Leading Through Advent: Preparation to Lead - Part One

Have you ever felt like you were wandering in the wilderness? Sometimes, it is a feeling of being lost and at other times it is the feeling that there is more to life than you are experiencing. Have you ever felt alone when you are surrounded by people and that there must be more to your relationships than you are experiencing?

It seems that the more we explore the mystery of our lives, the more we learn about ourselves, and the more mysterious we become. We are seldom content with what appears to be on the surface. We are not at ease because we sense that no matter how full our lives, there is more.

Advent is about preparing to receive what is missing. It is about preparing to receive Jesus who can meet our search for meaning and direction at any given moment. Jesus, in his weakness and vulnerability, stands with us in the midst of our misunderstandings, misconceptions, and broken relationships. The question is, how do you lead through this wilderness into new life?

During this second week of Advent, Luke offers direction in and through his story of John, the Son of Zechariah.

Read Luke 3:1-6

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, ²during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. ³He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, ⁴as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,

“The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight. ⁵Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth, ⁶and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”

Reflect on Luke 3

Luke devotes the third chapter of his good news to preparing for the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One. He places the coming of Jesus, the anointed one, in a particular time in world and religious history. His preciseness of history tells us that context is important to him. So, the setting of Luke’s good news is not a “once upon a time” context but is in real-world history. It tells us that Luke is attempting to bridge the gap between what has been and what is coming. He is laying the groundwork of putting Christ against Caesar, the Kingdom of God against the kingdom of Rome.

Luke and the Old Testament

As you read Luke, you find that he holds together what we know as the Old Testament with the coming of a new day. So, he uses Old Testament imagery to connect the past with the present and the future. With this in mind, it is interesting that he does not refer to John as “the Baptist” but as “Son of Zechariah.”

He wants to portray John as the last and greatest of the Old Testament prophets, a transitional figure who ushers out the old and announces the new. So, Luke presents John in the role of the prophets of Israel with John’s message of social justice and his resistance to the oppressive establishment of Herod and his soldiers.

Temple Piety

In that same line of thinking, Luke presents John as being from a priestly family devoted to the temple life. He places Jesus’ life and ministry within the context of temple piety. For Luke, the announcement of forgiveness of sins makes John a witness to the salvation announced in Luke, “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,to give his people knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins.” (Luke 1:76-77). With those words, Luke connects John to Jesus as the one who brings forgiveness.

A Baptism of Repentance

John’s ministry is conducted in the desert near the Jordan River. He preaches “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins”. This was not merely a ritual washing but involved a definite break with sin. Luke sees John’s ministry as a “new exodus” to enter the land of promise. Spiritually, Israel needed to come out of the wilderness, pass through the Jordan, and enter the land of promise. John is the transitional prophet between the old and new eras and is preparing all people for God’s salvation.

So, you might think of it this way. John is the prophet whose voice is heard in the wilderness. The wilderness being a reminder of the forty years wandering before coming to the promised land. John’s voice is calling for repentance and baptism. Repentance and baptism are related to the new life. The wilderness being the old life and the Messiah being the new life. For John, this new life is in preparation for the Messiah, the new promised land.

Respond to Luke 3

For Luke the message is clear, a voice in the wilderness, the old life, is crying out to be prepared for the new life. The new life is a new orientation. It is a new way of thinking and of perceiving people and the world. The act of repentance and baptism helps to break with the wilderness past and to step into the new day Christ.

So, Advent provides you the opportunity to lead into the new life provided by God’s Christ, Jesus.

An Unlikely Offering

Don Shelby, a retired United Methodist pastor, tells the story of the morning he came to his office at the church. He said, as he arrived, the custodian called him into the sanctuary. He wanted Don to see a strange offering which had been placed at the very center of the altar.

As Don and the custodian examined the offering, they found a pair of brown corduroy trousers, a belt, a white T-shirt, a pair of tan suede boots, and a note. There were blood stains on the shirt and on the note. The note had been written on one of the pledge cards which we had placed in the pews for that years’ Loyalty Sunday. A name was written large and underlined three times. Then the plea, “Please listen to God.” On the reverse side was an address and a phone number. And where a signature was called for, a name had been signed.

Don Shelby made a phone call to the number listed. He reached the man who had written the note. He found out the man was 19 years old. After a long wandering in a wasteland of drugs, dropping out of sight, severing contact with his family, and getting involved in one mess after another, the young man had decided to come home.

The night before he had finally reached bottom. He had been involved in a fight and almost beaten another man to death. Don said, the young man, when he realized what he had done. helped the man he had beaten to a nearby emergency room.

After leaving the hospital, the young man came by the church, found an unlocked door, and went into the sanctuary. He stayed there the rest of the night, praying and pondering. He said he asked God to forgive him and to show him the way to go. He said all at once the presence of God became very real. He knew he had been forgiven. A wonderful peace came. He committed himself to follow Jesus.

At that moment, he said he was determined to make things right. To symbolize his commitment, he had put on some clean clothes he had in his bedroll and left the others as an offering. It was like giving God his old life. He said he walked out the door a new person with a new vision and a new hope.

The Wilderness

I am sure you are not living in the wilderness that the young man was living in, but you have a wilderness in which you are wandering. So, today, be aware of the wilderness in which you are living and leading. Listen closely to the people around you. How are you being called out of the wilderness and into a new life? Take notice of people around you. Who is inviting you to reorient your life and to step into a new way of living and leading?

Stepping out of the wilderness and into the light of new life is one way of becoming who God has created you to be. So keep in mind, who you are is how you lead.

Return

Give God thanks for the people you encountered today. Where did you meet Jesus? At what moments did you feel you were living in the wilderness? Who helped you experience a new way of living and leading? How did you express God’s love today? With whom do you need to celebrate the hope or the love or the new life you have experienced in and through them? How will you prepare for God’s presence and power tomorrow? Ask God to give you the faith to be the leader God has created you to be.

Prayer

Come, Thou long expected Jesus born to set Thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us, let us find our rest in Thee.
Israel’s strength and consolation, hope of all the earth Thou art;
Dear desire of every nation, joy of every longing heart.

Born Thy people to deliver, born a child and yet a King,
Born to reign in us forever, now Thy gracious kingdom brings.
By Thine own eternal Spirit rule in all our hearts alone;
By Thine all sufficient merit, raise us to Thy glorious throne.