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The Second Sunday of Advent
December 10 , 2006
Delivered by Reverend Sandra Stayner
Baruch 5:1-9
Philippians 1:1-11
Luke 3:1-6
Prepare the Way For the Lord
Christmas was a very big deal in my house when I was growing up. The preparations always began months ahead as my mum began to bring packages into the house without telling me what was in them. I would find mysterious parcels wrapped in Christmas paper hidden at the back of wardrobes or under beds. One of my greatest delights was to search out these hidden parcels and check out the labels to see who they were for. If they were for me I would carefully feel through the paper to see if I could guess what was inside. I have been known on occasion to accidentally tear the paper so as to get a better look inside! The first sign that Christmas was coming was the making of the Christmas cake . a rich, dark, fruity cake that could be made several months in advance. I loved the smell of the fruit that filled the kitchen as the cake was stirred. Next came the mince tarts - my grandmother made the best mince tarts you have ever tasted! They were also put aside in a tin to wait for Christmas. Every year my mum and I would make a new wreath for the door. We would hang a pretty little angel or Santa Claus in the middle and balls around the edge.
The preparations got more and more intense as the day grew near until finally our house was full of special food and drink, candy that wasn.t to be touched until Christmas morning, presents around the tree that weren.t to be poked at, and tins full of home made food that only turned up once a year when Christmas was coming. Every year the preparations for Christmas would follow a familiar pattern, and I loved being a part of all the activity.
In our gospel story today the strange character of John the Baptist takes center stage as he calls the people of God to make preparations for the coming of the Lord. .Prepare the way for the Lord. he cries to the people of God. Of course the preparations John calls for are somewhat different from the preparations we made as a family for Christmas day. John wanted the people to prepare their hearts because the kingdom of God.s love would soon break into the world at the coming of the King of Peace. But preparing your heart is somewhat little trickier than making a Christmas wreath for the front of the door. Actually it takes quite a bit of thought.
One of the ways we prepare for Christ.s coming as a community of faith is by taking part in gift giving through our Christmas giving tree. Barb Sireno and Cathy Queen spend a long time each year collecting names of children whose parents are unable to buy gifts for them this year. (It.s hard to imagine how difficult it must be for these children when all their friends are talking about the amazing presents they got for Christmas and they can.t join in because their parents are in prison or homeless or simply don.t have money to spend on toys.) So each year we try to help out a little by taking a tag of the tree and buying a special gift for someone we will never see. That.s our way of making sure those children feel loved. We are spreading God.s love a little further than these four walls. And Saint Nicholas, who also loved to share God.s love in quiet ways with some of the poor people in his land, will be coming later in the service to pick up our gifts and be sure they are taken to the families who need them.
Several families in our parish look around or people who are going to be on their own at Christmas and ask them to their houses for Christmas lunch. Others go to a soup kitchen that serves people who haven.t got anywhere to live, and spend part of Christmas day serving them a good, hot Christmas lunch. I am also amazed at the number of people who don.t belong to St. Peter.s, but come to the church before Christmas with frozen turkeys or Christmas food baskets or offers to make a basket of gifts for families who are having hard times. You realize that they come to us because they recognize that we are a community who will be looking for special ways to share God.s love during the Christmas season. Whatever we can do to share God.s love with people outside of our community as well as within it is part of the way we try to prepare our hearts to receive the child of God.s love on Christmas day.
But there.s another part to the preparation that we need to figure into our lives. John the Baptist called the people of God into the wilderness . out of the towns and villages where they lived, into a place where the land was spare and bare and all the amenities were stripped away. He called them there to repent. He knew that if they were really to be ready for God.s kingdom of love to break into their lives they must be prepared to give up the things that separated them from God . things like wanting to grab all the gifts for themselves instead of sharing with others, holding onto a grudge against someone without giving them a chance to change. We need to repent of sin in our lives - anything we do that is less than loving in our relationships with other human beings, because it is those less than loving actions that separate us from God who is perfect love.
People who are coming to the forum on prayer have taken on what is for some a new approach to prayer. They are committed to taking at least 10 minutes every day to be quiet, away from the distractions of their lives, to read a short passage from the bible and then quietly listen to what God is saying in their hearts. Until we take time out to listen to God we will not always be aware of the things in our lives that are causing us to be drawn away from loving God with all our hearts, souls and minds.
We are also giving you a chance as you come to worship every Sunday, to spend a few minutes quieting down so that you are ready to listen for God in our worship together. We.re doing that by singing a Taize prayer as we gather. It is amazing how God will speak to you through the scripture readings, the music, or the sermon if you settle down to listen.
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