Waiting joyfully !

I’m sure it won’t come as any great surprise to any of you if I tell you that I was as a baby very well behaved, which of course I am today as well ! I didn’t cry very much at all and I listened when people spoke to me or made the sort of funny noises people often make to babies and I smiled quite a lot of the time too !

I responded well when people made noises – I’m no great scientist but I know that sounds are heard in many special ways – often people will talk to children before they’re born and the unborn child often moves as a response;  or playing music can sometimes calm down a child kicking in their mothers tummy.

Words and sounds can make a big difference and that is something that was well known around the time of our gospel reading today (Luke 3:1-6). The Jewish people had relied on prophets sharing the word of God with them for many years and the words of these prophets had been shared down from generation to generation, but it seemed that God had been silent for around 400 years since the work of the prophet Malachi.

And then along came John the Baptist – first we’re told of the time John the Baptist was speaking – in the 15th year of the reign of the Emperor Tiberias – Luke also puts in place a number of other important leaders, and then simply adds, ‘The word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness.’

Those are quite incredible words – God who had seemed to be silent for 400 years, was now making himself known through this rather strange character who had rejected the lifestyle into which he was born and moved out to the wilderness to become the messenger promised in the Book of Isaiah (40:3-5) – John was the ‘voice crying in the wilderness’.

And his ministry marked the beginning of a whole new period of history – In the recent diocesanvision meeting held in this church, our Bishop quoted Benjamin Franklin who said "'In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." I’d like to add another having been involved with quite a lot of childrens Christmas pictures this week, and that is that where there is glitter, it shall go everywhere ! But the Bishop added another certainty and that was the certainty of change !

Only 20 years ago, the first text was sent by mobile phone – now many people can’t live without texts it seems. I also saw something recently about a person in their 40’s who had asked their grandmother the biggest changes she’d seen in her life – was it aeroplanes, television, cars – it wasn’t any of these things, it was that all the children now have shoes…  

Huge changes have been made and they will continue to be made – some we will like, some we won’t, but it is certain change will happen.

But when we’re thinking of radical changes there can be none bigger than the birth of Jesus – John the Baptist was offering a message calling people to repent for the things they’d done wrong, because a Saviour was come – a Saviour who would have the power to fulfil old testament prophecy again andensure that ‘every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight and the rough ways made smooth.’

This incredible change – the prophecy and preaching of John and the birth and ministry, and death and resurrection of Jesus would leave the world as a very different place, and it would leave all people with a need to listen to the message of Jesus, and to respond.

And from that time 2000 years ago people have listened and have responded – they have listened to people speaking out for Jesus, they have listened to the voice of God, as St Paul did, and they have responded. In the reading from Paul’s letter to the Philippians we are given an example of that response – Paul who had persecuted Christians and who had probably lived a fairly prosperous sort of life had listened to God, and changed his life completely.

He had gone to all kinds of places preaching a gospel message and here as he writes to one of the churches he had helped to start, he is in prison – but he isn’t depressed or broken. He knows he’s not failed in his ministry – even now in this letter sent from prison he writes of rejoicing – it is a message of hope and a call for the church to continue to proclaim the gospel in word and in actions.

And in this advent time as we wait with joyful expectation we recognise too our need to repent even today for the things that we get wrong… but we’re not called to repent and sit in a darkened room ashamed, but to repent and accept God’s forgiveness and go out as his followers determined to do as Paul did and share that gospel message.

In advent we think of themes such as joy, hope, peace and love – things that can transform a life and even the world.

John the Baptist gave a message which was frightening in many ways – repent or face the consequences – but he did it believing that people would listen – they would see his work, and the sacrifices he had made and they would listen to his words and they would know this was a genuine man of God – a man who had a message to share and who should be listened to.

And that was true of Paul – they knew about his change of life – they knew he had gone from being a persecutor of the Christians to being persecuted as a Christian. And people responded.

We may not all be people who are called to a ministry quite like John the Baptist or Paul, but we are people who are called to be Christians in a world where Christianity can often seem pushed out into the wilderness, or where the Christian message is neglected or ignored.

There are two things we can do when faced with such dangers – we can allow ourselves to become enclosed in our churches, praying together, worshipping together but afraid to look and go outside celebrating a Saviour born for all people, or we can go out proclaiming that that Saviour has come into the world and left the gift of salvation for all people who turn to him…

It is an incredible message that we are called to be ambassadors for – John the Baptist and Paul were early missionaries in the church – for 2000 years people have proclaimed the gospel in words and actions, some remarkably with incredible stories of courage and wisdom and determination, but many in much more simple ways – by trying to live as Jesus lived, by trying to love as he loved, by trying to show the joy and the peace and the hope and love that he offers to all people.

Advent is the start of the Christian year, and it’s a start because we are called to seek and experience afresh the love of God; to experience his grace, his mercy, and to feel his peace and joy, and to know the hope he offers to us all – hope that will guide us through every situation, knowing we are surrounded by God’s love wherever we are and whatever we’re doing…

And after thinking of the witness and ministry of John the Baptist and Paul it’s worth stepping back a little - stepping back to the words of John’s father, Zechariah, which we said together in the words taken from Luke’s gospel (Ch.1) which we know as the Benedictus :-

He began by praising God for all he’d done – the birth of his son John signalled the imminence of the arrival of the Messiah- a mighty Saviour. And he praised God for fulfilling prophecy – the birth of a Saviour had been promised by the prophets and God had kept his promises.

And he spoke of his son as being the prophet of the Most High, the one chosen to prepare the people for the coming of Jesus, the one who would proclaim salvation through forgiveness. John would be the great prophet, the great messenger referred to in the writing of the last prophet Malachi, which again we heard this morning (3:1), ‘See I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me’…

And finally Zechariah speaks of the dawn from on high breaking upon us – Jesus is the great sunrise, the one who shined and shines on those in darkness, the one who offers a light in the form of those advent themes – joy, peace, hope and love for all people.

May we respond afresh to the call to praise God for all he’s done and continues to do, to praise him for the fact he keeps his promises; and to worship him and enjoy fellowship with him as we live in the knowledge and the comfort that he loves us, that he wants us to know his peace and his hope, and to live knowing the joy that he offers to all.

And as we prepare for Christmas  - as we live through our advent journey may we make that commitment to start afresh as we seek to share those wonderful gifts and God’s incredible love wherever we can and wherever we are.