As we light our fourth Advent candle, this season of waiting and hoping and preparation comes quickly to close with Christmas just a few days away. All Advent we have sung Maranatha – which is Aramaic for – Our Lord has come. So how does living a life woven in the fabric of this season allow us to be aware of the Christ who in our lives right now? Perhaps John the Baptist, Joseph of Nazareth and Greta Thunberg can shed light on that answer. See what I mean…

1. 1 Deacon Jim Knipper
22 December 2019 4th
Sunday of Advent Princeton, NJ
As we light our fourth Advent candle, this season of waiting and hoping and preparation comes quickly to close
with Christmas just a few days away. Or does it?
For me, Advent is not just a four week season which kicks off a new liturgical year. And it is not just four weeks
of getting “ready” for Christmas. And it is more than just waiting for the second coming of Christ. For we can
focus so much of our prayer life seeking what is to come, that we may just miss what is already here. All Advent
we have sung Maranatha – which is Aramaic for – Our Lord has come. So how does living a life woven in the
fabric of this season allow us to be aware of the Christ who in our lives right now?
Well, here are three people, in the past few weeks, who have shown us the way.
We begin with John the Baptist, who, dressed in camel’s hair, eating locusts and honey, clearly had no ego.
John knew his role was to tell everyone of the need to be prepared for the coming of the Lord, the Christ, the
one who is mightier than he, and the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. But later we find John in
prison where his faith seems to be a bit wavering and he sends his disciples off to ask Jesus if he was indeed
the Christ….or should they keep looking?
Don’t we all go through that feeling in our lives? When all is going great and life is good, it is relatively easy to
see Christ in our lives. But as soon as we find ourselves sitting in our proverbial prisons of darkness, addictions
and personal losses we quickly begin to ask, “Where is God?” It is the question many of us ask when faced with
great adversity in our lives.
But Christ reassured John, and thus us, to live with the faith that the blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the
dead are raised and the poor (that means ALL of us) - are beneficiaries of the good news proclaimed.
Then in today’s Gospel we heard the story of Joseph. For being such a key person in the life of Christ very little
is written about him. It is interesting that he is not mentioned in any of the letters by Paul, whose writings are
the earliest found in the New Testament. Nor is he mentioned in Mark’s or John’s gospels. He only appears in
Matthew and Luke. In addition to that, not a word spoken by Joseph was ever recorded – rather only his
actions. And in the case of Joseph, his actions speak louder than any words. Actually they speak volumes
about what living a life of Advent is all about.
Betrothed to Mary, but before their marriage, Joseph is told that she is with child.
What? Pregnant and not married?
Imagine the flood of emotions that had to have come over him. Like any man soon to be married he must have
had aspirations of what his life with his new wife was going to be like. But all that gets pulled out from under
him.
What is he to do? What are the people in town saying? Meanwhile he is working hard just to pay the burden of
Roman and Temple taxes. And now his betrothed is found to be with child? I would think it only human for him
to have said the same thing we may say when overwhelmed with life, “God – you have to be kidding me! I can’t
handle anymore!”
But being one righteous in nature, he decides to divorce her quietly as to not expose her to shame. But as we
heard - the angel appears to him in a dream and tells him that this child has been conceived by the Holy Spirit,
she will bear a son and he is to name the child - Jesus. When he awakes he does as he has been asked and

2. 2 Deacon Jim Knipper
takes Mary into his home. Joseph lives a life of Advent, of having faith in how God is ever present in your life, in
ways and places you least expect.
And lastly, as few weeks ago, Time Magazine named Greta Thunberg 2019 Person of the Year. Born in Sweden
almost 17 years ago, Greta has been diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, ADHD, OCD and selective mutism.
But none of those differences stopped her from appearing on the global scene in August 2018, when she began
spending her school days outside the Swedish Parliament, calling for stronger action to be taken on global
warming. It was soon after that her “School strike for the climate” was taken up through similar protests by other
students in their respective communities.
After Thunberg spoke at the UN Climate Change Conference later that year, student strikes took place every
week somewhere in the world. And most recently, at least two coordinated multi-city protests have been held
involving over one million students each.
The Vatican, on behalf of the Pope, recently commented that her activism brings attention to the Church’s
insistence that “attention to the poor and society also coincides with care for the environment - the common
home” - which is the subtitle for the Pope’s second encyclical Laudato Si. And it is in that document where the
Pope laments environmental degradation and global warming and calls for all people of the world to take “swift
and unified global action”
The Vatican went on to say that the care for the environment is a matter of faith...and that Thunberg’s “protest
and her witness brings attention to the great need to be coherent in our care for the environment and also for all
the people who live on this earth.”
The lives of John the Baptist, Joseph of Nazareth and Greta Thunberg all carry the core essence of
Advent…and in doing so they clearly made those around them uncomfortable. For like John, like, Joseph, like
Greta, like Mother Teresa, like Dorothy Day, like Jesus, like Pope Francis - they all understand that Advent
reminds us that even in all of the challenges, adversity and hurdles that come our way, Christ is always present.
John found that his deep love of Christ also meant losing his life. Joseph bringing a young pregnant girl into his
home as his wife also had faith that his actions were part of God’s plan. And while faced with great adversity in
her young life and taking on personal attacks, as prophets so often do, Greta also holds onto the hope that the
people of the world see how climate change will have a major impact on future generations, unless we begin to
care for all of God’s creation.
No doubt, we all have times in our lives when the bottom can’t seem to get any lower. Where God’s plan does
not seem to match up with the one our ego designed for ourselves. Yet by actively living the spirit of Advent, the
spirit of inclusion, the spirit of hope, the spirit of faith – Christ becomes visible to us, present among us, living
within us - time and time again.
So, Advent comes to a close in a few days…and…at the same time it doesn’t. For we are told repeatedly to not
be afraid, but rather to be open and vulnerable to the daily arrival of Christ in our lives….. So, as you blow out
that last Advent candle tonight and toss the Advent wreath back in the closet till next year – do not discard the
true essence of this season…and instead be committed to a life of listening, loving, hoping, enduring and
trusting – a life rooted in Advent. And in turn, your eyes will be opened to seeing the ever presence of
Christ…in places you least expect.