Monday, December 29, 2014

Second Sunday of Christmas Sermon

Why is Matthew's story of the birth of Christ so different from Luke's? What do the reactions of the Wise Men and king Herod have to teach us about ourselves?

2 Christmas Sermon
Given at St. Alban's, Brentwood
By Rev. Valerie Ann Hart
January 4, 1998

Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23


         Usually when the Christmas story is presented, the various traditions are so combined that we may be surprised to realize that the story in Luke and in Matthew are quite different, or at least describe different aspects of the story. And Gospels of Mark and John don’t mention anything about the birth of Jesus. Let’s just quickly review to give a context to today’s Gospel reading.
         In Luke we have the most extensive description of the birth story. It is in Luke that we hear of Elizabeth and the birth of John the Baptist. It is in Luke that the angel comes to Mary and tells her that she will conceive. It is also in Luke where Mary goes to visit Elizabeth and says that beautiful piece of poetry we call the Magnificat.  It is only in Luke that there is reference to the decree that all should be enrolled and the journey to Bethlehem of Joseph with Mary who was with child. It is in Luke that we hear of the lack of room in the inn and the child being laid in a manger. In Luke the birth is announced to the shepherds, and no one else. Eight days later they have the child circumcised and then they go up to Jerusalem for the purification rites after which they return to Galilee, to the city of Nazareth.
         In the Gospel according to Matthew we get a different picture. It begins with the genealogy of Joseph. It then just says that Mary was betrothed to Joseph and became pregnant (no angels announcing it to Mary). Joseph plans to divorce her, but an angel appeared to him in a dream and explained that it was a child of the Holy Spirit, so he marries her but doesn’t have relations with her. It then says that Jesus was born in Bethlehem in the days of Herod. There is no mention of traveling from Nazareth, in fact from Matthew’s description it would sound as if Joseph and Mary lived in Bethlehem before the birth. The birth is announced not to shepherds, but to wise men from the east via a star. (Luke doesn’t mention a star, yet the shepherds are usually shown with a star.) The wise men contact Herod about the prophesied location of the birth of the savior, and Herod decides to do away with the child. That’s where we get to the current reading where Joseph once again gets a message in a dream and goes to Egypt to protect the child and returns not to Bethlehem but to Nazareth, once again in response to a dream. It turns out that the only overlap in the two stories is that Jesus’ parents were Mary and Joseph, that Mary was a virgin, and that Jesus was born in Bethlehem.
         Why should such different stories be told? Well certainly at the time of the writing of the gospels, 30 to 60 years after Jesus died, there were many stories passed on about him. Which of many stories the writers of the Gospels decided to include depended upon the emphasis that the writer wanted to make. They would also include those stories that were meaningful to them personally.
         So, today we have the story of Joseph, Mary and Jesus fleeing to Egypt and (although we skipped the description of it) the killing of all the male children under two years old in Bethlehem. Matthew presents two very different reactions to the birth of Christ. The wise men, who see a star, a glimmer of hope, and travel great distances to bring their gifts to the Christ child, and Herod, who reacts with fear and tries to destroy the savior of his people. Why would Matthew choose these two stories?
         One thing to remember about scripture is that it is written on multiple levels. On the one level it tells the direct story of events, on another level it is a parable, a representation of something deeper. It speaks on the concrete level and on the spiritual level. Let’s take a look at this stories form a spiritual level.
         We see here two responses to the coming of Christ. The coming of Christ, the birth of Christ, is not something that only happened 2000 years ago, it is also something that spiritually happens to us. The Christ, the savior, is born for us today, is potentially born in our hearts, in our beings. If we are like the wise men, we see a glimmer of light, a star in the east, a glimmer of hope, a spark of belief, that something wonderful is taking place. Inside us a spark of light is born, and if we are like the wise men, we follow that star and we respond with gratitude and gifts.
         But, often there is something within us more like Herod. Something within us that is afraid of the birth of the savior.
