Luke 3:7-18

At my rather austere Methodist boarding school in the 1960s we were perpetually hungry. If the interval between the saying of grace and the arrival of the trolleys of food in the dining hall seemed too long, we would break into a chorus of “Oh why are we waiting?” – sung to the tune which we use for O Come, all ye faithful, to which it is not a very good metrical fit. If I had a voice as good as Dean’s, I would give you an a capella rendition and invite you to join in, as he did last Sunday.

Waiting is, of course, one of the key themes of Advent and a theme to which today’s Gospel speaks. It struck me that the words “Why are we waiting?” have two possible meanings. It depends on where you put the emphasis.

Why are we waiting? Means for what or for whom are we waiting. In the case of hungry schoolboys in the 1960s it was, of course, for food, however low in quality.

Why are we waiting? has a completely different meaning. Why don’t we get on with it? Why don’t we take action?

In today’s Gospel, John the Baptist addresses both those meanings.

For whom are we waiting?

The Jews who journeyed to the Jordan valley to be baptized by John the Baptist were, of course, waiting for the coming of the Messiah. They had begun to wonder whether John the Baptist might be the Messiah. His ministry was challenging. He wasn’t afraid to call them a “brood of vipers”. His methods were unusual. They knew that immersion was part of the ritual that Gentile converts to the Jewish faith went through, but John was linking the ritual of baptism with repentance, and that was a new idea. Might he be the longed-for Messiah? The political liberator who would free them and restore their religion to its original purity?

John understood this, and by saying

“I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

He pointed them towards the ministry of Jesus, which was about to begin. Jesus would prove to be so different from the generally accepted view of the sort of person the Messiah would be and the things that he would accomplish, that many would be unable to recognise him. To know for what or for whom one is waiting, and thus to be able to recognize and to receive is very important.

Advent invites us to recollect the answer to the question “For whom are we waiting” and John the Baptist points us in the right direction. We are waiting for the light that came into the world when Jesus was born, the light that shines in the darkness.

What are we waiting for?

Some years after we hungry schoolboys sang “Oh why are we waiting?”, the Glasgow-based rock trio Bis produced a single with the same title, and the words of the chorus go very well with today’s Gospel about John the Baptist.

Why are we waiting / Why can't we start changing?

Why are we waiting / Always so frustrating.

Why are we waiting / We need rearranging.

John the Baptist preached about repentance, and linked baptism with repentance. He didn’t mean saying sorry for past wrong-doing, though that is important.  The Jews had other rituals for that purpose. He meant changing and rearranging one’s life. He was saying that religion is nothing unless it is life-changing. In encouraging his listeners to share clothing and food with those in need, and to abandon corrupt practices and extortion, he was reminding them that religious beliefs which do not bear fruit in changes of behaviour and lifestyle are hollow and meaningless.

Don’t wait for the coming of the Messiah, John told them. Change now. Rearrange your priorities. The changes he suggested seem straightforward – he’s not asking tax collectors and soldiers to change jobs – even though most of his hearers viewed tax collectors and soldiers as people to be despised because they collaborated with the Romans. He’s asking them to be honest and just in their dealings. That doesn’t, at first hearing, sound like a big ask, though when one contemplates recent goings-on in Downing Street it seems radical. And his words about sharing food and clothing with those who need them challenge us profoundly about how we should respond to refugees and asylum seekers.

Going back to that song lyric.

Why are we waiting / Why can't we start changing

Why are we waiting / Always so frustrating

Why are we waiting / We need rearranging

Our Advent waiting is not frustrating because we have been changed and rearranged by our baptism, by the adult commitment that we have made to follow Christ and by the on-going changing and rearranging that commitment involves as we encounter new challenges, new opportunities, new worries and new dilemmas.

In Advent we look forward to Christmas, to celebrating the love of God coming visibly among us. In Advent we also look towards the Second Coming of Christ, the goal towards which history is moving, a goal which has already been scored in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus. Our team is 1-nil up, but the match is not over and we are called to go on playing our part. Our waiting should not be passive

The eighteenth century French spiritual writer Jean Pierre de Caussade asked the question

“Why are we waiting?” and he definitely placed the emphasis on waiting.

His answer was:

“Let us set out at once, let us lose ourselves in the very heart of God and become intoxicated with God’s love.”

That’s an intoxication which can continue and deepen the changing and the rearranging and enable us radically to respond to the call to loving relationship with all our human sisters and brothers. Why are waiting? Because we know that God is present in Jesus in our human condition, and, because of that, present in the here and now and in the unseen time that is before us.