Zephaniah 3:14-18a

The days of the prophet Zephaniah were bad times for Israel - idolatry, unfaithfulness to the law - and he preached impending judgment, a day of doom. But he ends by telling them of a day when they will sing for joy and the Lord will sing joyfully over them.

Philippians 4:4-7

Of all the communities founded by Paul, the one at Philippi was his favorite. Toward the end of his letter to them, he advises them how to live as they await Christ's return in glory.

Luke 3:10-18

Bishop Untener's Homily

There's a song - a "round" - that comes from the reading from Paul that we have today. . Maybe you've heard it. It goes like this. One group begins: "Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice." Then another group starts that same verse, and the first group continues: "Rejoice. Rejoice. Again I say rejoice." It's fun when you get groups doing that, and the harmony is very good.

Now those words of Paul are quite a contrast with the words of John the Baptist in the Gospel. John talks about Jesus having his winnowing fan in his hand to gather the wheat into his barn, but "the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."

Now, you'll notice that in today's Gospel, John the Baptist gives advice to different groups of people. I'd like to have given John the Baptist a little advice. I would have said to him, "Lighten up. Lighten up a little." He always seemed so serious, so foreboding and so forbidding.

Of course, I have the advantage of hindsight. I know some things that John had no way of knowing.

You see, John the Baptist thought that the messiah would come and put everything in order and establish the kingdom of God with Jerusalem as its center. Israel would reign supreme and there would be peace and justice all around, and that was that. All this, John thought, would be accomplished in a couple of years. And it would be accomplished by power and might.

But Jesus didn't do that. He began healing lepers, and blind and deaf people. He preached a message of forgiveness. He ate and drank with sinners.

Meanwhile, John the Baptist ended up in prison and was disappointed in the way Jesus was going about things. Remember the passage when John sent messengers to ask Jesus, "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to look for another." John wanted a messiah who was going to straighten everything out here and now.

But John didn't know there was such a thing as North America, or South America, or Australia. John didn't know the size of this earth. John didn't know by a long-shot the size of this universe, with perhaps intelligent life on other planets. John didn't know about all the ages to come, 20 centuries so far, and perhaps a thousand centuries left to come. John didn't know that the "one mightier than him" who was coming and who would baptize with the holy Spirit and fire was not Jesus during his earthly life, but Jesus on the other side of death.

John didn't know how colossal, and how wonderful, this great project was - the building of the reign of God. If John had known all that he might have lightened up. If we stop and think about all that, perhaps we would lighten up a bit.

It's not that we shouldn't take things seriously here and now. We need to do that. But deep down we have great hope, not gloom and doom.

Do you know what it's like when you watch a movie, and you already know that it's going to have a happy ending, and when you watch the difficult scenes you're very much into them . . . but down deep you know that it's going to all work out?

Or, when you watch the re-run of a great sports event, and you know that your team wins the game, but you're watching the part where they're behind and things look bad. You're into it, but down deep you know that they're going to win.

Well, it's something like that for us when we think of this world, and this universe. You see, we're going to win this thing. Not right now, like John the Baptist thought it should happen. But some day . . . probably far in the future . . . whenever it is that in God's plan good triumphs over evil.

We're going to win this thing. Not because we're so good. It's because someone mightier than us is coming . . . has already come . . . and has opened the way through death to the other side . . . and is pouring his Spirit upon creation . . . and his goodness is stronger than all the evil in this world.

We're going to win this thing. God signed on board this ship. And God stayed with this ship through the Spirit. That's why I'd tell John the Baptist to lighten up a little bit.

That's why I tell myself, and I tell you, lighten up. However bad things may look on a given day, we're going to win this thing. The Lord has come. The Lord has come into this world, and the Lord has stayed with this world.

That's why Christmas is "merry." The child born in Bethlehem is "Emmanuel" - "God with us." If God is with us, then goodness is going to win out.

That's why we need this season of Advent to get ready for Christmas. It seems too good to be true, and we need time to think about it, because it is true.

St. Paul had it right. He doesn't need any advice from me. He had it right in today's second reading when, of all things, he himself is in prison, and he still writes:

Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again: rejoice! The Lord is near. Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

May such thoughts be ours the rest of this day, the rest of Advent . . . the rest of our lives.

Originally given on December 17, 2000