numbers one through twenty four marked on either side, and a little white-bearded Nisse, a Nordic gnome-figure, tied to a safety pin that we’d move along every morning… marking our slow but exciting progress towards the big Christmas celebrations.
 
When I moved out, I took this Advent calendar with me, and now it’s my daughter’s turn to excitedly mark our family’s progress as Christmas Day grows ever closer.
​
There’s something exciting about these kinds of countdowns… of watching the gap between the present and a much anticipated date steadily growing smaller before our eyes… keeping us well aware that the moment we’ve been waiting for really is on it’s way, and reminding us to do whatever we need to do to get ready for it.  
 
Today, Advent calendars remain a well known and popular holiday practice, even among those without a sense of the specifically Christian nature of the season of Advent… that is, not just as a countdown to Christmas, but as a time of intentional preparation and anticipation of the return of Christ, no longer as a child in a manger, but as the King of glory, and the Saviour of our world.
 
But as our Gospel passage today reminds us, there is no clear countdown for Christ’s return. As much as we might really want to be in the know, only the Father knows the time or date of His Son’s final arrival.
And so, during the first week of Advent, we are invited to reflect on the nature of our Christian Hope, which calls us to get ready… especially when we don’t know when this hope will be realized. 

Of course, when facing any kind of uncertainty or open-endedness, it can be very tempting at times to try to find something more tangible to hold onto, and to place our hopes in. And as the Church has waited quite a while for Christ’s return… two thousand years and counting… it can be easy for us to forget where our true foundation lies, and start building our confidence upon other things… things that might seem solid enough to offer us assurance and security, but in the end they will not endure.
 
These false hopes come in all sorts of forms and disguises, but I’d like to mention just a few today.
 
The first false hope I want to look at in brief is a hope based on our shared human history and abilities… a hope that can be caught up in both our visions of pursuing progress… of leaving the past behind for a supposed better and brighter tomorrow… and it also shows up in our desires to pump the breaks and conserve our old ways of doing things.
 
Whether we’re eager to change things up, or keep things calm and steady… whether we’re more invested in what is possible or in preserving what is familiar… in both cases if our main focus and our confidence is anchored to what we are up to… what we are able to achieve, or defend, or uphold, or strive for… then we have really placed our hope in ourselves… in our own methods, and mechanisms… losing sight of the fact that the Good News calls us to look for hope beyond ourselves… and to find it in the face of Jesus Christ the Lord.
 
Now I’m not saying that we can do nothing good… that all our attempts to bring about positive change, or to preserve what is precious are not important, or even necessary. But what I am saying is that all our efforts can only get us so far. That despite everything we humans do to bring about a new utopia, or try to retrace our steps to Paradise… in the end, we cannot rescue ourselves… but the Good News is we know Someone who can!
 
And while we wait for Him, we can be actively trying to live as those who are shaped by His Good News… walking in the ways He taught us… trusting in His Spirit to guard and guide us… putting His self-giving love into practice… all while recognizing that our world’s fate does not rest in our hands, but in His. And He will not fail us! 

Now there is another false hope we should take at least a few moments to mention: the false hope of escape… of seeking simply to flee from this world and avoid all its heavy concerns.
 
This false hope has been pretty common at times among Christians… especially in some circles where ideas about Christ’s return are framed as God’s abandonment of His creation… scooping up a select few who then get to avoid times of deep tribulation… while the rest of the world’s left to burn.
 
But even those who do not hold to this explicitly escapist understanding of the fate of Christians can still end up acting as though what matters most… what God really wants for all His faithful children is that we are able to avoid anything uncomfortable. That we get through life as smoothly as possible. Or that, when things get rough, we should just give up waiting around to get out of here… that our only hope lies in counting down the days until we can fly away and leave all this mess behind us.
 
I know that this way of thinking can seem to offer some solace to those who are enduring a great deal of pain, and who are approaching the limits of their own endurance, in body, mind, or spirit. But the hope that the Scriptures offer us is not like the hope of an inmate, counting down the days until the end of their sentence. It’s more like the hope of someone who knows their rescuer is on His way. The hope, not of avoiding or retreating from the brokenness and pain of earthly life, but the hope of being led through it to receive new life on the other side… sharing in Christ’s sufferings, so we might also share in His glory.
 
