Rejoice, says the author of the epistle to the Philippians. Rejoice for the Lord is near.

As our Advent countdown goes on, we know in a very special way that it is so. The Lord is very near. The one who is present with us always is also coming to us. And his coming is just around the corner.
As the weeks go by and the Advent candles get lit one by one, week by week, our sense of expectation grows. No wonder then that we find ourselves reading our Gospel reading at this time of year. This is why we think about John the Baptist just now. He made the people full of expectation for what was coming.

Nowadays, we can be so caught up in the business of the season that it can become so easy to become full of crossness and bad temper instead of expectation. But Advent is our gift of time. The king is coming, he is coming soon, but we have time, just a little precious time to get ready for him.

And this morning we have to get ready for him by looking closely at the three readings.

I?m not so sure that I would have been convinced by the message of the Baptist, had I heard him in the Judean hills. I am not sure that I would have gone out to see him striding the high places and preaching in the valleys. I am not sure that I would have wanted to hear him yelling at the people to change their ways. However many did. And many still do.

Though I myself find it hard to understand, people still like to hear this kind of preaching. You can hear it if you go to particular churches not very far from here. The further North you go, the more likely you are to hear it. (Which, interestingly, is true all over the Northern Hemisphere).

However, though I find the style of his preaching unattractive, there are things that he is saying which cannot be ignored.

Firstly, that we cannot rely on the faith of our parents to save us. He is right we cannot. Nor, might I add can we rely on our own sense of worth or our own experiences or promises or hopes. We can rely on God alone. God who loves us enough to be one of us.

Secondly, the Baptist comes with a promise that the Lord is going to have a clear out. The threshing floor will be swept clear of all the detritus of all the years. All the baggage that we carry. All the dust and dirt. Everything will be swept away. We have a God who promises to come to us afresh. To make all things new. There are times in all our lives when we may need to experience that sweeping away. That spring cleaning of the soul that comes from being truly honest with God and of knowing of his true love and devotion for us.

And thirdly, the message that I take from the Baptist is that there is something right about ethical living that God?s people cannot ignore. And by God?s people, I don?t mean those who are sitting in churches or houses of worship. I mean all God?s diverse company of people in their many shaded cultures all over the world. The Baptist tells us that living rightly is in itself right. Sharing the resources of this world is Godly business. And this is neither separate from religion nor exclusive to it.

These are the things then that make for a life worth living. Firstly, relying on God for our sense of salvation (which means healing and wholeness). Secondly accepting the promise that everything can be made new when we need it. And thirdly living a life where we think of others.

It isn?t rocket science ? these things really do make for a good life and I am aware as I say that, of the research which was published recently that indicated that religious people were often much happier and found life easier than non-religious people.

It is these things which make for the kind of rejoicing that is described in the reading from Zephaniah and the joy that is on offer to the Philippians.

That reading from Zephaniah is the only cheery bit of the book. Much is depressing and miserable, so much so that some people think that this bit was tagged on by a later editor who could not bear the misery and needed things to be lightened up.

For whatever reason it is there, I rejoice in it. I rejoice in the promise that our God will rejoice in us. Not only that, but that our God will sing for joy for us.

So much, we think of singing for God. Singing to God. Singing in praise. Singing in worship. Fine and God ? but I delight in a God who promises to join in the song and sing with exultation over the people. Singing with exultation as people are set free. Free from what makes them limp through life. Free from their oppressors. Free from disaster. Free from being outcast. Free from homelessness. Free from shame.

When these things happen, promises Zephaniah (or his editor) then our God joins in the singing. God?s mouth falls open and God joins in our song.

And with all that going on in this world and beyond when God?s people are set free, can we not accept the commandment to the Philippians. Not a commandment to do this or that or live in one way or another. A commandment to rejoice. Rejoicing in the coming of a king. Who comes to set us free.

And then joins in our song of celebration! Amen

The Baptist is Back!

Striding into our worship. Cutting as strange a figure as ever he did. Walking in from the wilderness to say to us ? ?Prepare, you, yes you, prepare the way of the Lord?.

Who will heed the baptist?s cry in Advent this year?

A call to get ready. A cry that was never far from the lips of the prophets. A proclamation of change.

