Year C / Advent / Week 2 / Sunday
Readings: Baruch 5.1-9 / Ps 126.1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6 (R/v 3) / Philippians 1.4-6, 8-11 / Luke 3.1-6
Sisters and brothers, have you ever waited expectantly? Expectantly as you struggled with that gamut of excitement, maybe with some anxiety and certainly with much hope?
It could have been when you looked forward to that big birthday party as a child. Or, for your PSLE or O Levels results that you studied hard for. It might have been when you waited and waited for the wedding day that you had planned for a year or two, or for that promotion you had worked hard to achieve.
What did you do as you waited? Perhaps, you kept looking out for that moment. You might have prepared for it with much effort, patience, and hope. You might have even prayed much more.
Advent is our time to wait expectantly for the coming of Jesus like the Jews did once before. Last week’s gospel reading challenged us to prepare well to stand with confidence before Jesus. Not just to stand for judgment in death but daily in life. Standing before Jesus in the manger on Christmas morning ought to give us confidence that we can do this because Jesus' birth is God’s gracious way of saying, “I’ve come to stand with you, amongst you and for you”.
For Christians, Advent waiting must be about spiritual preparation. Today we hear John Baptist’s cry, “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths”. His call to repentance is God’s invitation for all peoples to turn away from sin so that we can stand before Jesus and welcome him into our lives and the world.
We ought to make this preparation. Are we, really? Or, are we distracted by the worldly calls to celebrate Christmas with presents to exchange, Christmas trees and lights to put up, the never-ending feasting and merrymaking to attend, Christmas songs of happy holidays, Santa Baby and Rudolf the Red Nose Deer to carol repeatedly? I think it is harder each year to stay focus on the reason for the season when so much of the world interprets Christmas differently, as the Orchard Road Light Up does with its Disney Christmas theme this year.
Today’s readings are providential. They help us to discern what must truly matter in our preparation for Christmas, and how we can do this.
Advent and discernment. It seems odd to pair them together. Yet, we can if we think of Advent as helping us to recognise what is God’s best for us. St Paul invites the Philippians and us to do just this in the second reading: “My prayer is that your love for each other may increase more and more and never stop improving your knowledge and deepening your perception so that you can always recognise what is best. This will help you to become pure and blameless, and prepare you for the Day of Christ”.
“Deepening our perception to recognise what is best”. This is what discernment is about. It helps us become more aware of God’s presence and actions in our lives. Discernment then helps us to recognise the very best God wishes to give us. Advent helps us to discern this more clearly: God’s best is Jesus. And Jesus is God-with-us. And we discern this so that we can “become pure and blameless, and prepare…for the day of Christ”.
So, how can we practice Advent discernment to learn the truth about Jesus? By quieting ourselves more, and paying attention to God’s faithful presence and saving actions in the lives of people and events around us.
In the first reading, Barauch helps the Israelites do this. They are mourning and in misery. Their enemies have defeated them. Many kinsfolk are exiled. Their land is ravaged. God seems absent. Barauch teaches them not to find God by looking but by looking to the promised return of their exiled kin. God is not above; God is with the people.
I’d like to suggest we do the same this Advent. Let us practice looking at the people we know and love, interact and live with, play and pray with. Let us do this to discern God’s faithful presence in our midst. Then, we will be able to better understand how Jesus who is indeed God-with-us is with us, amongst us and for us.
Our three readings today teach us how to do this.
With Baruch, we hear how God will not abandon the deprived, desperate or disappointed. God will come to them with mercy and justice, and take off the mourning robes. God will then show all the earth how splendid they are as his beloved.
So, let us look at all the people we know who are suffering, and discern how God is faithfully labouring for everyone's wellbeing. Then, let us remember how Jesus who came once in history but now daily into our lives is truly God’s hope for us.
With Paul, we hear how God will always complete the good work he begins in every Christian community. God acted similarly in Paul’s life: he died a martyr but only after proclaiming Jesus Christ. God acted likewise among the Philippians: external forces and internal divisions besieged them but God drew them into one Christian community.
So, let us look at our families, schools, workplaces, and parish and discern how God never gives up on us, even there are divisions, difficulties, and despair. Then, let us celebrate how our faith in Jesus who came once in history and now daily in our lives is our joy in God.
Finally, with Luke, we hear of how God sends John the Baptist to care for the Jews and everyone. God wants all to receive salvation in Jesus. What humankind had hoped for generations and thought impossible, God makes possible and real.
So, let us look at how God continues to accompany, care and uplift many, ourselves too, and let us discern how God’s actions truly save everyone. Then, let us believe how in Jesus who came once in history and now daily in our lives we enjoy the peace God wishes for the world.
These readings offer us three ways to practice Advent discernment, and so help us better prepare for Jesus’ coming. In all of this, we need to hear God’s voice. It speaks simply and honestly. It is prophetic.
It is telling that our gospel begins by listing the names of the mighty and important, of those in power and with authority. Yet God did not choose them to proclaim Jesus’ coming and call people to prepare for him. Instead, hidden amidst all their earthly domination and dominion is John the Baptist’s voice. He alone preaches Jesus’ coming and God’s mercy for all by calling for our repentance. God chose someone least expected.
The Jews heard this voice and converted. Today, we are being challenged to hear God’s voice calling us to conversion through all the people in our lives who act like John the Baptist. Who is calling you to conversion? Can you hear God inviting you to the fullness of life with Jesus through them? Will you hear and change?
Advent discernment allows us to hear, to believe, to follow John’s voice that leads us to the most important, most enduring, most lasting truth. And it is this: that before Jesus, empires fall, achievements fade, religious self-righteousness errs, pride is humbled, justice and peace will reign, sin is forgiven and death is defeated.
This truth gives us life. Life to call God, Abba, Father. Life with Jesus as Messiah and friend. Life in each other's company, however different we might be but equal and one in Christ. And yes, life to the full because Jesus has saved us and will continue to save us.
So, let us be wise and prepare ourselves well to welcome Jesus. For foolish is he who cannot discern that Jesus comes from God to save us and give us life to the full. Yes, let us not wait but discern right now to do this because Jesus is God's best. And as we do this, let our prayer be “Come, Lord, Jesus, come”.
Preached at Church of the Transfiguration, Singapore
photo: from the Internet. Times Magazine
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