Gospel-Homily for Second Sunday of Advent (2024)

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Imperfect to Perfect.

My sister-in-law told me, “Your brother is the perfect husband.”  I said, “Come again?”  She said, “No, it is true.  He helps with the chores around the house, he remembers our anniversary with flowers, and he spends a lot of time with the kids.” I don’t remember a perfect brother. When did my brother go from an imperfect brother to a perfect husband?  I will tell you how he did it. Dirty diapers.” It is true. Dirty diapers do not allow you to be narcissistic.”

Paul, in his letter to the Philippians, prays that God will complete the good that is in us. That means Paul wants us to move from imperfect good to perfect good. How do you go from imperfect to perfect? Dirty diapers, or in my case, two-by-fours.

Dad asked me to go to Home Depot and get twenty two-by-fours. As I was going out the door, my father added, “and make sure they are straight.”  Well, that changed everything.  Home Depot does have straight two-by-fours. When I got there, I had to take all the two-by-fours on the top of the pile and put them to the side until I got to the bottom pile, which no one had picked through. Once I found the straight ones, I loaded them onto the cart, and I had to return all the two-by-fours I removed so that the next builder who came in would have to do the same thing that I had done.  When I returned to the house, Dad grabbed the first two-by-four, placed it next to the corner of his eye, and looked down its length. He retorted, “Good.”  Let me tell you, that was the best word I had heard all day. I worked hard to earn that word.

A nurse paged me from the hospital in the middle of the night to anoint a patient. I was on call that night. I got up and saw that it was snowing outside.  So I cleaned off the car and salted the driveway because of the steep incline. This particular hospital has a parking space for clergy that is conveniently next to the entrance. So I drove to that location only to find someone had parked in my spot. I knew that the person was not clergy because I was the clergy that night. I drove over to the parking garage, got a parking ticket that would need validation, and ran up to the unit. When the nurse saw me, she said, “Oh, good, you’re here.” Those were not just empty words. I worked hard for those words. I endured many obstacles to get there.

Here is the faith lesson. God gives us little gifts every day. We do not always recognize them as gifts at first: dirty diapers, two-by-fours, hospital pager, someone in my parking spot.  Yet, these are the gifts that move us from imperfect to perfect. One day, when we meet God at the end of our lives, we hope to hear Him say, “Good.” It will be the sweetest word we will ever hear.