So much of the Christmas festivity is focused on the Baby and the birth, the celebration and the incarnation – and rightly so. This is the time of year where we stop to focus on God’s lavish gift of redemption and grace through the Word become flesh. But before there is Christmas, there is need for preparation. And before the coming of Messiah, John the Baptist came to prepare the way. Mark’s gospel begins with him. Mary’s pregnancy intersects with him. And as a scratchy, uncanny unorthodox character, John’s words prepared the people of God for the coming Kingdom of God and the dawning of a new age. This Advent season, we too enter a season of preparation. As we listen and learn from John the Baptizer, we are invited to confront the things we may not want to so that we are ready to receive our King.
"Confronting Religion with Love" Matthew 3:4-12 (Prepare the Way)
As we continue tracking the life and ministry of John the Baptist, we are given one final Advent alert about the greatest threat to Christmas and the Christian story. It's not politics or paganism. Rather, according to John the Baptist, the greatest threat to Christmas is religion. During the height of his baptizing ministry, John came face to face with the Pharisees and Saducees coming out to the Jordan River. This prompted a harsh word of rebuke about their presumption and performance. This Christmas, we are invited back to the manger to abandon our religious attempts to please God. Instead, we celebrate the names of love: Jesus (God Saves) and Immanuel (God is with us). Divine love drowns out religion and reminds us of our only hope.
"Dealing with the Darkness" John 1:4-10, Luke 1:76-79, Mal. 3 (Prepare the Way)
The Advent season is filled with paradox and contradiction. As we gather around the glittering lights and beautiful candles, we must do so because of the prevailing darkness. Both exist and both hold true- light and darkness. As we continue into the story of John the Baptist preparing the way for baby Jesus, we run head first into the darkness and discover the coming light. Both John and Luke tease out this theme of light and darkness and remind us through the ministry of John the Baptist that the darkness is confronted best by the light. While Advent is a season that begins in the darkness and requires an honest assessment of the darkness, we celebrate the truth that light has dawned. We worship the Light of the world who calls us to live as children of light.
"Confronting our Expectations of God" Isaiah 40 (Prepare the Way)
"The Messenger" Mark 1:1-8 (Prepare the Way)
In the first week of Advent, we look to the opening lines of Mark's gospel to find his version of the Christmas story. However, instead of finding Mary, Joseph and a baby in the manger, we are simply told about the voice in the wilderness saying, "Prepare the way of the Lord." Over the next month, there are plenty of details that will stir us in the ministry of John the Baptist. But right from the get-go, we discover John preparing the way by disrupting the sleepiness of sin. He calls people into the wilderness, into the river of baptism and into the way of realignment through confession and repentance. As the forerunner to the Messiah, John begins his leveling work by addressing the fundamental need of humanity- the separation that happens from sin. May we listen to his disrupting voice.