I used to ride my bike to work occasionally in the spring when I worked at Red River College. It would take me an hour and I really enjoyed it. Feeling the warm sun. A time to reflect on the beauty of God’s creation. Butterflies, birds, busy bees. I used to marvel at the trees that have lived through so many years of Winnipeg’s harsh winters and how that has affected the way they grow, and I loved the smells of fresh clover, and grass, and wildflowers, the blueness of the sky. I loved being out there in the open, in the world God loves—even if it was in the big city.

Except for once, I was riding my bike, enjoying the sights and smells all around me, and I was riding towards a border of beautiful, green trees and when I passed the trees all of a sudden out of the blue, I heard, the loud barking of what sounded like a very big dog coming towards me and it sounded like it was really close to my bike. It was like right there. It was so close that I was sure I was in for a dog bite. And so I rode that bike faster than I’ve ever ridden it and all of a sudden it stopped. It was like I was going through an area of turbulence.

Reading today’s scripture is kind of like that. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, right in the middle of our Christmas Season some wild, uncomfortable prickly John the Baptist starts shouting at us good church people, “Repent!” Not only Repent! but this Repent! comes wrapped up with vipers, wrath, axes and unquenchable fire! Who needs that, especially at this time when our defences are down. What’s this person, barking like a Doberman doing in our nice Christmas Season? Its all so un-Christmassy! We want to sing at Christmas. We want to share Christmas Cheer. We want to enjoy a good Christmas Pageant. We want to get to the stable on Christmas Eve. Who invited him?

When I was thinking of John the Baptist this week the image of a border guard came up. Now, I have nothing against border guards. I happen to know some very admirable ones. But this John the Baptist looks like he might have had the nickname Checkpoint John. I asked Bill what it was like being a border guard and he tells me it is the best job in the whole world. Every person who passes through is different. It takes a real people person to be a border guard. I think I have a lot to learn about the vocation of border guard.

At Checkpoint John’s border there are no bargains whatsoever to be had! There is only one thing and one thing only, and that is, Repent! Turn around! His message is black and white, “Turn or Burn!” Turn around from where you are now or get thrown into a fire. John was baptizing people into that message. Baptism for John was plain and simple. He was cleaning people up—to put it crudely John was hosing people down, washing away their past sins with water before they moved across the border to the kingdom of God. What they had done—or left undone. What they had said—or left unsaid. The people they had failed to reach. The “I’m sorry’s” they had failed to say. The relationships they failed to nurture. The message was simply, “Turn or Burn!”

And people flocked to him!! What's up with that? There must have been something in, “Turn or Burn!” It must have sounded less like a threat and more like a promise. Otherwise everybody would stay home. So let’s see if there is anything for us in this message. Turn! Repent! Maybe our trouble is with the word ‘repentance’.  Maybe when we hear the word “repent” we hear the word guilt instead of pardon. I think John was trying to turn us away from thinking guilt and towards thinking pardon. Checkpoint John is guarding a border and the border he is guarding is the border that marks God’s kingdom.  It turns out that when we arrive at this odd border we find out that there is no border and  never was. Somehow, someway we need to arrive at this odd border to learn that. It's a paradox.

And at this odd border, John the Baptist is confiscating some of the baggage we carry with us across this border, this place we are at as we make our way to the stable in Bethlehem. John is confiscating that baggage that we've picked up from somewhere, the baggage that tells us that life will never change for the better. The baggage that makes us believe that no matter what we say or do we are stuck forever in the mess we have made of our lives or the mess someone else has made of them.

Maybe we carry baggage that makes us  believe that this church won’t ever amount to much. Just a little nobody church with a few young people and mostly older people who can’t do much in a day. A little church that doesn’t matter much to a world that doesn’t care. Maybe that’s blocking our way to the stable.

Maybe we carry baggage that makes us believe that we have no chance to begin again because we cannot ever find the way to forgive ourselves for things we’ve done in our lives.

Maybe we carry baggage that makes us believe there is no chance in any way, of new life happening here.

John the Baptist is turning us towards what God is bringing to birth among us. We need only focus on that and let the rest go. An old theologian [Meister Ekhart] wrote: Tend only to the birth in you and you will find all goodness and all consolation, all delight, all being and all truth. Reject it and you reject goodness and blessings. What comes to you in this birth brings with it pure being and blessings. But what you seek or love outside of this birth will come nothing no matter what you will or where you will it.

Last week the three congregations met in one place for a Joint Advent Service. Cheryl, Mary Anne, and Marlys offered on your behalf an reflection of where the particular churches have been in the past and where the future is called us. I would like to highlight Cheryl's offerint [see last weeks sermon]. THIS is what John the Baptist is turning us towards. THIS is what God is birthing among us. Repent! says John so we can see clearly in our present moment where God has been in our past and where God is calling us in the months ahead. "Pay attention only to that", says John the Baptist, "And let eveyrthing else go."

Advent puts out the call for all of us to travel this Advent path on the way to the stable where everything is about to happen. As we are prepared to travel, let us get into our vehicles, get on our parkas, those people who are going to walk dress warmly, some may want to ride their bikes, some may be pushing their loved ones in wheelchairs. Bring along the children and the pets. However we pilgrims travel on this Advent path let us not be afraid of a bit of hollering at the border of borders. Let us leave behind whatever John confiscates becasue it is blocking our way to the miracle that is arriving as we speak. Let us pay attention to the miracle, to what God is bringing to birth among us. Tend only to that—only to that.