Boy Bishop sermon

Here is the text of JonPaul's sermon:

You may have noticed by the change in the colors on the altar last week that the liturgical season has changed. Many of you may even be able to tell that we are in the season of Advent because the color on the altar is blue. But this raises the question, “what is Advent?” The American Heritage® Dictionary defines the word advent as being “The coming or arrival, especially of something extremely important.”
Some of you may know that I am active in the Boy Scouts. One of the things that I like to do as a Scout is to go on long backpacking trips. However, before I am able to go on these long trips I have to do certain things to prepare for that hike. One of the things that I have to do to prepare is to go on shorter, less demanding hikes to toughen my heart, lungs, leg muscles and the skin on my feet. I also have to plan out the route, make a meal plan and buy the food, notify people of where I will be and when I will return, and the list goes on of things I must do before I will be ready to go on that long hike that I've been looking forward to. The church season of Advent is a lot like this time that I spend preparing for my hike. But instead of a hike, however, we as a church are preparing for the coming of Christ.
This Advent season is the time of waiting and preparing for the birth of Jesus Christ. Therefore the season of Advent officially ends on Christmas Eve, the day before the coming of Christ. But this is not the only advent that the Christian church anticipates. We also look forward to the second coming of Christ as an advent. So, like when I prepared for my hike, there must be ways to for us to prepare for the coming of Christ.
In our Old Testament reading today, we have a prophecy given by Isaiah in chapter 40, verse 3 saying “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ' Prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.'” In today's gospel, we see this prophecy fulfilled in John the Baptist, who lived in the wilderness, wore garments of camel's-hair, ate only those kosher foods he could gather in the wild – such as locusts and honey and preached the coming of Christ, preparing the way for the Lord. There's a lot to be gained by examining what John said to do - and on what he did himself - to prepare.
First, he preached a “baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” If you'll look in your Bibles to Acts 2, verses 36-39 we read “36'Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.' 37When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, 'Brothers, what shall we do?' 38Peter replied, 'Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.'” By repenting of your sins you prepare yourself for the coming of Christ. It's like cleaning house to prepare to receive an important guest – the MOST important guest. A few moves ago I had the biggest room in the house, and so when a visiting family member would come for the holidays or something they would be put into my room. Picture a room where you can't see the carpet because of all the clothes and other items on the floor and you would be close to the state of my room. So when we got the word that we would have family coming over, I would set to work preparing my room for the visit. And I would have to keep it in clean until the visit and then I would sleep out on the couch in the living room while my room was occupied. Then after the visit was over I would move back into my room and after a while my room would be back to its original state. At least until the next visit. So periodically I would have to go back and clean my room. It's similar with repentance, it's not just a one-time thing. For example we say the general confession every week during Mass, and we can rely on the Sacrament of Reconciliation whenever we have need.
We also prepare by staying focused on the purpose of righteousness, repentance, and fasting. Last week my JROTC unit at school had an inspection. We had inspectors come from other schools and some from recruiting stations in the area and they would look over us in our uniforms, ask us questions about things we had learned in the class, and watch us drill, along with checking a few other administrative matters with the unit. For the weeks before this big inspection we spent all our time focused in some way on preparing for the inspection. We had some people making sure that the uniforms were in order, others were practicing drill, and everyone was going over the possible questions that would be asked. John the Baptist also continually preached the the coming of Christ in addition to how we should prepare. We also kept reminding ourselves and our fellow cadets that the reason we were doing this was because of what the inspectors would look for during the inspection. This constant reminder kept us in the mindset of preparation and trying to make all of the things that would be looked at in an immaculate appearance. The constant reminders that John gave and the reminders that we give ourselves do the same, they give us the jolt we need to get back to what we need to be doing for the preparation for the coming of Christ. One such reminder that we employ is when we say the line in the Nicene Creed, “and he shall come again, with glory, to judge the living and the dead”.