Third Sunday of Advent

God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we await this coming, that we might receive you.  In his name, Amen.

Psalm 63:1-8 

Amos 9:11-15

2 Thessalonians 2:1-3 

13-17

John 5:30-47

The Jesus presented in the Gospel reading of John 5 is not a cute baby who permits romantic sentimentality.  This rather is the Jesus who stands at the pivot point of judgment of the world.  The issue of this difficult reading is the identity of Jesus to whom there is important testimony.  Thus we are confronted by the most elemental claim of faith, namely, the identity of the Son with the Father.  In the life of Jesus, we are given the fullness of God's own life.  The challenge of the text is to see that this Jesus (who comes at Christmas) who is crucified and risen is indeed the elemental truth of all reality. 

Psalm 63 overflows with testimony about the character of the Father, who is variously presented as water in a dry land, as steadfast love, and as help, that is, as the full satisfaction of the deepest needs of the world.  In Christian confession, it is Jesus who fully embodies that deep holy satisfaction of the world's deepest hungers and thirsts.

Both the Gospel reading and the Epistle suggest that this elemental claim is under assault;  the church is tempted to compromise or renege on its confession.  The antidote to such seduction is to reengage the trusted tradition of the church, to "hold fast to the traditions" of the church, attentive to the "writings" of Moses, that is, to the Old Testament.  For sure, we live in a culture that gives in too readily to safer, easier religious claims that cost little and that deliver little.   In a world of slobbering consumerism, that may require disciplined study so that we may recognize afresh the radical claim of the Father of all truth who comes as the crucified and risen Son.  These readings pose the question of the carol:  "How shall we receive him?"