Sunday, December 13, 2009

What Must We Do?

3rd Sunday of Advent
Year C


Shout for Joy, O daughter Zion! Sing Joyfully, O Israel! Be Glad and Exult, with all your heart!

Not much to rejoice about these days, is there? Things aren’t going so well, it seems. We have wars and terror, H1N1 and recession, joblessness and division. And isn’t that Tiger Woods thing just awful? We sing Joy to the World and we put up our trees and our lights, but this year Christmas just doesn’t seem the same as before. The only thing that does stay the same is the way that Christmas is less and less about Christ and more and more about us and our stuff.

Zephaniah had it much the same way. He lived in the Northern kingdom of Judah during the time just before the Assyrians wiped it out and carried the people off to slavery. His gripe was that the people had lost sight of their religious traditions and were worshipping foreign gods. They were worshipping idols and animals and kings, just like we worship money and cars and ipods. They were not faithful to their God and sure enough bad things were in store for them unless they turned back to him.

The more things change the more they stay the same, don’t they?

But Zephaniah is also the one who told the people to shout for joy, be glad and exult. He starts out with a message of destruction, gloom and doom, and ends with a message of hope. His good news is that no matter how unfaithful we are, God is always faithful to us. No matter how bad things seem, we should always rejoice that our God is here for us. God never changes, but we need to.

John the Baptist also preached a message of change. The people who were coming to John were not the most well-liked people in society. They were some of the most hated: tax collectors and Roman soldiers. They were also some of the most feared. These were people who made their living taking advantage of their neighbors. They heard John’s message of repentance and wanted to know what they had to do to turn their lives around. And John didn’t ask them to do anything drastic. He told them to start with the simple things like treating people fairly and being content with their lives. John focused not on the woes of society but on individuals in relationships. If we get our everyday relationships right, everything else will fall into place.

John wanted his disciples not to just feel bad for their actions and just change their behavior for a while. John preached a baptism of conversion. Conversion means a change of perspective, an altering of one’s direction or changing one’s allegiance, or a turning around. And it is not a temporary thing. It’s permanent. We need conversion to prepare ourselves for our most important relationship. The good news John preaches is that the ultimate cause for rejoicing is coming, is already here among us.

St. Paul suffered more for the good news than anyone else in his time. And yet he too tells us to rejoice. His message is the same as John’s. Be kind to all, have no anxiety and trust that the Lord will take care of you. Joy comes from an absence of anxiety. If you have joy you will be kind, because kindness is a direct result of joy. And being kind will also bring you joy.

Have no anxiety at all, but ask and receive all you need from God. We have a lot of anxiety in our lives these days. We’re losing jobs and homes and possessions, and we’re having to cut back a lot on what we usually do and buy during this season. Many of us are having to take stock in our lives and evaluate exactly what is and isn’t important. And all of this causes anxiety, not joy. It’s hard to simply trust. It’s hard to see beyond our current situation and have hope in the promises of Christ.

What must we do?

What would John the Baptist, and St. Paul, and Zephaniah say to us if they were living today? How would their message of hope be translated to the modern world? I don’t think it would change much, because human nature has not changed much since their time. Treat others well in our everyday situations. Keep it simple. Focus on our relationships, especially on those in our lives who are hurting. Be content with what we have. Remember what Christmas is truly all about. The over-commercialization of Christmas has taught us to never be content. Enough is never enough, nor is it good enough. Ask and receive all we need from God. Trust him. And rejoice that there is hope. Hope in our Savior whose coming we patiently await.