In ancient times it was traditional that every kind should have a herald who would precede his coming among his people so that they could prepare and make all things ready for his arrival on the few occasions he would travel. In those days, the king often remained in his palace for reasons of safety and security, as the paths and roads were often not safe. If a king presided over a large kingdom, the people of any given region might only see him once, or perhaps a few times in their lifetime, so preparing for such a special event was very important.
This preparation is even more important for us, as we await the celebration of the coming of the Lord and King of all creation in human form, which we celebrate at Christmas each year. The season of Advent which we now are in is our time of preparation, and in our Gospel today we are reminded of the herald who preceded our Lord’s coming – John the Baptist. John lived a life of asceticism and penance to prepare himself because he recognized the sinfulness that we are each plagued with, and to set an example to help prepare us by his own ready acknowledgement of sin. We do not necessarily have to dress in such rugged attire, nor even eat such spartan foods, but we do need to be keenly aware of the need to prepare ourselves by recalling our sins and seeking forgiveness. We need to prepare the house within each of us that Jesus seeks to dwell in and so be close to us, just as He came to us as a man to be even closer to us. We need to heed the herald of the King, and to make straight the roads into our hearts, and to smooth and level the paths into our souls. We need to be humble enough to stoop low to loosen the sandals on His feet by being willing to humbly serve those around us who were created in His image. In this season we are each called to repent, to atone, and to change so that the house that we prepare for our Lords coming is swept clean and put in order to receive Him.
The birth of our Lord is often celebrated with many decorations, traditions, and gifts, yet none of these compares with the gift that we were each given in that humble manger so long ago. The gift of God living among us as man for the express purpose of dying for our sins so that as John told us, we would be able to be baptized with fire and the Holy Spirit and to be restored in our relationship with our Creator. In this season I hope that each of us can pay a bit more attention to how we live and interact with those we encounter, so that by our way of living we can each be an echo of that voice crying out in the desert – Prepare the way of the Lord!
The Deacons Bench 