To put it another way, if our hope is simply centred on escaping… we quickly become completely preoccupied with ourselves, and become oblivious to the needs of our neighbours, neglecting the work of the Kingdom that God has called us to do here and now.
  
This kind of escapist hope runs counter to the whole story of Jesus Himself, who was tempted in Gethsemane to avoid the agony of the cross, but instead of fleeing, or refusing to go through with it, He remained faithful to the end… facing death head on for us first before then rising again in glory to reign at God’s right hand. 
 
And this is where we come to the heart of the matter, to the true nature of our Christian Hope: that is, Jesus Himself… God’s Son, who for us and for our salvation, suffered and died and rose again… placing all of His hope in His Heavenly Father’s unending love and resurrecting power… and through His own faithfulness, Jesus shattered the chains of our failures, and the fear of death, finally bringing God’s New Creation into view, where sorrow and pain will be no more.
 
And now Jesus invite us to place our hope in Him to see us through… calling us to remain steadfastly His… ready and waiting for the arrival of our Saviour King, even if He takes another two thousand years. 
 
Because of the Good News of Jesus Christ… His death, His resurrection, and His promise to come again… we can have the confidence… the hope we need to get ready while we wait.
 
Ready to do his will here on earth, laying aside the works of darkness, and putting on the armour of light, as St. Paul puts it (Romans 13:12-13), diligently seeking to do what’s right, not from a sense that it’s all resting on our shoulders, but out of deep devotion to the ways of our Saviour King, confident that as we trust in and follow Jesus, His Holy Spirit will be at work in us to do far more than we could ever ask or imagine.
 
And the Good News of Jesus calls us to be ready to bare witness to this hope we have been given… not to retreat from the brokenness of our world, but to share what we know of the life-giving love of God with all those around us. So that, as the prophet Isaiah tells us,
“Many peoples shall come and say,
‘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).
 
And even though the Good News invites us also to be ready to suffer for the sake of our great Saviour King, we know that anything we go through now cannot compare with the glory that awaits His faithful ones. That all our trials and sufferings, though very real, will one day come to an end, and be replaced once and for all with sharing in the unending joys of God’s New Creation. 
 
And so, as we spend the next few weeks of Advent getting ready together and waiting for the arrival of Jesus our Saviour King, may the Holy Spirit of God fill our hearts with a true and lasting hope. A hope that empowers us to walk in Jesus’ ways every day… to reach out with compassion and grace to those around us, sharing the Good News of God’s love with our broken and hurting world… and to remain steadfast even when we face great pain and suffering, confident that Christ will come again… that even though we may not be able to count down the exact days, one by one, we know that the time of “salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers;  the night is far gone, the day is near.” (Romans 13:11-12).  Amen. 

Today we celebrate the first Sunday of Advent: a season of anticipation and preparation for the coming of Jesus Christ, first in His birth at Christmas, but also in His future return to reign forever over God's renewed creation.

Each week in Advent, we reflect on an important aspect of the Christian life as we wait faithfully for our Saviour, and serve His kingdom even now. On the first Sunday of Advent we reflect on the theme of Hope.

For some great quality and free Advent resources, including their video exploring the theme of Hope in the Scriptures, check out the Bible Project's Advent Resources page:

And our Songs for this week can be found here:

Update & Correction: our Combined Parish Blue Christmas Service will take place at St. Augustine's Church in Quispamsis, at 6:30PM on Sunday December 21.

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

“And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” (Luke 1:45).

What does love look like? 

The Christmas season is full of things that our society associates with love: gifts are offered and received. Time is spent together with friends and family. People share in special meals, and take part in all sorts of traditions, and celebrations. And all of these practices are seen to affirm our affections, and strengthen the bonds between us.

But even though Christmas is just one short season of the year… these practices are intended to point towards a deeper reality that we hope exists year-round. In short, we’re not only loved during Christmas, but always… even without all the gifts. Even when we are far away from our family and friends. Even when we find ourselves hungry, or a bit lost, or burdened by sadness or grief. 

