Preparing for the Journey: Advent II, The Prophets

Advent 2012 (The Prophets)

Baruch 5:1-9

Philippians 1:3-11

Luke 3:1-6

+ In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

It’s Christmas time again! Yes, it’s that time of year when, wherever you turn, you simply can’t escape the fact that it’s Christmas. Those lovely twinkling lights that are all around town at the moment. Seasonal window displays enticing us to part with our cash or maybe just put it on the credit card and pay it off later. The adverts on the TV helpfully reminding us to go to this store or the other to buy the latest “must have” presents. And of course the annual treat of turning the radio on and hearing Mariah Carey singing “All I Want for Christmas is You”. It’s all a wonderful reminder that we are in the Christmas season!

Except of course that we are not. Not yet! We may be forgiven for thinking that we are, given that everywhere we turn we see images or hear sounds that tell us otherwise. In the church’s calendar, this second week of Advent (not Christmas) focuses on the prophets. Advent is a time of preparation and anticipation, so perhaps to go mad with excitement just now is a bit premature. I know where I work at Sainsbury’s we have been in Christmas mode for some time now, and the looks I get from people when I try to explain that there is actually a distinction between Christmas and Advent are usually quite blank. The only Advent connection that many people make is opening the window on a usually very non-religious Advent calendar and devouring the enclosed chocolate.

 So, on to the prophets! Those giants of the Old Testament often perhaps seem so stern and foreboding! The popular image of the prophet is often that of a crazy eyed religious zealot making stern pronouncements in the name of a God who seems to be continually mad at the way people have moved away from him. There is the reputation that prophets sometimes have as a sort of divine fortune teller, a divinely inspired Russell Grant, yet to reduce their role to something not far removed from the astrology column of a newspaper does a great disservice to their real significance.

Today’s gospel reading speaks of “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” Those words initially taken from Isaiah are speaking of course about John the Baptist whose role it was to declare the coming of Christ and get the people ready for the one who was to come.

Now I’m certainly no building engineer or architect but I’m pretty sure that this wonderful building we worship in today didn’t just appear overnight. Plans were drawn up, the land was made ready and foundations were dug. Each step in the process took time, and if any part of that process had been skipped over the actual building just would not have been able to take place. To just hastily erect a church (or any building) without a very thorough period of preparation would have simply been a recipe for disaster. This church and its community didn’t just come out of nowhere. Just as the church building required much preparation and work, so too did the community which meets here, which today is us.

  Generations of people have gone before us in this place and prepared the way. Their prayers and worship have filled this place. They have been baptised, married and buried from here. And we do the same today, but we could not do so in the same way if they had not already prepared the way before us.

What if Jesus had just suddenly appeared completely out of the blue? What if the Bible we have today consisted solely of the twenty seven books of the New Testament and nothing else? No historical context, no back-story, simply the sudden appearance of a baby in a manger who turns out to be the Son of God! How very different our story would look then. Sometimes that seems to be the way the whole Christmas story is presented to us, as a great spectacular event that seems to come out of nowhere. Yet the whole of the Bible in its many different ways prepares for, and leads up to, the coming of the one who, in the Incarnation, brings God into the messiness of our world.

Over generations the ground was laid and made ready until the time was right for the event that was to change the whole of creation.

I have to confess, I’m not the greatest in the world at waiting for things. There are times like going on holiday, my birthday yesterday.....and yes, even Christmas when I’m like a big kid and just want it to happen now! Occasions like these are among the few times that even now I actually bounce out of bed in the morning at stupid o’clock full of excitement and wanting it to happen now. Loathe sometimes as I may be to admit it, the build-up, preparation and anticipation is all part of what makes these times so special. They don’t just suddenly appear as isolated moments in our life.

Here in this Second Week of Advent we come together not simply as a group of individuals, but as a community. A community on a shared journey of wonder and discovery as we gradually get closer to the moment when God came and dwelt amongst us, sharing our humanity and inviting us to be partakers of his divinity, something we will shortly experience a we meet with Him in the Eucharist.

 Let us not rush that journey. When all around us seem to be frantically looking for instant satisfaction, let us take a moment to slow down and savour this time of waiting. Step away, even if it is only for a few minutes each day from the busyness of our everyday life and be still with our Lord.

 A time of reflection, of anticipation. A time of joy.....and yes, of gradual excitement. Events such as the Beach Hut Advent Calendar on Hove sea-front over the next few weeks are an excellent opportunity to present the Advent story as one of looking forward with hope to our Lord’s coming. May those who visit the beach huts come away with a sense of wonder at the message they hear.

As John the Baptist prepared the way for Christ so let us also prepare ourselves. Let us prepare ourselves to welcome the one who comes to be part of our world and our lives in all its messiness. The crib has gone up and we await His arrival.

If you are visiting us today we invite you to join us over the next few weeks (and maybe beyond) as we make that journey through Advent and towards Christmas together.

May we all in these coming weeks have that sense of awe and wonder as God reaches out and invites us ALL to see and partake of his salvation.

+ In the name of God, Father and Holy Spirit.

AMEN