Making steady progress.

Homily for Sunday 11th December 2022

Third Week of Advent.

Rev. George Kingsnorth (Deacon)

This week’s theme is to be patient and rejoice as the Lord is coming.

My work colleague and I have been working on a film workshop for several years. We are making steady progress. There has been fun and some disappointments. We were planning a film shoot. Everything was going well. We had crew, actors, equipment, and locations. All was going great.

Then as the production dates drew near, I started feeling dizzy and tired. I contacted my doctor, and was prescribed new medication but still feeling rough. Nevertheless, I ploughed on with the project, not wanting to let anyone down.

The week prior to the shoot, I had to call my doctor again. I was worse but was hoping it would all be over by Thursday. Instead, my doctor told me to go to casualty. I thought I would get checked out and be sent home. But no, the initial problem was sorted but the doctors noticed my heart was running slow.

This was the day the system nearly broke. One hospital shut it doors and sent ambulances to others across the province. Nearly 100 patients waited in my local casualty. I believed my probably was minor and would be sent home. An overnight stay wasn’t on my radar. I had a meeting with the actors. With a bit of rescheduling, I managed to organise something online the next day. I was certain I would be home.

But no. The doctors needed me monitored for a second day. My partner contacted me to say several members of the crew had family issues and could not make it. Then, my backup went down with COVID.

As I tried to find another solution to keeping the film shoot on track a nurse said “Mister Kingsnorth, your health comes first. If you’re not here, what would everyone do?” My heart sank. At 38 beats a minute it couldn’t do anything else. I realised what I must do.

What was this all about? How had things got to this stage?

John the Baptist is in prison. About to lose his head because of a promise King Herod had made to his niece, his brother’s daughter to Herodias, who just so happened to be living with Herod. A complicated affair that John told Herod was against the Law.

John had heard about what Jesus was doing. His disciples worried him. In last week’s Gospel John had been sent to prepare the way for the one who would Baptise with the Holy Spirit and a fire that would never go out. Following this Jesus appeared to be baptised and John felt unworthy knowing who was before him. However, Jesus encouraged him to baptise him, and when he did, John saw the Spirit of God descend on Jesus in the form of a dove.

John knew who Jesus was. John’s mother was Elizabeth, kinswoman to Mary, whom Angel Gabriel announced would bear Jesus as her son and that her cousin was six months pregnant with John. Therefore, Jesus and John were cousins. So why did John say to his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you the one to come?”

Some say it was because John was having doubts, but others comment on how John was pointing his own disciples toward Jesus. John having prepared the way knew his time was coming to an end. After his death, John’s disciples buried him and went straight to Jesus to tell him the news.

Jesus grieved his cousin. He had recognised him as the one that the scriptures said was the messenger preparing a way for him. Jesus told his disciples John was the greatest of all children born of women, yet the least in the kingdom of heaven.

In our world, we can easily lose heart. We see our systems breaking. More and more people suffer hardship and uncertainty. There is war, failing crops, global warming with extremely cold winters and devasting fires then torrential rains in the summers.

Our second reading tells us to be patient. Not to complain about one another in case we bring judgment upon ourselves. We are encouraged to be patient. Remember a way has been prepared and the Lord is coming. If we put our trust in God, he will save us. This is the time for rejoicing, as Angel Gabriel told Mary.

Often, we find ourselves planning for the future and not living in the present. Restricting the possibilities. As I sat in the hospital bed, knowing the time had come to step back, to stop being in the future but to accept where I was in the present, knowing that I was not the one in control and had to hand everything over to the Lord, there was a great release. I could be present with those around me, to listen to what they had to say. I could see how hard the nursing staff were working to care for others. The sooner, I let go, the sooner I could go.

What I thought was a disaster, turned out to be a blessing. I wasn’t really prepared for the shoot when planned. Being forced to postpone the project, gave me a chance to rethink things and see the blind spots. I just had to trust in Jesus that he knew what was best for me. Most of the time it is not what we are doing that matters, but how we are being especially to others that really counts.

Now is the time to rejoice in being with Jesus, especially today on the Third Sunday of Advent, and to giving our time to him.