It is often hard to know where to place our trust.  Even the most well-intentioned people can make mistakes, and not everyone is well intentioned.  Some people have very negative intentions toward those who are different than themselves.  We like to think that we can trust our leaders, but, much like the man who through his shoes at president Bush this week in Iraq, we often become frustrated with the choices others make. 

Our Old Testament lesson for this fourth Sunday of Advent provides an example of King David of Israel’s desire to build a temple for God in Jerusalem.  This was at the height of Israel’s power as an ancient nation and when the nation had the most territory and people.  David wanted worship in Israel to be like that of surrounding nations by building a Temple.  When David asked the prophet Nathan whether he should do so, Nathan told the King to go ahead with his plans.  However, later Nathan had a dream that warned that David should not build the Temple.  However, God promised to bring an even greater king through the lineage of David.  David’s son, Solomon would be a leader of peace and therefore he built the Temple in Jerusalem. 

The King may have been well-intentioned, but his plans were not the same as God’s plans for his life.  In the same way, the prophet was well intentioned, but God didn’t agree.  We receive instructions from leaders all of the time.  Sometimes laws are passed that are unjust.  Proposition 8 in California took away rights of citizens of the state who should be treated equally under the law.  Just because human beings make a decision, that doesn’t mean that is what God wants to happen.   Preachers have preached many things, but that doesn’t make them true.

This is advent, the time when we prepare for the coming of Christ in light of his first advent as a baby in Bethlehem.  This week’s Gospel lesson is the annunciation—the story of the Angel Gabriel telling Mary that she will become pregnant with a child who will be the savior of the world.  The birth of Christ didn’t happen the way people expected it to happen.  The Bible tells us that Mary was of the lineage of David the King, but it also says that she was a handmade which is a kinder of way of saying that she was a slave.

God chose a girl who had just gone through puberty, with dark colored skin and who was the lowest on the social strata of the day to bring the Christ into the world.  We expect God to do great things through people that we consider to be great; those of wealth and power.  But God often chooses plain and ordinary people to do great and extraordinary things.

The essence of the Gospel can be found in the word of the angel to Mary.  I am moved by the statement, “Do not be afraid.”  We can find many things to be afraid of.  War, poverty, disease, financial crisis are only the beginning of things we have to make us fear.  We can add to this list all of our personal phobias and concerns.  The world is often a hostile place and just getting through can be a challenge for many people, let alone the ideas of achievement, fulfillment, and self actualization.  Yet, the good news is we do not have to be afraid.

The angel’s first statement tells us the reason we can be free from fear.  Gabriel said, “God is with you.”  The whole story of Christmas is that God came down to be with humanity.  God is with us.  God didn’t go away when Jesus ascended, but instead remains with us always.  God is with us with through the presence of the Spirit until the end of time.

Gabriel had the right message for Mary.  When we hear leaders try to tell us to be afraid, or preachers trying to scare us into conformity, we must remember the truth of the good news found in the annunciation to Mary.  God is with us, we do not have to be afraid.  Just as Mary bore the love of God into the world by bearing Christ, we bear the love of God into the world by sharing our love for one another.  God can do awesome things through the most unlikely people.  That’s part of what makes God God.

The Holy Spirit came down upon the waters of creation and brought life forth from the seas.  The Holy Spirit came down upon Mary so that she would bring Christ into the world.  The Holy Spirit continues to give life to us today.  It is through the inspiration of the Spirit that we learn to appreciate all that God has to give us.  The Spirit gives us the strength not to be afraid in spite of the obstacles others place in our way.  The struggle for equality and recognition of our love moves forward as good people are moved by the Spirit to help society reach a new level of acceptance and love.   The work of Christ continues until the gospel of God’s loving presence is brought to all equally and without prejudice.  We can be messengers of God to bring about God’s desire for all to live peaceably and equally under heaven. 

2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16
Canticle 3 or Canticle 15
or Psalm 89:1-4, 19-26
Romans 16: 25-27
Luke 1: 26-38

When I go home from work this evening, I will see something different in the house than I did last week.  My husband put up the Christmas tree.  He can assemble and decorate a tree faster than anyone I know.  It is filled with brightly colored lights and various ornaments.  Some of the ornaments have sentimental value to one or both of us.  Others are simply there because they add color and variety to the tree.  This is only one of the ways we prepare for Christmas.  We have also spent more time than I like in stores.  It isn’t that I dislike giving gifts; it is more that I don’t enjoy stores much.

