When it came to the sport of baseball, whenever I was playing it in my younger years, over time I found two profoundly different ways that you could play the game. The first one: you could play in fear. Fear that the pitcher might hit you with the ball when it was your turn to bat. Terror that there could be a moment of pressure when the batter hit the ball to your section of the field. Tension when your team was down by eight points, and it was the bottom of the ninth, with one out to go. It could really get you wound up!
However, an important part of the game is learning how to enjoy it, which is the second way that you could play the game. Even when the pitcher is quite good, you have confidence that you have the reflexes to hit or duck, depending on the case. When the ball came to your section of the field, you knew that you had the skill and ability to get it and quickly send it back to the pitcher or wherever you needed to go. You could live in the joy and the thrill of the game! There are these two opposing viewpoints, and as a baseball player, whether young like I was, or even professional, you have to choose which perspective you wanted to look through.
Advent is a moment of evaluation, though it may not seem like one. It is a place for us to stop and to look and see, not simply in eager anticipation of Christ. It also gives us this additional ability to think about what this anticipation of Christ should do- and it starts with a fundamental question: does our faith fill us with eagerness in approaching Christ, or does it fill us with boredom, or worse yet, dread and fear?
The first reading comes from the prophet Baruch, and this is an appropriate place to start, because it is a beautiful reflection on God’s work in a specific time in the life of the people of Jerusalem. Baruch starts out “take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction! Put on the beauty of the glory of God.” A robe of righteousness. Diadem of glory… there are all sorts of clothing analogies here. This actually makes quite a bit of sense, as the Israelites had suffered the Babylonian exile some time ago, and this was meant to be an encouragement: look at how the Lord is taking you up and giving you something new. They felt very vulnerable at the time- but Baruch is encouraging them to look at the clothing that is being given to them by God- to feel that joy, that peace and that security yet again.
Glory is not simply about the present moment, though. If you notice, the second part continues on showing Israel the glory that is to come. God will bring you back to your homes in glory. The mountains will be made low, the valleys raised up. There will be shade- and all of this comes from God’s glory, his mercy, and his righteousness. If we think about this in more than just a literal way, then we start to understand that there is an underlying message here: God wants to show His people that He desires to overlook past afflictions as well as past sins and wrongdoings. He wants to move past these, and even restore his people to joy again. So, this encouragement comes from the prophet Baruch: God wants to instill his people, not with fear and trepidation, but in the joy that He is giving them in restoration.
The second reading is taken from the letter to the Philippians, written by Saint Paul. If you recall from last week, there was this simple encouragement for love to increase and abound, and to become blameless and strong in the Lord. Paul forms this encouragement for this week in his work with the Philippians in a prayer: he is praying with joy, because he sees that they are taking his word to heart. They are working together, they are starting to pursue God just a little more since they first heard the good news. He even desires to see an increase, and then starts to lay out what that increase looks like. Love should increase more and more, they should grow in wisdom and knowledge, and should also use that to discern what is good in their lives, and what is worth their energy and time. Again, this comes to show the beauty of God’s glory- that they are responding to what has been preached to them, and they are continuing to follow the Lord, all by Paul’s exhortation, coming from Christ.
Finally, we arrive at the Gospel according to Luke. The structure here is simple. There is the exposition of what particular time and setting this is being recorded, then we hear about John, who is out proclaiming a baptism of repentance. Further, Luke wants to establish exactly who this is- the forerunner of Jesus Christ himself. Likely, when we think of Advent, we think of John the Baptist for this very reason. He is the one that we always picture crying out about Jesus coming.
What exactly was that coming being proclaimed about, though? We know that he is speaking about Jesus, but why? The Gospel tells us that he is preaching a baptism of repentance, but if you look into what we are talking about as far as repentance, it isn’t just a small spiritual moment. The baptism symbolizes something monumental, such as a complete 180° turn away from sin- a complete renewal of their life! This baptism is to renew them in their following of Christ. Whether they had never heard of God before, or had need to renew and to start again- this was how they were going to do it. And John reminds them, as Isaiah says, to remove the crookedness of their hearts, the mountains of their pride, the valleys of sorrow- all to be made smooth by God’s mercy.
However, I think we need to step back a second: why would the Church be encouraging us to conversion right now? Why should we be concerned about this conversion taking place?
If you think back, there are a couple of ways to play baseball: fearfully, or fully. Though that is simply a game that we play and go on, life is something much, much more substantial. We also have a choice here: are we going to live life fearfully or joyfully? At times, life can seem to get very heavy. We don’t need the prophet Baruch to tell us that. What we do need is for Baruch to remind us of the armor God wants to provide. In the moments when you are being broken down. When you feel vulnerable. When attacks come from outside. When life gives us more than we can handle. God wants to lift us out of those things, but that does require a conversion! The fact of the matter is, we need to hear John the Baptist’s call to conversion ourselves- we need to make the mountains low and the valleys high, and crooked ways straight. Baruch isn’t just telling the people “be joyful” but to accept the joy that God wants to give them, in His armor, in His glory, in His righteousness, and even in His mercy.
So, we have encouragement to do these two things: to see what Advent is calling us to- this renewal in seeing how our relationship with God can determine everything, but also what it may take to convert. Finally, Saint Paul reminds us of the need to preach these same things to others. Saint Paul in speaking to the Philippians sees results in the people starting to seek God, but it started by Saint Paul being faithful first. He captured what God was trying to do for him, and then he preached that for others.
For all of us, I daresay all of these things are trying to encourage us to simply look at life. How are we doing this Advent? Did this season find us joyfully growing in faith, simply enduring what is happening today, or did it even find us dreading and living in anxiety and fear? This is a moment for all of us to experience that same encouragement that God gave to His people in promising to send their redeemer- they need not fear or be afraid. So, it is an encouragement for us to pick up a different perspective: don’t look at life in fear or dread. Don’t look at your faith that way either. If we take a moment to properly enter into the season, it reminds us of the joy that God seeks to give us- even in the midst of our life here and now. Finally, like John the Baptist, let us all be mindful of that need to encourage others of the need for faith, even if it can seem daunting at first. Christ’s coming is a moment to choose: are we going to live in fear or joy of that moment?
