St. John whose feast we celebrate today penned the Epistle and Gospel appointed for today.  His first general epistle is most appropriate to Christmas when we celebrate Christ coming in the flesh, truly becoming man and dwelling among us.

On Christmas Eve and yesterday, we celebrated with great joy that God has forever united the second person of the Holy Trinity with our humanity.  Humanity brought death into the world through Adam’s sin.

God sent his Son into the world in humility, in lowliness, to take our nature upon him. Becoming human, being joined with our humanity through the blessed Virgin Mary.  

But we are reminded this evening of the beauty of the Good News of Jesus that is not content to make us better machines, to remain confined in our selfish desires of what we need, of what we believe is true success.

There is a certain sense of joy that marks this Sunday.  This is signified by the rose-colored candle in the Advent wreath.  There is a similar phenomenon during the Season of Lent, with the fourth Sunday marking the mid-point. 

Traditionally, the second Sunday in Advent is known as Bible Sunday; it derives its name from the focus of our collect today - where we praise God for the gift of the Holy Scriptures that are able to make us wise unto salvation.

We are four short weeks from Christmas - the great celebration of God’s love for humanity  by becoming man.  Historically, this season has been a time of preparation, anticipation but our broader culture wants to celebrate now. 

We have completed another Church Year - one full of grace and mercy.  Today is called Stir Up Sunday as it takes its name from the first couple of words in our collect  where we pray “STIR up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people.”

Traditionally, this is the season of harvest in the United States with the Thanksgiving holiday signaling the end of another cycle of planting and  harvest with a celebration of God’s goodness.