But another side of me is almost alarmed. As I witness the signs of the coming Christmas all around me part of me says “but I am not ready!”. There is so much to do and so little time to do it. As for any big celebration the preparation is an important part of the exercise. Part of my personal preparation for the season is to send a Christmas letter to my family and friends along with a card of greeting. I only began the process on Friday and I am conscious that I have a long way to go. For me that maintaining contact, of being in communication with people I love, is part of what Christmas means to me. So it is with gifts. I love to buy gifts for people who are important to me, people I love. It is also a great opportunity to share the joy of Christ’s coming with those in need by donating to the many good causes in our midst or buying gifts for children and adults who would otherwise receive little.

The readings for today give somewhat mixed messages: from the joyous outbursts of Zephaniah and St. Paul to the somewhat austere preaching of John the Baptist, that quintessential Advent character. But Zephaniah and Paul need to be heard contextually. The Zephaniah reading is preceded by two and a half chapters of pretty tough, hard-hitting prophetic writing in which he condemns the religious corruption and evils of his day. His message is dominated by the sense of God’s anger and coming judgment. Only in the final verses of his final chapter, the verses we heard today, does he give a message of comfort and hope to the faithful remnant in Jerusalem. To them he gives assurance of God’s abiding and saving love for them, a love which will embrace all who turn to God, all who are marginalized and forgotten; he reminds them of God’s promise to dwell with his people “in your midst” and of God’s delight in their salvation: “He will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing”. God’s blessing in other words is for those who are faithful; who are mindful of their sins and shortcomings; who turn to God in penitence and work at amending their lives to conform with God’s justice and love.

It is also vital to remember that the rejoicing Paul speaks of in that familiar second reading from Philippians also has a context. For Paul wrote this letter from prison awaiting trial to a church which itself was encountering opposition. The aim of the letter is to encourage steadfastness, faithfulness and sense of joy in all this and Paul uses his own situation and above all the very self-emptying nature of the incarnate God to encourage this. It is in that context that he speaks of the joy and peace in believing.

John the Baptist makes two appearances this Advent, both last Sunday and today. Last Sunday he shouted “Prepare the way of the Lord”. Today he continues that note of preparation, giving more explicit details but also pointing us forward to the Coming One. Here we have that Advent mix of themes of preparation and expectation. The opening of the Gospel pulls us up with a jolt. After the rejoicing of Zephaniah and Philippians John hits us with his “brood of vipers” and words of God’s impending and dramatic judgment and the need for urgent repentance and amendment of life. He reminds me of the kerb-side preacher with his sign “Prepare to meet thy doom”. I doubt whether John the Baptist would have made a very good Episcopalian with his fiery preaching style! Nevertheless the crowds who turned out to hear him responded: ‘What then should we do?” John was not above giving very practical advice. Share your wealth; be honest in your dealings with others; don’t let power corrupt you. They are practical words and remind us that whatever turning to God means for us it does include amendment of life; a change in attitude; being prepared to change and improve the ways we relate to each other and the world around us.

At the heart of John’s teaching and indeed of Jesus’ teaching is that word “Repent”. It is a word which is also at the heart of our Baptism. We promise in the Baptismal Covenant (in which we will join in a few moments) to persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever we fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord. The confession of sin which we make each Sunday in the eucharist is a sign of our commitment and practice of what is called the penitential life, the way of repentance, that is the to the way of change and transformation which is our response to God’s saving love for us. It is to do with being open to God’s healing and reconciling Spirit, the recognition that we need God and that we need to continually open ourselves to God’s converting life and love. So repentance is a central part of our Advent preparation for the Coming God, for the God who comes in his Christ at Christmas. But John the Baptist also captures that sense of growing excitement, that sense of expectation that we share on this third Sunday of Advent. John who is also known as the Forerunner, witnesses urgently to the One who is to come. John points forward to the coming Jesus, pointing away from himself to the Saving God who is faithful to his promises, who comes in his Christ. But it is not some docile Christ to whom he witness but one who will baptize with holy Spirit and with fire, who comes with the symbols of judgment in his hand. The Evangelist adds the words at the conclusion of today’s gospel “so with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people”.

We wait with that same sense of expectation and anticipation with its accompanying need for urgency and preparation for the Coming of the Good News of God, which we will celebrate at Christmas. The Joy and Peace which we celebrate then is not something ephemeral or passing but God’s great and lasting gift to his people who turn to Him in penitence and in faith.   Amen

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