Second Sunday of Advent

Philippians 1.3-11; Luke 3.1-6

I said last week that during this season of Advent we aren't thinking so much about the traditional themes of Death, Judgement, Heaven and Hell, as about Who it is we are preparing to celebrate and What it is we are preparing to celebrate on the 25th December. I made the point that there is so much around us that has the potential of drawing us away from concentrating on what the Nativity of the Lord is all about, and we really ought to do our best to step aside from it all and make every effort to make a proper preparation for the celebration, a preparation of mind, heart, soul and spirit. The focus of our readings in the season help us to do that.

Today, we are challenged directly by no less that John the Baptist, and that challenge will continue in the gospel reading next week also. And the first thing we are challenged about is the historicity of the event, of the St. John's call to people. St. Luke is at pains to locate St. John's ministry at a particular time and place in history. He does the same at the beginning of the previous chapter when he tells of the registration that took place, which Joseph and Mary were caught up in. Historians do cast doubt on the accuracy of St. Luke's facts. But I think the point that St. Luke is trying to make is that for him there is no doubt as the actuality of these events and that is why he's doing his best to 'pin them down' as it were in a time and place. So we too are called right away to cast our doubt aside and go right into the story. We are being asked to believe, to take St. Luke at his word.

And isn't God Himself like that? The journey of faith is one of banishing doubt, of putting doubt aside and taking God at His word. We don't get anywhere at all with God unless we are prepared to believe. We are being called, in a way, to test God out although He says, in scripture 'do not put the Lord your God to the test'. How else are we to come to believe unless we do just that? We have to take what we are told, be it request or commandment and, in a way, put it to the test. Only then will we know if what we read and hear is the Truth. All through the Bible we read that people are only healed and saved when they actually do what God is telling them to do. And time and time again we hear God and Jesus being angry and disappointed because people wouldn't put their trust in them, wouldn't have faith in them. So, the first step, and maybe the most important step in preparation for our celebration of the Lord's Nativity is to bring our faith to it, bring our best powers of belief to it.

Then we listen to what St. John has to say. His message, St. Luke says is a 'baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.' St. John is calling people to repentance. He's calling them to a change of mind, heart and soul. He's calling people to turn their hearts from themselves and the world, to God. He's calling them to receive the sign and seal of that in repentance. And that's because it's only in and through the act of repentance that God will work in us. God may bring us to the point of wanting to have that change of mind and heart but it's for us to do the work of turning to him. That's because God gives each and every one of us, free will. We get to choose. God has given us responsibility for our own destiny. He's given us the ability to choose between life and death. We can do what God calls us to do or we can go our own way. And we recall His words to the Hebrews in the Old Testament in the book of Deuteronomy 'I put before you today a choice, between life and death'; and you may recall also God's encouragement of the people to 'choose life.' And that's because, even though He's given us free will, he still wants us to use it wisely. But he's gifted us with the ability forge our own destiny. And having done that He continues to walk with us by giving us the way to come back to Him at any time through repentance.

And so we hear St. John's words again; 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make His paths straight'. St. John is encouraging us at this time to repentance, to make a way for the Lord in heart and mind. He says what it looks and feels like to make that repentance and to prepare the way for God; 'every valley shall be filled, every mountain and hill made low, the crooked made straight, the rough ways made smooth.' And the result? 'All flesh shall see the salvation of God. What St. John is saying is that the pathway of repentance is the avenue to salvation. And salvation of course, in spiritual terms has connotations of healing and health. The way of repentance leads to our spiritual healing with God taking His place in our lives. We recover the relationship we had with God before the fall of Adam; and that through the person and work of Jesus Christ. His sacrifice, once and for all has made this possible. And John, the forerunner of Jesus is the forerunner of our salvation, of the healing of our relationship with God, which began with the birth of Jesus himself.

So we can either heed St. John's call today or we can ignore it. We can believe that, because he was a real person at a real time in a real place, sent by God to be the forerunner of Christ, our salvation is a reality, and that we CAN turn again in heart and mind to God and receive His blessing; or we can keep on doubting. We can keep on asking did it really happen? Are these real people we read of in the Bible? Does what unbelievers say have some sort of credence? Or we can be quietly and slowly but surely, by all the commercialism and dumbing down, be drawn away from the real message being given to us at Christmas time.

The choice is ours. But the call is clear. Take the opportunity to believe and answer the call this Christmas, to turn your heart and mind to God in repentance and receive the salvation held out for you.