2nd Sunday of Advent | December 8, 2024

In all you do, give glory to God. Amen? Oh, some of you said AMEN, ok! You said it, can’t take it back, you have committed to it now. I hope you know what that means… you can’t give God glory if you don’t know how…

For those who didn’t say amen, I’m assuming it’s because you don’t know what that means, so let me tell you what it means so that you too can join the team glory to God.

To begin answering this question, we first need to see what the glory of God meant in the Old Testament. We heard that phrase prominently in the first reading. The glory of God was the presence of God among the people. After the exodus from Egypt the glory of God, the presence of God, dwelled in the center of the camp of the Israelites while they were in the desert and it dwelled in the tabernacle which was placed under a tent. God’s glory, presence, was powerful so they had to always live near the tabernacle and go into war with the tabernacle if they were to be victorious. They understood that without the glory of God, they would be powerless, they would be humiliated and put to shame.

Multiple times they were humiliated and put to shame when they began to rely on their own power, their own glory, rather than God’s. The Babylonian exile was perhaps the most dramatic of those moments.

We heard today from the book of Baruch, written around the time after they were allowed to return from exile back to Jerusalem. By then they had been able to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem under the Persian king who was friendly to the Jewish faith, they lived in Glory, but then Alexander the Great came and conquered the Persians which began the long period in which Judea was an occupied territory, first by the Greeks and then by the Romans, neither who where as friendly to the people of Israel and they suppressed many of their religious practices, leading once again from glory to shame.

Barouch was written during the Greek occupation, during a time of shame, so what we heard today was a reflection of hope that the glory of God would once again be made known to them, but this time as a final victory and they would return from shame to glory. Up, Jerusalem! Stand upon the heights… God will bring them up to you… in glory as on royal thrones… that Israel may advance secure in the glory of God… with mercy and justice…

This was the anticipation, the hope that the glory of God would come soon, that the transition from shame to glory was near. Then came the Roman occupation, and it was during the Roman occupation where the transition begins, which leads us to the gospel today: a voice crying out in the desert: prepare the way of the Lord.

The glory of God made its announcement through John the Baptist, he is the last of the Old Testament prophets and is the figure who represents the transition from shame to glory. But why be announced in the desert? By then there where prominent places of power, the Roman empire, the Jerusalem temple, that is where the Glory of God should have made its grand entrance… but in the desert? Really?

The glory of God coming to John in the desert takes us back to where it all started, to where the glory of God was first given to them in the desert after being freed from slavery in Egypt. This is a symbol of a new beginning away from all forms of corrupt power and self-made human glory.

Notice how Luke gives us a list of people in positions of power: Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate, Herod, Philip, Lysanias, Annas and Caiaphas… These are all the key power figures, the word of God should come to one of them, but no… it came to John the Baptist, because he was not seeking his own glory like all others do and have tried to do for centuries.

In Turkey there is an inscription that was found about a century after Barouch was written and the description glorifies Ceasar Augustus. Listen to what this says, it will sound familiar: Providence has ordered all things by giving us Augustus, sending him as a savior both for us and for our descendants, that he might end war and put all things in order… the birthday of the God Augustus is the beginning of the gospel for the world.

Sonds familiar? The gospel of Jesus Christ is written using the same language as the Romans to make it clear that no, the glory of the Lord is not Augustus, it is not in the Roman emperors, so to make a clear distinction the glory of God had to come in a way that was completely separated from these forms of human glory, even outside of the temple.

By the time of John the Baptist, the Jewish temple in Jerusalem was the most glorious that had ever been, a temple to be proud of, a temple any god-wanna-be would be envious of… but it was not a suitable place for Gods glory to be revealed because it had become a place where people were made to feel ashamed and burdened by their sins, so the gospel of the power of Jesus was not going to come there.

Luke shows John the Baptist as a figure who represents the transition from forms of power that seek glory and conquest and control, to the coming of a new form of power. This new form of power that John announces is especially for people who feel weak and ashamed and humiliated. The gospel comes to all those who have lost sight of the glory of God in their own lives, people who have lost the dignity of living fully in the image of God. The glory of the Lord revealed in Christ to those who have not found justice from the structures of human power whether they be political powers or religious powers.

So what is the glory of God then? The glory of God is the human being fully alive. This is God’s vision for humanity. This is God’s vision for you: to be fully alive.

I came that you may have life, and have it in abundance. We give glory to God, God is glorified, when we are not wasting our lives, when we are fully aware of what we have received in Christ and are living in the glory of being called Children of God. To be fully alive is how the power of God’s presence is now made manifest in the world.

Based on that definition, are you, right now in your life, giving glory to God? Paul prays for you so that you might. He says I pray always with joy because of your partnership in the gospel so that you may be filled with the fruits of righteousness for the glory and praise of God. This is my prayer; that your love may increase in knowledge and every kind of perception to discern what is of value, so that you may be pure and blameless and filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ.

We become pure and blameless not by shame, but by growing in knowledge and perception of what is of value. In God’s perspective, what is of ultimate value is Human dignity. When human dignity is being respected, the individual is able to be fully alive, God’s glory is made visible.

Once we become convinced that we are made for God’s glory, then we will want to see that same glory in the lives of others and ouir love will increase, as Paul says.

Advent is a time for our love to increase, a time to refocus, a time to make sure that we are seeing what is of real value in our lives. Of course what is of real value in life is our relationships with other people. The glory of God shines in love and justice and relationships among people.

To grow in love this advent, look around and notice the people around you. Make sure you are affirming the value of the people who are in your life day-to-day because often the people who are so close to us are the easiest to take for granted and forget to affirm and love the way they need. Then look for people outside your circle who are not shining with the glory of God and care for them. This is how we give God glory, always and in all ways.

So in all you do from here on out, give glory to God. Amen?

Fr. Carlos Orozco