7 December 2025
Making Space for Christ to come near
If you’ve ever had people over to your house,
especially someone important
you know the feeling.
There’s that moment when you look around and think,
“Okay, we need to clean up.
Now!”
Suddenly you see things you never noticed before:
the shoes piled by the door,
the mail stacked on the counter,
the dust that mysteriously returned five minutes after you wiped it.
Preparing for company forces you to see your home differently.
You start asking:
Is this a space that’s ready to welcome someone?
Last week, on the First Sunday of Advent,
the Church handed us the spiritual equivalent of that experience.
Advent began not with twinkling lights or warm sentimentality, but with a wake-up call.
“Stay awake,” Jesus said.
“Be ready.”
We launched this season by remembering that God is drawing near,
and that His coming isn’t just something that happened once in Bethlehem,
it’s something He is doing right now,
in your life and mine.
So Week 1 invited us to wake up to His nearness.
Today, Week 2 invites us to make space for His nearness.
And John the Baptist is the one who shows us how.
John appears in the wilderness like a divine alarm clock.
No soft music.
No gentle voice.
No warm introduction.
Just a cry bursting into the silence of the desert:
“Repent!
Prepare the way of the Lord!”
John is the Advent saint who refuses to let us sleepwalk through life or this season.
He stands knee-deep in the Jordan River shouting,
“Wake up!
Clear out the clutter!
God is coming!
Make room!”
It’s not a message we always want to hear.
We’d prefer something more polite,
something less confrontational,
something that feels more like Christmas cards
and less like construction work.
But Advent isn’t about comfort;
it’s about preparation.
Change is something we all try to avoid.
but preparation always involves change.
The first reading from Isaiah gives us this breathtaking vision of what God is preparing to do:
- A shoot sprouting from a dead stump.
- Wolves living with lambs.
- Leopards lying down with goats.
- Children playing near vipers without fear.
- A world transformed.
Isaiah says that when the Messiah comes,
He won’t just fix a few things,
He’ll remake everything.
He will bring justice to the poor,
wisdom to the confused,
peace to the violent,
and hope to the hopeless.
His reign will reshape creation from the inside out.
But here’s the catch:
What God promises out there
begins with what God is doing in here.
In my heart.
In yours.
In our priorities, our relationships, our desires.
Isaiah gives us the vision;
John the Baptist gives us the work.
Now, when we hear “repent,” most of us think of feeling bad about ourselves.
But in Scripture,
repentance means turning,
changing direction,
reorienting your life toward God.
Imagine your life as a house.
Last week we said Advent invites us to wake up and look around.
This week we pick up the broom.
Repentance is clearing out what doesn’t belong
so that something far greater can move in.
But notice what John says:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight his paths.”
This isn’t just about sin.
It’s about obstacles.
Anything that keeps us from receiving Christ more fully:
- resentments
- distractions
- busyness
- fear
- old and often bad habits
- spiritual complacency…
All of it needs to be dealt with.
Repentance is not punishment;
it’s hospitality.
It’s making space for God to come close.
It’s preparing the room for the One we long for.
John’s message is bold because the stakes are high.
He confronts the Pharisees and Sadducees directly:
“Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance.”
He’s saying:
“Don’t just talk about God.
Don’t rely on your religious status.
Don’t assume you’re already fine.
Show it in your life.”
It’s an uncomfortable message,
but it’s also a necessary one.
Advent is not passive.
It is not waiting with our arms crossed, staring at the sky.
It is active, hopeful preparation.
In the Christian life,
whether in Advent or any other season,
there is no room for complacency.
And here's the truth:
We all have spiritual clutter.
We all have places in our hearts where Christ wants to enter more deeply but can’t,
because something else is occupying the space.
Advent is the season when God continues to give us the grace to do something about it.
In the second reading,
Paul encourages the Romans to live in harmony,
to endure in hope,
to welcome one another as Christ has welcomed us.
That’s repentance too.
Turning from conflict toward peace.
Turning from isolation toward community.
Turning from selfishness toward generosity.
Paul is describing a Church
and a heart
where Christ feels at home.
John says that the Messiah will baptize
“with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
That sounds scary at first,
but Scripture uses the image of fire not to describe destruction,
but purification.
Like gold in a furnace,
our hearts need refining
not to be consumed,
but to be made beautiful,
to draw away the impurities.
Christ’s fire is the fire of love
burning away what keeps us from Him,
healing what is wounded,
illuminating what is hidden,
warming what has grown cold.
And if we let Him do that,
then Isaiah’s vision starts to appear
not only in the world,
but in us.
- Old grudges lose their power.
- Fear gives way to trust.
- Anger softens into compassion.
- A dead stump becomes a shoot of new life.
So, what’s in the way of Christ’s nearness in your life right now?
- A habit you know is unhealthy?
- A relationship that needs repairing?
- A bitterness you keep feeding?
- A prayer life you keep postponing?
- A busyness that pushes God to the edges?
- A fear that keeps you from trusting Him?
- An apathy that suffocates you?
Advent is not the time to ignore it.
Advent is the time to let God transform it.
This is why the Church gives us John the Baptist
not because he makes us feel cozy,
but because he makes us ready.
John’s message can sound intense, even harsh.
But at its core, it’s tender.
He’s telling us,
“God is coming close,
closer than you think
don’t miss it.
Don’t be too busy.
Don’t be too cluttered.
Don’t be too distracted.
Don’t be too apathetic.
Make room.”
God does not demand perfection.
He simply asks for availability.
He wants a heart that is willing to open a door,
clear a path,
and welcome Him with humility.
Because the nearness of God is not a threat
it is the answer to our deepest longing.
Because the truth is
He is nearer than you think.
Last week, Advent called us to wake up.
This week, Advent calls us to make space.
Next week, Advent will call us to recognize joy
to see the signs of God already at work.
But this second week is essential,
because without repentance
without turning, clearing, preparing
there is no space for Christ to come.
So today, listen to John the Baptist.
Let his voice interrupt you.
Let his fire refine you.
Let his urgency awaken the desire for a deeper nearness with God.
The Lord is drawing near.
He is coming into your life with healing, with peace, with mercy, with power.
Make space.
Prepare the way.
Open the door.
He is nearer than you think.