Are you all ready for Christmas? Well, if not, I hope we’re all almost ready because there’s not much time left now to get ready before Christmas is here. Today is the fourth and last Sunday of Advent and the time that the Church sets aside to get ready for Christmas is almost over. Over the last four weeks the Churches song has been O come, O come, Emmanuel but in only 4 days’ time, the song will change to Emmanuel Appears! So there really isn’t much time left now to prepare for Christmas.
But of course, preparing for Christmas and the appearing of Emmanuel is only half of the Advent message isn’t it. Because as well as looking forward to celebrating the appearance of Emmanuel through the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, we’re also called, throughout Advent, to be ready for the Lord’s return in glory. And that message comes a warning that if we’re not ready for his return, whenever that might happen, it will be too late to do anything about it, when it happens. So what I’d like to do this morning is to reflect on how we can be ready, both to celebrate Christmas, and for the Lord’s return in glory. And I’d like to do that by looking at how we all have a share in the calling of the four main figures in the Advent story, the prophet Isaiah, John the Baptist, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and her husband, Joseph.
Of course, their calling was unique to each of them, and no one will ever have to fulfil their roles in the story of salvation again. Nevertheless, each and every one of us does share in their calling because even though none of us are called in exactly the same way that they were, we are all called in similar ways, and we’re all called by God to fulfil, in part at least, a similar role that each of them did individually. So let’s start with Isaiah.
There are lots of prophets, but the Church regards Isaiah as the prophet of Advent. We read the account of Isaiah’s call, in chapter 6 of the Book of Isaiah and as we read that account, we must be able to see some similarities with ourselves and our own situation. Just like Isaiah we, as baptised Christians, are called to a prophetic ministry. We’re called to carry the light of Christ with us wherever we go and to call people away from the ways of the world and to the way of the Lord. But, like Isaiah, we’re sinners ourselves and so we probably don’t think that we’re up to the task. Perhaps we don’t think we’re worthy of it. And we certainly dwell among sinners, just as Isaiah knew he did. We live in a world full of people who hear but don’t understand, and who look but don’t see. People whose hearts are dull, whose ears are heavy and whose eyes are blind. People who are too set in their own ways to change, who don’t want to hear anything that might suggest to them that they’re on the wrong path or threatens shake them out of their comfort zone, people who can’t see anything beyond the here and now. And yet, just as Isaiah was called to do, we’re called to prophesy to these people, to make known to them the way of the Lord and to call them to his way. Not in readiness for the coming of Emmanuel, as Isaiah was, but in readiness for the Lord’s return. And like Isaiah, we must also wonder “How long, O Lord?”
On the second and third Sundays of Advent this year, we read about John the Baptist. John’s calling was unique; he was called to that prophetic ministry of calling the people back to God, but John was also called to be the forerunner, the one who came immediately before Emmanuel. And John was called to make Emmanuel known when he appeared. But even so, we share in John’s ministry because aren’t we called to make Jesus known to the world today? Obviously, we can’t point to Jesus, in the flesh, and say, as John did,
“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!”
But we can point people to Jesus as found in scripture: we can point people towards Jesus’ words, to his teaching and his example. We can point people towards Jesus’ Passion and Cross by which he took away the sins of the world. And we can point them to Jesus’ Resurrection and Ascension which assure us of the truth of John’s words about Jesus, and justifies John’s faith in Jesus, and ours. And we can urge people to follow Jesus, as John urged his followers to do.
Finally, today, on the last Sunday of Advent, we hear about the Blessed Virgin Mary and about Joseph. Today, we only hear about Mary in passing, but we know the story of Mary’s calling well enough. Her unique vocation was to be the mother of Emmanuel and when we think about Mary’s example to us, we usually think about it in terms of her obedience to God’s call, her ‘Yes’ to God. We think about Mary’s example of patient, lifelong and even long-suffering devotion to her son, God’s Son. And this is all of great importance to us. But today I want to look at how we all have a share in that unique calling of Mary’s.
Mary was called to give birth to Emmanuel. She carried God’s Son in her womb, and it was through her that the song could and did change from O come, O come, Emmanuel to Emmanuel Appears. But don’t we carry Jesus too? Not in the same way that Mary did of course, but we do carry Jesus with us, at all times. We read this time and again in St Paul’s Letters, and Jesus himself spoke about it:
“Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.
