Advent: A Time for Rousing

Homily Advent 2, Yr. B, 2011

Now we are in the heart of Advent, a season of darkness where we are turning towards the light. We long for the coming of Jesus we are introduced to one of the real characters of the Bible, John the Baptist.

There are many parallels between the life of John the Baptist and of Jesus of Nazareth.

In Mark’s Gospel of the good news of Jesus Christ the beginning scene is not of a baby in a manger, born of Mary and Joseph, but a wild prophet in the wilderness, a desert, who lives off the land and preaches a gospel of repentance.

In some ways John personifies Advent. His message is clear—prepare for the Lord, the Messiah, the one who Israel has hoped for throughout its history.

John is a prophet. He invites the people of Israel to repent and change their lives, and signify this change through baptism in the waters of the Jordan River.

John is feared not only by the Jewish religious leaders, but by Herod the King.

Josephus, a historian from that period, says this of John:

“Now when many others came in crowds about him, for they were greatly moved by hearing his words, Herod, who feared lest the great influence of John had over the people might put it into his power and inclination to raise a rebellion (for they seemed ready to do anything he should advise), thought it best by putting him to death, to prevent any mischief he might cause, and not bring himself into difficulty by sparing a man who might repent of it before it should be too late. Accordingly he was sent a prisoner, out of Herod’s suspicious temper, to Machrus, …and was there put to death.”

In our Gospels we are told John’s execution was caused when he criticized Herod for marrying his brother’s wife, and we have the ghoulish story of the Baptist’s head being brought out to honour a promise Herod makes to Salome.

Either way it seems clear that John, like Jesus was unafraid of offending the authorities, and taught without fear.

We could see John’s arrest as the turning point in the Gospels because after John, who prepared the way, is gone, then Jesus begins his ministry.

Jesus has been baptized by John, and commissioned for his own ministry of teaching and healing, and the journey to the cross.

Jesus must face the same hostility from the Jewish religious authorities, King Herod and ultimately the power of Rome, that John faced.

To begin that intense period of ministry, Jesus, like John heads for the wilderness, the desert, where he must face temptation before undertaking his remarkable world changing journey.

Jesus, like John, says repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand.

But we can’t and won’t ever know when the Kingdom of God, or the second coming of Christ will happen. So we live in hope and expectation.


There is no minimizing how difficult it is to understand the gaps between our hopes and dreams and the current reality of our lives.

Dietrick Bonhoeffer, a German Lutheran pastor imprisoned for resisting the Nazis wrote before his death:

“Life in a prison cell reminds me a great deal of Advent—one waits and hopes and potters about, but in the end what we do is of little consequence, for the door is shut and can only be opened from the outside.”

So hope is challenging even for our greatest and most courageous theologians.

Another prisoner of the Nazis, Alfred Delp, wrote this meditation:

“Advent is a time for rousing. Human beings are shaken to the very depths, so that they may wake up to the truth of themselves. The primary condition for a fruitful and rewarding Advent is renunciation and surrender…a shattering awakening; that is the necessary preliminary. Life only begins when the whole framework is shaken.”

One of the reasons we observe Advent as part of the church year is to engage in a season of repentance, of watchfulness, of preparation before the celebration of the birth Jesus, and then Epiphany, the manifestation of Christ to the world.

We lose part of our Christian heritage if we treat Advent simply as a countdown to Christmas, and move too quickly from the wilderness with John the Baptist, to the shepherds in the fields listening to the Angels and rushing to the stable in Bethlehem.

Of course the wider culture is already in the midst of celebrating the Christmas of Santa Claus, shopping and presents. And Christmas carols have been heard in the stores since Halloween.

We are called to stay in the wilderness, at least in our thoughts, a bit longer as we mark this Advent season. It is a time of waiting, of expectation, and of joy.

Delp while still a prisoner also described joy “when one is curiously uplifted by a sense of inner exaltation and comfort. Outwardly nothing is changed…Yet one can face it undismayed. One is content to leave everything in God’s hands.”

Another prison admonition comes from Paul in his letter to the Philippians: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say rejoice.”

A message of faith, and a message of joy in spite of suffering.