Living God, Take these all too human words and anoint them with your Spirit so that in their hearing we may each encounter the living Word, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray.

In the jolliness of everyone preparing for Christmas, the lectionary serves up quite a gritty set of readings for Advent 3. It’s worth remembering that Advent is actually the Church’s other penitential season (the other being Lent). It’s a time of preparation to reflect, reexamine, and seek a different path, before Christmas begins on the 24^th.

 So, a set of quite searching texts makes more sense in that context. All of our texts today are about transformation, God’s priorities and waiting. God’s compassion, justice and care for the poor runs through them quite clearly. Mary’s Magnificat leaves us in no doubt about this.

 I saw a meme on social media recently, which was of Mary asking why no one is casting down the powerful – ‘I requested it specifically,’ she says. Actually, she says God is going to. In fact, she actually says God has – so confident is her prophecy.

 Our reading from James seems less obviously to fit this theme but the lectionary started at v 7 and missed verses 1-6 – a section sometimes titled – the warning to rich oppressors. There, James warns against treasure built up, oppressive labour practices and resistance to justice. Again, it’s a very clear message – being rich and powerful is a risky business.

 Many of us probably think that doesn’t include us. We may not see ourselves as rich or powerful. We might feel quite the opposite of powerful; we might feel under attack. But globally speaking at least, the country and society of which we are a part definitely is powerful. And the general standards of living here are much higher than in other parts of the world – hence why some people would like to join us, the grass is greener (not to mention those people fleeing their country for their lives in the hope of sanctuary). We have been, and in many ways, still are the mighty, whether or not we feel that way.

 America Biblical scholar Katharine Doob Sakenfeld, once led a bible study on Judges 4 and 5, with a group of women who were church leaders in South Korea. As she describes it, she was personally identifying herself with the Israelites who were under political oppression, and she was identifying with the idea that this text was about our liberation at the hands of God from all the things that oppress us politically. And she was talking with these Korean women for a moment about how she felt discomfort: She says, “I expressed the discomfort that I and many women peers in North America experience with Jael’s murder of Sisera, to which the response came swiftly, ‘your place as a US woman is with Sisera’s mother, waiting to count the spoils.” Without getting into the details of this text, the point is from their Korean perspective, as an American, Doob Sakenfeld, the closest parallel in the text was the baddy.

 There is a refreshing honesty in this story. The Scottish Poet Rabbie Burns wrote in his poem, Ta a Louse: O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us To see oursels as ithers see us!: Oh, would some Power give us the gift To see ourselves as others see us! Doob Sakenfeld received this gift. Many in the world would see us in a similar light, and that might be a discomforting thought.

 The appeal to patience in James is to the oppressed not the powerful. Modern scholarship believes James was written during the first Jewish-Roman war, to a community under heavy oppression. James asks them to be patient and not to grumble, not to abuse each other out of impatience. He encourages them to endure, but the mention of farmers waiting for crops is important. Farmers waiting isn’t sitting around – farming isn’t automatic or magic. It requires co-operation with the land, it’s active, but also can’t be sped up with haste or impatience.

 James encourages patience and co-operation with what God is doing, what we heard in the Magnificat. What message is there for us here? Well maybe we aren’t always the oppressor (though we might be complicit some of the time). Maybe we’re campaigners for change. Campaigners can get impatient. Those working hard for change can lose hope and become aggressive or vigilante. The cause may be just, but we may be forgetting it’s God’s justice, not ours. If we believe, or believe in our hearts, that it’s all down to us that’s functionally atheist and a recipe for grumbling and resentment.

What about Jesus then, what’s he saying here? It’s not immediately clear what exactly is being said in our Gospel passage today, but as I read it Jesus is asking the crowds what they expected from John and questioning whether they thought he might be a great leader, like those in palaces. Such people were essentially warlords. He goes on to say he was a true prophet, the greatest prophet, but that all of the hearers are as important as John in the Kingdom. He was great but not any more special – he was a key messenger, but they carry and embody the message. So, in contrast to my previous point, we the receivers of the message, do have work to do. As citizens of the kingdom, we are supposed to embody and work towards this message – the message of God’s justice.

 What does all this have to do with Christmas? In a sense not much, Christmas isn’t really on the table for another couple of weeks. In another sense everything, the long-awaited messiah, we believe was also the son of God. The promise of this person was to change the world, to realise the kingdom, God’s priorities. To reshape the world into a just and peaceful place. That’s not a cosy message but it’s the true message of advent and Christmas – God cares for all, especially the vulnerable and excluded. Any version of Christmas that forgets God’s compassion and empathy is not the true Christmas – the true Good news.

Amen.

OLD TESTAMENT READING: Isaiah 35. 1-10

35 The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; the desert shall rejoice and blossom, like the crocus 2 it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God. 3 Strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees.

4 Say to those who are of a fearful heart,

   ‘Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you.’

5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped. 6 then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert. 7 the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp, the grass shall become reeds and rushes.

8 A highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Holy Way; the unclean shall not travel on it, but it shall be for God’s people; no traveller, not even fools, shall go astray.9 No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it; they shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there.10 And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

PSALM Magnificat

R My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my

Saviour

R My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my

Saviour

⁴⁶ And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, ⁴⁷ and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, ⁴⁸ for he has looked with favour on the lowly state of his servant. Surely from now on all generations will call me blessed, ⁴⁹ for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name; R ⁵⁰ indeed, his mercy is for those who fear him     from generation to generation.⁵¹ He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. ⁵² He has brought down the powerful from their thrones     and lifted up the lowly; ⁵³ he has filled the hungry with good things     and sent the rich away empty. R ⁵⁴ He has come to the aid of his child Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, ⁵⁵ according to the promise he made to our ancestors,     to Abraham and to his descendants forever.” R

NEW TESTAMENT READING: James5. 7-10

7 Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains.

8 You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. 9 Beloved do not grumble against one another, so that you may not be judged. See, the Judge is standing at the doors!

10 As an example of suffering and patience, beloved, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

GOSPEL READING: Matthew 11. 2-11

2 When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples 3 and said to him, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?’

4 Jesus answered them, ‘Go and tell John what you hear and see:

5 the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. 6 And blessed is anyone who takes no offence at me.’

7 As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: ‘What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind?

8 What then did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces.

9 What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.

10 This is the one about whom it is written, “See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.” 11 Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.