We do so much this time of year. We clean and prepare for the decorations. Then we decorate. We put out Christmas lights. We trim the tree. We buy and wrap gifts. We bake cookies. We prepare.

Years ago, I was setting out the nativity scene at a church with another member of the church. It was lovely. We stepped back and looked at it. The manger was prominently displayed. There was hay. Joseph and Mary were there. The shepherds, the sheep, a donkey. There were the three wise men and camels. It was perfect. But something was missing.

We looked at each other and said, what is it that is missing?

Then we both realized it at the same time and laughed. We did not have the baby Jesus. So we got the box it was stored in and we searched through the Styrofoam peanuts and found the baby Jesus.

Let us not lose Jesus in all the trappings of the season. Christmas lights shining can be a beacon of hope in a dark world. Yet it is not only about the twinkle of lights. Jesus told us he is the light of the world. We can shine the light of Christ in the darkness.

The light in a dark world! The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it. (John 1:5) Let us not lose Jesus in the lights.

Jesus was born at a time they people were looking for a king. Not the first time the people were looking for a king. They were not prepared for who he was.

See I Samuel 8:10-22

We know how that turned out. Samuel was right, they would regret it and they indeed did.

The people in Jesus’ day were longing for a king. They wanted freedom from the oppressive empire. Jesus came quietly. Not a lot of fanfare. We have tried to make up for it. Yet we too forget the kind of kings that he was. He came as a vulnerable child. He had to flee his country because of a corrupt regime when the church officials were in cahoots with the corrupt state officials. The names are listed here in Luke’s gospel to make sure the setting in real time and in the real world is declared.

Jesus grew from his infancy and began to talk. And did he ever have things to say.

So, John the Baptist prepared the way. It is hard to hear the good news if we do not know what the bad news is. I would think we would know, but we forget. John the Baptist came to prepare for Christ and he made a way, cleared a path so Jesus’ gentleness could be heard.

Malachi compares God to a refiner’s fire. That metaphor might be lost on us. We do not work directly with metal. I watched a youtube video of today’s process of extracting silver from the oar, from the stone. It is quite a process. The sludge is all part of clearing off the impurities. Still today fire is used, to burn the impure parts and the debris or the sludge floats to the top and is scooped off.

We are not metal. Yet, we too need a refiner. It helps the debris to float to the top, so the refiner can remove the harmful parts.

There are a few ways. The debris may be sluffed off in our lives.
1. First, talking to someone you trust. Venting as we call it. Saying the things that frustrate us, out loud. I had a friend I would call and say the things I would be feeling. He would say things like, “Hooray for your anger. It announces your worth.” He never thought less of those I was venting about. He knew it was not about them. It was a time I needed to let the debris come to the surface so the impurities could be removed and the spirit of God could be seen and felt more clearly.

2. Another way the refiner’s fire

3. works is through difficult people. Everyone has someone who rubs us the wrong way. They become like sand paper, filing away the rough edges leaving a smooth heart.

4. Little sparks of insight, those aha moments can also be a way God uses the refiners fire. We sometimes check ourselves if we pay attention and see where the heart is not directed toward God.

God keeps refining us. A refiner fire brings to mind pain and not a smooth transition from harmful to healing, from secular to sacred, from haughty to holy. Growth hurts, but it is good.

John the Baptist prepared a way for the Lord. We are preparing to celebrate Christmas. Let us open our hearts and minds to the refiner’s fire who cleanses and makes us ready for the day of the Lord. A poem reflects the way of preparing for our Lord:

Love would move through me
but for the rubble and clutter I cling to.
God, move aside what needs to be moved.
Clear a way for loveliness.

Fire up the gentle bulldozer of your grace.
Put your little orange stakes of mercy where the road goes.
Mark what needs to be cut, and cut it.

Fill with your presence my pits of fear,
my potholes of discouragement and despair.
Level my piles of self-importance.
Smooth out my bitterness, straighten what’s bent.
Clear out what’s in the way of love.

In that wilderness in me, prepare the way
for your mystery to unfold.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes