Be Prepared! – December 3, 2023, The First Sunday of Advent

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Malachi 3:1-4, Matthew 3:1-12
December 3, 2023

No!  It is no coincidence!  I am using for my sermon title today the Boy Scout motto.  “Be Prepared.”  I don’t know if that’s the same as the Girl Scout motto.  Maybe somebody can tell me.  But “Be Prepared” – the Boy Scout motto!  That’s something that is short and memorable and will stick in your minds in the days ahead.  I know it will for me!

I use that expression because, of course, the theme for this first Sunday in Advent – in fact for all of the season of Advent – is “Preparation.”  This is that time of year we prepare for and anticipate the celebration of Christmas.

And we certainly know what preparation means in this time of year, don’t we!  Think about all that we do in the month of December.  Is your tree up?  Are your house lights up and running?  By the way, for the first time this year I’ve noticed signs around town advertising “Christmas Lights Installation.”  That’s a great business idea, isn’t it?  I don’t do lights anymore, but I used!  Are yours up?  Do you have a manger scene in your house?  How about your yard?  Is your Christmas Shopping started?  (Is it done already!?)  Have you started planning your family gathering?  Have you picked up your free turkey from the grocery store?

This time of year is all about preparation!  Isn’t it?  Well, I want to be quick to point out that there is also a spiritual aspect of Advent that’s also about preparation.  One of the biggest frustrations we all feel at this time of year is the over emphasis of the commercial side of Christmas, and the de-emphasis of the spiritual.  I saw one of those bumper stickers the other day that said, “Keep Christ in Christmas.”  We all feel that, don’t we?

Well, there is, of course, a spiritual part of Advent.  And while we ‘re preparing our homes and our yards, and our Church, we need not to forget the importance of preparing our hearts.  That’s what the scriptures we read today are telling us.

John the Baptist preached “Prepare the way of the Lord!”  And he was quoting from Isaiah 40, which foretold the coming of the Messiah in grand, almost cataclysmic imagery!  “Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low, the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.  And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together!”  It doesn’t say that John quoted the rest of that, but it doesn’t matter.  The people knew the passage he was using and what it meant!  And just imagine what an event that would be if those things literally happened!  Mountains brought down, valleys raised.  We were talking about the Grand Canyon last evening.  What would it take to fill that up?  That’s the scale of the description of this event in Isaiah’s prophecy!

I was listening to an historian one time who said that, at the time of Jesus, the whole world was being prepared.  The whole world was anticipating that something momentous that was about to happen.  In other religions there were signs and oracles speaking of a great change that was about to take place.  We have one such account of that in the story of the Magi – those wise men from the East.  They saw something in the stars that told them of a new king..

So here is John the Baptist, telling us to prepare the way – to “Be Prepared.”  We’re looking at his part in this story today.  And I’ve been thinking lately that, in our day and age, we might think of John as a cult leader.  We’ve known them in our lifetime, haven’t we?  And sometimes their stories are tragic!  Such people are usually charismatic in their speaking.  They give a message about the coming of a new Messiah, or a new age.  And they call for people to change their lives.  Dos that sound familiar?  But of course, John’s ministry was not like other cult leaders.  Because John’s ministry real!  John’s ministry was telling about God himself coming to this earth. 

John’s description was important here, too.  He is said to have a rough ,“rustic” appearance.  And the reason that was important was that Matthew’s description of him was very similar to the description of the Prophet Elijah.  He too was a ‘rustic’ looking man, “dressed in a camel’s hair garment with a leather belt around his waist.”  You can find his description in the book of II Kings. (II Kings 1:8)  The only difference in John’s description is his diet!  He ate locusts and wild honey!  (Maybe Elijah did, too!)

But the importance of that is that in the Jewish tradition, they believed Elijah would return to herald the coming of the Messiah.  We read that today in Malachi 3.  Malachi literally means, “My Messenger.”  And it’s about John.  “Behold I send my messenger before me to prepare the way.”  John the Baptist was the Elijah figure who was to come.  Jesus himself confirmed that!  You can read that in Matthew 11.

So John came to prepare the way.  And he came to prepare the way by telling the people to prepare the way.  And the way he called them to do that was by repentance, and baptism.  He called for the people to prepare the way by preparing their lives and their lives.  And he calls us to do the same.  This is our spiritual preparation for Christmas.

So here, at the beginning of the liturgical year, I think it’s a good idea to think about our spiritual beginnings.  For a while now, we’ve been having a Recommitment Sunday at the first of the calendar year.  And Advent is a good preparation for that.  Think about the Christmas seasons of your past.  That’s kind of a natural thing people do at this time of year anyway.  I know I do.  I often think about Christmas as a child.  I think of the magical Christmas my parents made for us!

Think about those things.  And think about the spiritual part of that.  Think about what Christmas did to this world.  Think about that great change that came two thousand years ago when God stepped into our world.  And think about the change that event made in your life, whether it was a dramatic moment of change, or a longer journey, or a long time of nurture that resulted in faith.  Think about your life and how you got where you are, here among God’s people.

And keep those thoughts!  Think about that as you put up the tree, hang the lights, (or pay someone to hang the lights!)  Think about that as you plan your family gatherings, as you experience the sights and sounds of this wonderful time of the year.  Think of the wonder of the birth that occurred in an obscure part of the world, to a peasant mother and father, and yet was so momentous that the whole host of angels in heaven appeared and sang “Glory to God!”

“Be prepared!” John tells us.  Be prepared to celebrate that event!  It changed the world!  It changed me!  And it changed you!

Prayer

Eternal God, with all the angels of heaven we give you glory.  Help us to keep in mind, every day of this Advent season, the coming of Jesus into this world, and into our hearts.  May the light he brought to this world shine through us in all that we do and say.  For we pray in his name, Amen.