This Third Sunday of Advent we hear our call in the words of the Prophet Zephaniah:
“Shout for joy, O daughter Zion! Sing joyfully, O Israel!” (Zeph 3:14)
“Why?” the people might have asked! Life was full of turmoil, with warring nations on each side holding Israel virtual hostage in the middle. A nation teetering on collapse is not a setting in which individual or family lives would feel joy.
It is easier by far to be overwhelmed by the perceived chaos, the resulting fear, anger, and resentment from what is obvious. It is easy, quite simply, to be or to feel overwhelmed, even when you can’t quite put your finger on the cause. Zephaniah declares that there is a deeper and more enduring reality that is within Israel’s history and present. God dwells with them. They are to be a people overwhelmed by that – by the fact that God has chosen to dwell with them, and does. All signs to the contrary, God is their hope and their salvation – their joy!
In today’s reading from Luke’s Gospel, the people were hearing the words of John the Baptist, and their hearts were filled with expectation, even wondering if John might be the Christ, the one who is coming.
(Lk 3:15)
John realizes how hungry for this good news they are, how tempted to latch onto something or someone who promises some measure of relief and hope. John could reach out to a similar but illusory “hope” by trying to cash in on their expectations, but replies “one mightier than I is coming.”
(Luke 3:16)
In Advent, The Spirit invites us to take a break from the obvious and insistent in the world around us. Whether a quiet moment of family time at the Advent wreath or making time to enjoy the evening of seasonal music at St. Peter’s this Friday evening, to breathe, to have hope, to know joy..
Fr. Tom