         Let’s take a deeper look at Herod. There is no historical evidence of the slaughter of the innocent children of Bethlehem, but there is agreement that it is the sort of thing that Herod would have been quite capable of. He was not descendent from the kings of Israel, but became king because he had helped the Roman’s when they took over the country. His claim to legitimacy was through his wife who was a descendent of the royal family. He was constantly afraid of losing his power, probably because he knew he didn’t legitimately deserve it, so he would brutally eliminate anyone who he thought would challenge his authority, including several of his children. When he heard of the birth of the predicted Messiah he was afraid of losing his power to this newborn “king”. Therefore, he tried to have him eliminated. The wise men brought gifts, welcoming the birth because of their wisdom; Herod brought death because of his fear.
         So, is there a part of us that is like Herod, a part of us that thinks it is in charge? A part of us that exerts a power and authority that is really not legitimate? Is there a part of us that is in truth a petty administrator but acts like it is a King? Is there a part of us that has been given some authority on day-to-day matters that has forgotten the real purpose behind that authority? I would say yes, that part of ourselves that has come to be called the ego.
         Our egos are necessary and important; they manage our activities and interaction with the world. They make decisions about what we will do when and how. They are the administrators of our psyches. They help us to survive. But they are not the king. They are there to serve our spiritual selves, yet our egos have forgotten that. When the Christ child is born in our hearts, when God’s love is born in us, the ego gets scared. When we begin to want to live our lives, not as our ego has learned to do in order to survive, but as our deeper, spiritual, loving essence wants us to, the ego gets scared. The Herod in us gets scared, and wants to destroy the potential new king.
         How do our egos respond? In many different and sometimes subtle ways.
         One way to think about it is that through Christ God is giving us a wonderful gift. The most wonderful of gifts - full, complete, and unconditional love. God stands there, with arms outstretched, offering this gift. How do we respond? “Oh, you shouldn’t have.” “I don’t deserve this.” “I couldn’t accept this from you.” “I am so unworthy.” “I don’t have anything to give you in return.”  or “What’s the catch?” “What do I have to do in exchange?” “Nobody gives this kind of gift without a hook.” “This couldn’t be for real.” All God wants to do is give us Love, but we are afraid to accept it. We are afraid to accept it because if we truly accepted that we are unconditionally loved by God, our whole sense of self, our whole way of being in the world, the whole game of our ego, would have to change. We would have to let go of guilt, of fear, of shame, of our poor self concepts, of our sense of ourselves as not enough, of not being lovable. And if we did that, the power of our ego would be eliminated. We would be free beings. Free and joyous beings. And that is terrifying. Terrifying to our egos.
         And so we ignore the gift, deny the very existence of the giver. We have doubt, our rational minds struggle against our personal experience. The Herod in us wants to destroy the gift of love.
         The real Herod did not understand that the kind of king that Jesus was would not interfere with his administrative duties. Jesus was not a king that would try to overthrow Herod. Jesus’ kingdom was very different than that. And the birth of God’s love within us does not want to eliminate the ego, we need our egos, rather it wants to transform it, have the ego become the instrument of spirit. And if we open to this we discover that we are more powerful then ever.
         If Herod had not been so insecure, if Herod had faith in his own abilities, if he had not developed a grandiose image of himself, he would have also been able to welcome the birth of the Christ. If we can love our egos, acknowledge their place in our lives, they may be more willing to welcome the birth of our spiritual selves, rather than try to destroy it.
         And if not, we have to take the Christ child to Egypt, to that country from which the chosen people came after going there in time of famine. We keep that sense of the spiritual, the divine, that spark of hope, that star burning within us in a safe place while we work on our egos. That is what all the spiritual practices are about, quieting our egos, putting them into place. All the prayers, the fasting, the meditation, the study, is to lead to the place where our egos as we knew them are dead, so that the spirit can return from Egypt and take its rightful place as the king of our lives.

