The season of Advent calls us to be both – to wait with John and to sing with Mary; to watch for the future and refuse to settle for less than the kingdom and to bear witness to what God is doing now; to the beauty and power and hope that springs up all around us.

Today, we are proclaiming Christ to be King – on the cross, in the manger, and now in this world. Which means we are also proclaiming ourselves to be subjects of this King; inhabitants of this Kingdom, not only in the age to come but now.

Time is a gift – and a constant one at that. There is, in fact, no wasting or saving or spending time. Time passes no matter what we do or don’t do and God’s work unfolds around us and within us.

The parable set before us this morning is greeted by preachers and students of the Bible across the church with…well, let’s just say without a lot of enthusiasm. I think the favourite comment I read in my preparations was simply: “The parable defies any fully satisfactory explanation.” So, with our expectations suitable managed, let’s see what we can do.

We need to do the work to hear the truth the Spirit is speaking through these texts…This prophecy – this word from God – is for us, today. How can it not be when it describes the kind of devastation we see on the news every night; the kind of devastation that we know our aching earth will continue to experience with greater and greater desperation.

“We are dead and our life is hidden with Christ in God.” It is the stuff of fairy tales and fantasy novels – and it’s no wonder that early Christians were treated with suspicion or even hostility. This faith of ours disrupts the natural order in ways I don’t think we usually really notice, allowing such claims to become tame metaphor rather than wild assertions

In order to have a neighbour to love, we must first become neighbours. It’s an identity, not an obligation and certainly not a test… The question we then find ourselves asking is: how do we faithfully express our neighbourliness; how do we live as the neighbours that Jesus calls us to be?

In the kingdom of God, there is no reason for lambs to not be among wolves and this is why the 70 are being sent out – to to reveal the Kingdom of God – to demonstrate its nearness and not just proclaim it. This is about more than what they are about to do – the healing and casting out demons, etc. It is about how they are about to do it – as vulnerable lambs moving fearlessly among wolves.

The presence of Jesus in the Eucharist is given to us again and again and again, drawing us deeper and deeper into the mystery of our union with God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – and strengthening us, week by week and piece by piece, for the work to which we are called by re-affirming and re-inforcing that transformation that was first revealed in baptism.

We, as the Church and as individual followers of Jesus, are called to be shaped into the medium to not only communicate but to be God’s message to the world; to reach beyond boundaries of cultural and linguistic and generational differences and become part of the Spirit’s holy work of translation.