Baruch 5:1-9

The setting for today's reading is exile of the Jews in Babylon six centuries before Christ. the author writes of a bright future when they will return with joy to their homeland. In this passage, Jerusalem is pictured as a mother who puts on her finest clothes and goes to a high hill to see the wonderful sight of her children coming home.

Philippians 1:4-6, 8-11

Of all the communities Paul founded, the one at Philippi was especially dear to him. Wherever he was, they sent him moral and financial support to carry on his work. Now confined to a prison cell, Paul writes to them like a proud parent.

Luke 3:1-6

Bishop Untener's Homily

Luke's Magnificent Introduction

In his first two chapters Luke tells the story of the birth of Jesus. Now he begins Chapter 3, the public ministry of Jesus. He begins this chapter with the magnificent introduction which we just heard: "In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee. . ." and so on.

Luke uses this solemn introduction about Tiberius Caesar, and Pontius Pilate, and these other historical figures, not to fix the date of the birth of Jesus or his public life, but rather to make it clear that what is taking place is the coming of God into world history.

Luke's Gospel is not a biography of Jesus. None of the Gospels are. As a matter of fact, they leave out most of the interesting biographical details we would love to know. Luke is writing the story of the coming of God into world history. He wants us to know that this is the turning point of history, and so he talks of Caesar the emperor, and Pilate the governor, and Herod and Philip the tetrarchs, and Annas and Caiphas the high priests. Luke has a clear purpose: To ground Jesus in the human affairs of this world.

Some might speculate that it would have been better if Jesus had never come into this "mess." It would have been better if God had simply announced from afar that there is a kingdom waiting for us somewhere else, and all we have to do is hang on and wait till we die, and then we'll be out of this mess, freed of these human bodies that weigh us down, and our souls will be transported to a place of rapture.

Grounded in History

But Luke makes it clear that God didn't do that. God entered into the history of this planet earth, of this whole universe. God signed on board this ship and set about transforming it into a place of peace, love and justice. The building of the reign of God begins here. Advent means a "coming" and it is about the coming of God into history.

We who follow Jesus follow an incarnate God, a God who went through life and through death, and took part of this world - body, blood, soul and divinity - to its destiny. We who follow Jesus have no option but to work to change the face of the earth.

It is in Luke's Gospel that Jesus speaks in unflattering terms of the priest and Levite who went to the other side of the road to avoid the victim lying by the roadside, and he praises the Samaritan who went to the victim's aid. That parable is a picture of what Jesus came to do, a picture of what we who follow Jesus must be about.

In 1971 the Holy Father, gathered with the World Synod of Bishops affirmed that work to transform the conditions of this world is an essential part of the Church's mission.

Hope

But that is not all. We are called upon, because of our faith in God, to go about this with hope. Not wishful thinking. Hope. The virtue of hope. The hope that is the theme of this Advent season - a flesh and blood hope that never fades, because "the Word became flesh and dwelled among us."

The passage we just heard from the prophet Baruch is filled with hope, despite the fact that the people he is speaking to seem to be in hopeless exile.

Jerusalem, take off your robe of mourning and misery; put on the splendor of glory from God forever . . . For God has commanded that every lofty mountain be made low, and that the age-old depths and gorges be filled to level ground."

Paul writes to the Philippians - and mind you, he is writing from prison - and he begins his letter by saying: "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. I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus."

Two Options

In the face of all that we see wrong with our world, we have two options.

One option is to see all the problems around us as fatal flaws. The world is doomed to be forever unjust and tragic and we should simply do our best to get the most we can for ourselves out of the situation, and let the world die its death.

The other option is to see all of creation as the recipient of the overwhelming power of God's compassion and transforming love. When we see it this way, we believe that every struggle for peace and justice, however small, ultimately has an effect, and whatever energy we spend to relieve suffering is worth the effort.

What it comes down to is our trust in the "advent" of God into history 2,000 years ago, and the "advent" of God at the end of time to gather all the efforts we have made along the way, and with the same creative power that began the universe, to bring it to its destiny.

During Advent, especially during Advent, we pray, and we trust, that God, who has begun this good work in us, in history, will bring it to its completion.

During Advent, especially during Advent, we take to heart those words of Isaiah that Luke quotes in today's Gospel:

Every valley shall be filled
and every mountain and hill shall be made low.
The winding roads shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth,
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.""

Originally given on December 10, 2000