Advent 2 - Wake up!

"Look! I'm sending my messenger on ahead to clear the way for me. Suddenly, out of the blue, the Leader you've been looking for will enter his Temple—yes, the Messenger of the Covenant, the one you've been waiting for. Look! He's on his way!" A Message from the mouth of God-of-the-Angel-Armies.

But who will be able to stand up to that coming? Who can survive his appearance?

Malachi 3:1,2 (The Message)

Advent is not the quiet, dark, sleepy season. It’s a time for waking up, for getting real. It might well provide a refuge from the chaos unfolding in the world around but it is also a time of challenge. This promised God-child won’t provoke cute baby babble. This promised God-child comes to put a rocket under those whose complacency and righteous safe playing by the rules has put a strait jacket on the word of God. Advent is a time for waking up to the radical, confrontational nature of the gospel, a time to let the word loose and then deal with the mess. And it will be messy if we follow the demands of God’s son. There are always casualties when we refuse to conform to the niceties and get down and dirty with the gritty demands of the gospel.