Advent VIII (The Second Week)

As the calendar turns to December, most people show up in church expecting to catch a glimpse of baby Jesus.  After all, there is this tree which mostly looks like a Christmas tree and the windows are adorned with greenery and candles.  The church says look for Jesus and to the surprise of many an unexpected guest arrives on center stage.  We are looking for Jesus and John the Baptist shows up for a two Sunday stay.  He is not the kind of fellow any respectable Father would want his daughter to bring home with the words, "Daddy, this is the man I am going to marry."  

With his tangled hair, honey matted beard, breath reeking of locust, and clothing made of rough smelly camel hair, he looks more like a wild man of the wilderness than a candidate for matrimony.  It is shocking to our senses that this character is the focus of a Sunday worship in December when it could be Jesus of Bethlehem.  To be honest, we are not prepared for the message of John the Baptist.  It is not the message of "peace on earth, good will to men," but a message calling his listeners to repent and his critics to know that God's wrath is going to fall upon them.   

During these early days of Advent, John the Baptist does not point us toward the second coming of Jesus, but instead announces that One called Jesus is about to show up to establish a new order which will shake the pillars of every institutional establishment and the core values of everyone wrapped with the robes of self righteousness.  Something new is breaking in among us he declared and Someone new who has never before been seen will bring it into being.  John shows up in Advent because he is the messenger of what God is about to do.  God is still about the business of doing new things and this is a day for making ourselves ready.  Now is the time for the work of making ourselves ready.  It is not the time for delay.