And again when praying to the Father for his disciples;
“The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”
And one of the consequences of carrying Jesus within us, is that whenever and wherever we proclaim the Gospel, or follow Jesus’ example in our lives, Emmanuel appears, in and through us. It’s something expressed in the prayer of the Society of the Holy Cross, part of which says,
Father…..Through the saving power of the Cross, impressed inwardly upon our lives and revealed outwardly in our work, may others come to know your love and your truth…
So Emmanuel can appear through and in us, and in that sense, we share in something of Mary’s unique calling.
And then we come to Joseph. We don’t hear too much about Joseph do we? In fact, we hear so little about Joseph that he can almost seem like an incidental character in the story. But that’s far from the case. According to scripture, when Emmanuel appeared he would be of David’s line, born in the City of David, and it’s through Joseph that was fulfilled. And there are two ways in which we can share in Joseph’s calling. We will find ourselves in situations where Emmauel needs to appear. That is, we’ll find ourselves in places and at times where we need to show the love of Christ. We’ll find ourselves in places at times where we need to bring Christ’s teaching to bear in a situation. And we will be the one there who needs to do that. So there will be times when we will be called to enable Emmanuel to appear in the right place and at the right time, just as Joseph was called to do.
But there will also be times when, for Emmanuel to appear, we will have to take a back seat and allow another person’s calling to come to the fore. It may be that we really don’t want to do that, there may be times when we might feel quite justified in not doing that. But it is what we really should do. And this is just what Joseph did is it not? Jospeh would have been quite justified in divorcing Mary. We heard in this morning’s Gospel that this is, indeed, what he’d decided to do. I’m sure if we use just a little imagination, we can believe that some people, perhaps a lot of people, would have been telling him that’s just what he should do. But in the end, Joseph swallowed his pride and did things God’s way rather than the world’s way, or his own way, and he allowed Mary’s calling to take precedence over his own feelings. And this is something that so many people would do well to take note of and learn from because how much trouble in the Church is caused by people simply wanting their own way, regardless of whether their way is God’s way or not? How much trouble is caused in the Church by people acting in deeply un-Christian ways so that they can get their own way? How often when things like this are done do they stop someone else from fulfilling a calling they may have? And in doing that, how often do people who simply want their own way, prevent Emmanuel from appearing? But the way to prevent this is to share in Joseph’s calling, something we also find in John the Baptist’s calling too, and step back so that someone else who, in that situation and in that time and place might be far better able to allow Emmanuel to appear, to take precedence.
We are now, only a few days away from Christmas when the Churches song will change. But for us, it shouldn’t really matter what time of the year it is. We should always have O come, O come Emmanuel in our minds and hearts because we should always be ready and eager for Emmanuel to appear in our lives. And we should always be ready to sing Emmanuel Appears because we should always be ready for him to appear in our lives. And we should always be ready to hear and see opportunities for us to allow Emmanuel to appear through our own words and actions. So in these last few days before Christmas we might do well to think about the people we’ve read about during Advent, about Isaiah, John, Mary and Joseph, and about how we can share in their calling so that we might be better able to allow Emmanuel to appear through our own calling and so be ready, not just for Christmas, but for the Lord when he returns in glory.
Amen.
Propers for Advent 4, 21st December 2025
Entrance Antiphon
Drop down dew from above, you heavens,
and let the clouds rain down the Just One;
let the earth be opened and bring forth a Saviour.
The Collect
Pour forth, we beseech you, O Lord, your grace into our hearts, that we, to whom the Incarnation of Christ your Son was made known by the message of an Angel, may by his Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of his Resurrection. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
The Readings
Isaiah 7:10-14
Psalm 24:1-6
Romans 1:1-7
Matthew 1:18-24
Prayer after Communion
Having received this pledge of eternal redemption, we pray, almighty God, that, as the feast day of our salvation draws ever nearer, so we may press forward all the more eagerly to the worthy celebration of the mystery of your Son’s Nativity. Who lives and reigns for ever and ever.
Amen.
Parish Church of St Mark Chadderton 