         What is there within you that refuses the gift, that tries to eliminate that birth of the knowledge of just how deeply we are loved by God. Is it fear, guilt, shame, self-doubt, the need to know, the need for control, or that all pervasive sense of not being enough. Nurture the child of light within you, honor the fears of Herod, and accept the gift of love, the warm wonderful gift of God’s unconditional love, which is incarnated in the Christ child.

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

First Sunday after Christmas sermon

This sermon was given shortly after the movie 'The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe' had been released. In it there is a reflection on what it means to be always winter and never Christmas and how when Christmas does come it brings hope which is the beginning of the story that includes struggle and growth. 

Sermon
January 1, 2006
First Sunday after Christmas
The Rev. Valerie A. Valle, Ph.D.
St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, Brentwood

Imagine what it would be like to always be winter. Always winter, no spring, no summer, no autumn. Just winter all the time. Imagine what that would be like.
Now living in California that might not sound so bad, after all the hills are green in the winter, and if you grew up in the Midwest or east coast you know what a “real” winter can be like, with snow and sleet and ice and minus degree weather. But imagine even a California winter that never ended. Day after day after day of clouds and rain and grey sky. Think what it would be like if every day the sun came up late and set early. All the time having it get up the dark and have the sun set before you get home from work. Always winter. All the time. No change. Always winter with no hope of spring.
This probably sounds familiar for those of you who have seen the movie Narnia or read the book it is based on, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. For those of you who are not familiar with the story, let me give you a quick introduction.
In the story a family of children find themselves in a land called Narnia. When they arrive it is winter. Not a California winter, but a winter of cold and snow. They are told that in Narnia it is always winter and never Christmas.
Always winter and never Christmas! Can you imagine that! How horrible, especially for the children, and the child within each of us. Always winter but never Christmas! Somehow that resonates in each of us as something terrible.
But early in the narrative we are told, “Aslan is on the move.” Aslan is the true king of Narnia. He is described as the son of the Emperor Over the Sea. He is the spiritual foundation of Narnia. He is the Christ of that world. When the children hear that Aslan is on the move, even though they don’t yet know who he is, they feel a special thrill inside.
Once Aslan is on the move Christmas finally comes to Narnia. Christmas brings hope to the land. The trees begin to bloom, the ice melts, the sun comes out and the world warms. It is a time of joy. Light has come into a dark world. It brings hope to the beings of that world who have been enslaved by an evil witch.
But Christmas is not the end of the story; rather it represents the beginning of a journey and a struggle to overcome the forces of darkness. As the children travel this road and accept their part in the struggle they become stronger and discover who they really are.
We are in the season of Christmas. For most people Christmas day is an ending. It is the ending of a month of frantic activity. Presents are bought and wrapped. Cookies are baked. Houses are decorated. Cards are sent. Parties are attended. Carols are sung. People greet one another with “Merry Christmas” and talk about the spirit of the holidays. Finally the culmination of all this activity comes on December 25 with great celebrations. On December 26 the party is over. Everyone waits for Christmas next year.
But for us, for the church, Christmas day is just a beginning. For us the season of Christmas is the 12 days following Christmas, not the month before. Today we sing Christmas carols. Today we celebrate the incarnation of Christ. Today we assert that it is still Christmas, even though our neighbors have taken down their decorations this weekend. For us the season of Christmas lasts until Epiphany, January 6, 12 days after Christmas. That’s where the song The Twelve Days of Christmas comes from.
So, Christmas is a beginning just as it was a beginning for the beings of Narnia. It is a beacon of hope in a dreary world. It is a light in the darkness. It represents the beginning of the end of winter.
We have all known times in our lives that were filled with darkness, where it would seem that the darkness would overcome the light. We have known times that we could call the “winters” of our lives. Perhaps your life right now feels like you are caught in an endless winter. Our times of darkness may be due to illness, or grief, or broken relationships, or addiction, or job loss, or loneliness or just a feeling of darkness shrouding our days. Sometimes things can feel hopeless, as if this difficult time, this dark time, will go on forever.
