Mark 1:1-8

Old Testament—Isaiah 40:1-11

Georgetown Presbyterian Church

Rev. Stephen H. Wilkins

December 4, 2005

Second Sunday in Advent, Year B

Are you ready for Christmas? I’m pretty sure I’m not. I don’t know about you, but at this time of the year I find myself bemoaning the fact that Christmas has become overly sentimental, commercial, and secular. I find myself wondering about where is the Christ in Christmas, and as a pastor it is my job to remind people that Jesus is the reason for the season. But then I get caught in the sentimentalism, the commercialism, and secularism just as much as everyone else.

One of the mistakes we make concerning Advent is to think that it is the job of Advent to "rescue" the Christmas season. We make a mistake when we assume that the purpose of Advent is to get us ready for Christmas, when in reality our task is much greater than that, because the theme and purpose of Advent is to get us ready for Christ. Our task during Advent is to speak of living faithfully before our Lord’s coming. And that, my friends, extends far beyond December 25^th. So, instead of asking if you’re ready for Christmas, maybe instead we must ask if you’re ready for Christ.

One word stands out for me above the others in this morning’s gospel lesson: prepare. "Prepare the way of the Lord," says John the Baptist, "make his paths straight."

Get ready for the Lord, because ready or not, here he comes!

That really does sum up what Mark communicates as he begins his gospel: Get ready for the Lord, because he’s coming. We don’t need to get caught up in trying to figure out the timetable of his return. Jesus himself told us not to predict the day and the hour; what’s important is to have ourselves in a state of preparedness, to be ready for his arrival. Instead of trying to guess when Jesus is coming, just live each day as if it is the day of his return.

And so we have the clarion call of John the Baptist: Prepare the way of the Lord. Get ready. Get ready for the arrival of the long-awaited Savior of the world.

What do you think of when you hear the words, Prepare the way of the Lord? I think of two things, and both have to do with the biblical notion of repentance, which is another major emphasis of John the Baptist’s message. When I think of preparing the way of the Lord, I think of clearing out and cleaning up, and I think of surrendering yourself to the Lord.

Have you ever watched a town prepare for the arrival of a dignitary or a head of state? Nearly six years ago my family and I watched the city of Midland go abuzz with excitement at the news that George Bush was going to use Midland as the beginning of his journey to the White House for his inauguration. The city was full of energy and excitement that Mr. Bush was using his hometown to kick off his trip to Washington. The route from the airport to the downtown plaza was cleaned. Potholes were filled, new asphalt was put down in some places. The streets were swept, storefront windows were washed, and some were adorned with banners to welcome the President-elect. The tumbleweed and the plastic grocery bags were removed from the barbed-wire fences and mesquite shrubs. Cleanup crews worked overtime to make the city look pristine for our newly-elected president. The leadership of Midland was determined that the community would put its best foot forward and bask in its fifteen minutes of glory.

Prior to Mr. Bush’s arrival, there were advance teams that came to town to ensure his security and to make sure that all the right preparations were made. Mr. Bush’s route was carefully planned, though not made public. Every precaution was taken, and Midland was crawling with security agents from the Secret Service. An agent even came to First Presbyterian Church, because the steeple of the church was in view of the stage that would hold Mr. Bush and his entourage; we had to make sure the steeple was locked so that nobody could have access to it.

Someone important was coming to town, and everybody wanted to make sure that Midland was ready when he arrived.

When Jesus comes, will you be ready? What are you doing in your life to get ready? Prepare the way of the Lord…

John the Baptist issues the call. He’s calling us to engage in the work necessary to prepare for the arrival of the Lord. He’s telling us to get the road ready for the motorcade – to repair the potholes of our lives, to pick up the trash that clutters our daily walk, to get rid of the debris that stands between us and the Lord.

When Jesus comes, how will he find your heart? Will you be ready?

The other day I came across this poem by renowned children’s author Shel Silverstein. It’s a little whimsical, but we all need some whimsy from time to time. The poem is titled, "Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out."

Sometimes it takes a message aimed at children to make an important point for all of us. The fact is, we need to be about the business of taking the garbage out in our lives. If you’re going to prepare for the Lord to come into your life, then you need to take the garbage out.

What kind of garbage is piling up in your life?

When we clean house, we usually take two approaches. The first approach is to give it a thorough cleaning, to sort through and throw away all the trash, and to put everything else in its proper place. Only, that’s not always the way it gets done, is it? Sometimes things that ought to be thrown away simply get swept under the bed, or thrown into a closet or a drawer, and we just hope that nobody will look. But is that the way to prepare for the Lord? Is it okay to hide things away in a closet, or do we need a more thorough cleaning?

But the truth is, there are some areas of our life that we can’t clean out by ourselves, and that’s where the other part of repentance comes in, to surrender ourselves to the Lord. As much as anything else, repentance is a heart turned toward Jesus. Preparing the way of the Lord does not mean that you have to have everything in order, because we all know that none of us is ever able to do that. There’s always something in our lives that needs further cleaning-up. You simply can’t do it on your own. You see, repentance happens when we realize that the way we have been living is not the way to live at all, and so we turn toward Jesus, who offers us a new, infinitely better way. Repentance comes when we realize that whenever we try to take control of our own lives and determine our own destiny, we mess things up beyond our ability to clean them up. And so we turn to Jesus, and we say, take me Lord, take me as I am, and make me conform to your image.

Because the truth is, Jesus doesn’t wait for us to get our act together. In fact, he comes to us precisely because we can’t get our act together. Ready or not, here he comes! One of the things that sets the Christian faith apart from the other world religions is that we know God as One who comes to us. All the other religions in the world say that you have to do something to reach God, you have to do something to be acceptable to God. Only the Christian faith tells of a God who comes to us even when we are unable to reach God on our own, even when we are unable to earn our way into God’s presence.

The beauty of the way that Mark begins his telling of the gospel is that it begins in the wilderness. It is in the midst of the wilderness of our lives that we are invited to come and meet our Savior. "It is there, in the wilderness, the desert, the lonely place where the winds blow hard and the dangers are many that Mark wants [us] to realize that God’s salvation begins." We have this paradox of a call to prepare on the one hand, side by side with the good news that even in our inability to prepare properly, our Savior still comes to us. He enters the wilderness places in our lives and he offers his comfort and his love and his forgiveness, and he gives us hope. Ready or not, wherever you are, here he comes!

Where is the wilderness place in your life? Maybe the wilderness place is the struggle you or a loved one is having with Alzheimer’s; maybe it’s the surgical waiting room, maybe it’s a divorce court, or an unemployment office; maybe you have some other wilderness place. Wherever that place is for you, that’s where we see the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He doesn’t wait until we get things cleaned up; he comes even in the midst of the messiness of our lives. He entered into the messiness of a crowded stable in Bethlehem, and he will enter into the messiness of your own wilderness place.

Are you ready for Christmas? More to the point: Are you ready for Christ? The gospel begins with the call to prepare for the coming of our Lord, but it also begins with the good news that his coming doesn’t depend on our being totally ready; but if we’re going to meet him, we at least have to have our heart turned toward him. There has to be some expectation that he will come. There has to be a longing in your heart. You have to want him to come.

I challenge you to make the line of the hymn your own personal prayer: Let every heart prepare him room. Turn toward Jesus, let him into your life, and let him take over your life. Are you ready to do that?