The Third Sunday in Advent – December 14, 2025
Many on the front lines of parish leadership have been questioning, wondering, retiring, or just leaving ministry (maybe even the church) altogether. They’ve seen too much false hope and hypocrisy and don’t know how much longer they can wait. Their daily prayer is some version of today’s question, “Are you the one?” Is this the parish that will finally feel like home? Is this the job that will fulfill and not deplete me? Do I still believe in the work I do to serve the church?
Especially in today’s polarized and suspicious climate, where the Gospel and Jesus’s words are often dismissed as political propaganda and one sometimes must assert “what kind of Christian” they are, being a person of faith, much less joyful faith, has its risks.
We can find strength in Jesus’s message to John. The work of bringing God’s reign is not ours to do; that belongs to the Spirit. But it is ours to witness.
Still, that is the Advent call—to rejoice in God’s reign here but not yet. We can find strength, then, in Jesus’s message to John. The work of bringing God’s reign is not ours to do; that belongs to the Spirit. But it is ours to witness.
Therefore, we must rejoice, for rejoicing is resistance to the belief that evil has won. When the world is broken, rejoicing helps us see the cracks of God’s reign breaking into the desert floor of despair. Rejoicing is a hope-filled battle cry: Be strong, fear not! Here is your God!
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