The collect for the Fourth Sunday of Advent asks God to purify our conscience as we prepare for the coming of Jesus Christ that we might find a mansion within ourselves prepared for him. This prayer resonates with what we find in John 3:16-21. With the coming of Jesus Christ arises the question of whether the world will accept him or not. And that is the question that is pointed at us as well.

Will we make room for Jesus Christ in our lives? Will we prepare a space for him to be birthed within us when at his first coming the world made no room for him? Will we choose to follow the Light that has come into the world? The language of this passage faces us with a question of judgment. Even in our pluralistic age, it is clear there are some who have chosen the Light and many who have chosen paths of death and destruction.

Let us choose the Son who is the Light so that as he dwells in us, we may be the agents of Christ now, filled by his Spirit, to bear witness to the Light, so that those in darkness may come to the Light.

God, open our hearts that your Son may come and dwell among us and make us witnesses to your truth and your light. Amen.

Dr. Daniel Joslyn-Siemiatkoski
Duncalf-Villavaso Associate Professor of Church History
SEMINARY OF THE SOUTHWEST