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One day a man went to his son's bedroom and found him sitting on his bed with a whole stack of comic books around him. The father said to his son, "Matthew, where did you get the comic books?"

Matthew responded, "I took them out of the library."

"You took them out of the library? You mean you stole them from the library?"

The boy responded, "Yes."

The father called the library and said he was going to march his son immediately down with the comic books to apologize and to restore all he had stolen. After returning from the library he gave Matthew a stern lecture about stealing.

The following summer, the family took its vacation in a small community in Vermont where there was a general store. When they returned home after the summer, the father went into Matthew's room and again found a pile of comic books in his dresser drawer. Matthew this time admitted, "I stole them from the store in the summer."

This time the father took the comic books and started a fire in the fireplace. He threw the comic books into the flames and with each comic book they threw in, he reminded his son of the seventh commandment, "Thou shall not steal."

One year later, Matthew again stole some comic books and this time his father told Matthew he was going to have to spank him. He brought him into the study, put him over his knee, and spanked him quite soundly. While he did not want to hurt his son, he did want to teach him a significant lesson. After this session he sat down and wanted to talk with his son. It was obvious that Matthew did not want to shed a tear in front of his father. The father understood that and, so as not to ruin the boy's pride, said, "Matthew, I am going to leave you alone for a while, but I will be back in a few minutes."

The father then stepped out of the room and closed the door behind him. He himself began to cry and to do so in a manner that was quite obvious to his son behind the door. After a few minutes he regained his composure, went to the bathroom, washed his face, and then returned to his son's room to speak with him.

Years later, when Matthew was a teenager and he was with his mother driving back from a shopping trip, the two were reminiscing as parents and children often do. Matthew began to retell the story of when he was a youngster and often stole comic books. He said to his mother, "You know, after that incident with Dad, I never stole another thing."

His mother commented, "I suppose the reason was because your father spanked you."

"Oh, no," replied Matthew, "it was because when he stepped out of the room I could hear him crying."

Matthew's mother thought her son had learned a lesson in obedience from the punishment he received at the hands of his father, but she learned to her surprise that he learned this hard lesson in life through the pain he inflicted on his father. All the things Matthew could have done to bring his father joy -- achievements such as straight A's in school, getting the winning basket or hit to bring a sports team a victory, or winning the local town's citizenship award -- could not be measured against simply being obedient.

Obedience seems like such an easy task, yet in our contemporary world, which concentrates on self-promotion, being obedient is difficult. We learn the same lesson on this fourth Sunday of Advent. What Christ desires for a present on Christmas Day is not gold, frankincense, and myrrh, or any other material thing. What Jesus wants and can expect from us is our obedience -- to be the best person we can possibly be.

The letter to the Hebrews, from which today's second lesson is drawn, has an interesting place in the New Testament corpus. Initially this letter was thought to be part of Saint Paul's writings, but scholars today almost universally agree that the apostle to the Gentiles did not pen this document. More likely a Jewish Christian with a Hellenistic background wrote the letter as a mini theological treatise for a broad audience of people. The language, form, and theology of the letter all testify to a non-Pauline authorship. The importance of the letter is, however, equally uncontested, especially its references to Christ's new covenant. Jesus, according to the letter to the Hebrews, is the capstone, the fulfillment of the Hebrew scripture, who came to complete the law and lead the Christian community in a new direction.

As we have heard proclaimed, the letter places strong emphasis on the rejection of sacrifices and offerings and the need to substitute in their place obedience to God's will. We learn an important lesson, similar to that which Matthew's father, somewhat accidentally, taught his son. The father thought Matthew would learn obedience as a result of the punishment he received for his failures to follow the older man's exhortation to refrain from stealing. But the boy learned the lesson more profoundly by how his action hurt his father.

Similarly, the author of Hebrews tells us that outward actions of sacrifice and cereal offerings, which were so common to the Israelites in the desert and offerings of priests in the temple, are not what God seeks. Surely to perform such acts in a prayerful spirit was good and well-intentioned, and they were not to be condemned or rejected. However, Jesus, the new Adam, desires a new sign of love, the obedience of his people.

Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.... I have come to do your will, O God.
-- Hebrews 10:5b-7a

We learn that Jesus' arrival, the great event we await, abolishes the first idea, namely that of sacrifice and offerings, and establishes a second, the idea of obedience. The perfect example is the obedience of Christ himself to the will of his Father by offering his own body. Jesus' sacrifice, in obedience to his Father's will, transformed the world, bringing us the possibility of salvation.

The Christmas season, upon whose doorstep we now rest, celebrates the Incarnation, God becoming human in Jesus Christ, our Lord and redeemer. In our society when we celebrate a birthday, it is customary to give a gift to the person so honored. We need to reflect and consider, therefore, what our gift will be to the newborn king of the Jews. In short, as stated earlier, Jesus is not interested in anything we can buy or make, but he is very interested in seeing us attain the fullness of our Christian call, to be the person God wants us to be. Today, the author of the letter to the Hebrews suggests the best possible gift we can give to Jesus is our obedience.

Society today creates many difficulties, roadblocks, and barriers that hinder us from being obedient people. As a society we stress the individual, self-accomplishment, individual awards, and honors. Competition is endemic to every facet of our society. At times we are all quite bullheaded; we want our way and no other. We believe that everybody else must change to accommodate our needs. We are not willing to move or change course.

A little story appropriately illustrates how we often behave and how such actions could be disastrous. A battleship had been at sea on maneuvers in heavy weather for several days. The visibility was poor with patchy fog, so the captain remained on the bridge keeping an eye on all activities. Shortly after dark, the lookout on the wing of the bridge reported, "Light, bearing on the starboard bow."

The captain called out, "Is it steady or moving astern?"

The lookout replied, "The light is steady, captain."

Realizing that the situation was a collision course, the captain shouted to the radio man, "Send a message, we are on a collision course. Advise you change course 20 degrees to port."

Almost immediately a reply was received, "Advise that you change course 20 degrees to port."

Angrily the captain ordered a second message: "I am the ship's captain. Change course 20 degrees to port now!"

Again, a reply came, "I am seaman second class, but you better change course immediately."

By this time the captain was furious. He ordered, "Send this message: This is a battleship; change your course immediately."

Back in a flash came the reply: "This is a lighthouse!" The battleship changed course. If we are unwilling to change course in our lives we may find ourselves in extremis or experience a collision with dire ramifications.

Many people today see obedience as restrictive and problematic. We feel we sacrifice too much to be obedient. Yet, obedience is what gives us freedom. Can any of us imagine our society without the obedience of law? While the law seems to restrict our freedom, it actually provides a structure for our society. If we obey the law then we find freedom. Similarly following the rules or keeping the regimen of the team brings discipline, esprit de corps, and triumph in sports. While there are individual stars on the various school and professional sports teams, it is the team that wins or loses. Those who act and play like a team in obedience, generally find themselves on the victorious side of any contest.

Similarly obedience to God and meeting our responsibilities and duties brings the peace that only God can bring. The story of a holy monk and a decision he was forced to make illustrates my point. There was an old and holy monk who prayed many years for a vision from God to strengthen his faith, but it never came. He had almost given up hope when, one day, a vision appeared. The monk was overjoyed. Then, right in the middle of the vision, the monastery bell rang that meant that it was time to feed the poor who gathered daily at the monastery gate.

Coincidentally it was the old monk's turn to feed them. He realized that if he failed to show up with food, the poor would leave quietly, thinking the monastery had nothing to give them that day. The monk was torn between earthly duty and the heavenly vision. However, before the bell stopped tolling the monk had made his decision. With a heavy heart, he turned his back on the vision and went off to feed the poor.

Nearly an hour later, the old monk returned to his room. To his great surprise and joy when he opened the door he saw the vision of God was still there waiting for him. The monk dropped to his knees in thanksgiving. God said to him, "My son, had you not gone off to feed the poor, I would not have stayed."

As we light the fourth candle on the Advent wreath and make our final preparations for the celebration of Christmas, let us consider what we need to do to be more obedient -- to the people and the ideas of our society, but most especially to Christ. Let us realize that what Jesus desires and deserves from us this Christmas is an attitude of obedience to his will. We can present him with no more significant gift. Let us not disappoint him. Amen.