3rd Sunday of Advent

Gospel Reading: John 1: 6-8, 19-28

6 A man came, sent by God, His name was John.

7 He came as a witness, as a witness to speak for the light, so that everyone might believe through him.

8 He was not the light, only a witness to speak for the light.

19 This is how John appeared as a witness. When the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, 'Who are you?'

20 he not only declared, but declared quite openly, 'I am not the Christ.'

21 'Well then,' they asked, 'are you Elijah?' 'I am not,' he said. 'Are you the Prophet?' He answered, 'No.'

22 So they said to him, 'Who are you? We must take back an answer to those who sent us. What have you to say about yourself?'

23 So John said, 'I am, as Isaiah prophesied: a voice that cries in the wilderness: 'Make a straight way for the Lord.'

24 Now these men had been sent by the Pharisees,

25 and they put this further question to him, 'Why are you baptising if you are not the Christ, and not Elijah, and not the prophet?'

26 John replied, 'I baptise with water; but there stands among you - unknown to you -

27 the one who is coming after me; and I am not fit to undo his sandal strap.'

Meditation

St. Mark's gospel has only a brief section on John the Baptist, and so in this Year B the reading for the Third Sunday of Advent is taken from St. John .

The passage is clearly in two sections: the first is an extract from the prologue to St. John's gospel, and the second is from St. John's account of the ministry of John the Baptist.

To get the full meaning of verses 6 to 8 it would be necessary to go back to the previous verse of the prologue in which St. John affirms that light always shines in the dark and darkness cannot overpower this light. In this perspective the passage says that John was sent by God with the mission to 'speak for the light', a powerful metaphor of a lawyer bearing testimony that the light is trustworthy.

Verses 19 to 21 give us a first dialogue between John the Baptist and the people whom St. John calls 'the Jews', meaning those who are reluctant to accept God's word. Enter into the personality of the Baptist as he, with growing impatience, refuses to allow himself to be put into any categories - a model of the great person establishing his own unique identity, just as the messengers are like us when we try to fit God's new word into some time-worn category, 'putting new wine into old wineskins'.

In verses 22 to 24 the story moves forward with John again refusing to let himself be categorised and affirming his mission humbly but courageously. He must reach out into the wilderness and let God's saving word be heard among those who were neglected by the religious leaders of the time.

Verses 24 to 27 show us once more the humility of John the Baptist, using the same metaphors we had in last Sunday's passage, although here we have in addition the contrast between him and 'Christ', 'Elijah', and 'the prophet'. Let yourself be touched also by the Baptist's conviction (not mentioned in St. Mark's account) that 'the one who is to come after' is actually standing there even though the community does not see him.

Prayer 

Lord, there is much darkness around us in society,

in our church community, in our family, in our own hearts.

Eventually it gets us down.

We become cynical and settle for mediocrity.

We thank you that someone always comes on the scene,

sent by you as a witness to speak for the light:

•  on the world scene, people like Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa;

•  in our country, teachers, workers, community leaders;

•  a grandparent, one of our children, a friend.

They bear witness to the rest of us that somewhere in the dark

a light always shines,

a light that darkness cannot overpower,

and therefore we can all believe again.

Lord, goodness is always small, very frail and vulnerable,

whereas evil is loud and self-assertive,

dominating the news and our conversations.

We pray that your church may always speak for the light,

so that through her people might believe.

Lord, we get frustrated when we see

the shortcomings of your church,

or our personal shortcomings.

That is because we have become self-important,

forgetting that we are not the light,

only witnesses to speak for the light.

Lord, when someone speaks your word to us,

we look for endless reasons not to respond,

we put the person into a category -

'the same old message,' we say, 'just another of those do-gooders,

we have heard it all before.'

We thank you for the times

when your word became something new,

a voice penetrating right into the wilderness we were in,

so that we heard it and entered into a new relationship with you.

Lord, forgive us for confining your word to some restricted areas

whereas we leave others untouched:

•  the world of economics and politics is cold and heartless;

•  the food policies of the wealthy nations are causing famine among the poor;

•  workplaces know only suspicion and confrontation.

Help us to be your voice crying out in those wildernesses

that you want to be present there too

with your love and compassion,

and they must open themselves to you.

Lord, we feel incompetent.

We ask ourselves how we can be preaching your gospel

when we are so far from being the Christ,

a great prophet like Elijah, or the promised Messiah.

Help us to be content to baptise with water,

trusting that you are standing with us

even though we do not experience your presence,

that you will come after us

and put right all we have done wrong,

and we are not fit to undo your sandal strap.

Lord, forgive us for becoming complacent in your church,

as if grace is at work among us only.

Forgive us too for becoming discouraged

when we find the church not doing enough.