Those are the times when we most need Christmas. Christmas is the hope for a world in darkness. Christmas is the hope for a person in darkness. In the Gospel today when Mary and Joseph bring Jesus to the temple Simeon comes to them and says:
Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace,
  According to your word;
For my eyes have seen your salvation,
  Which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
A light for revelation to the Gentiles
  And for glory to your people Israel.
For Simeon the encounter with Christ, even the baby in his mother’s arms, is a source of hope. He can now rest at peace knowing that salvation has come into the world. For us, the encounter with Christ is the coming of Christmas. Christmas is a celebration of God making Godself know through Christ – Emmanuel  - God with us.
That is the gift of Christmas, that God is with us. Just as Narnia began the healing process when Aslan came, so our lives begin the healing, transforming process when Christ comes to us. Christ brings hope and the promise that He walks with us.
But, as I said before, Christmas is a beginning, not an end. Remember that for the children in Narnia Christmas was the beginning of a struggle.
If you have struggled with addiction you may know that moment when you reached bottom, when you realized that you couldn’t continue living the life you were leading. Such a moment is a gift of grace; it is the coming of Christmas; it is a coming of hope into a winter of hopelessness. It is also the beginning of a long and often difficult journey toward health. But looking back one realizes how much one has grown through that journey. One realizes how much there was to learn about oneself. One realizes that they are stronger now then they were before the journey began, just as it was for the children in Narnia who could become strong and mature only by facing the struggle at hand.
For me, Christmas came this past August. Most of you know that I was quite ill this summer. Although it was summer, it felt like a dark and long winter. But in August I was graced to be introduced to a doctor who knew how to correctly diagnose and treat my illness. That was the beginning of hope. That was the answer to prayer. That was Christmas to me. It was not an end but a new beginning. It took time and hard work to heal, but in the process I learned a great deal about myself and in many ways became even stronger than before the journey began.
Now some of you may struggle with chronic diseases. Where is the hope there? But Christmas can come into the winter of chronic disease as well. It is that time, or times, when the Christ spirit visits you. When you are touched by something that brings you hope. The hope is not necessarily for physical healing, but a hope for spiritual healing. It brings a sense of peace, regardless of one’s circumstances, just like it brought peace to Simeon, an old man approaching death who is given hope by his encounter with the baby Jesus.
Are you ready to step out of your personal winter? Are you ready to begin an adventure that leads to spring and new life? It won’t be easy. There will be inner battles to fight, there will be difficulties to overcome, but there is also the opportunity to discover who you really are and to become wiser and stronger than you ever imagined. Are you ready? Do you want to start anew? Do you want the hope and joy that is possible? Are you ready to step out into the unknown and leave the endless darkness of winter behind?
Christmas comes into our lives when we open our hearts to receive Christ. It is that moment, or those moments, when we think there is no room in us, when we believe that our hearts have grown cold, yet a little sliver of light sneaks in. We may be talking with someone and we feel cared about and things do not look quite so dark. It may be when we have reached a state of utter darkness and we cry out for help because we realize that we have totally failed on our own, and a peace steals its way into our hearts. It may be when someone speaks to you of God, of hope, of new life. It may be when you see a sunrise and suddenly feel hope again. It may be when you are graced to find the right doctor to help you.
Like the sunrise that gradually brings light into the world, like the melting snow that reveals the plants ready to sprout, like the candle lit in a dark room, like the gentle movement of love in our hearts, Christmas changes everything.
In our culture we see today, the first of January, as the beginning of a new year. We make resolutions and plans for the coming year to be different. But we cannot make things different on our own. There is nothing different about today than yesterday except a number on a calendar.
No, the time of change, the time of hope, is not the New Year, but Christmas. It is the grace of Christmas, of Christ’s presence with us, and within us, that brings the hope that things will be different, that we are starting anew, that it will not always be winter.
May this New Year be one in which you carry Christmas in your heart all year long. May it be a time where the light of Christ fills you and gives you peace.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.



