'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.'

This weekend, we will celebrate and reflect on the Second Sunday of Advent. As the second candle on the advent wreath is lit, we hear again of John the Baptist preparing us for the coming of the Messiah. 

John’s message to us is clear and familiar - he calls us to ‘repent’, to take a look, at this special time of preparation for the coming of Jesus, at the ways in which we might once again turn away from those behaviours and attitudes that make us less than God calls us to be.

John the Baptist also reminds us that “the one who follows me will baptise with fire and the Holy Spirit”. In using these words, John is deferring to Jesus as the one who will bring our lives and faith into a new age of witnessing to the values of God and turning anew towards him.  

Individually and as a community we will reflect on how our attitudes and values demonstrate the power of God’s Spirit within us. As John baptises with water those who come to him, so we have been baptised into our faith. This Sunday, we have cause to reflect on how timely it might be, during Advent, to reform and refresh our values as baptised Christians.

Our prayer for this week might be - 

Loving God,

Prepare our hearts to celebrate the birth of Jesus peacefully.

Grant us the power of your spirit,

So that your grace might renew and strengthen us.

We thank you for the message of John the Baptist, the great prophet,

who reminds us to wholly prepare for the coming of the Messiah.

Through Jesus Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

One God, now and forever. Amen.