advent 3

Today is the third Sunday in Advent, but like the fourth Sunday in Lent it is a day when we get to draw breath and look at the season from a slightly different angle. The liturgical color, in places which care about such things, changes from purple or blue, to rose pink. a reflection on the yes of Mary rather than the theme of return from all those mutterings of “no” which so often pass our own lips.

The tone of our readings changes as well. We move from those heavy overtones of the Day of the Lord which have dominated the lectionary, even before Advent started, to a much more pressing theme of what it means to be those who are chosen to serve the living God.

This is no small question to ask and, between them, the readings and canticle come up with a swathe of images. But it is to one central theme which we are drawn today - and that is the theme of justice and restoration.

In one of my previous jobs I had a colleague who would recoil every time I used the word Holy - he claimed that the word had been so overused by people to cover such a huge set of put downs of others that it had lost any instrinsically good meaning. I sometimes have that same sort of mistrust of the word justice because I am not always sure we know what we are talking about when we use the word.

Perhaps we should take a look at these prophetic voices in the Bible and see what they mean by justice. The Song of Mary, the Magnificat, starts in the same place as the reading from Isaiah and the proclamation in John’s Gospel and that is with God - these are people who are surrounded, supported and sent from God. Their actions, their yes, their life is a reflection of their deep abiding in the word and dwelling of God and the Holy Spirit.

This might seem so obvious as to go without saying but sometimes we get so bound up in running around after things like headless chickens that we forget to say, simply, Your will be done - as the reading from 1 Thessalonians says, Rejoice in the Lord always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances and I, perhaps,  want to skip over that bit and get onto something easier. To engage in another part of me which requires no stillness. My soul magnifies the Lord, says Mary - not O there is God over there somewhere now let’s get on with something real and interesting - no my spirit rejoices in God my savior.

It is only from this place of engagement and encounter with God that justice can begin to be understood because it is only from this place that the prophet can even begin to say with any sort of honesty and integrity that “ this is not all about me after all”. John says, it isn’t me, look there is the one who you are looking for. It is only from this place that justice can begin to be to look like something which is about everyone and not just about me and my next few steps on the journey.

When we see injustice, unfairness, what are we comparing it to - something which offends us, or something which offends God? You see those are sometimes the same thing but sometimes something which offends God does not offend us because it involves us and it means that we need to allow ourselves to be challenged by a given situation and to change our own behavior or beliefs about the world - this is a very different sort of Gospel, a very different sort of faith than one which sits easily and comfortably at arms length.

When we truly say,  “Your will be done” we open ourselves up to a God who does utterly outrageous things like filling the hungry with good things and sending the rich empty away. We find a God who frees captives and who asks us to rejoice in adversity. How does any of this work in the real world? God has to be joking, surely. That was then, this is now. Then there was the Roman empire, now there is a free democracy, surely things are so different, so very different, everyone has a fair shake of the stick.

But there are still mourners and the broken hearted, there are still paths which are far from straight, rough places which have not been made plain. There are still mighty people on thrones and God’s eternal covenant whilst complete and fulfilled in Jesus Christ is not exactly the buzzword conversation on the tongues of the majority of our compatriots. Still we have deep and unfathomable tensions in society, still we have inequalities in income race and gender to mention but a few which far from getting smaller in many areas seem to be becoming more and more apparent. Where is the justice in that?

There is, of course, a place for response. There is a place for response which sees emergency and fixes a gushing wound but that is not justice - justice and restoration is making a world where we gradually remove the jagged edges where people are cutting themselves. That is God’s work, but that is hard work because as you know, when you try to get something sharp out of the way, what can happen? You, yourself, might get cut.

It hurts to get cut and so the temptation is either to learn where the edges are and to stay in a very small and limited world where we cannot possibly ever reach them. This might sound difficult but it is perfectly possible to build a routine around a home and a grocery store and a doctors office and to inject just enough fear into that that any change will become a serious crisis. This is where many people are, shrouded before death in a frightened and reactionary world which has nothing to do with the sort of life which God is calling people to.

Justice, real justice, is neither frightened nor punitive it is about putting things right - it is about restoring us to all that we can be with God. It is about right relationship because in right relationship with God we will want right relationship with each other. When we see through God’s eyes we will not be able to stand to see the other hungry, or captive or to watch corrupt structures of power impose unfair systems on innocent people.

Perhaps my colleague and I both has a reason to be cautious - but in their right usage holiness and justice are both important for us - justice starts with holiness - restoration comes from lives turned wholly over to the Living God.