At the 11:00 service this morning Rev. Horak will be presenting Boy Scout Andrew Kirsop with his "God and Family Award."  We recognize Andrew in church for this achievement because so many of the values of scouting are consistent with biblical values.

Listen to the Scout Oath:

"ON MY HONOR I WILL DO MY BEST TO DO MY DUTY TO GOD AND MY COUNTRY AND TO OBEY THE SCOUT LAW, TO HELP OTHER PEOPLE AT ALL TIMES; TO KEEP MYSELF PHIYSICALLY STRONG, MENTALLY AWAKE, AND MORALLY STRAIGHT."

You heard mention of the Scout Law in that oath.  According to the Scout Law a Scout is: TRUSTWORTHY, LOYAL, HELPFUL, FRIENDLY, COURTEOUS, KIND, OBEDIENT, CHEERFUL, THRIFTY, BRAVE, CLEAN, REVERENT.

While we are at it, we might as well throw in the Scout Motto since it also happens to be the title of our message for this morning: "BE PREPARED."  I learned a lot about being prepared during my hitch in the Boy Scouts.  On one memorable fall camping trip I showed up at Peace Lutheran Church with a pile of canvas, sent poles, a cotton blanket and so forth.  The three-mile hike to the camping site found the other scouts with their rucksacks on their backs and me trudging along with my loose pile of stuff in my aching arms, occasionally dropping a tent peg and having to stop to pick it up.  In short, I was not a happy camper.

Things pretty much went downhill from there.  The fall night was clear, crisp and cold—very cold.  Under my thin cotton blanket I was freezing to death and unable to find the sweet release of sleep until the sun came up the next morning.  Did I learn anything from my ill-prepared adventure?  You better believe it.  First off, I learned how to make a fire real well.  This time of year my family keeps a fire burning in our wood stove pretty much 24/7 (it’s burning away as I preach).

But a fire is not very practical in a tent, so I also learned how to keep warm without one.  On a cold winter’s night when our wood stove burns low and the house gets cool, do you know what makes the difference between shivering under the sheets and being toasty warm?  This little beanie I knit about 15 years ago.  I may not know how to make any fashion statements but I do know how to keep warm.  I learned the hard way how to be prepared when the cold winds blow.

I have also learned the hard way how to be prepared when stepping into the pulpit.  That hard lesson came long before I arrived here, so that I can assure you there has never been a single time that I have stepped into this pulpit ill-prepared.  I may not hit one over the fence every time—sometimes I strike out completely--but I try to hit a homerun every time.  I guarantee you that I have done my homework every time, and that I have a prepared sermon in hand.  I can say the same thing for my colleague, Rev. Horak.

Why all this talk about the importance of being prepared?  Because being prepared is a classic Advent attitude.  Following this message we are going to sing a classic Advent hymn, "Joy to the World."  You may have thought that it was a Christmas hymn, but if you will look at the top right hand corner of the page it is on, you will see that it is found in the Advent section.  And what do we find in that hymn?  "Let ev’ry heart prepare Him room…." Be Prepared.  Prepare the way for the Lord, as John the Baptist put it.

Our text for this morning, and the one for next week as well, tell about the preparatory work of John the Baptist, the forerunner of the long-awaited Messiah.  As the angel Gabriel proclaimed to John’s father: And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous--to make ready a people prepared for the Lord (1:17).  John’s role was to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.  John’s message was Prepare the way for the Lord.  Today we are going to learn what it means to "Be Prepared" in this sense.

You will notice that John was to go on before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah.  Who was Elijah?  Elijah was one of the Old Testament Prophets.  John falls squarely into that prophetic tradition.  Our text says that the word of God came to John (Verse 2).  This is a linguistic cue that we are talking about a prophet of God.  Over and over again in the Old Testament, the opening words of the prophetic books state that the word of the Lord came to: Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel and so forth (example: Jeremiah 1:2).  But from the end of the Old Testament era to the beginning of the New Testament era, approximately 400 years known as "The Silent Centuries," there were no great prophetic voices.

Then comes John the Baptist.  The word of the Lord comes to John.  It does not come to the high priests or any other religious leaders.  It does not come to Herod the Jewish puppet of Rome, much less to Pilate the Roman Governor or his boss Tiberius Caesar.  It comes to John the Baptist, and it comes to him while he is out in the desert.  It does not come while he is in the capital city of Jerusalem or in its magnificent palace or its splendid temple.  The word of the Lord comes to John while he is definitely not dressed for success, not easily accessible and not readily approachable due to his rather gruff demeanor and message.

