The Advent season, the Church’s preparation for the coming of Jesus into our world, has little in common with the frenzy of society in these days before Christmas. The story of Jesus during Advent is not about sugar plum fairies, it’s about reality. The theme of Church’s Advent season as distinct from the however-many-shopping-days-before-season, is found in the words spoken by John the Baptist in the gospel of St. Matthew: “Reform your lives. The reign of God is at hand.” The season of Advent is about reform, about change. Because of the coming of Jesus we must look different, we must act different, we must be different. To take John the Baptist as an example, even what we eat and what we wear must be different. Maybe we don’t have to go as far as eating locusts, but we do have to judge everything that we do according to the gospel standard. Because Jesus has come into the world all of life, even what seems most personal — like our food and clothing, like the gifts we buy, like the use of time — has eternal, has salvific significance.
Think about the Baptist’s call to reform, to change. One of the proverbs that we tend to live by is: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. As long as we are doing okay in life we tend to keep doing things the way we always have. That’s why the message to reform, the message of change is most often heard when things no longer work, when our accustomed ways no longer produce happiness, when there is an ache inside that won’t quit. Certainly that was true in John the Baptist’s time. It was the people who were hurting who heeded his message. The lost souls, the used, abused and confused, the utterly messed up where the ones who reformed, who changed, who began to live differently. “They were being baptized by him in the River Jordan as they confessed their sins.” In our lives, troubles can wash over us in a great tidal wave of affliction. Then we know that the old patterns no longer fit and that we must change. Advent is the season of such change. When we share the pain that exists in our families, when we notice the emptiness that permeates politics, when we experience the hole that fills up our soul, then we heed the call to reform, to change. We stop trying to find our own way and begin to live for Jesus who is the way.
Notice in the gospel that John the Baptist confronts the Pharisees and Sadducees: “Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance.” The problem the Baptist has with the Pharisees and Sadducees is that they are the good people! They are the ones who go to church, who obey the commandments, who pay their tithes. They are the ones you would want for neighbors. Yet John gives them a hard time. It’s almost as if their very goodness is an obstacle to change. Why should they reform if they are doing pretty good? Give some evidence that you are going to change, demands the Baptist. Give some evidence that being good won’t keep you from being better. That should serve as a warning to us. We who are gathered here in Church this Sunday are the good people. When we think of all the problems that are out there in the world today we can come up with prescriptions for improvement. If the politicians would just change… If the abusive and violent would just change… If society would change to care for the hungry and the homeless… If the system would change to make sure the children had an adequate education… The list goes on. All excellent suggestions, no doubt. But the call of the Advent season is not that someone out there has to change but for you and for me to change.
The epistle that St. Paul wrote to the Romans gives us an excellent yardstick to measure how well our reform has gone, how profound a change has occurred in us. The apostle says: “May God grant you to think in harmony with one another in keeping with Christ Jesus.” If we are to prepare the way of the Lord and make straight his paths, if we are to embody that the reign of God is at hand, we must think in harmony with one another. We must think in harmony with that family member who has said and done hurtful things to us. We must think in harmony with the co-worker or school-mate who always has to have the last word. We must think in harmony with the fellow parishioner who drives us a little nuts. If you are anything like me, the amount of change that is needed in order to achieve harmony is profound! Happily, St. Paul gives us some suggestions on the kinds of changes that are needed to get us to perfect harmony. First of all, “welcome one another as Christ welcomed you.” God doesn’t ask or demand that we be other than ourselves in order to welcome divine love. If we are willing to welcome others as they are, with all their quirks and uniqueness just as God welcomes us, we are on the road to harmony. A second called-for change, offer “words of encouragement.” It is easy to criticize, to find fault, to notice what isn’t being done. But the road to harmony is travelled when we encourage others, when we offer them support and reassurance. Finally we have to change into people who “by endurance … have hope.” We can see great possibilities for improvement out there. We want the family member, the co-worker, the parishioner to get with the program. When they don’t we can become frustrated. The road to harmony is paved with endurance, with our willingness to hang in there with others as the grace and mercy of God works in their hearts at a pace different from our own. So the lesson of this Advent Sunday is: we listen to John the Baptis and give evidence that we mean to reform by thinking in harmony with one another and the road to that harmony is paved with a spirit of welcome, with encouragement, with endurance. On that day, the wolf shall be the guest of the lamb, the calf and the young life shall browse together, the cow and the bear shall be neighbors. On that day, the spirit of the Lord, the spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength, knowledge, delight and fear of the Lord shall rest upon us.
