And when he got home, convinced that God had forsaken him, his daughter ran out to greet him, but he felt abandoned by God. Now hearing a story like this, it is easy to see God. But in this story this man was as certain about what it means to see and hear God as we are about the end of the stories we heard today. So for this third week of Advent, at least, let us be willing to not be so certain what the preparations and waiting is all about. Let us look, again, at the word with which we began.
Some people seek power.
Others are afraid of it. Some are critical of it. Now this doesn't sound, exactly, like the warrior who brings us victory as in Zephaniah. And the preaching of John with the threats of a power who will clean up the chaff sounds a little more uncomfortable, unless, again it involves others. But what all of our lessons insist, and John the Baptist makes explicit, is that this is good news.