Preparing the way

from Helen

Well Advent is here. The Christmas build up has begun.  Last week I was in two schools talking about advent and I used a teddy bear to explain that he had been so excited by Christmas last year that he forgot to go to all the lovely things that were going on. 

Advent is a busy time. It is not an easy time to stop and reflect but that is what we are called to do. As we stop and reflect we can take moments to prepare ourselves for the birth of Jesus to celebrate once again the amazing moment when God became one of us and then we can also look ahead to Jesus coming again. 

There is so much to think about with cards, presents and celebrations. But in all this we need to take time to remember what we are thinking about. In the midst of this we hear the call from our gospel reading today (Matthew 3:1-12) of John the Baptist to repent and prepare the way for the Lord. 

I always think that John the Baptist wouldn’t have been the kind of person that you would want to bump into on a dark night. He wore strange clothes and ate even stranger food. But he had a key part to play. His role was to get everybody ready. To stop people in their tracks and make them think. 

Talking of stopping people in their tracks, I don’t drive as a lot of you know. There are good reasons. I have had 4 different driving instructors over 12 years. There was one particular driving instructor who was the most likely to get me through a test. It was all going really well, until I had to actually drive. The short hand way to describe this is that when I indicated right and then turned left with a tanker lorry behind and one in front, then I felt I probably wasn’t naturally suited to driving. This was one of many issues I had, and one day I asked the instructor what he felt, he was very supportive but did point out that I did things whilst driving that he had never come across before.  I decided that this confirmed what I always thought, me and driving don’t go together.

After I stopped driving Ian admitted that he was relieved, not just for me but for everyone who ever uses the road !

This morning in the gospel reading we heard John the Baptist declaring that we should prepare the way for Jesus.  When I was learning to drive, Ian said that it was best for people to stay off the road altogether when I drove, I guess this was almost a way of preparing the way for me.

In our readings this morning we heard of the way that the world changes with God. In the book of Isaiah (11:1-10) we heard of an incredible new way. We heard of the impossiblehappening, wolves and lambs getting on well, a toddler playing by a snake ! This was a new world, a world that was healed. 

God broke into the world as people knew it and the vision of Isaiah is a vision of a perfect world, of the kingdom of God when all would be well. God transformed the world by coming and showing us how we can be transformed to be more like Him. 

In the epistle reading (Romans 15:4-13) we heard of the way that we are to be transformed. People who live in harmony with each other joined in glorifying God. People who welcome each other just as Christ has welcomed us. 

This is amazing, we are to to be more like God. To love each other and to let our lives be transformed. To live in harmony with each other, by not complaining about one another, by going the extra mile to help each other, by being joined in our praise for God.

We prepare the way for Jesus by being like this, by loving, by following His way of justice and mercy.

Through advent we are to seek ways of getting closer to God – and they are to be ways that are lasting, not just until Christmas, but permanently. Advent represents the start of the new year in the Church Calendar, and it’s a wonderful time for us to make resolutions – perhaps to pray more, to read our Bibles more, to read a Christian book. We need to be continually fed by God, and to do that we need to make time for him – time for quiet reflection, and time for study and fellowship.

I am a huge Dolly Parton fan and I watched a programme sometime ago, where she was interviewed about her faith.  She is a Christian and was asked how she prepares for a show. Her answer was prayer, prayer to be a shining light for God, and to bring happiness. 

This is actually a really good prayer.  Imagine if this advent and always we asked God everyday to help us to be more like Him, and to bring His peace, love and hope to others, imagine if we spent time with Him trying to learn more about Him, and asking Him to help us to walk in his straight paths, to live in harmony with each other, looking forward to the time when wolves and lambs will be together and will be safe !

We can do no better in our advent preparations than to ask God for the strength to be as Jesus to others, loving them, caring for them, offering them hope… 

May we be ready to prepare the way of the Lord. AMEN