3rd Sunday in Advent 2025

Sermon: 3rd Sunday in Advent 2025

Texts: Matthew 11:2-11, Isaiah 35:1-10, Luke 1:46-55

Grace, Peace, and Mercy from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

To traverse through the season of Advent, at first, as the beginning of any journey, we are in the darkness of the “not yet”, of seeing the long road ahead, and the light we seek is far and faint. But once on the way, one step at a time, we start to make progress, and the light begins to shine more strongly. One step and then another, we begin to feel the warmth of the light’s nearness, shedding away the coldness of being far away. Gaudete or Rejoice Sunday marks such a progress in Advent. The light is nearer, stronger. We feel the warmth of Christ’s incoming birth into the world, the fulfilment of God’s promises of salvation. Joy begins to rise within us. The weight of judgement, the shivers of the coldness from sin begin to shy away in the presence of God’s joyful light in Christ. We get closer to Him that gives everything a greater meaning and purpose, Him that can’t help but give us His love for our sake, Him that makes a world curved into its own imputed sense of meaninglessness, to open up into its original belovedness, to stand upright in dignity and worth by God’s grace, to uplift and give justice to the lowly and cast down the proud and the oppressor. This joy that is rising in Advent is bubbling up from the depths of our spirit, waiting to break through the surface of our pains and disappointments.

Our Gospel reading reveals the content of this upwelling joy that we live by. We continue the journey of John the Baptist, the prophetic preacher that is preparing the way for the coming of Jesus. John has been imprisoned because of his message. So one can imagine that John is wading through the darkness of his journey. Then, there

seems to be an opening. A crack that is letting in something akin to light. He hears from his students that tend to him about what Jesus is doing. Like any who are living in the dark, sometimes you get your hopes up. Perhaps this is a mirage from his time in the darkness. Is the light really breaking in? Is this warmth that he’s feeling real? So he sends word to Jesus and asks that question full of expectation: “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” This great hope is walking on a tightrope. Many have come and gone. It is safer to be disappointed and be done with it. It is riskier to hold on to hope, to be always ready to welcome the new world that is promised. And these Promises are truly great. The One that is promised will bring God’s Kingdom to humanity, God’s deliverance of His people from oppression and exile. But something even deeper. God would also deliver His people from their sins. From their captivity to death and self-destruction. Is this Jesus, truly the One who is to come? Is God’s everlasting joy truly at the doorstep?

Jesus sends word back to John, and tells his students, tell him what you see and hear. Jesus isn’t inviting John to imagine, or to even prophesy of the future; He is confirming what is taking place. John’s hope is not in vain. John’s preaching and toil are not in vain. The light is starting to break in. God’s Kingdom is near. And what are those signs that Jesus highlights to confirm this? What is Jesus doing that affirm God’s nearness to John? “The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those with a skin disease are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.” Jesus ministry is not just about words, it is about Words that turn into action, it is a transforming Word that changes the life of those who hear it. It is what John preached, metanoia, a conversion or change of way. Jesus is the Word by

which people can turn away from sin and turn to God in faith, love and hope. The Kingdom’s nearness is therefore joy. It is light that pierces the darkness. It is Good News, not of things that simply will happen, but that are happening within the lives of God’s poor ones. There is something to say of that last act that Jesus remarks: the good news is brought to the poor. In the Greek it is one word, which denotes an action more powerful than simply declaring something to someone. One scholar termed it as the poor are being “gospelized”. The Gospel is happening to the poor, they are experiencing the Gospel in their lives. They are being healed, they are being uplifted, their sins are being forgiven, they are given love, hope and light in the face of adversity. Jesus is bringing this about. Often we talk about the future as something “not yet”, but the future has its roots in the present. The future is beginning in the now, it is growing in the present moment. And this is what Jesus is revealing to John as the “One who is to come”. With Him, our reality is no longer the same, it is being gospelized as we speak. The warmth of God’s Kingdom is reaching him, and therefore his whole life has become the fertile soil from which the seed of the Kingdom of God is growing.

And it is no different from us. Every time we gather, we are also gospelized. We come out from these doors renovated with what Jesus does and inspires within us. From here, receiving Christ, we go out to gospelize, and be the people that answer the question “are you the one?” Are we gospelizing our communities with love and hope? Are we gospelizing by being a presence of peace and justice? Are we gospelizing with our compassion? The Gospel is not simply a message. It is a new reality, we are daily

being converted to the gospel and live in such a way that points people to Jesus and God’s Kingdom.

Beloved, many are yearning for this Gospel. As Jesus confronts the crowd in today’s reading: “What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? What, then, did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces. What, then, did you go out to see? A prophet?” Indeed, people are going to and fro looking for this Gospel. When we gather here, we are not looking for how nice this looks. We are gathered here because we are drawn in by what Jesus is doing in our midst. We are drawn in because God is active in this world, and His promises are a light that breaks through the darkness and brings joy to our hearts. We are drawn in because God is making ways through places we thought impossible, making way through despair, making way through grief, making way through injustices, making way through loneliness, making way through hatred, these things we thought could never be overcome, but then here is Jesus, arriving into our lives, bringing supernatural joy. Joy and peace that surpasses understanding because it is a gift we never thought we could receive. This One who accomplished this, who does this for us daily from birth to death, in the midst of life’s messiness and complexity, inside the hardship of every cross we bare, this Jesus is bringing in God’s light. As Christians, we invite people to see and hear that Jesus is transformative. He will never cease to stir something in us. This is the joy of the incoming Kingdom growing as we speak. It is daily new creation that is taking place within our hearts, and therefore having effect in the wider world, in the people we meet, in our families, in our community.

Indeed, “blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me” says Jesus. In Spanish, this phrase is often translated as blessed is anyone who is not scandalized by me. The scandal of the Gospel is that it is radical. It goes to the root of our problems. But it also shows us the solution which has been accomplished in Him. Simply live in the light of love that has pierced through. Simply sing like Mary: “”My soul magnifies the Lord,

and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowly state of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name; indeed, his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.” As we journey towards the end of Advent and begin to see the awesome light of Christmas, let your imagination be gospelized. Let it run free with the awareness of God’s love for the world, let is see the new possibilities that are taking place even in the dark night. So let us then rejoice and pray: