I get to do lots of lovely things, and one of these is going into schools and talking to the children. I remember that I used to take a teddy bear into school with me who had a clerical shirt and collar. The teddy who came to school had often got too excited and missed out on things. I remember explaining that the teddy bear had got so excited that it was December they forgot to go to lots of lovely things happening. The children in school felt sorry for the silly teddy bear, but they also told me that it was important to pay attention, or for us today to stop and think.
In these weeks leading up to Christmas, life can be very busy. We are all preparing, spending time sending cards, checking on presents we want to buy, organising our diaries around seeing friends and family, and other Christmas activities. It never feels like a good time to stop and think as we are called to do in Advent.
As we stop and think, we can take moments to prepare ourselves for the birth of Jesus, to celebrate once again the amazing moment when God became one of us, and then we can also look ahead to Jesus coming again.
In the gospel reading today (Matthew 3:1-12) we heard of John the Baptist with his rallying call to repent and prepare the way for the Lord.
I always think that John the Baptist wouldn’t have been the kind of person that you would want to bump into on a dark night. He wore strange clothes and ate even stranger food. But he had a key part to play. His role was to get everybody ready, to stop people and make them think.
To be honest, the people to whom John the Baptist was speaking had been waiting a long time. For hundreds and hundreds of years, they had been waiting for God to come and change things. They had a promise that a Messiah, which also means anointed one, would come and make all things well. They were waiting, and whether they still believed that God was going to make a difference, seeing and hearing John the Baptist would certainly have made them stop and think.
I am not suggesting that we need a John the Baptist type person to come and make us stop and think this Advent. However, our readings this morning have reminded us that something incredible has happened. There is excitement and hope. This should cause us to stop and think, to pray. As we stop, we are taking time to think of what the coming of Jesus meant over 2000 years ago, what it means for us today, and also what it would mean for Him to return. What would change?
In our readings this morning, we heard of the way that the world changes with God. In the book of Isaiah (11:1-10) we heard of an incredible new way. We heard of the impossible happening, wolves and lambs getting on well, a toddler playing by a snake! This was a new world, a world that was healed. God broke into the world as people knew it, and the vision of Isaiah is a vision of a perfect world, of the kingdom of God when all would be well. God transformed the world by coming and showing us how we can be transformed to be more like Him. These words from Isaiah gave us an amazing vision of how life will be in the Kingdom of God, a vision that should make us stop, think, and wonder how we can show the way of God in our lives.
In the reading from the letter to the Romans (Romans 15:4-13) we heard of the way that we are to be transformed: people who live in harmony with each other, joined in glorifying God. People who welcome each other just as Christ has welcomed us.
This is amazing. We are to be more like God, to love each other and to let our lives be transformed, to live in harmony with each other by not complaining about one another, by going the extra mile to help each other, by being joined in our praise for God.
We prepare the way for Jesus by being like this, by loving, and by following His way.
The kind of behaviour that is being talked of should make other people stop and think as they see the ways of God reflected in us. In the reading from Romans, it says that we are to welcome one another just as we have been welcomed by Christ. This is the Messiah, this is Jesus. The one for whom people had been waiting had not only arrived, but they, and now we, are able to live like Him.
In our preparations during Advent, we are to stop and think. As we do this, we are to seek ways of getting closer to God – and they are to be ways that are lasting, not just until Christmas, but permanently. Advent represents the start of the new year in the Church Calendar, and it’s a wonderful time for us to make resolutions – perhaps to pray more, to read our Bibles more, to read a Christian book. We need to be continually fed by God, and to do that we need to make time for Him – time for quiet reflection, and time for study and being with other believers.
We have the Advent quiet day on Saturday, which is a perfect time to stop and think about what God is saying to us as we seek to be more like Him day by day.
I am a huge Dolly Parton fan, and I watched a programme sometime ago where she was interviewed about her faith. She is a Christian and was asked how she prepares for a show. Her answer was prayer, prayer to be a shining light for God, and to bring happiness.
This is actually a really good prayer. Imagine if this Advent and always we asked God every day to help us to be more like Him, and to bring His peace, love, and hope to others. Imagine if we spent time with Him trying to learn more about Him, and asking Him to help us to walk in His straight paths, to live in harmony with each other, looking forward to the time when wolves and lambs will be together and will be safe!
May the God of hope fill us with joy and peace in believing.
