Friday, December 6, 2024

2nd Sunday of Advent

Usually during Advent, we talk about getting our hearts ready to welcome Jesus. We consider the anticipation that filled the people of the Old Covenant as they awaited the Messiah, we rejoice in the actual birth of Jesus and we look forward to the Second Coming when “all flesh will see the salvation of God” (Luke 3:6). Something different struck me this year as I reflected on the readings for Advent. Last week it was what are we waiting for really? This week I am overwhelmed by the sense of hope and joy that permeates the readings. The Prophet Baruch (5:1-9) revels in the fact that the people of Jerusalem “are remembered by God.” Although they strayed, were taken captive and exiled, God promised that they would return; and, what a magnificent homecoming they received! They didn’t just haplessly wander back into Jerusalem, they put on “the splendor of glory from God.” They were wrapped in a “cloak of justice.” They returned “borne aloft in glory as on a royal throne.” The ground was leveled before them, the gorges were filled and God led them home “in joy by the light of his glory, with mercy and justice for company.” It doesn’t get much better than this.

When John the Baptist arrived on the scene, he too proclaimed an entrance fit for a king with leveled mountains and hills, filled in valleys and a smooth straight road. John’s call to “prepare the way of the Lord,” is addressed to all of us – not just the people within hearing distance of him in the desert. When he proclaimed that “all flesh shall see the salvation of God, “he includes us, our families, our neighborhoods, our towns our country and our world for generation after generation. Like the children of Jerusalem, we should be “rejoicing” that we “are remembered by God.” Because God fulfils all promises. And, God’s salvation is universal. Not only does God include us in his plan for salvation he anoints each and every one of us to be prophets and proclaimers of the Good News.

This week as we strive to live our lives in a state of continual Advent, trying to look at the world through a God lens, St Paul has more words of wisdom for us. In his Letter to the Philippians (1:4-6, 8-10) St Paul reminds us that we do have a role to play in God’s plan for salvation. And, since we are part of God’s plan, God will continue to work through us “until the day of Jesus Christ.” He prays that our “love may increase,” that we increase in “knowledge and perception,” that we “discern what is of value” so we may be “pure and blameless for the day of Christ” and that we are “filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.” According to St Paul each one of us is in a “partnership for the gospel.” We are not passive observers. We have a job to get to. And so, we pray:

God our Father, 
we know today how to drill through mountains 
and level hills to build highways, 
but we have lost the way 
to each other's heart and to you. 
Let your Son come among us 
to make us inventive and daring enough 
to build roads of justice and love 
that help us encounter one another 
and you, our living God. 
We ask you this in the name of him whom we expect
and who is waiting for us, 
Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen