4th Sunday of Advent – Year A
Deacon Tom Vert
Preached: December 21, 2025
“The time has come!”
35 years ago on Boxing day, Carmela and I just got home from my grandparent’s place where we had celebrated our annual Christmas visit with them enjoying the special punch and Christmas goodies.
Carmela was 9 months pregnant, and we settled in for the night on the couch ready to watch Sister Act with Whoopi Goldberg. Just when we were comfy with the warm blankets Carmela’s water broke!
“The time has come!” and we scrambled to call the doctor and 26 hours later our first daughter was born!
We had waited in anticipation for months, preparing, planning and getting ready for that day when our lives would change forever!
Today we are called to have this same feeling as Advent is almost over, and the birth of the Christ child is 4 days away.
However, if you are like me, the distractions of the season can take my gaze away from the manger and instead I am focusing on the list of things to do.
I need finish the Christmas shopping, I have to load up the fridge as our daughter is coming home this week, I must help clean up for the guests arriving, make sure the hot tub is working properly, and on and on and on….
The distractions of everyday are taking over my focus and my stress level is increasing, and I am finding it hard to connect to the spiritual side these past few weeks.
Then I read St. Paul’s letter to the Romans in the 2nd reading preparing for the homily this weekend and I heard the final line “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
St. Paul was writing to the Romans in anticipation of his journey there one day, and to help them as they navigated the trials and tribulations of early Christian life.
Paul reminded them as he does us, that the gifts of grace and peace are available to us in our connection with God each day. We can tap into this if we truly understand the Christmas gift given to us by our heavenly Father.
What is this gift?
It is the gift of God’s presence among us, “Emmanuel”, which means “God with us”; and the name “Jesus” which is the Greek translation for the name “Joshua” that means “God saves”!
This is the point of the entire book of Romans that Paul wrote!
Paul says to the people, look at Christ!!
He is the fulfillment of the entire Old Testament as we heard in the readings this past month and the first reading today:
From Isaiah, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign…the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel” and “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace”.
From Micah “But you, Bethlehem, though you are small among the clans of Judah…will come…one who will be ruler over Israel”.
From Jeramiah ““The days are coming…when I will raise up…a righteous Branch,
a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land…this is the name…The Lord Our Righteous Savior.”
The anticipation and waiting for the time when God would send a Saviour, a Messiah, was an active yearning by the Jewish people, and God fulfilled this plan in sending his Son into the world.
Paul tells the Romans in today’s readings the entire holy Scriptures foreshadowed the gospel about his Son, “descended from David according to the flesh…but established as Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness”!
This incredible gift of God himself present among us is what we celebrate this week, the Incarnation, or entry of God into the world so that we can relate to God in a wonderful way as God who understands our journey as he has walked with us!
Then Paul tells us the second gift that we receive and that is that “we have received the grace of apostleship…who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.”
We receive the gift to be disciples, brothers and sisters, and we are then called to share that gift with others that they may see the joy and peace that is beyond all understanding available to each of us through God’s grace.
It is not easy to keep the focus on this gift, to avoid the distractions, and to eliminate the stress as the world comes at us.
So, I would challenge us these next four days, when we get a little overwhelmed, or when get the feeling of anxiety welling up inside us, go to your nativity scene, take the child Jesus and look at him closely and say, “the time has come!”