Our outward experiences… be they gifts, get-togethers, or celebrations… can help us remember that we are loved… but we can be and are loved even without them. But in order for that love to take root and shape us inside and out… day in and day out… whether we feel it or not… whether our circumstances confirm it or not… we have to actually believe it. We have to trust that we are loved. 

As we know, throughout the four weeks of Advent, we are called to contemplate and to share in four important themes that are all central to the Christian life: Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love. 

And while we all have our own ideas about what these things are, and how they fit into our lives… Advent asks for our attention… for our openness to new ways of understanding… and participating in the Christian story. 

And so, while we all have our own ideas about what love is, and how we share in it, this Sunday we are reminded that the Christian story points us in a particular direction when it comes to love… inviting us to reevaluate all our ideas about love from this starting point… to learn to trust… to believe in this kind of love, so that we can then begin to put it into practice.  

In our reading this morning, from St. Luke’s Gospel, we heard about a joyous family reunion: Mary, the soon to be mother of our Lord meets up with her cousin Elizabeth.

Right before our reading today, St. Luke tells of how the angel Gabriel had visited Mary, and announced that the Lord had chosen her to give birth to the Messiah, the long awaited the Saviour King sent to set His people free. 

And while Mary was trying to wrap her head around what this all means… and how this could even be possible… Gabriel assures her that she won’t have to believe this wonderous news all on her own: he tells Mary that her cousin Elizabeth has also received a miracle child. Like Abraham and Sarah, their people’s ancestors, God was giving Zechariah and Elizabeth a son who would share in the story of God’s great rescue mission… even though they were both quite old, and well past the years of natural parenting. And Gabriel says that this is a sign for Mary, to remember that nothing is impossible with the Living God. 

And so Mary races off to Zechariah’s house, where she is greeted by her very pregnant cousin Elizabeth, who joyfully confirms the gift that God had given to Mary. 

Luke 1:41-45, “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” 

“Blessed is the one who believed… that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” Mary trusted God’s word to her, and her life was changed forever.

St. Luke goes on to tell us how Mary responds to this greeting: with some powerful words of her own. Echoing the prophetic hopes and convictions of God’s people throughout the centuries, Mary starts to speak of the great things God has done, and will do to set things right at last. 

Luke 1:50-51,
“His mercy is for those who fear him 
from generation to generation. 
He has shown strength with his arm; 
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. 
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, 
and lifted up the lowly; 
he has filled the hungry with good things, 
and sent the rich away empty. 
He has helped his servant Israel, 
in remembrance of his mercy, 
according to the promise he made to our ancestors, 
to Abraham and to his descendants forever.” 
 
A lot can be said about Mary’s words, and the hope, and peace, and joy that they inspire. But today, I want us to think about how these words help us to understand God’s love… how God has committed to put His love into action in our world.

Mary believes that the Living God has drawn her into the story of His great rescue mission: acting to end the oppression of His covenant people, by overthrowing the unjust tyrants of the world, and rescuing those in dire need.
She speaks of mercy, strength, and faithfulness shown to the lowly, the hungry, and the lost… lifting up the humble to new heights they had never dreamed of. And she speaks of God scattering the proud… bringing down those in power… and sending away those who are rich with nothing… completely turning the tables on those who use their positions and possessions to abuse others.   

And Mary was right. This is what the Lord was up to, and would do through this Child that Mary carried within her. But Mary would not get to see all this take place… at least, not in the ways that she first imagined. 

She had to share in this story by faith… by believing what the Lord had told her… trusting Him to be true to His word, and that He would truly bring to a good end all that He had begun in her womb.
 
For her son Jesus would come to overthrow not the powerful sinners who were ruling in the world, but rather striking at the powers of sin itself at the source, disarming them once and for all. And He would come to bring down the greatest foes that hold people everywhere in fear and bondage… the enemies of death and the demonic rebels that seek to ruin God’s good world. And Jesus came to send away all that is in us… the self-centredness, and greed, that keeps us from walking in God’s holy ways… in order to lift up those who are lost… to reach out and embrace the broken, and the broken-hearted… to share His saving love not just with Israel… but with His whole world.

This is of course, the Good News of God’s Kingdom. The Good News of God’s King, Christ Jesus our Lord… that “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.” (John 3:16).

Advent calls us to remember that God’s love is a Christ-shaped love. That Jesus is Himself the love of God in the flesh. And that, if we want to know what God’s love looks like… if we want it to transform our lives, inside and out, than we must look to Jesus, and believe.

To believe in Him: in God’s Son, who laid down His life at the cross to give us sinners the gift of forgiveness, and who rose again to give us God’s blessed New Life.

We are to believe in what He is doing: gathering together a new world-wide family, the Church… who, despite our differences, and struggles, are bound together in Jesus as God’s own sons and daughters… drawn together by His grace to care for each other… comfort each other... challenge each other… and encourage each other.

We are to draw near with faith to Christ’s table, and sharing in the sacred meal of Christ’s own body and blood… saying yes to all that He has done for us, and longs to do within us… taking part week after week, in this meal shared with generations of believers… and celebrating God’s great saving love for us, and for everyone.

In Jesus Christ, God’s love has truly come among us… raising up all that is lowly within us… and bringing down all those areas of our lives that still stand against His holy, life-giving ways. And God’s love is at work in and through us Christ’s people today, drawing us into the story of His saving love, not just for our own sake, but for our world… challenging oppression, injustice, and evil… reaching out to bring help to the hurting, the hungry, and all those that God puts in our path… learning what real love looks like, so that we can share it with everyone around us.

Our part is to believe, to trust in what Jesus’s story tell us… to believe the story of God’s self-giving love… and to live it out along with our Christian sisters and brothers… especially when we’re tempted to listen to all of those other stories being told around us: Stories that tell us that we’re unloved. Stories that try to get us to turn against our neighbours. Stories that would have us fixated on our circumstances, fears, and doubts… and forget Jesus, our Saviour King and everything that He has done for us… especially at the cross.

And so, as Christians we look to the cross, and see there what God’s love truly looks like. We look to the cross, and remember the wonderous lengths Jesus went to embrace us and to heal our broken world. We look to the cross, and we can believe that no matter what may come, nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:39). 

And so as Advent draws to a close, and the season of Christmas draws near, how can we help one another to believe… to truly trust in the story of God’s saving love? Not just as an abstract idea, but as our lived reality… as the story that shapes our minds, and hearts, and all that we say and do?

And how might we then help those around us to hear and hopefully believe this story too? How can we help them to come to know that they are loved by the Living God? And that Jesus Christ gave His life to rescue them? To forgive them? And to set them free? How can we bring down the obstacles that keep our friends and neighbours from understanding the Good News? How can we help lift them up in their times of need so they can experience God’s love at work in their lives?

However we might respond to these questions this Advent and Christmas season, may the Holy Spirit of God guard our hearts and minds, and guide our words and actions… and fill us with the life-changing love of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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

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

​“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.” 
(Philippians 4:4).

Well here we are already: the Third Sunday of Advent. More than halfway through the season of preparation for the coming of Jesus Christ. And this Sunday we take time to reflect on the theme of Joy in connection with Christ and His coming Kingdom. 

And while Joy itself is a big part of the New Life of God, and the Good News of Jesus Christ, and even though it is something that most people in our world are longing for in one form or another… I personally find that Joy is one of the hardest Advent themes to discuss… to clearly define what it is, and how we can prepare to experience it.

I think that at least part of the reason this is so hard is because we tend to confuse Joy with Happiness. The two are of course, deeply related, and yet there remain some important differences. And so before we go too much further, I’d like to suggest the following distinction between Happiness and Joy that I hope will be helpful:

Happiness we could say is a feeling of positivity that depends on the ‘close up’ story… on our present, immediate circumstances. We feel happy when we experience moments or seasons of comfort, security, pleasure, satisfaction, fun, and so on. These are all good things… but in this life, they are also all temporary. And so because feelings of happiness are closely bound up with the experiences of the moment, they can be easily lost when our circumstances suddenly change… when we come face to face with serious conflicts, challenges, or loss. 

But if happiness is the experience of the close-up moment, Joy has more to do with living in the ‘big picture’ story… the uplifting feeling that comes when we are deeply connected, not just to our current circumstances, but when we are able to take everything into account, and start to experience our place in a much wider context. If we think of it like a movie: happiness is what we feel when we’re watching a positive scene… but joy is what we feel when we can see that the whole film is heading towards a positive ending. Even if the current scene may be difficult to watch, we can still experience joy when we recognize that the story’s far from over.

