3rd Sunday of Advent
Holiday magazines are well known for providing quick, practical ideas for trimming the house, wel-coming guests, and preparing enticing food. The suggestions that are offered are designed to help the host and hostess show off a stunning atmos-phere without spending days and weeks preparing for a party or dinner that may only last an hour or two. Often eve-ryday items are transformed with a swatch of fabric, a can-dle, or some evergreens. Ingenious cutting makes plain vegetables or ordinary hors d'oeuvres into holiday delights. The operative concepts in getting people to buy these idea books and read them are: quick, easy, and practical.
In the Gospel today, John the Baptist offers quick, easy, and practical ideas for those who would prepare for the coming of the Christ. As St. Luke tells us, people in his day were filled with expectation. John was pretty straightfor-ward in what he thought they should do: If you have two coats, give one away to somebody who doesn't have one; be equitable in your dealings with others; don't push people around; don't lie about people. In modern parlance, we might say that John the Baptist was asking people to act justly in the world.
Unfortunately, today we don't often think of justice as quick, easy, or practical. Our understanding of justice is more often colored by the contemporary legal system than by the divine laws of the covenant that binds God and his people. There was a reciprocity and equanimity in the cove-nantal relationship. There were duties to be fulfilled on each side. John was asking that those who were filled with expectation for the coming of the Messiah would set them-selves aright with one another so that God's covenant would find full expression in the relationships that bind people to God and to one another. Justice is really about leveling things out. And when you think about it, that is pretty easy. If you have more, then you share.
