Advent Sermons in a Bottle

First Sunday in Advent - C.  "The Lord our Justice."

We were discussing the Advent readings.  My perceptive friend said, we don't appreciate that the great Jewish prophets--Isaiah, Jeremiah, Baruch--wrote 700 or more years before Christ's birth.  All that time, this smallish community of Palestinians held onto the hope that the Messiah, the Savior of all, would come.  Can we appreciate such hope held for seven centuries, yes seven long centuries?

Jews today still hold out this hope for the Christ, the Redeemer envisioned by the prophets and their ancestors.  We Christians have had our hopes fulfilled in Jesus, son of Mary, son of God.  We may not see him in today's laws, cultures or governments.  But he  is here, and will be for all time.




Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary -C.  "But she was greatly troubled."

For this feast preachers inevitably and quickly go to the "YES!" of Mary to the request of God through the angel Gabriel to be the Mother of God.  But before this momentous affirmation Mary wavered, twice.  She was "Greatly troubled."   She asked, "How can this be?"  Or in my language, why me, and how the heck are you going to pull that off?" 

In other words, she was a normal human being.  Her first response was distrust.  She asked questions.  Surely she pondered.  But out of that pondering came the greaest affirmation of vocation we know.




Second Sunday of Advent - C.  "The Lord has done great things for us."

On every Sunday and holyday in the Roman calendar there are four readings from the Bible.  The second one, between the selections from the Old Testement and the Gospel, is usually not mentioned or commented on by preachers.  Yet these psalms are just as much the Word of God as the Gospels, or the writings of St. Paul, or the prophets. 

Today's psalm, #126, is one of my favorites.  I first "heard" it in Hoob Oosterhuis's haunting song, "When from our exile."  And once explained to me, the spare poetic words capture the fear of the future, the hard work of sowing seeds, and the incredible joy we feel when our seed come to fruition.  This is indeed a psalm prayer of hope, and perfect for the seaons of advent.