“FIRST IMPRESSIONS”
3rd SUNDAY OF ADVENT (B)
DECEMBER 6, 2026
Isaiah 40: 1-5, 9-11; Psalm 85; 2 Peter 3: 8-14; Mark 1: 1-8
By Jude Siciliano, OP
Dear Preachers:
How would you summarize Advent? – Hope? Waiting? Longing? Expectation? On the first Sunday of Advent we heard the prophet Isaiah pray, “Return for the sake of your servants.... rend the heavens and come down.” We heard Jesus advised his disciples, “Be watchful! Be alert!” On the second Sunday Peter warned, “The day of the Lord will come like a thief....” And “...we await a new heaven and a new earth.” John the Baptist announced, “One mightier than I is coming....” The first two weeks certainly had us looking and waiting for God to act. This Sunday has a bit more action in it – human action – as various people hear the call of God and do something.
The pattern today seems to be a “call – response” dynamic. Isaiah tells us about his anointing by God’s Spirit. That is just part of Isaiah’s experience with God. God’s blessing on Isaiah isn’t just for his own inspiration and edification, for God has sent him, he tells us to bring “glad tidings to the poor.” God has a purpose, has work to be done and Isaiah is the instrument who will accomplish God’s purposes.
At Eucharist today we might ask the same Spirit who anointed Isaiah for his task to give us the wisdom to discern what work God has in mind for us at this moment of our lives. Isaiah was sent to the nations, especially those eager to hear that God was coming to help them. Ours might not be such a broad or universal call. Nevertheless, like Isaiah, each baptized Christian has been called my name to proclaim, through words and deeds, “glad tidings” to those waiting in need of it. While we may admire the gifts and service other servants of God have, we have been uniquely gifted ourselves for service in God’s name. Each of us has our call; we have something to do – what is it?
In our psalm response, Mary proclaims God’s greatness – for though she is “lowly,” the Spirit of God has come upon her for a special mission. While she will give birth to the savior, even before this happens, she is already responding to her call as she opens her mouth and announces what God has done for her and will do for the poor who have turned to God for help. When the Spirit of God comes upon someone, like Isaiah and Mary, they cannot keep the news of God’s goodness to themselves, they must go and proclaim it to others.
Which is what people in our parishes do. They have heard a call from God; they have been “anointed to bring glad tidings to the poor,” and so they do. They minister to the grieving; proclaim the scriptures in the assembly; sit with the dying and comfort their families; take the Eucharist to the aged and infirmed; legislate on behalf of the homeless; serve on community boards for the homeless; teach good environmental practices to school children, etc. “Bringing glad tidings to the poor,” has as many faces as the members of our faith communities who have been baptized and anointed by the Spirit to fulfill God’s good work on earth.
“Hear ye, hear ye!” It’s the way trials begin here in the States. An officer of the court calls those assembled into the court room to attention and announces the arrival of the judge. The trial is beginning. John’s gospel has a similar beginning for very early we are introduced to John the Baptist. He was already well known by those early hearers of his gospel; his birth had been described by Luke, and the three Synoptics describe his early preaching and baptizing mission. In fact, John was so renowned that some saw him as a greater prophet than Jesus. So, John the evangelist introduces us to the Baptist and clearly delineates his role: first by a series of “nots.” He is “not the Christ...not Elijah...not the Prophet.” John may have been immensely popular among those who heard and followed him, but he was only a precursor, anointed by God for his specific task: he was to announce Jesus’ coming.
At the end of this gospel Jesus will be put on trial, found guilty and executed. But this gospel shows us that we humans are really the ones on trial. The trial has begun and the first witness, John the Baptist, has been called forth to give witness to Jesus, who will describe himself in this gospel as “the way, the truth and the life.”
John is just the first to come forward to bear witness to Jesus – more will follow. In particular, Jesus’ signs will testify to his identity: he will provide food for the hungry, he is the living bread; he will give water to those who thirst, he is living water; he will raise Lazarus from the dead, he is life itself; he will open the eyes of the blind, he is the light of the world. Indeed, Jesus will tell those who confront him for one of the signs he performed, the curing of the cripple man on the Sabbath, that his works show that “the Father has sent me...and gives testimony on my behalf” 5; 37). God also bears witness to us about Jesus.
Those who hear this gospel and give ear to these witnesses will have to decide: is Jesus the One on whom we will place our faith? Will we follow him and reject what will not satisfy our hunger or quench our thirst for life – as Jesus does? If a trial has begun and witnesses are being called, then we being asked to decide: shall we accept what this gospel will say about Jesus? If so, how will it affect our lives.
Of course, if we profess our faith in Christ by accepting the witnesses in John’s gospel, then we too will become another in the unbroken line of witnesses since John the Baptist. How we act... what we say... who we are...will either give witness to Jesus or deny him. People will draw their own conclusions about us: “Yes, that person is a true follower of Jesus, their life gives clear witness to him.”
In the light of the witness theme which runs through John’s gospel, it is obvious that those who accept the testimony of the witnesses, must also live a public life of faith. Christianity is not a private religion, kept to oneself, but each of us must live up to the identity our baptism has given us as “lights of the world.” On this Sunday, when the third candle on the Advent wreath is lighted, we are reminded that we too have been set aflame by the one the Baptist was anointed to proclaim and like him we too must bear witness. “Hear ye, hear ye.”
Click here for a link to this Sunday’s readings: