2nd Sunday of Advent 2012
I'm trying to imagine what it was like in the 1st century A.D. to build roads suitable for keeping an empire under control. The Palestine province of the Roman empire had some rocky hilly places where roads were needed for armies on the march and for traders to travel. A lot of shovels and a lot of hard work by thousands was required. When roads are built now, there's a lot of work, but bulldozers and huge earth moving machinery can make a big impression in short time. On the 2nd Sunday of Advent the church remembers the message of John the Baptist. I think he was a bit of a human bulldozer. He certainly made an unforgotten impression in a short time, not in a city but in the wilderness, not because he was anybody important, but because God used him to deliver a powerful message about the need to repent and turn back to God. Here is some of what will be read from Luke's gospel today: The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the ...