Baruch – and no, I’m not talking about Obama, but rather the not-so-well-known Hebrew prophet (whom we heard in today’s First Reading) who had a strong sense that things would be different.

The people suffered because their leaders were so painfully inadequate – not unlike some in our own world today, you might well think!  .  Both priests and kings, religious and secular leaders,  all so unwilling to trust God and His ways, were leading the nation into unnecessary suffering,  which would lead to eventual destruction.

Baruch connected peace with integrity, honour with devotedness.

Along with Isaiah, whom Luke quoted in the Gospel reading, Baruch was saturated with God’s vision for his world. They both had a sense of what life could be like, if genuine concern for the common good of all replaced the self-interest and national interest of the powerful and the rich; and if a sense of the inviolable dignity of every person were to replace violence, and the culture of death.

For that to happen, people’s eyes needed to be opened – to see that many familiar and unquestioned ways of doing things were not necessarily the only ways, or the best ways. People needed to be educated, their consciences formed, and their sense of mutual responsibility sharpened and activated.

The need is universal, and every bit as important now as then.

Six centuries after Baruch and Isaiah, John the Baptist appeared on the scene. Luke summed up his striking entry onto the stage in today’s Gospel:

The Word of God came to John, son of Zachariah, in the wilderness… and he went through the whole Jordan district proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

Simply, people needed conversion.

John believed that the power of sin could be broken, not in some distant future time, but immediately, by one who would follow in his footsteps.

But people first needed to share his pain, and his distress at the way things were. Then they needed to become aware of their own, often unconscious sharing in the destructive networks, relationships and customary ways of doing things that destroyed their own human dignity, as they undermined the integrity of others. And thirdly, they needed to find the motivating power and the energy to do things differently: they needed to share John’s hope for change, and his confident sense of God.

John sensed that God was moving… God – the source of all being, the creator of the universe, the life-force in every living thing – was moving. Indeed, unknown to John, God had stepped into the flow of human history, in order to engage with it from within.  God had taken human flesh and blood, and become incarnate in Jesus.

The Second Reading today challenges us. Paul was writing to the faith community in Philippi, and shared a wonderful sense of the vision of Jesus – of a world in need of radical change – but a change based on Jesus’ sense of God as infinitely loving, gracious, patient, and caring for every human person – Gentile or Jew, servant or free, woman or man.

Like Jesus, he saw his vision as Good News, and he was passionate about spreading it … as he congratulated and rejoiced in the disciples at Philippi: You have helped to spread the Good News. But, with Paul locked up in prison, miles away from them, how were they to apply the Good News of God, and of the human person, to their current political, social and religious situation?  As he put it: to recognise what is best?

I suppose we could keep asking ourselves the same question in our current political, social and religious world. The issue of climate change is very much in debate at the moment.  How do we recognise what is best?

It is important to listen to Paul’s response: My prayer is that your love for each other may increase more and more. Why?  He goes on: my prayer is that your love should never stop improving your knowledge and deepening your perception, so that you can always recognise what is best. For Paul, the necessary condition to improve our knowledge and to deepen our perception in order to recognise what is best, is to love.

My prayer is that your love for each other may increase more and more so that, as I ponder on what is happening in parliament and in the media, as I reflect on my own approach often in the past, (and, when I’m not on my guard, in the present), love often doesn’t enter into the equation; or, what says the same thing, mutual respect or appreciation for others.

Too easily, we seem to delight in debate, to win the argument [but notconsensus], to seek reasons to justify conclusions we have already reached (for God knows what real reasons), or to ridicule those with whom we disagree.  To me, there can be too little evidence of listening to each other, and of searching together to get as close as possible to the truth of things. Our need to prove ourselves right and the other wrong often serves only to underline our sense of self-righteousness.

In Jesus’ mind, and in Paul’s opinion, that attitude is what needs to change. We need to bring to bear on the situations we confront, our sense of the gracious, inclusive God, and our love and respect for others who might differ from us.

If we are to recognise what is best, to improve our knowledge, to deepen our perception, we need to seek together in love.

I get so frustrated at the way people often trivialise Christmas, replacing the awe-inspiring mystery of incarnation with Santa Claus, and Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer!

Prepare a way for the Lord, make his paths straight. That is not an invitation to nostalgia. It is a call to radical conversion and active commitment!

God’s Kingdom is possible. But we do not get captured by that realisation in the midst of noise, frantic movement or distraction.

During the coming days, it is important that we try to incorporate some quiet time in the midst of all the noise; some stillness in the midst of the frantic movement; some peace in the midst of the endless distraction.  Let us pray that God will give us peace in our hearts, and space for calm reflection in our frenetic world, driven as it is by commercial considerations, where ‘Glory to God in the high street’ has drowned out the sound of what really matters.  Grant, O Lord, that we may never lose sight of the eternal as we pass through things temporal.

Amen