“Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.”           (St. Matthew  xi. 10.)

In our Old Testament lesson today, Isaiah talks about the desert rejoicing and blossoming as the rose.  He describes the kingdom of God.  He ends with, “And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads;  they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”  He describes a highway where only the redeemed shall walk.

We start this service focused on our greatest desire, everlasting communion with God in his kingdom.  We know that will occur at Jesus’ Second Coming when He will judge who is worthy of the kingdom.  We struggle to remember the lessons from Jesus’ First Coming when He came in all humility in the form of a servant.  How can we face the Second Coming?  Isaiah said, “Be strong.  Fear not.  Behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence;  he will come to save you.”  When we think of the First Coming, we think of God’s grace.  When we think of the Second Coming, we pray for God’s mercy.

Jesus used the words from the 3^rd chapter of Malachi in our text today.  He used them to describe John in today’s Gospel.  The emphasis today starts on John the Baptist as He was called to prepare the way for the First Coming of Christ.  It would be easy to overlook John’s importance in preparing men for Jesus’ ministry.  John did no miracles - as he himself bore witness.  Aside from prophecy and preaching, he showed no signs of the charismatic.  But John did one thing and he did it well.  All things John spake of Jesus were true.  John knew Christ was coming and he knew people were not ready to receive His teaching.  He prepared the hearts of the disobedient and made them penitent and ready for the wisdom of the just.  By preaching his own gospel of repentance, he readied many hearts to receive the word of the One who was yet to come.

Today is not just a celebration of John the Baptist.  It is the third Sunday in Advent and as such a little lighter in the sense of penitence.  Hence, we light the pink candle on the Advent wreath.  It is a lighter celebration because the message is one of encouragement.  Make no mistake, the final judgment is still coming but today our concentration is on making preparation and encouraging others.

Our hymns today are all about preparation.  The processional cried, “Wake, Awake, for night is flying.”  The Gradual speaks of watchmen searching for the signs.  Each verse of the sermon hymn progressively welcomes: ‘Emmanual’, ‘Wisdom’, ‘Lord of Might’, ‘Rod of Jesse’s stem’, ‘Key of David’, ‘Day Spring from on High’ and ‘Desire of nations’.  Our last hymn today sends us off into the world with our marching orders, “Rejoice, Rejoice, believers, and let your lights appear.”  That hymn ends with our hope, “We plead, O Lord, to see the day of earth’s redemption and ever be with thee.”

Our collect also contains our marching orders.  “O Lord Jesus Christ, who at thy first coming didst send thy messenger to prepare thy way before thee.  Grant that the ministers and stewards of thy mysteries may likewise so prepare and make ready thy way, by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just”.  In this Advent season we commemorate the First Coming of Our Lord.  However, it’s a part of our calling and vocation to prepare a needy world for Jesus’ Second Coming.  It is not enough to be ready when he comes.  We must do all in our power to help others to be ready for that Great and Dreadful Day.

As we celebrate today, we are not told to expect another messenger to proclaim Christ’s second coming.  That is our job.  We are, as always, servants of Christ.  We are called, as was John, to turn the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just.  The celebration is lighter today as we are encouraged by our calling to be messengers.  We celebrate the opportunity to prepare a confused and fallen world to recognize, and know, and love, our Lord and Savior.

Fortunately, we are not obligated to wear loin cloths and eat locusts and honey in order to be Christ’s messenger.  Nevertheless, it is an awesome challenge.  Many of us can hardly keep ourselves straight, let alone help others.  What can we do to influence others?  In our culture, turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just seems impossible.  How can we affect those who will not listen?  How can we change those who think they have the right answers?  How can we help those who think there are no answers?  Remember, John had the same problem.

In our Collect today, we start by asking Jesus to give grace to his ministers and stewards that we too may prepare his way.  We must work the same way John did.  We stick to the truth we have been told to proclaim.  We do not conform to the misguided constructs of the disobedient.  We do not appear nor want to be “one of them”.  We prepare the way by living our lives according to the wisdom of the just.

In today’s world, many people perceive wisdom in many different forms.  How do we recognize the wisdom of the just and direct our efforts toward it?  Last week’s Collect told us to “read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest Holy Scripture.  In addition, we trust the wisdom and tradition that is common to the Communion of Saints and that has remained unchanged from age to age.  Many have labored before us to preserve the traditions of that wisdom and to keep it unstained from the evolving nature of culture.  We must use our reason and labor to keep the church free of the secular virus so virulent today.  Besides living our lives according to the wisdom of the just, we must show others the straight and narrow path that leads to everlasting life.  In short, we must keep ourselves in constant training and pray that we may be found an acceptable people in His sight.

This is our task.  It’s why we acknowledge our own ministry this day as well as John’s.  We rejoice in being able to see ourselves as Jesus’ servants - his messengers, his proclaimers, his stewards, but chief of all, his servants.

We have a job to do.  It’s not the kind of job this world rewards.  It pays no money, it allows no vacations.  There are no fringe benefits.  There is certainly not the luxury of retirement.  There is precious little glory for having held the course in the face of adversity.

But we do have one reward.  It’s the satisfaction of knowing we’ve tried to do Jesus’ will - and been given the eyes to see how our own contributions have helped to win the faith of others.  There is the assurance that having done Christ’s Will on earth, we may be privileged to join the company of heaven in the perfect worship of God.

We are, indeed, in the wilderness today.  But we are not looking for people clothed in soft garments.  We are looking for people to follow Jesus’ teachings and repent in preparation for His Second Coming.  We are, “To speak the truth, to rebuke vice boldly, to suffer patiently for the truth’s sake.”  We are to do as Jesus himself did when he came as mankind’s servant.

Let us speak the truth with one another.  But, let us speak the truth in love.  With compassion, let us make no concessions to error, sin or fraud.  “Lord, help us call sinners to repentance and most important of all, let us begin with ourselves.  Help us suffer not only for the sake of truth and righteousness, but for the sake of Jesus Christ!”

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

(St. Matthew  v. 16.)