This may sound fairly simple at some level, but joy can be hard to hold onto at times, especially as our lives become more complicated, and challenging.

Generally speaking, we could say that children tend to experience joy a bit more easily, in part because their world is smaller: their perspective on life doesn’t need to be as comprehensive or detailed as adults… who are easily caught up in other concerns… and juggling lots of pressing matters. The more we see about our world, and the more problems we seem to encounter… the more people tend to feel overwhelmed and disheartened by the story of our world. 

This is why some people attempt to find joy by trying to shrink their world… by ignoring or downplaying all of the negative or challenging parts of life, and pretending they have no part to play in their stories. Of course, the problem with this kind of denial is that reality always finds us sooner or later. The truth is: there are lots of moments or seasons of life that are far from happy.

And this is why joy is so important… and so needed these days. But Christian joy is not about living in denial, or trying to shrink our world… trying to mimic a childlike innocence that is largely ignorant of the big problems we all must face.

No, in fact Christian joy is actually about getting an even bigger perspective… it’s about seeing how all of our hopes and fears… all of our lives fit within the Good Story of God’s saving love… and responding to this wonderful reality with how we live everyday.

In our first Scripture reading today from Zephaniah, and in our responsive reading from the book of Isaiah, we heard two of Israel’s prophets calling for God’s people to rejoice: to respond to the great works of the Living God by lifting up their hearts in joyful praise. 

“Sing aloud, O daughter Zion; shout, O Israel! 
Rejoice and exult with all your heart, 
O daughter Jerusalem!” (Zephaniah 3:14).

“Sing the praises of the Lord, for he has done great things,
and this is known in all the world.
Cry aloud, inhabitants of Zion, ring out your joy,
for the great one in the midst of you is the Holy One of Israel.” (Isaiah 12:5-6).

Now neither of these prophets could be accused of being oblivious to the real world issues of their day… they were witnesses to Israel’s deep struggles, and anticipated the world-changing issues God’s people would have to face. 

And yet, even as they warned God’s people of the great perils to come because of their unfaithfulness to the Living God, their messages also gave Israel reasons to rejoice… to remember that what they could see around them in any given moment was not all that there is to consider. To remember that the One who was with them through it all, and who would still see them through, if they would only trust in Him, was stronger than any adversary they could face, and that one day His good Kingdom would be victorious.

The prophets call us to remember what the Living God has already done… the mighty acts of His saving love, and they also point us forward to what He will do in days to come. 

Turning now to our Gospel reading for today, and the challenging words of St. John the Baptist, as he fulfills his ministry preparing the way for Jesus the Messiah.

Like the Old Testament prophets before him, John is well aware of the complexities and challenges of life in general. But here in Luke Chapter 3, we see him delves straight into the complicated realities facing the individuals around him.

And a key part of his message… his ministry, preparing the way for Jesus, was to call God’s people to repent… to change and turning around… not just in mind and heart, but also in their actions… choices… and all of daily life.

Of course, this is an important lesson for all of us today: Joy does not simply fall from the sky. It is a gift, but one that comes to us along with lives shaped by faith… as we believe the Good News of God’s saving love, and take action according to those beliefs.

In other words, joy is a byproduct of the life of faith. Real joy can’t be manufactured… it flows from our trust in the Good News, and our trust in the One the Good News calls us to follow… trust that reshapes all that we say and do as we seek to live within the story of God’s saving love in Jesus Christ.

Of course, this isn’t always easy. Sometimes the troubles we face really shake our faith, and the choices we’re called to make as Christians can at times feel overwhelming. Where do we turn when we can’t seem to see a way forward anymore, or when the Lord’s saving love feels far away? 

How can we experience joy in the midst of our struggles?

Joy is not based on, or limited by our circumstances… it is a result of our connection to the Living God. And so, as St. Paul reminds us in our second reading today from the Letter to the Philippians, when we’re struggling, and our faith is shaken, we are able to turn to God Himself to help us remember and trust in the Big Story of God’s saving love: the Good News of Jesus and all He has done for all of  us.