Monday, December 15, 2014

Sermon - 4 Advent B

Saying "Yes" to God is not an easy thing. Two thousand years ago Mary said "Yes." We honor her to this day because she is a model of total surrender to God.


Sermon
4 Advent B
Given at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church
12/22/96
By Rev. Valerie Ann Hart
Luke 1:26-38

         What is it about Mary that so grabs our imaginations?  There is an article about her in this week’s TIME magazine that traces her ups and downs in popularity during the 2000 years since that fateful day when she said “yes” to God. What is there about this young woman, why is her story so powerful, so moving?
         I think people are touched because her story is the story of self-surrender, which is the highest form of discipleship. She personifies the ones who have offered themselves, their egos, their separateness, to God. She embodies what Jesus referred to as the “least of the kingdom,” the ones who humbly offer themselves to God.
         She was nobody special, trying to live a good normal life, and an angel appears announcing a miracle - she will give birth, even though she is a virgin. Now looking back on this we can call her blessed, but for her, what a difficult thing was being asked. She was betrothed to marry, if she got pregnant what would happen to that. Even worse, when the town’s people discovered that she conceived before marrying Joseph, she could be stoned. Surely she could expect to be excluded, looked down upon, whispered about. Who would want to go through that kind of experience? I certainly wouldn’t, would you? Yet, when she hears what the angel has to say, she consents. She says “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” In today’s English, she might have said, “Ok, whatever you want.”
         To be able to say, “OK God, whatever you want with my life,” is not an easy thing to do. How difficult it is for each of us. We all have plans, expectations, and images of ourselves. We don’t like it when God’s plans contradict our own. When we find we have lost a job for no fault of our own, do we get angry, get depressed, or can we say, “OK God, whatever you want.” Perhaps there is something else here for me to learn or do. Are we able to trust that the God who sends us difficult tasks, will also be the God that sees to it that our real needs are taken care of?
         Buckminster Fuller, the genius best known for his geodesic dome buildings, struggled with the meaning of life when he was in his twenties. Faced with unremitting failure and the need to support a wife and newborn child, he walked to the shores of Lake Michigan, determined to either find the meaning and purpose of his life, or, failing that, to drown himself that very day.
         After some hours of intense meditation, the realization came to him that the universe is the product of a higher mind that is striving to create order out of disorder. If there were ever to be such a things as a “meaningful life” surely it would be found in trying to serve this higher mind in any available capacity. And this is what he resolved to do. In other words he surrendered his life to God.
         His second realization was just as critical as the first; he realized that as long as he was doing his best to serve this calling, then the higher power would naturally reciprocate by supporting him in his earthly existence in whatever way it deemed necessary. His livelihood, in other words, was no longer his problem. By becoming wholly dependent upon God, he had become God’s charge. Buckminster Fuller never again undertook a project with the aim of earning money. And although he went through many periods where money was in short supply, the basic needs of himself and his family were always taken care of.
         “Ok, God, whatever you want.” To trust that if we surrender to God’s loving will for us, God will also take care of our needs. To really surrender - to really trust God. That is what Mary did. That is why she is so special to us, because we all in some way want to be able to surrender, want to be able to trust God, but we all find that difficult. To have a symbol of such surrender, in Mary, is one of the gifts she has given to all of us. To read Mary’s story reminds us of the power of surrender.
         When we let go of our fear (remember the angel says to Mary “Do not be afraid.”), when we let go of our need to feel that we are in control of our lives, our destinies, when we let go of anger when things don’t go the way we think they should, when we let go of our need to plan our futures, when we empty ourselves of our ego needs, then we become fertile ground in which God can implant the light of Christ, so that we may become pregnant with God’s love and birth Christ’s love into the world.

         Surrender, letting go, and trusting God. That’s what discipleship is all about. Surrender, letting go, and trusting God, that is what giving birth is all about. Surrender, letting go, and trusting God IS how we prepare for the birth of Christ, in our hearts, in our lives and in the world.

Monday, December 8, 2014

Christmas Sermon

I could not find any of the sermons I have given for the coming Sunday of Advent 3 B, so I am sharing with you a sermon I gave on Christmas in 1996. I know that many who will be preaching at one or more Christmas services are already searching for ideas.
If I were to give this sermon a title I would call it "Christmas - the best of times, the worst of times." It acknowledges that sometimes if you are having a rough time in life all the joy in others at Christmas can make your own pain worse.


