In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen

In Friday's edition of the London Free Press there was story entitled “Election sales pitches absent from holiday shopper's lists”. The story was addressing the possibility of party candidates popping up in shopping malls before Christmas. In theory this sounds like a great idea. The candidate is out of the cold, the mall is warm and that is where the people are congregating.

However, the shoppers and mall staff were not to keen on the idea. The manager of the White Oaks mall was quoted, “It's going to be a zoo, anyway.” One shopper said there is no place for politics in her holiday routine, “Shopping to me is like a mission and I don't like to be interrupted.” A mall employee said. “people just don't need the extra stress.”

Oh the busyness and stress of the season! Piped muzak blaring out of every store which Bert was complaining about this week, impatient customers raising their voices to get the attention of overworked sales people, crying children and the angry voices of tired parents. We are bathed in a forest of lights, sales, company parties and Christmas cards.

Manger scenes make their yearly appearance in the public square along with the little drummer boy and Frosty the snowman. Now possibly added to the mix, political candidates making their pitch, a sort of “one stop shopping” for the political parties. December is the most stressful month of the year for many people.

And then along comes John the Baptist. John is odd, dressed in clothing made of camel's hair and leather belt, subsisting on a diet of locusts and honey. His message of repentance kind of kills the “spirit of the season”. Is it any wonder that we do not see any Christmas ornaments of John the Baptist. But John refuses to go away. He calls from the margins of our fast paced lives, determined to have our attention.

Perhaps John knows what we don't know or at least chose to ignore. Our lives aren't as clean as we think they are. We aren't as good as we would like others to believe. That God's difficult way won't be discovered at Masonville or White Oaks, nor at the company Christmas party. God's way is being prepared out in the wilderness away from the center of things. It is there amongst the desert rocks and sand that John beckons us to come.

Marks tells us the people did come, “The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him.” Now there are probably a variety of reasons as to why they came. Maybe it was simple curiousity. But perhaps it was something deeper-something found in John's passionate proclamation, a hope for something more substantial than the the same ol, same ol of everyday existence.

Out they came from the countryside and the city to hear the gospel, the good news of God's new way. And it was there in the wilderness that they did hear the good news, devoid of distractions, they heard the message of repentance loud and clear.

It is to the wilderness that John beckons us to come in this our season of Advent. The wilderness of prayer. Time alone in the desert of our hearts, the lonely place of our own soul. But we hesistate, we offer our excuses. we are too busy in the midst of our lives to risk entering the desert place. There is simply no time, there is too much to do. Unable to make even that brief 15 minute sojourn into the wild desert.

And yet this busyness destroys relationships. It substitutes shallow frenzy for deep friendship both with other people and with God. It feeds the ego but starves our inner lives. Certainly the church is not immune. Many a church boasts about its active programs. Something for every night of the week for everybody. Elmwood can be like this. But with good intentions we have created the very atmosphere, the very lifestyle, we are trying to prevent.

But on the other hand perhaps we are right to hesitate for wilderness travel is hard work. If you have ever traveled in the desert or done any wilderness camping it involves a great deal of preparation. Preparation and anticipation of what you might encounter in those wild places. In the wilderness we can't live our normal lives for life there is stripped to the essentials-food, water, a guide who knows the way and the faith to follow. Stripped down like John in his camel hair and sandals.

It is there in the wilderness of our hearts that we confront those parts of ourselves that we dare not reveal to others let alone ourselves. It is there that we see our brokeness, our weakness, our lonliness, our responsibility for our broken world.This is essentially what repentance is all about. Literally it means to turn our lives around 180 degrees.
It is living our lives in a different way, a more honest and hopeful way. This is the Advent way where our lives are stripped to their essentials, our sin and our need for the grace of God.

For out in the wilderness, the veneer that covers so many aspects of our lives is stripped away, the message of repentance doesn't have as many barriers or distractions to get through. We can't haul that stuff into the wilderness and expect to survive.

If you want to prepare to Christmas this year, stay away from the malls, leave all the stuff of the mainstream season behind and set your sights on the wilderness, the wilderness of broken dreams, the wilderness of your own heart and soul that can be filled only by the gift of God's grace.For if we are going to find God in this season, we have to get away from the crowds, get away from our old lives and go to the desert place that is marked by the essentials of sin and grace. And John is there calling us to join him.
THANKS BE TO GOD, AMEN.