St Mary's

Today Talk from Rev'd Samuel

14th December 2025

“May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you O Lord my refuge and my redeemer.”

A young boy aged 18 had recently passed his driving test and decided to ask his father, who was a priest, that he would like to have a car for Christmas present, which was yet some months away. When he talked to his father about his wish, his father replies, 'Okay, but only if you get good grades in your studies, study your Bible, and cut you hair, I'll consider your wish seriously.'

On the start of an Advent season, the boy went back to his father and remind him about his promise. His dad replied, “From the last few months, I am really impressed with your efforts. You are doing very good in your studies, and you are also studying your Bible very regularly. But I must say, I am little disappointed with you, because you didn’t cut your hair.”

The boy replied to his dad that, during study the Bible I’ve come to know that Moses, John the Baptist, Samson and even Jesus had long hair.' 'Yes. I'm aware of that...' replied his father ' but did you also notice they walked wherever they went?'

Today is the third Sunday of this year’s Advent season and we are advancing rapidly towards that big special day, Christmas. But, as every year before Christmas, we as church must go through a time called, 'Advent’, which means ‘arriving of a noble person, and if I may ask you what Advent means to you, and or what Advent is, I am sure I will get some good answers and responses. According to Kate Burce, who is preacher, writer and an RAF chaplain, she wrote in The Canterbury Preacher’s Companion 2026 that,

“The season of Advent is a time when the rhythm of cultural and the rhythm of the church year smack into each other. Advent is a season of reflection and penitence, but we easily lose this in the round of office parties, pressie shopping and festive lights.”

If we look at the world around us with her words in mind, we can say that to some extent she is absolutely right, because sometimes we get so lost in the preparations for Christmas and its programs that we completely forget the meaning of this entire season and Christmas, the story behind it, and its real purpose.

My point here is not at all to say that we shouldn't do it, or that I'm against Christmas preparations, or that I'm saying that we should drop everything else and focus solely on why we celebrate Christmas. Rather, what I mean to say is that along with all these things, we have to not only keep this in mind, but also in everything we say, party, worship, and daily activities, we have to spread the message of why we celebrate Christmas and how important a role this day plays in our lives.

And to understand and reflect on this, we are going through the season of Advent, as we celebrate this season in our churches each year, and every Sunday we light a candle to learn about Christmas and its purpose, as we do in our churches today. Each candle represents something, just as the candle lit today makes us think of ‘John the Baptist’, 

John the baptizer, was not an ordinary person or prophet, rather in today’s Gospel reading we can that Jesus is saying that he is superior to all the prophets, and the reason for this is that we also call it the forerunner of Jesus, and he has a very important role in Christianity, but if we study his life we could see and say that he knew what he could do and what he could not. He could call people to repentance, but only Jesus could transform the heart. John’s humility set the tone for what it means to follow Christ. He did not try to take spotlight. He simply pointed to the one who could purify and renew from the inside out.

If we study the Bible, and especially the New Testament, we could see that John the Baptizer had play his role faithfully and had done everything which was assigned to him. He was preparing the way of coming of the Messiah, he was preaching very courageously and the most important thing, he was directing people through his lifestyle, teaching and baptism, towards the saviour.

Today’s Gospel passage reading was where he was in prison, because if we look at the immediate context of today’s Gospel reading, we could see that he gave instructions to his followers and went off the scene, so main and lead role can come to the spotlight. And when he got arrested, he sent his disciples to Jesus and asked him a very simple question, ‘Are you the Messiah?’. They asked Jesus which seems a very simple and straightforward question, and in reply to the question, Jesus gave them an answer which is our today’s Gospel reading.

If we look closely to the reply that Jesus gave, he did not came up with some reasons or theories, justifications, rather he pointed to the evidence of God’s grace that were happening in the lives of other human beings, for example, people are being healed of their illnesses, the blind are regaining their sight, the lame are walking, the paralyzed are being freed from their diseases, the poor are hearing the words that affirmed dignity, the marginalized are being restored into the community again, and so much more. In other and simple words, Jesus replied to John’s question that, God’s grace is at work.

If we think about John's question, and replay his life in our minds, then humanly we find his question somewhat strange and meaningless. In today's passage, we feel that something was troubling John, and that was whether this was really the person I had predicted. To answer this question, in her Lectionary Reflections, Jane Williams wrote that,

“He is the one who is to herald the coming of God’s Messiah, and he cannot relax until he knows whether he has done his job. So, he sends to ask, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or are we waiting for another.

But if we consider our lives, we could also see that like John, there are days when we feel like him. Sometimes we wonder if we misunderstood something. In our lives we often feel why God is not listening to my prayers and why he is not answering them.

But let me remind you one thing that, God has its own way to do things, because if we ponder on our lives, we could see that most of the times, while praying as well, we try to fix our own problems with our mind and wisdom, rather to put everything on God and let him do is work by his own timing and wisdom.

It is also worth remembering that his way of doing things is not always comfortable and easy, rather most of the time we as humans are unable to comprehend his ways, but in all what he does, we need to have faith that he is doing what is good and what is best for to establish his kingdom in our hearts and lives, so we may grow, in his love and relationship with him. That is what Jesus did here in today’s Gospel reading with John because Jesus quoted from Isiah 35 to assure John that the ransomed of God is here among human beings.

As today we are in the third Sunday of Advent and thinking about John and his role in the ministry of Jesus, let us think about our role and responsibilities to build God’s kingdom in our personal, family, church and social life.

As John we are also the herald of Jesus before his second coming. We are the forerunner of Jesus on this earth, and it is our responsibility to take his message to the people with whom we come into contact, and we need to show God’s love, his sacrifice and mercy which he has for all the human beings despite of their skin colour and their ethnic background.

John always pointed others to Jesus, he always gave Jesus the priority he deserves, now it is our duty to do same, but the question is Jesus is the king of our lives, or we are doing otherwise. On this third Sunday of this year’s Advent season, let us ponder on this question, and let us get ready to welcome Jesus in this world and in our hearts as well.

May God bless you all.

Amen.