One of my favorite sights in this world is to see the sun rising over the ocean. Standing on the beach early one morning, I noticed a woman standing at the water's edge. She was dancing, almost as if she was dancing to welcome the sun's rising. I admired the abandon with which she danced … not caring who watched her, nor what anyone would think of her solitary dancing. Whatever the reason for her dancing, she was freely performing, unfettered by all the things that might hold anyone of us back.

We meet in our texts this morning two messengers that call us to let go of all that is in the way of God in our lives. They are ancient voices speaking to people in different times and place … and yet timeless voices that call us to be free from the stuff that gets in the way so that we too might be ready for God's love … and like the solitary beach dancer be free to testify to that love.

We hear Malachi, the messenger calling God's people to repent. "For he is like a refiner's fire and the fullers' soap, he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver." Malachi's words are particularly meant for the priests of his day who were misleading the people of Israel. Malachi lived generations after the Babylonian exile. Cyrus, King of Persia had allowed the people to return to Palestine, but was still their ruler. Even though they had restored the temple, life remained hard for the Israelites. It seemed to them that only the ungodly prospered and, seeing this, they fell away from their faith … a "why bother" attitude. They were wrapped in the chains of their captivity, but chains of their own making … of fear and doubt, of cynicism and despair.

Further along in time comes the "wild one," John the Baptist. John also spoke in a time a place that is bound by captivity, this time it is the oppression of the Romans. The religious leaders were also abusing their authority. In words that echo Malachi, we hear again the call of repentance. John and Malachi are the messengers that call the people to be prepared … the day of the Lord is coming and they had better be ready to receive God.

What meaning do these words have for us today? Can we hear them as fresh imperatives that call us to freedom from the things that keep us from being ready to receive God into our lives anew … and be free to testify to that reality? Can we make Malachi more than words we associate with Handel's Messiah, and John more than a song in the Godspell musical? It is one thing to celebrate these ancient texts, hooking them with all the Christmas' past … another thing entirely to see them as messages that are meant for us. We need to know that Malachi isn't just speaking to the ancient Israelites who lived under the edicts of King Cyrus of Persia, and Luke isn't just about the people who lived in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius … they are also speaking to us who live in the first year when Barack Obama was president of the United States, and Jim Corzine was governor of New Jersey for a few more weeks, and Peter Delaney was chairperson of the church council of the United Methodist Church of Red Bank.

The fuller's soap is meant for us. Imagine the ancient profession for a moment … a harsh soap scrubbing you clean, the fuller stomping and pummeling … all to strip away the layers of dirt and grime that have built up on you. Or the refining fire, heating things up high enough to filter out the unwanted elements and leaving behind the pure metal. Neither sounds very pleasant. Pleasant or not we need the fullers help in freeing us. In CS Lewis's Narnia Chronicles we find a young boy, Eustace. Eustace is turned into a dragon because of his greed and nastiness. When he reaches the place where he ready to become human again, he comes to a pool of water and begins to scratch off the layers of dragon skin. Layers upon layers come off, but he is unable to remove them completely. He find that he needs the help of the lion Aslan to completely remove all the layers of dragon skin so that he can bathe in the healing pool of water. We can only go so far in seeing and then letting go of the chains that bind us from finding God. We need the gentle, loving words of people who dare confront us with our true selves. We need the refiner's heat and the fuller's soap to strip away the ugly in us.

It is much easier to keep these texts as a part of the past, using them as part of our Christmas trappings but nothing more. We are called to find in the Christmas story more than nostalgia and a time for get togethers and cookie baking and gift giving. The Christmas story is a dangerous one. For the journey we are on that leads to a manger in Bethlehem also leads to a cross in Jerusalem. John and Malachi call us to get ready for this dangerous journey so that when Christ appears we are able to see him. We find that same call in the epistle text for this morning … read along with me in Philippians Chapter 1, the 9th verse: "and this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless."

This Advent season may we separate out all the things that keep us from journeying back to Bethlehem to witness the birth of God-with-us … that keep us from walking in the way of Christ to testify to the deep love of God for all … and that blur our eyes so that we can't witness to the cross of Jesus Christ that ultimately frees us. With every fiber in our being we are called to testify as freely as that beach dancer – not caring what anyone might think about us, not worrying if we are dancing properly … but simply free to receive and respond to God's love.