Advent II

Advent II Repent (Matthew 3:1-12)
John the Baptist was a wild and crazy guy.

Our Heavenly Father sent the Holy Spirit to sanctify John at the moment of his conception. As John grew up he left his home village, lived in the desert, wore camel’s hair robes and ate bugs and honey.

As the last of the true prophets of God, John’s basic message consisted of just two words: repent and prepare. As with all true prophets of God, John looked back to the perfect Law of Moses and held up the Law as a mirror to the human soul. In that mirror we see where we have separated from God and where we fall short of God’s standard for life.

Repent means to stop. Look. Listen. Make a change. Correct our course in life.
The prophets all ask us to stop what we are doing and reflect. Just how do we make choices? Where are our priorities? What are we doing with our lives? How do we treat other people? How do we treat God? Repentance can only begin when we start asking these kinds of questions about our own attitude and action.

After we stop it is important to look, to examine our lives. Where are we not happy? Where is there meaning and purpose in our lives? How does the world around us attempt to mold us into its values and expectations? What does Moses teach about our actions and attitudes?

After we stop and look we need to listen. We need to listen to the voice of God speaking to us. God speaks through nature, other people, the Bible and in moments of silence. The prophets invite us to seek silence so we can hear God speak. The world seeks to inundate us with noise so we are constantly distracted.

People some times complain that God is not speaking. In truth, the Prophets declare God speaks clearly and concisely but human beings do not listen. Not only do we fail to listen, we make choices to fill our lives with so many distractions that we cannot hear the clear and present Word of God.

Take time for silence. Make time for silence. Turn off all of the electronic devices that so fill our lives with noise. Make a date with Jesus Christ to meet him in a moment of silence that you choose to set aside for that sole purpose. Mother Teresa once said if you are too busy to schedule ten minutes a day for silence then you are too busy.

Jesus Christ is the pattern, the plan and the purpose for our lives. There is a popular saying: when all else fails read the instructions. Don’t wait for failure. Don’t wait for a crisis. Live intentionally. Choose to reset the course of your life by the bright and morning star, Jesus Christ.

Stop. Look. Listen. Change. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you one specific change you need to make in your life here and now.
The true prophet of God does not impel aggression. The true prophet of God does not demand submission. The true prophet of God does not lead us into esoteric withdrawal from the world. The True prophet of God encourages us to ask the hard questions. The True prophet of God asks us to seek the wisdom, the insight and the courage to change.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday today and forever. Everything else in this universe of matter, energy, time and space is subject to change. Only human beings can choose to direct that change.

The Prophets remind us very bluntly that every choice we make has eternal consequences. More often than not the power in choice is in the little things of life- what the world calls the details of life.

Choices are cumulative.

Sin is a step by step journey of incremental compromises and distractions.
Our Heavenly Father invites us to enter into the journey of life in companionship with his only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ. The surrounding culture, the distorted desires of our mind, heart and will and the subtle seductive half truths that Satan embeds in the world all seek to lead us into a journey away from that companionship.
The true prophet has been anointed and sanctified by the Holy Spirit to identify the logic junctions where we leave the path of steadfast holy love. The true prophet has the clarity of sight, the purity of heart and the singleness of will to discern how and when we are walking in the wrong direction.

John recognized the wrong direction the people of his time and culture had chosen. They had abandoned the way of love and compassion. They had embraced the way of command and control. They turned away from the one true path of life and walked in the multiple paths of self destruction and death.

From the dessert, John cried out to the people of the farms, the villages and the cities. From his own self chosen poverty John called out to the poor, the rich and the powerful. His voice was clear and unmistakable: Repent.

Repent. Stop what you are doing. Look at your lives. Listen to the voice of God revealed in Moses and the Prophets. Hear God speaking to you now in this time and in this place in a moment of silence. Repent. Change. Change now before change is too late. Choose the way that is life.

Change of this magnitude is only possible as we ask our Heavenly Father to send the Holy Spirit into our minds and hearts and wills. The desire for change produces the invitation of the soul to experience change.

We experience change as we ask God to transform our basic desires. Jesus one said: blessed is he whose only desire is to do what God requires.

We all need to make a course correction in our lives from time to time. We all need to look up and find our way through the bright and morning star. He is always there for us. He is always willing and able to work our foolish and our sinful choices back into the Plan and Pattern and Purpose of Divine Love and Compassion.
Every choice is an eternal choice. And, Jesus can transform every choice by his own love and holiness into a choice that produces eternal life.

This course correction from the path of death into the path of life is only possible as we hear the word of the prophet: repent.