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Day 8, Sunday, the Second Week of Advent: "Preparing - the God who Calls

Preparing – The God Who Calls Us

Advent is a time to Prepare.  For many, preparing has to do with baking cookies, shopping for presents, and decorating the home for Christmas.  Yet, Advent is primarily a time to prepare our hearts, minds, and souls for Christ’s coming – both his first coming two thousand years ago and his future coming.  As we meet together beginning this second week of Advent let us use this time to prepare our lives to meet Christ – in worship and in our everyday lives.

Scripture:

Malachi 4:2-6
 “…For you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings…Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes.  And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”

Mark 1:1-8
 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
 As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way,
 the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’”
 John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
 And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
 Now John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey.
 And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.
 I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

John the Baptist is the end of the Old Testament Prophets and the forerunner to the New Testament.  Four hundred years earlier, Malachi had prophesied of a future coming of one like Elijah.  John the Baptist was the one who fulfilled that prophesy. 

Isaiah had prophesied of John’s coming as a “messenger” who would prepare the way of the Lord.  John the Baptist fulfilled that role as he went into the wilderness calling the people of God to a faith by repentance of their sins.

We often forget that the liturgy of worship always begins with a confession of our sinful hearts.  “We confess to you Lord that we have sinned against you, in our thoughts, in our words, in what we have done, and in what we have failed to do.”   What is the significance of repentance?  It makes us recognize the grace of God that is essential for our salvation.  It makes us realize that our salvation, our relationship with God is outside of our abilities to create.  We confess our sins to cry out to our creator God, “Lord, have mercy upon us” – even as the blind beggar in the Gospel cried out to Jesus, “Jesus, son of David, have mercy upon me”. 

On this second Sunday of Advent, we join with the church in worship, praise, and thanksgiving through the great confession of our need for God’s forgiveness.  John reminds us:

Mark 1:7-8
“…After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.  I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

The old African-American Spiritual said it best:

As I went down to the river to pray,
studyin’ about that good ole way and
who shall wear the starry crown [robe and crown],
good Lord, show me the way.
O sisters, let's go down,
let's go down, come on down.
Come on, sisters, let's go down,
down to the river to pray.

Baptized into Christ…  Peace

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