Christmas Preparations - SERMON

Christmas Preparations -  December 14, 2025 - Fr. Al

This time of year we seem to get caught in the middle of two preparations. We are all preparing for and trying to hold on to whatever our traditional Christmas celebrations look like while at the same time attempting to prepare our hearts to celebrate the birth of Jesus once again and to reflect upon what all that means to us and how if at all that actually affects our lives.

This time of year can be a struggle. Our yearly celebrations with family and friends change and evolve and that requires some adjustment and sometimes it can result in some lament or grief at what has been lost. And then if we are actually going to listen and engage in the proclamations about Jesus and the stories about Jesus our faith might get challenged or even shaken depending on what we hear or read or reflect upon.

But having our lives and our rituals and our understandings about reality challenged is actually what the Christian message is all about. I read a great quote recently that emphasizes that being challenged is what Christianity is all about. It said -

"Christianity should sound like my faith causes me to ask really difficult and challenging questions about myself not my faith gives me all the right answers for how everyone else should live". (Read twice)

This reality of challenge and difficult questions is built right into the story we heard about John the Baptist in today’s gospel reading and it’s in the Song of Mary that we read together earlier. Both proclaim what we may be encountering and what we may be experiencing may cause our understanding of reality to be turned upside down and may challenge us to see ourselves and our connection to reality differently.

Are we open to that experience as we wait for and prepare to experience Emmanuel - God with us - once again this season?

John the Baptist, whose own birth was a miracle has grown in wisdom and insight and in boldness as he calls people to prepare to welcome Emmanuel, God with us, into their lives.  There are stories about people flocking out to the wilderness to be baptized by John and to hear John calling them to be prepared to welcome the one who would baptize them with the Holy Spirit. The one in whom the fullness of God dwells. There are other accounts where John sees Jesus and says to his followers behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. John seems to be clear on who Jesus is and on the hope that we have in Jesus.

But in todays readings things seem to have fallen apart for John. He has been faithful and done what he believed he was called to do and yet he now finds himself in prison with all the freedoms and comforts and securities of life as he knew it stripped away. Everything he has hoped for and worked for seems to have crumbled right before his eyes and been lost. And what is his response to all of this? He wonders if he had it all wrong right from the beginning. He questions the very foundation that he has built his life on. John sends some of his disciples, some of those whom are closest to him to Jesus to ask Jesus "are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?"

John is not afraid to reveal his crisis of faith and his struggles to those closest to him. John is not afraid to reveal that he does not have all the answers and that what is happening in his life is causing him to ask some difficult and challenging questions.

The song of Mary which starts with the glorious proclamation "My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour" is such a glorious and victorious and hopeful proclamation. Similar to John’s behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world or the one coming after me will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Yet like John who finds his hopes and dreams crushed as he sits in prison I wonder if Mary standing at the foot of the cross watching her son being brutally treated and murdered didn’t also feel like her heart was being overwhelmed by darkness and grief and doubt and questioning everything just like John did?

What about our lives? There is probably not one of us who hasn’t experienced something in our lives that felt like it was threatening the very foundation of our lives. Maybe it actually was. Certainly seems that’s how John was feeling. He was questioning the very reality of the lamb of God and the work of the Holy Spirit. I don’t think we can imagine the horror and darkness Mary was feeling as she helplessly witnessed the events surrounding her son’s brutal execution. 

Maybe you have been through something where you have wondered - where is God? I was being faithful but things in my life have not turned out anywhere close to what I had hoped for or what I imagined. It’s ok to cry out like John did - Jesus are you the one? Are you really what the claims about you appear to say or am I on my own here and I need to look for another? Do I need to keep searching?

When John’s disciples get to Jesus and tell him that John is in prison and John is struggling and wondering if you are the one or if we should look for another Jesus does not give a yes or no answer. Instead he says to them go and tell John what you see and what you hear. Faith is not based on an idea alone or a simple yes - Jesus says let me show you the big picture.

"The blind receive their sight". Jesus says he will help us see reality much more clearly and it might not look anything like our imagination.

"The lame walk". Jesus says he will bring a wholeness to us that will not limit our abilities to engage in the world around us.

"The lepers are cleansed" Jesus says we may be shunned and not welcomed and prevented from being part of all that life has to offer but he will open the door for us to be fully included.

"The deaf hear" Jesus says he will clear the muddle in our understanding so that we can perceive even the greatest subtlety in the glorious world that God has created.

"The dead are raised" Jesus says it may appear that all is lost, it may appear that your hopes and dreams have died that death is about to swallow you but I bring life and give life. I will raise you from the death attempting to swallow you.

"And the poor have good news brought to them". Jesus says there is no one excluded from my presence. You will be welcomed into the fullness of life.

"And blessed is anyone who takes no offence at me." It is easy to take offence at Jesus. The claims about Jesus are astounding.

The claims right here are astounding. He brings life to the dead. He brings healing and wholeness to struggling and suffering. Yet here is John in prison and there is Mary looking at her son dying on a cross. Where is the promised glory that causes our souls to magnify the Lord and rejoice in God who comes to us to give us life?

Jesus did not chastise those who came to him asking what is going on are you the one or should we look for another. He affirmed that in him is life. In the midst of our struggles and our doubts may we cry out to Jesus. May we wait for Emmanuel, God with us, to fill us with the hope and joy that is in him that our soul would magnify the Lord and our spirit rejoice in God our Saviour. For in him is life!

Fr. Al