The voice crying in the wilderness. Crying out for people to come back home to God. Crying out for people to build a world that is better than the one we live in. A lone voice looking for others to join in the chorus. A solitary figure looking for others who share the vision of a new kind of kingdom based on the reign of a new kind of king.

John the Baptist. He is an odd figure, though he has never lost his relevance. He proclaims that Jesus is coming. And never forget that John was going about preaching and proclaiming all his stuff as an adult. And that he was of a similar age to his cousin Jesus ? just a few months older in fact. He never once said ? ?Get ready, Christmas is on its way?. Nor did he cry ? ?Get ready, prepare a way to Bethlehem?. He tells us nothing about babes in mangers, nor shepherds, nor kings nor the ox nor the ass. Some of these stories had not even been thought up when John was preaching. No, get ready he says ? get ready for the coming king.

No wonder Advent is tinsel free here. John?s message has nothing of Bethlehem about it. It has passion, prayer and politics but none of the Christmas trappings that we might hope for.

Get ready for the coming king, he shouted around the waste places of Jerusalem. And he shouts it ever louder year after year.

He shouts it to you today.

For it seems as though the world has still not heard him. Still not readied itself, steadied itself, made itself set for what is coming our way.

His passion is obvious. He strikes a wild note in a world which would often prefer bland conformity. This is a man who will not be ignored. His passion is rampant and rude. Tortured and turbulent. Raving and reckless.

He will not be ignored.

Yet he is a praying man too. So much about prayer is hope. Hope that is inspired by potential. Hope that is tempered by truth. John the Baptizer shouts his prayers from the mountaintops and yells them through the valleys.

That this world might be fit for the coming king.

And his politics? Did I slip in something about politics a minute ago? Was I suggesting that John was into politics?

Well, as much or as little as any of the prophets who soared on the winds of change.

John was the first great preacher of liberation in the new era. The first theologian of the poor in Christian times. The first to cry out for justice in the new testament highlands.

Is it easy to hear his cry from the high places of western affluence. Is it easy to hear his cry knowing how many live in valleys of despair, depression and poverty.

For valley shall be lifted up and every hill be turned into a plain. So look out!

So where did he come from? How came he here?

Well, he came from a household which worshipped the Lord. He came from within the religious establishment. In fact, Luke tells us quite a bit about him. Born the son of Zechariah ? one of the priests in the temple. Born into a an observant tradition. A tradition which kept alive the idea that God was in the midst of the people.

Born the Son of a family who sang the songs of justice and freedom.

Never underestimate the effect of singing. You may not be able to preach like John or pray like Paul. But you can sing the songs of freedom even now and keep alive the dream of a kingdom, a new kind of kingdom. Where the weak are cared for and the haughty brought down. Where the mountains are made low and the valleys made high. Where the beloved of God band together to bring the commonwealth of God that little bit closer day by day.

John new these things because his family sang these things. His father sang the Benedictus when he knew that John was coming into the world. And his aunt sang the Magnificat.

Two canticles of freedom. Manifestos for the Kingdom. Songs of Justice. Songs of Joy.

Listen to his father?s song: This was the oath God swore to our father Abraham: to set us free from the hands of our enemies, free to worship him, holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our live.

Think what it would mean for that to be true for you. Freedom. Free to be you. Free to live in a world without oppression. Free to live in a world where God is known. Freedom from persecution for all of God?s people. Freedom to live with dignity as one of God?s chosen ones. Sheltered and loved. Living in light and no more in darkness.

No wonder John turned out the way he did, coming from such a subversive, radical family within the religious tradition of his day.

There are those who will never hear the baptist?s cry. There are those who are deaf to Zechariah?s song. There are those who are deaf to Mary?s Magnificat. There are those who would prefer things to stay just the way they are.

What do you think?

Can you hear the one who cries in the desert places and the mountain places, in the high places and the low places ? Prepare, yes you, prepare the way of the Lord?

Can you hear the singing? Can you hear the people of God?s commonwealth raising their voices? Can you hear the voices of those who yearn for freedom singing the kingdom into being?

Can you hear them & will you join them in singing God?s song?

Amen.