Anything of value is worth preparing for.   Advent is the season that we prepare for the coming of Christ.  We are faced with the awesome reality of facing God, with the perspective of the light and love of God that came to earth in Bethlehem.  Christ came as a babe incarnate; God becoming man.  Christ has promised to come again and bring human history to fulfillment.  Christ comes for each of us at death.  At the same time, Christ is always with us through the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Our Gospel lesson for this third Sunday of Advent is from the first chapter of the Gospel of John.  This Gospel is different than the other three.  John’s Gospel has a deeply personal feel to it.  It is more philosophical, and I think spiritual, than Matthew, Mark and Luke.  John does not focus on long parables and teachings, but instead shows us great miracles and explains philosophical truths about life, love, and community.   This Gospel, more than any of the others, shows the contrast between Christ and the legalistic traditions of the day.  The term “Jews” is used quite frequently to refer to religious leaders and not average Jewish believers.  Although John has been misunderstood as anti-Semitic, it was religious legalism John condemned, not a race or religion.

Our lectionary reading leaves out some important nearby Scriptures.  It skips over the preamble of John, which provides the evangelist’s Christology, what the Gospel writer attempted to communicate about Jesus.  “In the beginning was the Word…and the word became flesh and lived among us.”  According to this Gospel Christ existed from the beginning of time, Christ was with God at creation, and without Christ nothing would have been created.  The Word of God became flesh and lived on earth.  The Creator became a part of creation to communicate that we are loved and accepted by the Creator.

John the Baptist preached and prepared the way for Christ.  The Baptist provided the prophetic voice that was called for by Isaiah. He was a forerunner who prepared the people by proclaiming repentance and baptism.  John confronted the religious leaders of the day and demanded that they repent.   Religion had gone astray.  They had become legalistic and had replaced relationship with God with rules and regulations to be followed by others in order to be accepted by God.  John called them to repent. 

We often don’t like the word repent, yet we are asked to repent in Scripture.  We think of repentance as condemnation and forcing ourselves to be different than we are.   Religious leaders today often demand that others conform by telling them they need to repent or they will go to Hell.  That really isn’t what repentance is all about.  You may have never heard of the Greek word that is translated into the word “repent” in the New Testament.   The word is ‘metanoia.”

The word is used differently in various contexts but metanoia literally means about mind.  Perhaps we can understand repentance better if we consider a contrasting word.  It is one you have probably heard – paranoia.  Paranoia literally means beside mind or out of mind.  When one is categorized as clinically paranoid, we might say they are out of their right mind.  Therefore, metanoia, or repentance, means right mind.  We repent when we get ourselves thinking right again; when we get back into our right mind.

Repentance means to get our minds and hearts back where they belong.  Carl Jung looked at metanoia as a way of getting back into one’s self.  Repentance then is not a condemnation or call for conformity.  Instead repentance means for us to think the way we were created to think.  Repentance is to not allow ourselves to get caught up in the religious legalism that demands that everyone think and act the same way.  True repentance is to be true to ourselves and express who we are as we were created to be. 

Millions of us have lived at least a part of our lives hiding who we truly are from others.  There is so much pressure to conform and be like everyone else, that we are capable of suppressing our true nature for years.  However, it is time to repent.  It is time to get back into our right minds.  It is time for humanity to realize that God has created a great diversity of human beings.  We are not all the same, we are each unique and individually made by our loving God.

We prepare for Christmas by putting up decorations, buying gifts, and making sure we have provisions to gather and celebrate with family and loved ones.   How do we prepare for the coming of Christ?  We do so by getting into our right minds, and living our lives as fully, completely, and openly as we possibly can.  There is no shame or guilt in being different.  In order to be devoted to Christ, the Word of God who became human for us, we must devote ourselves to living, loving and giving ourselves to others at every opportunity.  That is truly the gift of the incarnation at Christmas.

Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
Psalm 126 or Canticle 3 or Canticle 15
1 Thessalonians 5:16-24
John 1:6-8, 19-28