John the Baptist is the central figure of the Advent season. He proclaimed a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, we are told in today's gospel. Biblical scholars now believe that he was in fact a member of a radical religious sect called the Essenes who operated in the Judean desert and on the shores of the Dead Sea. Loyalty to the old religious institutions of Israel was waning; various radical groups emerged from the ashes of those institutions to live the monastic life in the caves of the Judean hills, or else to live their lives as wandering preachers. John the baptist seems to have been a wandering preacher., operating mainly in the Judean desert, a barren land devoid of all distractions. He drank no wine or strong drink and existed only on locusts and wild honey. In other words, he was shorn entirely of the ordinary props provided by normal society; he was left with nothing but his own soul.
But what are we today to make of the Baptist's imagery and message? What does repentance mean in our context today? More to the point, how does the message of John the Baptist help us in our preparation for Christmas time?
According to Matthew’s gospel, Isaiah the prophet had such a figure in mind when he said: “Prepare in the wilderness a way for the Lord, make his path straight.” That particular Old Testament prophesy continues: "…make a straight path across the desert; let every valley be filled in, every mountain and hill laid low; let every cliff become a plain, and ridges a valley." Now that image means very little to us today, unless we are aware of its context. In the ancient East, the visit from a distant ruler had many attractive side-effects. For a start, the ruler always brought gifts to his subjects. The purpose of the such visits was to keep the locals quiet, to buy them off, to purchase their goodwill. The visit of a king then enriched a tribe considerably. But before the king ever arrived, his decision to visit had good results. Israel is a mountainous country. These mountains made travel all but impossible in biblical times. So before the king could visit his scattered subjects, some major tasks had to be completed. The local chief had the responsibility of building a highway, of constructing a new road, a road that would facilitate the visit of the king to his remote subjects. This entailed the levelling of hills and the filling of valleys. When Isaiah prophesied that every valley would be filled, every mountain and hill laid low, he was saying that all obstacles between the king and his people would be removed. The king would have ready access to his people, and they to him. He could swiftly come to their assistance in times of trouble. He would no longer be a remote figurehead but would be by their side in their hour of need. But the tribe must be willing to construct the highway, to level the hills. Only then can the king make his visit. The tribe must be willing to make the preparations.

This is where the prophets of the Old Testament and John the Baptist got their imagery. But, as the Christian message spread beyond the hills and valleys of Palestine and Judea, those same hills and valleys were lifted out of the local terrain to become features of the universal Christian imagination. Just as the tribes of old were enriched by the visit of their king, the Christian community, and each one of us in person, is enriched by the visit of the infant king at Christmas time. But we too must, like the Judean tribes, be willing to make the necessary preparations. The mountains and the valleys are no longer external, geographical features. Rather they represent attitudes within us, and sinful outposts, that are hostile to the message of the saviour. They represent our fears and our obsessions, our grudges and our addictions, our prejudices and our unforgiven hurts. They represent the internal obstacles that impede the path of the saviour on his journey to our hearts.

Our Christian community and our individual spirits must be prepared if the infant King is to favour us with a visit at Christmas time. Advent is a time of critical evaluation and corrective action. What mountains impede that path of the Saviour? What obstacles do I personally place in his way?

It is almost a cliché now to say that we have destroyed Christmas with our vulgar commercialism. The world of commerce has hijacked this great feast and used it to further its own financial ends. As society loses its religious sensibility, commerce rushes in to fill the resulting void. Auberon Waugh, the English writer, tells the story of two women window shopping outside Harrods one Christmas. One of them noticed a tiny little crib tucked away in a corner. She pointed it out to her friend who remarked: "Must religion be dragged into everything?"

We have surrounded the feast now with such mountains of material dross that we will have difficulty in recovering the original message. This is but another mountain that Christians must lay low. The Baptist's clearest message was contained in the way he lived: God is found in simplicity. Happiness depends on our learning to trust him alone. He, or it, will never be purchased.