The desert is not necessarily where it is hot, dry and sandy.  It is a barren, rocky wilderness area through which the Jordan River provides the closest thing to a reliable source of water.  It is here that John goes to baptize the multitudes that are searching him out as a spiritual alternative to the stuffy and stale religiosity of the organized synagogue leaders.  Otherwise, John hangs out in the desert wilderness eating locusts and honey for food.

The desert wilderness held memories for the Jews as the locale of the post-Exodus wanderings of Israel.  You will recall how the Israelites were initially not prepared to follow God into the Promised Land because it was inhabited by big people in big cities with big fortifications and big armies.  As a result the Israelites spent 40 years wandering in the desert wilderness until the old, faithless generation passed away and a bold new generation emerged that was ready to follow God’s newly appointed leader, Joshua, across the Jordan River and into the Land of Promise.

In other words the desert wilderness did its work to fortify the faith of God’s people.  They learned of their need there, and of their dependence upon Almighty God to protect and provide.  They learned that with God all things are possible, including life in the Land of Promise.  This is the redeeming value of the desert wilderness.  Normally we are inclined toward the creature comforts of civilized life.  But sometimes they can leave us soft and lax and weak, whereas a good sojourn in the desert wilderness can restore our hardiness, vitality and motivation to rise to any challenge.  As Friedrich Nietzsche put it, "Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger."

The desert wilderness is where faith gets fortified.  In the desert wilderness John the Baptist is seeking to fortify the faith of God’s people so as to prepare the way for the Lord.  Now here is a very interesting observation.  Our New Testament text quotes our Old Testament text in showing that John the Baptist is the preparatory forerunner of the long-awaited Messiah.  However, our New Testament text makes an almost imperceptible change in what is quoted. In our text Isaiah is quoted: A voice of one calling in the desert, "Prepare the way for the Lord…"  John the Baptist is the voice of one calling in the desert.

But the text in Isaiah says, A voice of one calling: "In the desert prepare the way for the Lord…." (Isaiah 40:3). Did you catch that difference?  The words are identical, but the quotation marks are different.  In our New Testament text the message is: Prepare the way for the Lord.  In our Old Testament text the message is: In the desert prepare the way for the Lord.  This is not a misquote or mistake in the Bible.  This is the gospel writer’s way of emphasizing a point.  By the way, don’t look for this difference in you pew Bibles because it is not reflected in the New King James Version.  It is, however, in the New International Version that I use, and for good scholarly reasons that I will not go into here.

The point is this by any translation: The desert wilderness is where people prepare the way of the Lord. Isaiah is proclaiming to recently released exiles who are returning to rebuild what used to be their homeland and is now a desolate, deserted, desert wilderness.  In the desert prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.  Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain (Isaiah 40:3-4).

Have you ever felt like you were wandering in the wilderness?  Maybe there is no direction to your life.  You feel that there must be a Promised Land out there somewhere, but you don’t see any way to get there.  Maybe you have lost a job and are wondering how you are going to provide for yourself and your loved ones who depend upon you.  Maybe you are wearing yourself out going through the motions, going in circles and going nowhere fast. Is this all there is to life, or do I dare to hope for something more?

Have you ever felt like an impassable mountain range stands between you and God’s promises?  Maybe you are facing mountains of debt.  Maybe mountains of obstructions are standing between you and your primary relationships with your spouse, children, parents, siblings or friends.  Maybe you are under mounting pressure to be someone or something that God did not create you to be.  Do you dare to believe in Jesus’ word that faith as small as a mustard seed can move mountains like that (Matthew 17:20)?

Have you ever felt that your life is in the pits because you can’t see your way out of your problems and you don’t have the strength to climb out on your own?  Maybe you are stuck in a deep valley—a valley of depression, discouragement, despair, loneliness, grief or pain.  Maybe you are walking through the valley of the shadow of death.  Are you able to say with the Psalmist, even there I will fear no evil: for thou art with me (Psalm 23:4)?

Have you ever felt that being good is not good enough?  Maybe doing the good and right thing has given other less scrupulous people a competitive advantage over you.  Maybe you are frustrated because crime pays for some people.  Maybe you are disillusioned when somebody gets away with murder, or a cheater gets ahead, or a fake gets public accolades?  Where is God when these things happen?  Does he really balance things out in the end?  Does he straighten out the crooked, fill up the valleys, level the mountains and see us through the wilderness?

I have a better question.  Do we ever give him the chance?  Do we look for God in the desert wastelands of life?  Or do we stick our heads in the sand and hope our problems go away?  Do we go into a state of denial as if everything is okay?  Do we avoid facing life’s issues with faith?  John the Baptist is in the desert saying, Prepare the way for the Lord. Isaiah is saying, In the desert prepare the way for the Lord.  They aren’t saying, "At the mall, prepare the way for the Lord."