Prepare ye the way of the Lord

In the second of our extracts from her new book, 'A Feast for Advent', Delia Smith prepares the Way.
Prepare the Way
The Way of the Spirit A shoot springs from the stock of Jesse, a scion thrusts from his roots.
On him the spirit of the Lord rests, a spirit of wisdom and insight, a spirit of counsel and power, a spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.
(the fear of the Lord is his breath).
IN DUE COURSE JOHN the Baptist appeared; he preached in the wilderness of Judea and this was his message: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand".
This was the man the prophet Isaiah spoke of when he said: "A voice cries in the wilderness: Prepare a way for the Lord..."
Uohn said] "I baptise you in water for repentance but the one who follows me is more powerful than I am, and I am not fit to carry his sandals; he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire". (Matthew 3: 1-3, 11)
The themes underlying today's readings are rich and full of meaning, but on the surface if we read the full text of Matthew 3: 1-12 what we encounter are crowds of people coming forward to make a renewed commitment to God, to submit to a ritual cleansing which entails a whole programme of renewal of life. What John is proclaiming is a time of preparation for a new birth.
Let's try for a moment to enter into the scene in the wilderness. Let us try to imagine, if we can, a weary people whose religion must have sunk to a desperately low point. Long gone were
the great patriarchs and prophets and with them the great signs and wonders of their past history.
Now they lived under pagan occupying forces, with a corrupt king and religious leaders who were both hypocritical and unreal.
Yet throughout the history of the people of God there had always been a remnant who remained faithful, who did not lose hope that one day the Messiah would come.
The prophet Malachi's book ends with a prophecy that the great Elijah would return. Thus the Old Testament concludes with a promise which is fulfilled a few pages later at the beginning of the New because as Jesus explains to his disciples (Matthew 11:14) John the Baptist is "the Elijah who was to return."
But to get back to the scene on the banks of the Jordan, I feel there is something we can learn from the people who were gathered there. They were the people of hope, people who under7 stood their weakness, their need for God and for a renewed relationship with him. They were people perhaps like us who found no satisfaction in a world of materialism and hypocrisy. Just as their world was 'occupied' by the forces of secularism and unbelief, so is ours today.
But we, too, must be a people of hope. Though we may., be tired, dejected, far away from God, the exhortation still rings out through the centuries to speak directly to us here and now: make way for the Lord, make repentance a reality, be cleansed and purified. If we're like the Pharisees we can go through the motions church on Sundays, prayer and good works but unless we are being challenged to grow in faith, our repentance is not 'bearing the appropriate fruit'. What the Baptist summons us to is total commitment, and a renewal of the whole of life which goes far beyond the limitations of this world.
I'm sure it was the reality of John the Baptist that attracted those people gathered there: a true witness to God's presence in the world.
All of us have the capacity to discern a true witness, and when we find someone who is really communicating life, we are drawn out of our darkness like moths to a flame. But John is not the light itself; all he can do is point the light, to Jesus. "Behold, the lamb of God. Behold him who takes away the sins of the world."
Those of us who are willing to start the journey out of darkness and allow the lamb of God to free us from the sins that separate us from God, we will in turn (as we grow in faith) become witnesses to the light.
John was the first great witness, and we are called to be like him, and to make the challenge of faith that will shine out and give hope to others. But how can this be? How can a helpless creature like me possibly give life to others? Jesus says of John, "Of all the
What the Baptist summons us to is total commitment, and a renewal of the whole of life
children born of women, a greater than John the Baptist has never been seen; yet the least in the kingdom is greater than he is" (Matthew 11: 11).
The answer, then, is the Holy Spirit. By ourselves we can do nothing; we are like Ezekiel's dry bones, wasted and lifeless (ch 37). On Jesus "the Spirit of the Lord rests", and if we follow him and receive the Spirit to dwell within us, then it is as if God breathed on those dry bones ("... they came to life again and stood up on their feet, a great, an immense army").
If we are witnesses that is how the work of the Spirit will take flesh in our lives, raising us up to be part of an immense ar.my.Todayme must pray for this renewing action of the Holy Spirit in each of our lives, so that we might share his gifts of wisdom, insight, counsel, power and knowledge of God.
Remember the promise of Jesus: "I shall ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you for ever, that Spirit of truth whom the world can never receive since it neither sees nor knows him; but you know him, because he is with you, he is in you" IJohn 14: 16-17).
A Feast for Advent is published by the Bible Reading Fellowship at,C12.99.