Christmas 1996
St. Alban’s Episcopal Church
The Rev. Valerie A Hart

       We all are familiar this time of year with Charles Dickens classic story “A Christmas Carol.” But there is another story that he wrote, “A Tale of Two Cities” which begins with the memorable line. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”
       “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Sometimes that statement seems to describe the Christmas season. It is the best of times because of all the joy we see in the faces of those we love, especially in the children. It is the best of times when families come together to enjoy each other, and old friends reach out to be in contact again. It is the best of times as we sing and talk of peace on earth, of love and of hope. But it is the worst of times if you are at a difficult time in your life. It is the worst of times if you are in grief over the death of a loved one or the end of a relationship. The holidays just seem to magnify the lose. It is the worst of times if you are alone, unable to be with family, when everyone else seems to be surrounded by love. It is the worst of times if you are struggling with addiction in yourself or someone you love. All the parties, all the celebrations, all the happy news, just puts a spotlight on your own pain. It is the worst of times if you are depressed, because at this time of year you are “supposed” to be happy.
       The Christmas season, it is the best of times it is the worst of times.
       For Mary and Joseph, it certainly was the best of times and the worst of times. It was the best of times because they were about to give birth to their first child. What a wonderful and joyous event. But it was the worst of times - that long difficult journey with Mary nine months pregnant, the frustration of having nowhere to stay, the loneliness of giving birth without her mother and friends to help, the humiliation of spending the night in a stable. Surely Mary and Joseph must have felt it was the worst of times, yet all that was overshadowed by the birth of a son, and it became the best of times.
       It was the worst of times for the shepherds. The days were short and the nights were long and cold. Being a shepherd was a low status job; it was hard, often lonely, work. That long night must have felt like the worst of times, until the angels appeared and everything was transformed.
       It was the worst of times for the people of Israel. They were under the fierce rule of Rome, they had no freedom, they were over taxed, and Herod, their own ruler was vicious and heartless. Things were dark in Israel - it was the worst of times.
       There had been other bad times for the Israelites. During the time that Isaiah wrote the first reading today, Israel was being attacked by several enemies and was ruled by a weak king who reached out to Assyria, a conquering empire, for help that would turn into destruction. Life was hard in Israel then, there seemed no hope, and their king was certainly not up to the needs of the time. In this “worst of times” Isaiah wrote of hope. Hope that the people who walked in darkness would see a great light. Hope that in this time of suffering there would be joy. Hope that God would send a great leader to reestablish God’s reign through David. Out of this “worst of times” would come the “best of times.”
         Isaiah’s message of hope, of people in darkness seeing a great light, is as relevant to us today as it was 27 hundred years ago. When it is the worst of times, when darkness seems to overshadow us, that is often when we are most receptive to the light, to the message of hope that is Christmas. Christ, the best of gifts, was born at night, in a stable, in the worst of situations. The good news was proclaimed first to shepherds, the least of those, the ones most in need of hearing the good news.
         Christmas is always associated with light, with the star in Bethlehem, with Christ being the light of the world. After all who is it that needs light, why it is those who are in darkness.
         When it is the worst of times it is the time we most need to remember the best of times. To remember Christ’s birth.
         But what is this light, this hope that is born into the world on Christmas? It is the assurance that God cares. John’s gospel expresses it most clearly “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” That is the Christmas message. God so loved the world. God so loved the world that God chose to be born as a child on earth. God so loved the world that God became one of us, walked with us, suffered with us, and sacrificed for us.
         What greater light could there be to dispel our darkness, than the knowledge that God loves us so much that God gave us the greatest of all gifts. In the darkness, in the stable, humbly, God gave of God’s very self to us. In the worst of times God gave the best of gifts - total, passionate, unconditional love.
         All we are asked is to receive this gift of love. To stop long enough in the busyness of our lives to receive the gift of God’s love. To let God love us. Sometimes we experience God’s love as a bright sun, filling us with light and love and joy. Sometimes it is but a glimmer in the darkness. A spark of hope in the hopelessness.
         That is the Christmas miracle - light in the darkness. The light of love in the darkness of our hearts. The hope, the promise that we are loved. The hope, the promise that even in our darkest times, especially in our darkest times, we are loved by God. Even in the worst of times, when we feel unloved and unlovable, we are passionately loved by God.
         The angel said, “Do not be afraid; for see-- I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people.” The good news is that God loves us, each of us, at both the best of times and the worst of times. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son.” Born in stable, a great light for people who walked in darkness.

            

Monday, December 1, 2014

Advent 2 B - sermon

Imagine that you are driving, lost in the fog. Is it time to turn around?

