Sadly, the word ‘believe’ has come to have a meaning that is somewhat divorced from its Biblical meaning.  It has come to convey the idea of accepting as true a set of propositions or facts, as in saying ‘I believe that statement from the provincial director of health”.  The Biblical sense is more of a “I believe in”, that is, I have faith in something or someone, or I trust something or someone. So, in a Biblical sense we can properly say, “I trust my dentist or my doctor or my mechanic.”  Indeed, having faith is just like that: putting yourself and your future in someone else’s hands.

And that’s what is so remarkable about today’s roll call of faith heroes.  We have thousands of years of faith history to go on, the entire Old and New Testaments, plus many years past that, but they didn’t.  Nevertheless, they still had faith, still trusted.  May we be like them.

Today’s Scripture passage from the infancy of Jesus remind us of a couple of important things, things that we might want to prioritize this new year.  Those two things are listening, hearing what God has to say, and then responding, doing as He says.  The problem, if you are anything like me, is that we don’t always put the two things together.  We do things without listening first, or we listen and then neglect to follow up on what we’ve heard.  So, my resolve, in this new year is to do both.  What about you?

Looking ahead to the new year, 2025.  What can/ should we do different/ the same?  Today’s passage on trusting in God, remaining faithful to God in our everyday living prompts us to think about how this might apply to our lives, especially as we move forward.  How might we, you and I, be more faithful to God in this new year?  Maybe, in my case, listening more, seeing I routinely put together my ‘to do’ list for the day without even asking Him what He wants done.  Anyway, it is something that is good for us to ponder--and pray about.

As difficult as it may seem at times, there are always two sets of seemingly diametrically opposed forces at work in the world.  On the one hand, there is the bad news, evil and its impacts, and the good news, good and its impacts.  These days it often seems as if we can barely even pick up the news or tune into it, without hearing something of the former.  Often the good news seems woefully scarce.  But that is not the way that God intends it, and certainly not the way He will leave it.  The good will win out eventually.  As John’s Prologue says, ‘the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness is not able to overcome it.’

However, on the other hand, there is another set of ‘seemingly’ opposing forces, judgment (or accountability) on the one hand and restoration and peace and blessings etc. on the other.  The fact is that justice will be done, and not just seem to be done.  Even when it didn’t happen on earth, it will eventually happen under God’s righteous rule.  Nations, peoples and individuals will be held accountable for their actions.  Indeed, in one sense, this must happen for what is genuinely good to finally rule and persist.  The bad needs to be dealt with and eliminated!

We see something of these two sets of tensions in today’s passage from Isaiah, the bad and the good, and the judgment and the blessings.  I know that we’d love to have the last of each set, but, unfortunately, they can’t come without the other.  So be it.

Today’s meditation speaks of the crucial decision, the ‘yes’, that each of us needs to make in our lives, our ‘yes’ to God’s offer, God’s supreme gift in Jesus Christ, but in reality it is a ‘yes’ that we need to make each and every day--and indeed, throughout each and every day.  And so, as we stand on the cusp of year another year, this surely is a good reminder to each of us to ‘take care of this’ in some rather conscious and deliberate way.  Thanks be to God for such a gift.  May we, all of us, live into that gift.

Hope is probably one of the few things that can keep us sane and able to move on with life, for there are many things that we face, both individually and corporately, that can cause us to shake our heads in wonder and puzzlement.  However, the hope that God gives us is far more than just a vain ‘whistling in the door’, hoping against hope that things will be better.  No, the hope that we have in God is in a creator who made the world--including us--and who holds all things in His hands, who is, by the way, loving and capable and who is working out everything for good.  And so our hope is well-grounded.  Thanks be to God.

I guess that these are only ‘natural’ impulses for us human beings, but competition and comparison can be rather destructive, debilitating and dastardly habits, especially among us as Christians.  Among siblings and classmates I guess that these are only natural, but as Christians we need to realize that it is God who has given us our abilities and inclinations--and our callings as well.  In other words, He has given us these gifts as an act of loving care, and has given us these gifts for a purpose--a purpose which no other person on earth can carry out exactly the way that God intends us to do.  And so, all ‘looking to see’ what someone else has, or is doing, is entirely out of the question.  We should entirely focus on what
we have and what God wants us to do with it.  Thanks be to God that it is entirely individual--and unique.

John the Baptist’s entire life and mission were wrapped around one thing, and one thing only, namely, to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah, who is Jesus Christ.  Our season of Advent has had that same purpose, but this time, not to physically prepare His way but rather to spiritually do so--to make sure that there is a place in our lives for Him to dwell and work His purposes.  And yes, maybe even to be our own John the Baptists, albeit in our own ways--to announce or portray Jesus in our words and actions and prepare the way for others to come and know Him.

