In the third Sunday of Advent, we look forward with joy to the birth of Christ, Christmas, the revelation of his coming in human flesh. We prepare to celebrate the first coming of Jesus as if we celebrate his birthday two thousand years later. And in the celebration of his birthday, we become one with that day. It is almost as though, when we hear the story told again and again, we feel that once again he, the savior,  is reborn in Bethlehem. 

At the same time, we look forward with joy to the second coming, when Jesus will return to bring the kingdom of God to fruition. Heaven and earth will pass away. Christ will return in glory to establish the kingdom of peace, joy, and unity under God’s reign – a fulfillment of divine promises and the triumph of his love. 

And so, our third Sunday in Advent is one of joyful hope, symbolized by the rose color vestments that Father and I are wearing. It’s a joy that makes us understand that this world is full of meaning and purpose as it moves faithfully, carefully, and inexorably towards the unity of all mankind and the full realization of God’s triumphant love for all things.

Today, we find ourselves dwelling in the space between Jesus’ initial coming and the awaited glory of His return. It is our calling as Christians to help make the kingdom real, to build up the people of God and to make our world where, as we will pray together in the Our Father, ‘thy will be done”. 

It is for these times that John the Baptist John says, “There is one among you whom you do not know, there is one among you whom you do not recognize, and that one is the Messiah.” These words speak to us today as urgently as they once spoke to the Pharisees. 

There is a well-known parable credited to Fr. Francis Dorff called The Gift of the Rabbi.  It’s about a great monastery fallen on hard times. The monastery was once vigorous, sending missionaries into the world and it was a center of music and education for the townspeople. But after persecution and war, all that was left was the building itself, a few acres of forest, a handful of elderly, somewhat crotchety monks and their abbot. 

The abbot took to taking long contemplative walks in the forest. During one of these he encountered an old rabbi who was doing the same. As they walked along, the abbot sadly spoke of the monastery’s past and probably dismal future. The rabbi commiserated and told the abbot that things were much the same in his synagogue. Fewer attended every year and those who did had lost their sense of purpose. 

 Upon parting, the rabbi embraced the abbot, “You and your brothers are serving God with heavy hearts,” he said. “I will give you a teaching but you can only repeat it once. After that, no one must ever say it aloud again.” The rabbi looked straight at the abbot and said, ”the Messiah is among you.”

The next morning, the abbot called his monks together in the chapter room. He told them he had received a teaching from “the rabbi who walks in the woods” and that this teaching was never again to be spoken aloud. Then he looked at each of his brothers and said: ”The rabbi said that one of us is the Messiah.”

The monks were startled. “What could it mean?” they asked themselves.” Is Brother John the Messiah? Or Father Matthew? Or Brother Thomas? Am I the Messiah? What could this mean?”

As they speculated, the old monks began to treat each other with extraordinary respect on the off chance that one among them might be the Messiah. And on the off, off chance that each monk himself might be the Messiah, they began to treat themselves with extraordinary respect.

Townspeople still came to visit the monastery to picnic in its beautiful gardens and to wander along the forest’s paths. As they did so, without even being conscious of it, they sensed this aura of extraordinary respect that now began to surround the old monks and seemed to radiate out from them and permeate the atmosphere of the place. There was something strangely attractive, even compelling, about it. They began to bring their friends to show them this special place. And their friends brought their friends. Before long, people were coming from far and wide to be nourished by the prayer life of the monks. Young men were asking, once again, to become part of the community.

In these times between the first and second coming of Christ, pay attention to the words of the baptizer: “There is one among you whom you do not know, there is one among you whom you do not recognize, and that one is the Messiah.” And of the rabbi in the woods: “One of you is the Messiah”. 

Embracing this teaching demands that we treat each individual with the reverence and respect we would offer to the Messiah. In doing so, we might just encounter the divine presence within them. Our lives will come to reflect the love and dignity that God has for each of us, and to build up the people of God and prepare for the kingdom. We can teach the world to know the one who they do not now recognize, Jesus the Christ. And, of course, in finding Christ, you find the Messiah.

And when you find the Messiah, you have everything.

A longer version of Fr. Francis Dorf’s parable can be found in :“The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace” by M. Scott Peck, or on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3z1pIrV2F6c&ab_channel=PalouseMindfulness