We moved through Advent last year, one week at a time. We are moving through Advent again this year. Already we are in the third week. But our movement through time is more like a spiral than a circle. Because we gather experience, and perhaps some wisdom, we have the opportunity to go on the same journey but see it through different eyes.

Yesterday seventeen people came to Saint James for the Advent Quiet Day that Debra led. We went down to the Meditation Chapel for a series of guided meditations on the Eucharist. We sat in a circle and Debra explained that the Eucharist occurs in four movements- offering, blessing, breaking, and giving. Behind her light poured in through the stained glass window which depicts a chalice and a host rising over the New Jerusalem. When Debra had finished speaking we let the light of the Eucharist and the silence in the room wash over us. The busyness of the day was carried away like dust falling into moving water. We were washed clean and made ready to walk in a new way. Then we put on our coats and went outside to go on a symbolic pilgrimage.

We walked around the St. James Path pausing at prayer flags that reminded us of the movements of the Eucharist. Each flag offered a picture and a prayer to deepen our reflections. We moved through offering, blessing, breaking, and giving. The snow hid the crushed gray stones of the path that would normally have made the way forward known. But even under the snow the raised edges of the path functioned like the banks of a river. We were guided by a channel that sparkled like diamonds and crunched in the crisp winter air- offering, blessing, breaking, and giving appeared before us then fell behind us like towns seen from moving water.

Even in the dead of winter a river runs through Advent. And regardless of the season Eucharist circles back to baptism and the voice of one crying in the wilderness "prepare ye the way of the Lord." Whether one walks in a circle in the snow or sits quietly in the silence of one's house Advent is a time we are invited to go to the river and be changed.

Last week and this week and the First Sunday after the Epiphany we will walk to the river and see the prophet John baptizing those who have come out to see him.

Not once but three times in our hearing John's hands will rise and the water will pour down. But each time the words that are spoken will move us farther downstream. First we heard the splash of falling water and John's voice proclaiming that one more powerful that John was coming. John offered a means to get ready- repentance. John also blessed those who came with an outward sign of their intention - baptism.

This week John's disciples trouble the water as they rush in to tell John " the one who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you testified, here he is baptizing, and all are going to him." John is unperturbed.

" He must increase, but I must decrease," John says simply. He knows that water, like the spirit, moves where it will, finding its own level. Like the seventeen people moving around the St. James path, John is being carried deeper into the heart of the journey toward God. The journey requires volition and surrender. We have to enter the river of our own free will but it will carry us forward.

John did not just call others to come down from the banks of the river, he stood in the current and offered himself. John was willing to be broken- to be separated from the work that once was his alone. John knew that his work was to prepare the way, not to be the way.

By the third time we will draw near to the river it will be the First Sunday after the Epiphany. On that day we will hear John's voice as though it had echoed all the way from the Second Sunday of Advent. "The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me… He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." But then a new voice will build on John's proclamation. As water pours over Jesus from John's hand, the heavens will open and the voice of God will speak to Jesus in our hearing. "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."

In that movement the affirmation of God will be given again- not just in words spoken from the sky but in flesh kneeling in a river. The person of Jesus is the consummation of John's cry in the wilderness. In advent we look forward to Christmas and the birth of a child. By the First Sunday after the Epiphany we will see the man. Jesus will rise up from the water, blessed, and ready to walk into desert.

The river of the Gospel carries us in a circle that passes through offering, blessing, breaking, and giving over and over again. Season passes into season. Baptism and Eucharist appear before us and fall behind us as we moved through the church year. The river runs in winter. It courses in the spring. The river of God is full of water and the cry to prepare the way of the Lord is perennial.

Over and over again we are invited to come out of the dust of what was, into the light of what God is offering. This offer stands each Sunday as chalice and host are lifted up in this church- "the gifts of God for the people of God." The light coming through the Meditation Chapel window and the light coming into the world flow into one stream as we allow ourselves to receive the gifts that God offers, blesses, breaks and gives.

John standing waiting even in a river of snow and the invitation to prepare for the coming of God's kingdom echoes across the water of our baptismal font. Whether it is a baptismal Sunday or not the marble font stands ready - a silent witness crying in the wilderness. It is time to get ready, "prepare ye the way of the Lord".

This is why we are here.

People had lots of different reasons why they went out to see John. We may have a thousand different reasons that we came to church this morning. But what the church has to offer is the proclamation of the word and the gift of the sacraments. Whatever we thought we were coming to find, the standing invitation is for a ride on the river that leads to life.

We can listen to the lessons and participate in the liturgies but still be standing high and dry on the banks. John stands in the middle of the river and bids us to screw up our courage and jump in. God asks that we offer our heart and mind and strength and soul. And God will bless that offering as we make it.

If we hesitate because we fear change or feel we will be challenged to go places we would rather not go let us remember that brokenness is unavoidable in this life. John was beheaded, Jesus died on a cross and we too will be carried through times of loss and pain and grief whether we give ourselves to God or not. But the river running right in front of us carries those who enter it from brokenness through redemption to resurrection and new life. That which is offered, blessed and broken is given for the life of the world.

John proclaimed it. Jesus lived it. We are invited.
Shall we gather at the river?
Shall we let the river carry us where God would have us go?

Amen.