Anglicans like especially to joke about ‘C and E’ Christians, that is, Christmas and Easter Christians, referring to those who only show up at church on those occasions.  However, this ‘joke’, perhaps quite unintentionally, belies a deeper malady, namely of people who ‘say’ they believe, who acknowledge the faith, but never make an intentioned effort to put it into practice--who just on with their ‘same old, same old’, day to day routines.  In some ways they are like the folks that Jesus castigates in today’s passage, people who ‘said’ they believed in the tenets of the faith but never put it into practice by actually putting their faith in Jesus.  And, dare I say it, isn’t this sometimes like us?  I mean, simply going about our daily activities, the busyness that so often seems to be the hallmark of our lives, without actually thinking about where Jesus fits into this, or what Jesus might want us to do.  I think that this slip up is probably something that is true of most of us, least of all, at this busy season.  So, maybe it is best to pause and think about Jesus and about what He might want us to do.

The Virgin Mary never ceases to amaze me.  Here is a young girl, very possibly only in her early teens, with all of her life ahead of her but almost certainly with some hopes and plans vis a vis her marriage with Joseph and her life thereafter, willing and able to say ‘yes’ to God, to say ‘yes’ seemingly without hesitation--and scarcely with any realization of what it would entail.  I’m afraid that probably very few of us are like that--to simply put our plans and ambitions on hold and say ‘yes’ to whatever God wants, rather than what we might want.  And so Mary is a great inspiration to me.

I have often thought that doubt and faith were the two sides of the same coin.  Without even the shadow of doubt, one has only certainty, which rules out entirely the need to have faith.  Faith is when you step beyond the doubt, beyond the certainty, and take that risk to see what happens.  And, of course, that is the only way that one can ever enter into a project of any sort, and certainly a relationship, for one can never know for sure.  All that one can do is to look at the evidence, see where it points, and then go from there--take that leap that is called faith.

Today’s topic of listening reminds me of an incident from my past.  In my second year of university, I boarded with an aunt and uncle, who had three rather lively youngsters.  Much to those parents’ annoyance, I talk those kids an old song, “I can’t hear what you say, I got beans in my ears.”  And, as you might expect, those youngsters, whenever their parents were about to launch into something those kids didn’t want to hear, would stick their fingers in their ears and go around the house chanting, you guessed it, “I can’t hear what you say, I got beans in my ears.”

Well, it never worked for those kids, just as it never worked for my brother and I when we tried it.  (I think that our attempts were very short lived!). And it doesn’t work with our Lord and us either.  He has a way of getting through, no matter what.  And, if we don’t listen, then it is only to our loss.

John the Baptist cautions his original audience--and us--about two errors that we might fall prey to.  One is a response to God’s summons based out of fear, or shame or any such negative things.  The response, he says, is most appropriate, but it needs to be backed up by behaviour, by a change in our lifestyle and actions.

The other error is complacency, thinking that ‘we’ve got it made’, which means that there is nothing that we need to do.  But then, as John points out, if it’s not backed up by behaviour, it means nothing.

Neither response is appropriate at any time of year, the least of all at this Advent season.  As we ready ourselves for the yearly celebration of God’s coming into our world, it is appropriate to realize that we ‘haven’t gotten it made’, that we have indeed sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, fallen short of what He expects of us.  But then, not to wallow in fear, shame, or self-pity, but to get up, take up Christ’s offer of forgiveness and a new start, and try again.  We won’t ‘make it’ on every count, that’s guaranteed, but, at least, we’ll be heading in the right direction.

Here in Lloydminster it is snowing, and snowing with a vengeance.  Indeed, it is a good day to stay in, given that it doesn’t look like it’s going to let up anytime soon.  The snow seems pretty consistent just now.

Consistency is something we rarely get in terms of the weather--and to be honest, something God rarely gets in us humans.  Here, then, It is a pleasure, and a welcome relief, to see that today’s psalmist wants to be consistent in his devotion and adherence to God’s word.  Now, we can be reasonably sure that he wasn’t always able to keep up with that resolve--none of us can--but even so, I think that it is worth noting--and imitating.  I pray that all of us could be more like that.

It almost goes without saying, given our all too human propensity to fail or slip up, that we will deny or let down Jesus from time to time.  And so it is good to know that He will never deny us, or let us down, regardless of how well or not so well we behave.  With Jesus there is always forgiveness for the asking--and a new start.  Thanks be to God.

It is almost a ‘given’ in terms of human life and existence that we will face rough times at least occasionally, if not more often.  Here it is helpful and reassuring to know that God knows all about them, that He is there with us in them, and that He understands fully well when we flub it from time to time and forgives us and provides us with a fresh start and a new chance.