Dec 5, 1999   The two faces of advent:   This season of preparation for Christmas called Advent wears two faces: there is the familiar and encouraging face of the prophecies that a babe of grace will be born in Bethlehem. In anticipation of Christ's birth it's appropriate to begin singing Christmas carols now. The world encourages this telescoping of Christmas joy and enthusiasm into these shopping days of Advent. The other face of Christmas is more sobering: it is the prophets like Isaiah and John the Baptist crying from the wilderness: prepare the way of the Lord. Repent, get sober, get things right, for the babe of God comes as the Son of God to rule in glory and as part of his authority to judge in his holiness. In other words, the Baptist calls us to make a searching and thorough moral inventory of ourselves. We have endeavoured to do this in our sharing and thoughts of prayers of thanks and hopes. John the Baptist came from the wilderness but the wilderness is not a familiar theme for Christmas decorations and preparations. But the wilderness in spiritual journeys is the most often place where God prepares his people for something marvelous. John the Baptist came out of the wilderness to proclaim the coming of the Messiah. The prophets traditionally retreated to the desert and mountain wilderness of Israel to draw renewed strength for their duties. Jesus went into the wilderness for forty days to get clear his mission in life. I hope everyone of us feels somewhat uncomfortable as we get ready for Christmas. If so, we are experiencing some of that wilderness which God means to be a blessing rather than a bane upon us. And it is from the zone of being uncomfortable, of having made a moral inventory, that we can most appropriately now proceed to the Lord's Table where wilderness and Bethlehem, sobriety and celebration, reflection and exuberance, come together. God has great gifts to give us all. Communion is now our foretaste of His grace.   Pastor Gene Preston   Archives: Sermon Texts
	The Rev. Gene R.Preston 14th Floor, Blk 36, Lower Baguio Villa Tel : 25516161 Fax: 25512114 E-mail : gpreston@netvigator.com

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