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Second Sunday of Advent
C 2024 The living Word of God is always being spoken in the midst
of the circumstances of our own lives and in the reality of the Church and
the world we live in. Our spiritual
lives do not take us out of the world; rather we are called to transform the
world we live in into the reign of God. Recall the words of Scripture: “That God so loved the world that he send
his only begotten to save the world.” Please note how today’s
Gospel begins: “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar,
when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee,
and his brother Philip the tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis,
and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and
Caiaphas, the Word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert.” It is important to note that the evangelist is placing the
ministry of Jesus in the wider historical context. The point is the sacred ministry of Jesus
emerged right in the midst of secular history. Secular history does not get in the way of
the Word of God. Rather, for us to hear the Word of God proclaimed in this
moment of history means we need to know the circumstances of our own
history. God’s Word is being spoken in
the midst of the circumstances of our own lives and in the reality of the
church and the world we live in. We cannot absent ourselves from the challenges of
life. Rather, we need to recognize how
Jesus is being birthed in the secular history of our lives. This is such an important point. Our world is characterized by war and
violence – the war in Ukraine and the war in the Middle East. The message of the institutional Church
doesn’t speak to the lives of some younger families. For some of your children and
grandchildren, the Church doesn’t seem to be a big part of their lives. In 2024, this is
the Church that Jesus chooses to be born into. We are called not to leave the Church. Rather, we are called to transform the It is in the messiness and the questions and the fears of
our lives that God chooses to be born.
This is the story of the first Christmas and it is the story of
Christmas in 2024. The evangelist Luke in today’s Gospel tells us that the
Word of God was spoken to John the Son of Zachariah in the desert. Say that again! Where was the Word of God spoken and to
whom? Note that the Word of God was
not pronounced by the religious and political leaders of the day. It bypassed them all. The Word of God did not come from the
Palace of the Temple. The Word of God
came from an outsider in the desert.
The Word of God came to John in the desert. This certainly leaves us to pause and ask where we hear
and recognize the Word of God spoken to us.
We make a grave mistake if we don’t listen and seek to hear the Word
of God spoken to us from the outsiders of our lives. Who are the outsiders of our lives? Who are the people who don’t look like us,
who do not share the same religious beliefs, who do not have the financial
resources we have and so forth? Just
maybe, these are the people who proclaim God’s Word to us. Who is your John the Baptist? Who is the person in your life that is
pointing you in the direction of Jesus?
Who reveals the face of God to you? So now in December, while everything jingles with excitement about the Christmas
holidays, the Church invites us into an Advent desert with John. The desert is the antithesis of the
suburban malls. No matter how much
money you have, there is nothing to buy in the desert. Far from the city lights whose twinkling
lights grab our attention, the desert allows us to fix our gaze on the stars,
the beauty that is beyond our reach and yet has been created for our delight. The Advent desert is where our soul can expand, where we
can remember what we really thirst for.
How do we fashion a desert for ourselves in this Advent season of
busyness and parties and celebrations? |
I like to think of Advent as a time of listening to what God
is birthing in me. I need to quiet down
and listen. During this gift of time
that is the four weeks of the Advent season, may we find moments of quiet each
day to listen to how God is speaking to us.
The prophet Isaiah describes John as one crying out in the
desert: “Prepare the way of the
Lord.” Every valley shall be filled and
the winding roads shall be made straight.
Instead of seeing this mission as part of highway reconstruction, John
the Baptist calls us to repentance and metanoia. For John real change comes from within. The prophet Isaiah refers to the geography of
the heart. This is where change needs to
occur. We are to clear the path to
welcome Christ who is born into our hearts as truly as Jesus was born in
Bethlehem.
But this inner change is not just about our personal
salvation. The inner change is always in
the context of community, of church, of the ways we love and serve people. As St Paul writes in the second Scripture
reading in his letter to the Philippians:
“I pray always with joy in my every prayer for all of you, because of
your partnership for the gospel from the first day until now.”
Jesus seeks to be born again within our own hearts in 2024. Jesus’ humble birth within us may be likened
to his humble birth in the Bethlehem manger.
May we be Spirit-filled in embracing the Savior within us and may be
missioned to sharing the love of Jesus in ways that will transform our Church
and our world.
May God give you the gift of listening to the ways that God
is birthing within you.
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