Philippians 4:4-7, “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.” 

In prayer and supplication, we are always invited to turn to the Lord with all that is a burden to us. We are invited to believe in His great compassion and infinite mercy, and to go to Him with all that is on our hearts and minds. Trusting that, no matter what we might face, and even if we must go through the valley of the shadow of death, as Psalm 23 puts it… the Lord is near. He is with us… and He will turn all of our sadness into joy.

And we can believe this because of Jesus. Because He already upended the powers of death and darkness, and sin and “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.” (Hebrews 12:2).

Jesus endured the cross because He knew the ending of the story of God’s saving love. And because of His resurrection from the dead, so do we!

In Him, we can have joy even now… knowing that God’s love is even stronger than the grave. That His life-giving power can turn the worst failures into truly world-changing victories. We can have joy knowing that we are invited to be a part of Christ’s story… turning darkness to light… despair to hope… and brokenness to peace. 

But as Christians, our joy is to be a Christ-shaped joy… joy that flows from being faithful to the Living God… joy that is the fruit of God’s Holy Spirit at work in us, reshaping our lives to share in Jesus’ own life… walking in His ways.

If we seek the joy that comes from being connected to the big picture of God’s saving love… the story of Jesus Christ, and the Good News of what He has done… then by God’s grace, our lives really must become a part of that story… sharing in and shaped by the life of our Saviour King.
Turning back to our Gospel reading again:

How did John invite the people he baptized to get ready for the Messiah? How were they as individuals meant to prepare to share in the story of the Christ and His coming Kingdom? What does John tell the people to do? 

Those who have more than enough should share with those who don’t. Tax collectors should not try to cheat their neighbours, and soldiers should not use their power to extort others either. Essentially, John tells the people to stop being so selfish! Stop being self-centred, and instead turn to their neighbours with compassion and self-giving love. And this is how we too are to live within the Big Story of God’s saving love: by loving those around us. By sharing God’s holy, self-giving love with the people in our lives. 

If we want to experience real joy today, to be shaped by the big story of God’s saving love freely given to our world in Jesus Christ… then we must step into this story, and choose again and again to stay in this story.

We must choose to believe, to trust in what Jesus has done for us, and why: that is, God’s saving love… and let this reality sink in, and shape the ways we relate to the Lord Himself, to those around us, and even to ourselves. 

We can rejoice always because we know that Jesus loves us, and He invites us to let Him rearrange our lives around God’s saving love.

We can rejoice, even when things are bad, because we know that we aren’t facing these challenges alone… and we can always turn to our Heavenly Father and bring all of our burdens to Him.

We can rejoice with one another, sharing in the fellowship of God’s family, united forever as sisters and brothers by God’s Holy Spirit.

So let us rejoice always, as especially as we celebrate Advent, sharing in the joy of our Saviour King, as we prepare for His return. Amen.

​Today we celebrate the third Sunday of Advent: a season of anticipation and preparation for the coming of Jesus Christ, both in His birth at Christmas, and in His future return to reign forever over a renewed creation.

Each week in Advent, we reflect on an important aspect of the Christian life as we wait faithfully for our Saviour, and serve His kingdom even now. The third Sunday of Advent, we reflect on the theme of Joy.

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

“By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” 
(Luke 1:78-79)

Peace is a precious thing… and it always comes with a price.

In the ancient world, the price of peace for one people or tribe was usually the use of violence against another rival group. This kind of ‘peace’ was won by the sword, and would only last as long as your tribe managed to stay on top… kind of like that old game called “king of the hill”, where kids try to push their way to the top of snowbanks, and then fend off all challengers to win. 

The Roman Empire was famous for this approach to peace. The Pax Romana, the “Peace of Rome” was praised as a great gift to the nations they conquered… there was stability within the boundaries… protection for those who went along with the Empire’s interests… that is until the occasional rebellion started, or a neighbour invaded, or a civil war broke out… then the legions were summoned to crush and to crucify anyone who stood in the way.

Looking around today, in many ways our world still seems stuck in that same mindset: only envisioning peace to be possible once all who get in our way are gone… brought low underneath the feet of our side in the conflicts we face. This week saw yet another wave of violence, as Syrian rebels rapidly advance towards the capital city of Damascus, hoping to overthrow the oppressive government they have been fighting against for more than a decade. We witnessed the attempt to institute martial law… military rule in South Korea, as a means of resolving the political conflicts among those in power. 

