In today’s Gospel we have Our Lord commenting on the distinctive ministry that his cousin, the man we know as John the Baptist, was born to perform. John came to prepare the way for the chosen one of God, the Messiah. The very nature of the proclamation made by John forced people to look to the future. He called them to a baptism of repentance in preparation for the coming of the Messiah. For many of us looking to the future is not our natural way, nor is it indeed comfortable. All too often we are only too happy to gaze longingly over our shoulders at what has gone before.
A question we should all ask ourselves from time to time is: “Are my best days behind me or in front of me? The answer will depend on your thoughts about what constitutes your best days. Those times to which we hark back were not necessarily our best days – they most certainly could have been great days, but not our best days. It is worth considering that best days don’t happen when you have reached the end of your tether; or when you have hit rock bottom. Best days are when a team that couldn’t win a game two years ago goes on to win the championship. Best days are when an industry in its hardest of times makes the best product it’s ever made. Best days are when the challenges are greatest and you overcome them anyway. Our best days aren’t behind us. They are ready for us to move into them.
As you decide whether that’s possible or not consider this folk tale from Central Asia.
A man who had looted a city was trying to sell an exquisite rug, one of his spoils of war. “Who will give me 100 pieces of gold for this rug?” he cried all through the town. After the sale had been concluded, a comrade approached the seller, and asked: “Why did you not ask more for that priceless rug?”
“Is there any number higher than 100?” asked the seller.
This is a story of limits. It is also a story of possibilities. Does the seller really hear what his friend is asking? What difference might it have made if he had been able to conceive of a number higher than 100?
Sometimes we think we know all there is to know about best days. Sometimes we think that we see our best days in the same way as God sees our best days. Sometimes we think we know what qualifies as the Good News of Jesus. Sometimes we think we know how God should act in our lives. These preconceptions are turned upside down when we come into contact with the living God in Jesus Christ. There is good news in Jesus Christ - but it is found at the foot of a wooden cross.
Yes, Jesus Christ is the Messiah promised to Israel but he will be crucified, dead, and buried. The gospel story radically redefines what God is about in the world. There is, for most of us, a need for a shift in our thinking. Something new is happening – and it is happening now.
We know there are numbers higher than 100, way higher. The question for each of us this Advent is whether we are ready to start counting? This Advent some of us may not be ready to start counting, but need to be open enough to consider counting. Some of us might have decided that this is the best of all possible worlds and settled down to accept life as it is?
It is easy to become numb to the world’s brokenness and messiness; to prepare for Christmas through frantic, exhausting behaviour - eating too much, partying too much, shopping too much as we look for that perfect gift.
It is tempting to think the best days are now, or worse, are behind us; to settle for trying to make the best of a mundane life. Or to let anxiety, weariness and messiness take over our imaginations and our lives.
If that is where we are in our lives, once again God provides us with what we need - a word of hope, a season of good news, the possibility of new life coming to birth. That is the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the son of God.
This Advent, God holds out the best days before us. What difference might it make in our lives if we starting counting all the ways God is working in the world - blessing, feeding, forgiving, loving and setting people free?
May the hope that is so much a part of this season of the church’s year enable you to hear the voice of one crying in the wilderness “Prepare the way of the Lord.” Advent is the time when God enables us to hear the good news again; God opens our eyes to change the way we see things, and provides practice counting beyond 100. Advent is when God reminds us that the arrival of our best days is not a fantasy, but a reality ever near to those who look with the eyes of faith.
Here’s the thing – when we put our energy into keeping things as they are, when we limit what’s possible by what was, when the best we have to hope for is getting back to how things were, we forfeit the hope given in baptism, we miss what God is doing in his world.
Today we will celebrate two signs of hope in the life of our parish. One will be the renewing of Marriage vows after forty years of marriage. Here there is ample opportunity for the couple concerned to say that their best years are behind them. By coming before the God who made them one in the Sacrament of Marriage in the first place they are saying that they see the possibility for God to do even more than they have experienced in the past. That is the Advent hope.
The other celebration will be of the Sacrament of Baptism. In this sacrament we are made members of the household of faith. We proclaim that we believe that God is the God of history as well as our lives. When we are infants our promises are made for us by parents and Godparents. Baptism is the sacrament which proclaims that the best days are still to come. In Advent the prayer of the household of faith for the little one joining our ranks is a prayer of hope and expectancy. We know that in this young life the best days are still to come.
Our best days are those times and places where we are part of what God is about in the world. Best days happen as we prepare the way of the Lord. Best days happen when we leave our messiness, our self interests, and our limited thinking behind. Best days are when the challenges are the greatest and we give ourselves wholeheartedly to what God is doing - blessing, feeding, forgiving, loving and setting people free.
Our best days aren’t behind us, my friends. They are ready for us.
May the God of the best days bless you in this time of Advent hope.
