John, your interruptions are so tiresome.  You keep intruding with your shouts of "Repent", your work orders, and really John, the name calling has to stop.  We are not inclined to listen when you stand there calling us the offspring of poisonous reptiles!  Seriously, I think we will just turn the carols up a little louder and tune you out.  You're an interesting character John with your camel's hair and your lunches of wild honey and locusts, but you sure don't make it into the Christmas pageant. You're part of this whole ADVENT deal, and everyone knows that isn't actually a holiday anyway.  We're busy John, we're getting ready, we have cut down our trees, we are decorating and shopping and wrapping and mailing.  We're at the church for rehearsals and planning, we're writing letters and baking, we are thinking of those less fortunate, lighting candles, and going to concerts, WHAT IS IT YOU WANT JOHN?  What does REPENT have to do with any of this.  We have put up our Nativity sets and there is no where for you to stand John, and frankly, it is a little difficult to think about enjoying singing Silent Night with you in the room.  Not to be rude John, but its Jesus we want, the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in the manger.  We want sleigh bells and chestnuts roasting on an open fire, we want cozy lambs and angels choirs, and John, not only are you getting tiresome, but you are becoming a bit of an embarrassment.  It's not that we don't appreciate your concern, but John, what is all this talk of bearing fruit and wheat and chaff, what is all this about being thrown into the fire??  John, it's almost Christmas, get a life.  We are very well informed about the one you say is coming, we know him up close and personal.  We are Christians of the 21^st century, we know how the story turns out, we have read the book and seen the movie.  We know Jesus, John.

          Years ago when my four brothers and sisters and I were kids, my parents would give us money right before Christmas so we could go downtown and shop for presents for each other and for them.  One night we were downtown, and when we went into the Ben Franklin store and looked around, my eyes were riveted to the perfect present for my parents.  There it was, up on the wall, a picture of Jesus, the classic picture, you know the one, he has long, light brown hair and a mild, sweet look.  I looked up at it and saw a 1 with two zeroes, this was going to be out of our reach, a hundred dollar picture was not possible.  I got it off the wall and took it to the clerk, "Excuse me, does this picture cost a hundred dollars?"  No, she said, One dollar.  My eyes about popped out of my head, I being the oldest and ONE IN CHARGE went to my brothers and sisters - "You won't believe it, this picture costs only one dollar!!!!"  We made our decision and hurried to buy it before someone realized the huge pricing error that had been made, what a steal, one dollar, the most amazing deal in town.  And we proudly gave it to our parents on Christmas Eve, feeling rather smug in our ability to produce such a fine gift.  I suppose it wasn't too many years later when I realized that we had been a little blind to the quality of our find, and that actually it probably was about a dollars worth of fine art. We didn't really get it, we had thought this was the ultimate --- and in the eyes of 5 kids that night, it was.  But eventually we have to have our eyes opened; we have to look again at our pictures of Jesus.

          John's picture of Jesus is nothing like that sweet face with the long brown hair.  Instead, he went around warning people about the wrath to come, about the need for repentance, for turning in another direction, for bearing fruit or being cut down. John's picture could make us want to hide under the bed for fear of this One who is coming - this One who is mighty and ready to baptize with fire and the Holy Spirit.  That picture DOES intrude into our preparations for the Sweet Baby Jesus, forces its way into the middle of our "All is calm, all is bright."  Both pictures are glimpses however, both pictures give us a sense of who it is that we prepare for, who it is that comes with such great human vulnerability, and at the same time, such power and strength.  God with us, Emmanuel.

          Somewhere along the line, REPENT became more of a caricature than a way of life --- but for those of us who are on this journey of faith, repentance is tied to the daily dying that is ours in baptism.  Repentance means admitting again that God can, I can't, and I will pray that again this day God will work in me the power of death to self and resurrection to new life.  Every day.

As we wait in hope and expectation, we are reminded by John the Baptist, we are accosted and interrupted by John to keep looking at our pictures of Jesus, to keep making a way for the One who enters our lives, not just once back then, but here and now, today.  So, we light our candles, do our shopping, sing our carols - and in the midst of that we wait and prepare, we make ready for his coming.  Be ready to acknowledge that empty place inside you where he comes to make a home.  Now, in this Advent time, we acknowledge all our hopes and fears.  Our repentance is our turning toward the promised One who comes into our messy lives, our broken promises, our failures, and our despair.  Love enters, the all encompassing love of God, and that love does not leave us as it find us.  Like the raving Baptist, love bowls us over, gets our attention, and opens our eyes so that the picture of the Messiah comes into focus.  My picture of Jesus becomes a true work or art when I can recognize that no poverty or hopelessness is beyond God's mercy and redemption.  The kingdom of heaven has come and touched our lives, has come, not fully, but close enough for us to get a little hint, close enough to leave us with the promise of a future, enough to remind us that we are part of the picture.  It has come close enough to allow us to expect, to hope, to trust the promise of One who comes with the Holy Spirit and with fire in order to change the course of our lives.

So, keep talking to us John, keep shouting over the Christmas carols and showing up where you aren't really wanted. Keep reminding us that Jesus meek and mild, is also the One who comes to turn the world upside down, and the One who has work for us to do.  Turn us from complacency, open our eyes, make our hearts your home.  That is our Advent prayer.  Come Lord Jesus.

AMEN