Ready, Set.... Change!

In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’” Matthew 3:1-3

Prepare; get ready – this is the message of today’s Gospel, and it is the message of Advent as a whole. When we think about the word “prepare” there are a number of different images that come to mind.
First of all, in these weeks before Christmas, there is the preparation that is about getting a tree, decorating the house, shopping for gifts, planning meals and cooking, getting parties and travel on the calendar. This is busy and hectic and sometimes stressful but can also be fun and festive.

Then there’s the kind of preparation before the birth of a child. In addition to making room for a new member of the family – decorating a nursery, making sure there are enough diapers, infant clothes, maybe a rocking chair, and all the paraphernalia that these goes along with a baby in the house – there is also the physical preparation that is pregnancy, and the emotional change in the relationship between parents and preparing siblings for the new arrival.

Finally, there’s a very different kind of preparation; the kind of preparation that comes before a major storm. I’m not thinking of the “rush out and buy bread and milk before it snows” panic. Instead, I’m thinking of the preparation urged by trusted meteorologists before a genuine hurricane on the order of Hurricane Sandy: take precautions to make your house safe; have water, blankets, and flashlights on hand; make a plan to evacuate to higher ground if you live near water; don’t waste time and don’t mess around.

The urgency of that final kind of preparation is what we hear in today’s Gospel. John the Baptist appears in the wilderness – a first century version of the prophet Elijah, the one who was expected before the arrival of the Messiah. Like Elijah, John wore animal skins and a belt of leather and resided in the wilderness. Like Elijah, he rebukes people for forgetting God and proclaims that the time of God’s fulfillment is at hand.

The way of preparation, for John, is the way of metanoia. This Greek word is usually translated as “repentance”, and we most often hear that to mean that we should admit to the wrong things we’ve done, be sorry for our sins, and perhaps even make restitution for them. Those are certainly all valuable things to do, but that is only a small part of metanoia, and not even the primary meaning of the word.

Metanoia is change, conversion – not in a sense of converting from one religious tradition to another, but in the older phrase of “conversion of life”. In other words, John the Baptist is bidding us to change our hearts and minds, to take on a different way of acting. He is calling us to get ready for the fulfillment of the kingdom of heaven by changing in ways that align with God’s reign. We are not presume that our ancestry, our heritage, our ideas about God and life are enough to prepare us to fully receive the reality of God’s Good News that is incarnate in Jesus.

But we need to be clear that this change, this conversion, is both inward and outward; it’s not one or the other. We have to allow God to change our attitudes, hearts, minds, inward orientation. And we have to change our outward behavior in ways that reflect God’s justice, peace, and loving-kindness. The two go together. Sometimes the inward change will blossom into the outward change; sometimes the discipline of external practices will shape our inner reality. But we must not make the mistake of giving one or the other priority; they are two foci of one faithful whole.

John the Baptist’s entire ministry was one of urging people to be ready and willing (as Rowan Williams, retired Archbishop of Canterbury says) to “look at God and see the truth, beauty, light and love that is there”, no matter how painfully we are aware of how short we fall, and still choose to be *there* with God and with Christ, regardless of the cost.

At the next service we have a baptism: Noa Aileen D’Arnone. And at every baptism the entire congregation, along with the parents and godparents, commit ourselves to Christ in the words of the Baptismal Covenant – the Apostles’ Creed and the five “so what” questions: if this is what you say you believe, then what are you going to do about it? how will you act?

And through one of those wonderful serendipities of the Holy Spirit, the colors of our surroundings today point to both baptism and the Gospel. The red carnations in the windows have remained from Sister Monica Clare’s ordination last week. They remind us of John’s words: “I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” And we remember, as well, the prayer for the Holy Spirit to be given to the newly baptized person, along with the lighted baptismal candle which will be presented to Noa, calling her, with Jesus, to be the Light of the World: fire.

And the blue of our Advent altar hangings and vestments reference the water of baptism, the water of the Jordan River, and the hope in Christ that Advent points us toward.

The Holy Spirit and baptism; fire and water; inner and outer; metanoia and Advent; this is what is before us today. May you be blessed in your preparation for the coming of our Savior and the Kingdom of heaven – today and every day. Amen.

Victoria Geer McGrath
All Saints’ Episcopal Church, Millington, NJ
Second Sunday of Advent
December 7, 2025