Over and over, and all over the world, we humans keep using force and the threat of violence try and establish stability and security… thinking that the sword or the gun… or the bomb… is the only way to bring about the peace we all really need. 

But the season of Advent invites us to reflect on… and to practice another kind of peace. A peace that’s not won through violent force, but which also comes with a price. 

In our Gospel reading today, for the second week of Advent, we hear about the ministry of St. John the Baptist… the son of Zechariah the priest, and Elizabeth, and the cousin of Jesus our Lord.

John’s whole life was set apart for a particular mission: to prepare the way for God’s coming Messiah… serving as a kind of prophetic herald, calling God’s people to get ready for their King. 

At his naming ceremony, St. Luke tells us that John’s father Zechariah prophesied over his child, and the role he would play in God’s great rescue mission: Luke 1:76-79,

“And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; 
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, 
to give knowledge of salvation to his people 
by the forgiveness of their sins. 
By the tender mercy of our God, 
the dawn from on high will break upon us, 
to give light to those who sit in darkness 
and in the shadow of death, 
to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

But this high calling also came with a high price. Like most of the prophets before him, John was not your typical religious leader. He was an outsider. Literally. He lived outside… in the desert on Israel’s border region… far from the cities and centres of power… dressed as one at home in the wilds… and seen as a bit radical and extreme. 

And John’s message was not exactly a comfortable one either. He was sent to call his people to get ready for God’s Chosen One! Calling them to repent… to turn around and leave behind the ways of life that had taken them down the road of sin… and calling them to start again as God’s people. To remember God’s faithfulness and gracious deliverance in the past… and to walk in His ways again… humbling themselves, admitting their brokenness, and seeking God’s forgiveness… not in the Temple in Jerusalem… but at the Jordan River, where Israel first stepped foot in the Promised Land… symbolically starting again from the very beginning, to get ready for God’s coming Messiah.

Of course, John’s message and ministry was not well received by many of those among the leadership of Israel at that time… the priests and scribes based at the Temple, and the strict Pharisees, who saw themselves and their practices as the best way to be faithful to God. And he was not popular with those who had aligned themselves with the Roman Empires’ way of doing things either… with people like Herod Antipas, and his followers, who profited greatly from close ties with Rome.

But far from playing it safe, and trying to appease those in power, John’s ministry completely rocked the boat… he was upsetting the status quo… shaking up a complacent and compromised community by calling them to change… to do something different… to repent, restart, and get ready for real.

And many flocked to his message, upsetting and radical as it was. Why? Because they believed… they believed that John was right, and they knew that they needed peace.

Real peace, not simply the absence of discomfort, or conflict… but peace in the deepest biblical sense:    Peace that comes from completeness… from wholeness… from holiness… from having their lives realigned and in sync with the good will of the One who had created them, and loved them, and longs for them to experience the fullness of life… a peace that the world around us promises us constantly… but which it can never deliver.

John’s listeners knew that their lives were off base, broken, and incomplete. They knew that their communities were needing to be realigned and set right again. They knew there were many proud mountains that needed to be brought low… as well as many lowly valleys that needed raising. And so, they responded to John’s call to repent by being baptized… submerged in the Jordan River, seeking the forgiveness and faithful love of the Lord, and trusting in His divine mercy to bring about His peace among them. 

And as John would remind them, this peace would not be painless, or easy. But it would be well worth it! Turning our lives around and walking in God’s holy ways takes work, and will involve real struggles, and ask us to say no to ourselves again and again. But the peace we need is only possible through God’s cleansing hand at work in our lives.
 AS we heard in our first reading today from the prophet Micah (3:2-4),

“But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; 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. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.”

John was calling his people to get ready for God’s coming King by seeking God’s peace… God’s own gracious cleansing, purifying, sanctifying power, to set their lives back on track so they could fully participate in His coming Kingdom.   

And this invitation is not just meant for those who stood by the Jordan River in John’s day… but for us as well… for those of us who know we need God’s peace at work in our lives.

