Sermon at Winterslow All Saints’ Parish Church, - Advent 3 – Sunday 12th December 2021
Zephaniah 3:14-20; Philippians 4:4-7;
Luke 3:7-18
So today we reach the Third Sunday in Advent, as illustrated
by the burning of three candles on our Advent Wreath. I don’t know about you but this year Advent
seems to have flown by so quickly and my conscience is pricked daily by the
sheer amount of lack of preparation which I seem to have achieved during these
dark dismal days. The weather, I am sure
you will all agree has left many of us feeling a little tired with the added
uncertainly of further Covid variants and restrictions.
Advent, as we all know, is a time of expectation and
waiting; we wait for Christmas and as Christians we celebrate the coming of
Jesus into the world and are reminded of his return at some future time.
Each of the candles reminds us of those individuals who
prepared us for Christ’s first coming – the first candle reminds us of the
Patriarchs – Abraham and his offspring in particular; the second candle reminds
us of the prophets – those who foretold of the coming of the Messiah; today it
is the turn of John the Baptist who proclaimed Jesus as the one who is to come
after him as told in our gospel reading;
the fourth which we light next week remembers the virgin Mary who carried Jesus
in her womb and, of course, on Christmas Day we light the fifth and central
candle to remember Jesus’s birth in Bethlehem as foretold by the others.
Our first two readings this morning have a similar theme –
joy and rejoicing. The prophet Zephaniah in our first reading is reminding the
exiled Jews that their time of exile is nearly over and that God will restore
them to their land. This follows the
fall of Babylon and the occupation of that country by the Persians whose king,
Cyrus, will let the Jewish people return to Israel and re-establish their
Temple at Jerusalem. The bad days are
over, for now that is, and it is time to thank God with praises and song.
In our second New Testament reading from St. Paul’s letter
to the Christian church members in Philippi, Paul is echoing the words of
Zechariah by reminding his readers that by putting their trust in God, through
his son Jesus Christ, and that instead of being fearful and worrying about
everything we can now, through prayer in the name of Jesus, make our requests
directly to God – that is what we do every Sunday when we say our Intercessions
–we make our requests known to God through prayer through Jesus.
In our Gospel reading, John the Baptist is telling those who
are coming to him to be baptised in the River Jordan that he is not the Messiah
but the messenger bringing news of the Jesus’s arrival and that the people
should prepare themselves for the message of Jesus’s ministry. John tells them
how they should behave to be true to the repentance (or turning away from evil
towards what God wants for his people) – sharing food and clothing to those who
have none, not extorting others or taking advantage of the vulnerable and
seeking to unjustly enrich oneself and above all being content with what God
has already given you.
In today’s commercial world, we see so many examples of
selfishness and greed. Often I see and
read of people who have so much still being unhappy. Often people think that if
only they lived in that house, or owned that car, or earned that much more,
then their life would be complete and they would be happy – but often it is
just the reverse. I have visited Africa
and Asia and seen people in what we would describe as abject poverty yet they
often seem so much happier than many wealthy people I have known in the western
world.
The message which comes across in these readings is that God
wants us to be happy – not miserable. Sometimes I hear it said that people don’t go
to church or are not “religious” because they want to have fun and enjoy life –
as though being a Christian or having a faith somehow is designed to make us
miserable; that the bible is full of “don’ts” with few “dos”.
When we come to
church, when we meet together as Christians, we are meant to be joyful – to be
grateful for what he has given us – enough for our own needs and more. In this part of the world we are very
fortunate to have immense wealth compared to those parts of Africa and Asia I
mentioned earlier and therefore the capacity and resources to help those less
well off than ourselves. God doesn’t
look badly on those who have wealth provided that they use it wisely and for
the benefit of the Kingdom of Heaven he wants to establish here on Earth.
John, in the Gospel passage is directly challenging earthly
kingdoms and in particular the authority of the puppet king, Herod. Here is a
direct warning to the population to change their ways ahead of Jesus’s ministry
and ultimate victory on the Cross.
Sometimes we have to also make a stand against what is wrong and
unjust. In this passage from Luke I am
reminded of the work and sacrifice of Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his stand against
the authoritarian rule in Nazi Germany – brave man who was prepared to put his
life on the line to expose the excesses of an evil regime. John
the Baptist too was to pay for his ministry with his life.
As Christians we belong to a greater kingdom than any that
exists on earth. We are citizens of
God’s wonderful Kingdom of Heaven which much of Jesus’s ministry was involved
in describing it and advocating how this could be achieved on Earth. We want people to embrace the Faith which we
ourselves have found and the best way to do that is to be joyful and act
joyously and have the courage to proclaim the Good News of Christ to those
around us. This also means having the
courage, like John the Baptist and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, to stand up against
injustices and unfairness when we see it and also ensuring that we ourselves
act with integrity, fairness and morally.
That doesn’t mean we have to lead miserable lives. Our aim should be, by sharing our Faith in
the way we treat others and behave ourselves, to make people feel happy and
content. God wants us to do that daily.
This Christmas we shall no doubt make many people feel happy
when we visit them, give them presents or simply spend some time together with
them. That is often quite easy with
those whom you know well and love. How
about making somebody you don’t know so well feeling good and happy this week?
Perhaps a smile, or a friendly word to that Big Issue seller or a compliment to
that shop assistant. Today we can so
easily be focussed on the task in hand or the place we are heading for without
realising that the odd acknowledgement to a stranger could make a huge
difference to them – a feeling of worth and happiness. That is what John the Baptist is telling his
audience and like John, you will be spreading the good news to the people – the
true and real reason why we celebrate Christmas.
Amen MFB/167/09122021
