As we prepare for the coming festival of Christmas, and the celebration of our Lord’s first coming, the season of Advent also draws our attention to the second coming of the Lord: his coming as our Saviour and our judge. In our watchful preparation for his coming we are like servants who await the homecoming of their master. We get ready, watch, and wait. Today we are presented with the figure of Saint John the Baptist- John the baptizer- as the great example of a servant of God who got ready, watched and waited.

           We know very little about John the Baptist, the preacher in the wilderness of Judea, "who clothed himself in camel's hair, and wore a girdle of skin about his loins" (Matt. 3:4). He was the voice of one crying in the wilderness who said " make straight the way of the Lord."(Is. 40:3). Overall, he is presented to us as very much like the prophets of the Old Testament; Those men of God who dressed and lived strangely, sometimes seemed mad, but always spoke the Word of God loudly and repeatedly so that the people could never deny that they didn’t know what God wanted of them. No matter how foolish or strange they might have seemed to the world,. the prophets had no qualms about speaking the truth, knowing as they did that the power of God is in the TRUTH.

           Saint Paul encourages us to be fools for Christ, and John the Baptist, as the last of the prophets, offers us an excellent example of what that can mean. He heard God’s call, and understood that his calling was to literally "prepare the way for the Lord", by urging the people of Israel to repentance, showing their repentance with the sign of baptism, and joining him in his watchful waiting for the Messiah. All that he did with his life was intended to draw people back to a state of holiness in preparation for the coming of Christ. So, just like his Biblical predecessors, he made a spectacle of himself in dress and behaviour, to catch people’s attention, and then spoke boldly about sin and its remedy, repentance: all foolish things in the eyes of the worldly.

           People concerned for what the world thinks do not dress outlandishly, they follow the fashions of the day. John wore animal skins when people normally wore wool and cotton garments. People concerned with what the world thinks do not publicly denounce sins, they make excuses and declare the value of alternative life styles. People concerned with what the world thinks do not take stands for what they believe to be the TRUTH, because for them there is no such thing as absolute TRUTH. Remember Pilate’s question to our Lord: "What is TRUTH?". We hear the echo of Pilate’s words around us daily. But for John the Baptist, as for holy people before and after him there was no question of the TRUTH, what God demanded of his people.

           John’s special calling was to, through his being foolish for God, prepare the people of Israel for the coming of the Messiah and bring them into a state of prepared, watchful, expectant waiting.

           So St. John is our Advent example, for we too are called to be fools for Christ, and as good and faithful servants, prepare, and watchfully await our masters arrival. It is our calling as Christians to watch and wait. And in our time, as much as ever, perhaps even more than ever, we must be faithful, open to the TRUTH and willing to speak it boldly and firmly.

           Faithfulness is not easy and like all other things we do, it has its consequences. For John it led to his death. In today’s gospel we read of him in prison. He was put there by Herod because he openly condemned Herod for living in an adulterous relationship with his sister in law, Herodias. You recall that shortly thereafter, Herod threw a party and Herodias’ daughter Salome danced for him, and he was so pleased that he offered her whatever she wished. At her mother’s urging Salome asked for and was given John’s head on a platter. Herod had imprisoned John at Herodias’ urging, and in spite of the fact that he feared and respected John as a righteous and holy man, beheaded him to please this vengeful woman. What an example of twisted morals and values! But what a contrast! Herod was unable to take a stand for the TRUTH even against this one woman, yet John stood up to all sin and corruption wherever he found it, all the way up to and including the most powerful man in all of Galilee!

           But we need to remember too that John was no superman. He too, was weak and sometimes doubtful just as we are. Look again at today’s Gospel. Here he is, languishing in prison with no prospect of release until and unless Herodias falls from favor and Herod can be persuaded to let him go, and he begins to wonder whether he really has been hearing God correctly. When he pointed to Jesus that day and cried out, "Behold the Lamb of God", was he right? Was Jesus really the Messiah or was he mistaken? And if he was mistaken about Jesus, perhaps he was wrong to speak out against Herod and Herodias too. So he sends a message to Jesus asking him, "are you really who I thought you were? Tell me, am I wrong and everybody else is right?" And our Lord’s reply is such that John was reassured, and was able to meet his death knowing that he had indeed been an instrument of God. He had been right!

           Then Jesus turned to the crowd and challenged them with the TRUTH in much the same way as had John, asking them what they thought they were doing when they went to hear John. Did they just go out to see a spectacle?, a show? Were they expecting to hear what they wanted to hear, platitudes and nice comforting religious talk? Did they go out into the desert to just to have the experience of seeing a real live prophet? They saw and heard a real prophet all right, but he was more than they had bargained for because he was in fact the fore-runner of the Messiah, and the Kingdom of God was indeed at hand! Jesus told John he was right, and he told the crowds around him that John was right. His call to repentance, his call to prepare for the coming of the Messiah was not in vain, for here indeed was the Messiah who would heal the world. The signs that Jesus was who John had said he was were plain: the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the good news of salvation is being preached. The chains of sin that held all of mankind were to be broken, salvation was at hand!

           As we prepare for the celebration of our Lord’s birth, and taking Saint John the Baptist as a model and example, let us also look towards Christ’s second coming in majesty and power, preparing with watchful anticipation. Let us, too, be fools for Christ, living our lives by God’s TRUTH rather than the world’s lies; let us repent our sins, stand up for the TRUTH, and spread the good News of salvation to all the world. For the Kingdom of God is at hand. Amen.