19 Dec 2021
The Gospel. St. John 1:19
THIS is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he answered, No. Then said they unto him, Who art thou? that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself? He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias. And they which were sent were of the Pharisees. And they asked him, and said unto him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet? John answered them, saying, I baptize with water: but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not; he it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose. These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing.
“But there standeth one among you, whom ye know not;” It is still the case. Here in 2021 amid all the virus problems, the violence, the drug addiction, and misery, He stands among us even now not recognized by many. He is the Lord, the promised One, our Redeemer. Advent is the season in which we awaken again to the message of His coming. Soon, we will look in the manger with His Mother, the shepherds, and the angels and realize in joy that He came to save us.
And yet He has never left us alone. We know what is to come for that baby in the manger, but we also know that He was victorious against the darkness by His death and glorious Resurrection. He promised to be with us even to the ends of the earth! So, the Redeemer has not missed a day of our lives. We may have forgotten from time to time, but He has not. If we are following his commandments and pressing forward in the light along God’s pathway, we can know and sense He is there. The Church provides us reminders should we forget or be distracted by the cares of this world. We are to be stirred up by Advent Scripture and prayer as we make our way through the season to relive Bethlehem. We are to take all these reminders to heart. There is a reason for St. John the Baptist to be on the pathway with us pointing out what is to come and what we must do to prepare.
This is a time to renew our prayer life, to meditate on the Scripture every day, and to welcome the Lord into our lives through asking forgiveness for our sins and thanking God for all his gifts to us.
Remember too all the blessing the Church offers you and your loved ones in preparation for the coming of the Lord. We come together with him in Holy Communion: “And here we offer and present unto thee, O Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice unto thee; humbly beseeching thee, that we, and all others who shall be partakers of this Holy Communion, may worthily receive the most precious Body and Blood of thy Son Jesus Christ, be filled with thy grace and heavenly benediction, and made one body with him, that he may dwell in us, and we in him.”
For the world, for the Pharisees and Levites of today, there is still all those cynical questions they want answered. Who are you claiming to be? What do you think you are doing? The sneer of the many around us is nothing new. But we are in agreement with St. John the Baptist as we know that there is truly one among us today that they know not. In Advent we hear the brave confession of St. John, his stalwart calling for us all to repent. We also know of whom he speaks for the Lord is truly in our hearts and in our minds, and we take joy and comfort in that the Church refreshes us with the memories of His coming, His Advent on the glorious road to Bethlehem.
Bishop Edwin Tompkins
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