Prepare to be disturbed

A little girl was taking an evening walk with her father. She looked up at the stars and exclaimed; "Oh, Daddy, if the wrong side of heaven is so beautiful, what must the right side be!"  

I think we all wonder occasionally at the wisdom of children but also recognise how their innocence can sometimes remind us of wonderful truths. In the same way when we look at the bible we can often find wisdom for the day. We’ve now moved to the second Sunday in Advent and we are thinking a lot about John the Baptist…

This rather strange man carried an incredibly powerful message and for centuries since he has been held up as one of the great messengers of God, but I wonder how he would be received today if he appeared and what he might look like.

Then he was dressed in camel’s hair clothing with a leather belt around his waist. He ate locusts and wild honey and yet there was something about him that drew crowds from far afield to listen to his message. That would certainly have been influenced by the power of God, but also by John’s willingness to listen to what God wanted from him.

And what he wanted was for John to give a very clear and blunt message, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight’. He spoke of the need to repent because someone greater than he was coming and people needed to make a decision about where they wanted to be – would they choose to take their place in the kingdom of heaven that Jesus came to bring in. Would they reject that by sitting on the fence, or would they reject it altogether as a load of rubbish…

Today when we’re called to make decisions about Jesus the choices are not much different and neither are the choices we are asked to offer to others… Will people accept Jesus as the Saviour of the world, as their Saviour ? Will people not really make up their minds and sit on the fence ? Or will people reject him outright ?

Our readings today point us to the need to make decisions, and Advent is another wonderful chance in the Christian year to think about where we are in our relationship with God… I once heard someone say that they found the Isaiah reading (11:1-10) that we heard today heart breaking because all of these years later, how much closer are we actually to the ideal described there ?

But to think of it in that way is to offer very much a glass half empty kind of view rather than a glass half full because the reading speaks of incredible hope, of a new kingdom, initiated by a Saviour on whom shall rest a spirit of wisdom and understanding, counsel and might, knowledge; a Saviour who will come to judge with righteousness, searching out the poor; a Saviour who will come to bring peace and establish that peace for ever.

We prepare in this time of Advent to celebrate the fact that this Saviour has come and delivered on the promises he has made, and we are to wait for his promised second coming, when his kingdom, that we see and know partially, will be laid out in front of us and we will take our place as honoured guests…

Far from being heartbroken that this kingdom hasn’t yet been completely delivered, we give thanks for the opportunities we have of making the kingdom known to others… It is a reading of hope, it is about new growth, peace and security…

And Paul in his letter to the Romans (15:4-13) also continues this message of hope. He stresses to the Roman church there that they needed to recognise the gift they have in the scriptures, a gift we too often forget and neglect. More than once when the idea of bible studies has been mentioned in churches I’ve been at I’ve heard of people who suggest they stopped reading bible stories when they were children… !

The Bible gives us the account of Jesus. It gives us history and law, it gives us prophecy, it gives us guidance on how to live, reveals the promises God makes to his people and how he has delivered and is wonderfully delivering on those promises day after day. The bible is for now…

There’s been a challenge offered about reading the gospel of Luke through Advent – one chapter a day beginning from the first day of Advent right up to Christmas Eve will get you through the whole gospel – for those who want to try it but haven’t started, don’t be put off, you’re only a week behind and I’m sure you can catch up !

Back to the part of Paul’s letter to the Romans that we heard and here he is outlining how the scriptures would offer hope to the believers in that early church, a church still working out how to live and how to grow and Paul was saying that in the scriptures they would find hope and they also do that through one another, through relationships and ultimately through their relationship with God.

And so back to the gospel and John the Baptist (3:1-12) and his message here ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight’… Later in the reading he picked on the Pharisees and Sadducees, prominent religious people, but people that Jesus identified as hypocrites more interested in appearance than substance, and in judgement rather than compassion… These people were desperately in need of repentance and repentance is more than just saying sorry, it is a real commitment to turning away from the things that separate us from God…

John’s message was blunt and harsh, but maybe it’s a message that the church needs to reflect on continually – it was a message calling us all to reflect and repent. In Advent we prepare to meet Jesus, in the celebration of his birth, but also at the time when he will come again, something that we profess will happen every time we say the creed…

So John says to ‘prepare’… There’s a story of a couple who were going on holiday and were checking in their bags at the airport... In the long queue the husband suddenly said, 'I wish we'd brought the piano', and the wife replied, 'Why ? We've brought 14 bags already !' 'Yes', the husband replied, 'but the tickets are on the piano !'

Preparation is important and I think our whole earthly lives are a preparation to meet Jesus on the day of judgement… We have this incredible hope delivered with the love that took Jesus to the cross but also with the power that raised him from the dead and offers an open door into his kingdom… How are we preparing to meet Jesus day by day ?

It is in prayer and through the bible. It is in fellowship with others but also in our service of God and our care for other people, it is in recognising the gifts of love and life that we have been given and in sharing those gifts with others…

In Advent the church must be thinking of how we join God in making the world in which we live a little bit more like heaven… Help us O Lord to turn always to You as our rock and our salvation. Make us constantly aware of Your radical life changing power and love and make us willing and ready as we prepare for the coming of Your kingdom to help reveal that kingdom and that love to others. AMEN