2 Advent B
The Rev. Valerie Ann Hart
St. Alban’s Episcopal Church
Brentwood, CA
12/8/96
Mark 1:1-8

         Imagine that you’ve spent the evening at a friend’s house somewhere East of Byron. When you leave to come home you discover that it is a dark and foggy night, so you get in your car and drive along, carefully following those little yellow dots that show where the middle of the highway is. You have been driving for quite a while, and your spouse sitting next to you, is complaining that things don’t look right, shouldn’t there have been a turn back there, etc. You mutter back something about back seat drivers and continue on. Now you are making a little better time, because there is a car in front of you, at least there are those two red lights to follow. You know nothing of the person driving that car, or where they are headed, but at least there is someone to follow. Then, suddenly you see a strangely dressed man standing in the road holding a stop sign and waving and jumping up and down to get your attention. With hesitation, you stop and role the window down just a little. “Turn around! You are going the wrong way!” he says. You look confused. “Turn around! If you keep going this way you will hurt yourself or someone else,” he repeats. “But I’m being careful” you respond. “Turn around! The lights you are following belong to a drunk who could lead you off the road, who will lead you only to death!” he states with great drama. “Who are you and why should I trust you?” you ask. “Turn around” he keeps saying. Finally he brings out a bucket of water and pours it over your windshield. To your surprise, it is no longer foggy outside. What you had thought was fog, was really all the dirt on your own windshield. As you can see outside you realize that you are very far from home, you have no idea how many hours you were going the wrong direction, and it dawns on you that you are totally lost. You also notice that the car you were following is about to go off into a ditch. You turn to the man beside you to thank him and ask him how to get home. “Follow that one over there,” he says as he points to a light in the distance. As you pull away you ask your spouse “Who was that?” “Oh, I think he was a workman preparing the road, making the highway in this desert straight.”
         John the baptizer proclaimed a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Repentance, what is repentance? The word is a translation of metanoia, a Greek word that means to know again in a new way, be transformed, to turn around. When someone calls for repentance they are telling you to turn around, to turn around because you are going in the wrong direction, to turn around so that you can see things in a new way. Baptism of repentance would be a baptism that provides one an opportunity to see things in a new way.
         How much of our lives we spend as if we were wandering lost in the fog. We have no sense of where we are going, we don’t see the dangers ahead, and sometimes we follow something or someone without knowing where it will lead. How many of us wake up one morning and begin to question what we are doing with our lives. We follow a path set before us, school, marriage, job, whatever, without thinking about whether it leads to where we really want to go. Perhaps we seek wealth, money for its own sake, without thinking about why we should be trying to get rich, and then we find, once we have some money, that we still feel empty inside. Perhaps it is power that you followed after. Perhaps it was the dream of your own home and that fantasy middle class life. Once you have achieved it, then what?
         Maybe you have a gone down a road of addiction to alcohol, or drugs and one day you woke up to realize that this road leads nowhere. Maybe you idealized someone and followed them until you found that you had lost your own sense of identity. Any time we make anything more important than God, more important than loving God and our neighbors, we are going in the wrong direction and sooner or latter will find ourselves lost and at a dead end.  When we discover we have gone the wrong way there is only one thing to do, turn around.  To repent, to turn around, means to acknowledge that we have been going the wrong way, to acknowledge that we have done things we shouldn’t have done and not done things we should have.  To repent of our sins means to open our eyes and acknowledge the mistakes we have made, to see ourselves in a new way, to acknowledge that we are lost, to turn around and to follow the one for whom John was preparing, to follow the true light that can lead us home.
         Advent is a season with two themes. The first is the joyful anticipation of the birth of Christ, the incarnation of our Lord. The second is the preparing for the second coming of Christ. Both involve a sense of preparation, of self study so that we are ready to receive the incredible grace that God bestowed upon the earth on the first Christmas. We need to prepare to be able to let in just how much God loves us. We need to be prepared to open our hearts and receive the gift of love that is the Christ child.

         How do we prepare? By opening our eyes and hearts, by washing away the dirt of our past that keeps us from seeing the truth, by repenting and letting ourselves be transformed, so that when we see the true light we are ready to follow Christ home.