3rd Sunday of Advent

  2^nd Sunday before Christmas

3^rd Sunday

of Advent

“In the desert prepare the way for the LORD;

make straight in the wilderness

a highway for our God.”

Isaiah 40 v 3

“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me.
And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple;
and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts.

Malachi 3: 1

This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, ‘I am not the Messiah.’

And they asked him, ‘What then? Are you Elijah?’ He said, ‘I am not.’ ‘Are you the prophet?’

He answered, ‘No.’ Then they said to him, ‘Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?’ He said, ‘I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, “Make straight the way of the Lord” ’, as the prophet Isaiah said.

...The next day he saw Jesus coming towards him and declared, ‘Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, “After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.” I myself did not know him; but I came baptising with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel... And I myself have seen and have testified that this is
the Son of God.’

John 1: 19 – 23, 29 – 31, 34

................................................

The Second Elijah

or

John the Baptist   

There had been no real prophets in Israel since Malachi, some hundreds of years earlier;

John broke the silence of centuries. He came denouncing the sins of Israel

and calling on those who heard him to repent, as had the prophets of old,

but this time there was something new:

the people were to repent 'for the kingdom of heaven is at hand'.

Excitement began to build on the banks of the Jordan. Could this be the chosen one,
God's Messiah, that they had been waiting for so long?

No, John was not the Messiah, nor was he Elijah come back from the dead,
as some thought; but he was the 'second' Elijah, the one sent ahead of the Messiah to

prepare the hearts of God's children for what was to come.

He was a bridge between the Old and New Testaments; he was an emissary or ambassador – a servant
of the king, sent on ahead to make sure that people are ready to receive him.

On this third Sunday of Advent, the time is fast approaching for the coming of our King.

Let us prepare our hearts to receive Him.

Collect for the Day

O Lord Jesu Christ, who at thy first coming didst

send thy messenger to prepare thy way before thee; Grant that the ministers and stewards of thy

mysteries may likewise so prepare and

make ready thy way, by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just,

that at thy second coming to judge the world

we may be found an acceptable people

in thy sight, who livest and reignest with

the Father and the Holy Spirit, ever one God,

world without end. Amen

Activity:

God's message to his people is often misunderstood: Play Chinese whispers! 

 

Advent photo courtesy of: lightondarkwater.typepad.com/