How might John’s call to repentance apply to us as a Church community? Here at St. Luke’s? As a Diocese? As the Anglican Church, and as a part of the whole body of Christ? Are there ways we as believers have gotten off track, and are in need of cleansing and new beginnings?

Perhaps John’s message is connecting with us in a more personal way this morning. For those of us who may still be exploring the Christian story… John’s calling might offer us an opportunity to respond to the invitation to be baptized… to offer our lives in faith to Christ Jesus, God’s Son, and to receive the gift of forgiveness and new life in His name.

And for those of us who have already been baptized, but who may have walked away from God for a time, and are now sensing the deep need for our lives to be set right again, John’s calling might offer us an opportunity to formally renew our baptismal vows… to reaffirm our faith in Jesus, and our need for Christ’s peace to rule in our lives.

If you’d like to explore either of these invitations to baptism, or to reaffirm your baptism, please let me know, and I would be happy to meet with you, to pray with you, and to walk with you through this process.

But even if that’s not where you are this morning, John’s message is truly for all of us. Wherever we are in our walk with God, we are to get ready for the Messiah… remembering that God’s true and lasting peace also came with a high price. 

This peace was not won through force or violence… or through unjust compromises, or by avoiding conflicts, or through anything else that our world has to offer… but through the work of Someone even more radical and world changing than John himself was prepared for… through Jesus Christ, God’s Chosen King… the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Throughout His ministry, Jesus disrupted the status quo… not only bringing low the proud mountains… challenging those who thought they were on the right track, but had in truth abandoned God’s good ways… He also lifted up the lowly valleys… reaching out to the hurting, and the desperate… and preaching God’s peace to sinners… to people whose choices and compromises had set them apart from their neighbours, marking them as outsiders in their communities… but not beyond the bounds of God’s love. 

And Jesus practiced peace among deeply divided communities… pulling together people of all walks of life, and making them one, united to one another by their devotion and connection to Him.

Jesus Christ practiced God’s peace… even when it would require the highest cost. He refused to play the world’s game… to rally armed forces to Himself, to bring about His Kingdom by force. No, in self-giving love Christ Jesus surrendered Himself to those who would crush, curse, and crucify Him… pleading for their forgiveness, even as they called for His death… and paying for the sins of the whole world through His blood shed at the cross.

But far from ending in utter defeat, we know that the cross became the sign of God’s great victory… breaking the power of guilt and shame by cleansing us of sin… disarming the threat of death, which all tyrants depend on… and assuring us that we no longer need to be estranged from the Living God, or from our neighbours created in His image. In rising again from the grave, Jesus has shown the world that His death for our sake has paid the price once and for all for our peace… and through His Spirit at work in us, we can now put this peace into practice. 

As Christians, our peace must be a Christ-shaped peace… a peace that is willing to stand out, and shake up the status quo… not by using force to get our own way, or by compromising with injustice and evil, but by trusting that no matter what others might do, they cannot shake or take away the new life that Jesus Christ has share with us, and longs for us to share with one another as we await His return to set our whole world right again.

Christ Jesus has paid the high price for God’s true peace to break into our broken world even now, and as His people today we are to practice His peace… to live God’s way here and now, no matter what it might cost us… which we can do with hopefulness and joy because we know that it will be well worth it!

In time, St. John too would experience the high price of seeking God’s peace. His ministry would set him at odds powerful people in the world, who would eventually call for his head.

We don’t know what it might cost us to devote our lives to the way of God’s peace today. We might risk losing friendships and relationships. We might experience great disappointments or pain. We might even end up losing our lives, as many of our sisters and brothers still do around the world.

But whatever the price may be, in Jesus Christ the Risen Lord, we know that the reward is well worth it all. Our Lord has already paid the ultimate price for our peace, not just for a short season of life… but to share the blessed life and love of the Living God with us forever.

So may the peace of Christ rule in our hearts this Advent season, and beyond. May we not simply seek to stay comfortable, but to be made complete and holy in Him. May we trust that what He did for us all at the cross is powerful enough to put an end to all that keeps us cut off from God, and from our neighbours. And with the Spirit’s help, may we seek ways to practice God’s peace in our daily lives, and with those all around us. Amen.