Advent is all about Jesus. John the Baptist was the great preacher of Advent. Standing in the wilderness with one foot in the Old Testament and the other in the New, John is a voice crying out in the wilderness. He doesn’t preach about himself, but about the coming Messiah.

There’s a pesky little nano-bug, known for making people uncomfortable, itchy and annoyed. Once you've been bitten by this critter, you know it, and you fall into spasms of scratching in a desperate attempt to find relief. We're talking about the flea. Scientific name: Pulex irritans. You can't claw yourself out of a flea infestation. You need a flea dip.

John the Baptist was a kind of human flea in the hair of his people, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. His challenging words made people feel terribly uncomfortable, and no doubt some were put off by his unusual appearance, and his itchy and socially unacceptable clothing of camel's hair.

But no amount of scratching could remove the discomfort created by his words. He spoke a nagging truth about the need to repent, so people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Relief came only through a dip in the river Jordan.

Let's stay with this thought about fleas for a moment. Let’s compare and contrast for a few moments this morning fleas and elephants. According to business author Charles Handy, there are two kinds of organizations in the world: elephants and fleas. Elephants are large corporations, religious institutions or government bureaucracies - organizations with deeply ingrained ways of working and behaving, allowing little room for individuality or self-expression. Elephants are often inflexible and unable to change when conditions suggest they should.

Think of the religious organization of the Pharisees and Sadducees back in first-century Judea. These spiritual leaders thought they were "living large," based solely on the fact that Abraham was their ancestor. They were spiritually bankrupt, grossly corrupt, hypocritical deceivers of the people. There was no room for boat-rockers. No room for people like John the Baptist. What a bunch of elephants.

A human flea, on the other hand, can be a single person working alone or, possibly, a small group of people. The flea's life is about more than just work, it is about flexibility to see the bigger picture and to keep life in its proper balance. Fleas take control of their lives and maximize their abilities, without being stifled by bureaucratic organizations or those that are clinging to the past. John the Baptist was sort of like a flea.

Charles Handy believes that fleas are becoming increasingly important in the business world, as they are able to work more efficiently and often more effectively than the elephants. They have speed on their side, as well as flexibility, sometimes creativity and certainly motivation. They may have completed a project and be moving on to the next while the elephant is still having meetings and trying to put together the project team.

Today, an Elephant Church is ill-suited for the incredible opportunities for ministry. What we need is something more like a Flea Church.

This is not a call to put away your comfortable and decorative Christmas sweaters and replace them with camel's hair jackets. It is not a recommendation that you serve locusts and wild honey at all your holiday parties. But there is a lot to be said for the flea-like behavior of John the Baptist, especially if we want to join him in preparing the way of the Lord in our world today.

John was free to speak the truth to the people of his day, using his unique, Spirit-given power of expression to call men and women to repentance. He embraced the authority and responsibility that God had given to him. He did not worry about how he would be accepted by the religious elephants of Jerusalem. He was inspired to employ the innovative idea of a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, a life-changing event that proved to be much more important than what was going on at the temple.

And most important of all, he pointed people to the coming of Jesus Christ, the one he saw as being much more powerful than himself. "I have baptized you with water," proclaimed John; "but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." John's innovative approach allowed him to move faster, be more agile, and have a more profound effect on religious life than all the elephants around him. The very same can be true for us.

As a community of faith, we can discard some of our elephant-like attributes and behave more like fleas. This means moving from our focus on church survival to a focus on Christian mission and changing from a culture waiting for someone else to a culture of taking the bull by the horns and getting things done. As a flea church, we can operate in a way that allows individual expression, and gives people permission to serve God in a variety of ways.

Rick Warren, the senior pastor of Saddleback Valley Community Church in Orange County, California, believes that people respond to responsibility, and they thrive and grow when you trust them. "But if you treat people like incompetent babies," he warns, "you'll have to diaper and feed them for the rest of your life."

You could argue that Saddleback and other mega-churches like it, seem more like elephants than fleas. But we're not talking about size here. We’re talking about effectiveness. We're not called to be a Saddleback church in size, but we are called to minister with effectiveness. And Rick Warren understands the concept of behaving like fleas.

Early in his ministry there, at a midweek service, he confessed to the congregation that he was exhausted, and that he couldn't continue to lead the church and be involved in every aspect of ministry at the same time. He went on to say that God didn't expect him to do all the ministry - the Bible was very clear that the pastor's job is to equip the members for THEIR ministry.

He said, "I'll make you a deal. If you agree to do the ministry of this church, I'll make sure you're well fed." The people liked the deal, and from that point on the congregation focused on performing the ministry of the church, while Warren concentrated on feeding and leading. After making this decision, Saddleback exploded with growth, exceeding 10,000 people in worship attendance.

Maybe you are under the impression that I have never given you permission to do the ministry I’ve tried to equip you to do. So today, I’m officially going to turn you loose to perform your ministry in the world. I’ll try to make sure you are well-fed and well-led. You now have the chance to make a real contribution with your lives - something that almost everyone, in a unique and personal way, is anxious to do. It’s past time to take advantage of the creativity and motivation of individuals who have been given permission to do Christ's work in the world.

But doesn't life in such a church get chaotic, a little uncomfortable and annoying, with so many fleas jumping around? This is a danger, yes. But it's only a problem if the fast-moving fleas of a particular group lose sight of their unifying mission: Preparing the way of the Lord, and pointing people to Jesus Christ.

Remember that John the Baptist was like a flea, but he was not obsessed with his own activity. Instead, he moved and jumped and spoke and baptized with the singular goal of preparing others for the coming of Christ. We can do the same if we keep Jesus at the center of our all that we do, including fellowship events, worship services, evangelism efforts, and Bible studies.

With Christ at our core, we don't have to jump around aimlessly. We can be fleas with a focus, individuals with a unifying vision for our energetic activity, people who point others to Jesus in an inviting and nonirritating sort of way. United in ministry, we fleas can make a real impact. One that even an elephant would envy.

I hear time and time again about how inadequate people feel when it comes to evangelism, or simply pointing people to Christ. Satan wants us to think that our own perceived shortcomings make us useless to God and His church. The truth of the matter is that if perfection, or being some kind of exemplary moral or spiritual leader is required to be in God’s service, then no one qualifies.

All have sinned and fallen short. There is none righteous, no not one. So there are no intrinsically qualified people. God himself must save sinners, sanctify them, and then transform them into instruments he can use.

Consider for a moment the twelve disciples. Christ’s choice of the apostles testifies to the fact that God can use the unworthy and unqualified. He can use nobodies. With only about 18 actual months of training, those men turned the world upside down, not because of their extraordinary talents or intellectual abilities. Their training was not an easy process. These men could be thick-headed. Jesus remarked once; "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe." He would ask, "Are you still without understanding? Do you not yet understand? But they turned the world upside down because God worked in them the ability to do it.

God chooses the humble, the weak, the lowly, so there’s never a question about the source of their power. It’s not the person. It’s the truth of God and power of God in the person. God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty. God’s favorite instruments are nobodies, so that no man can boast before God. God chooses whom He chooses so that He might receive the glory.

When John preached it wasn’t about him. John begins his introduction by "proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins." The Greek word for repentance means "to change one's mind." Behind that lies the Hebrew verb meaning "to turn around" - to change one's heart, will and conduct. Since the people respond to John's proclamation by "confessing their sins," repentance also implies recognizing one's sins, being sorry for them and speaking them publicly.

John is calling sinners to turn from their sinfulness and to immerse, baptize themselves in God's forgiveness which already exists. Rather than a tone of anger, John is preaching with a tone of joy: "Hear the good news of God. Your sins are forgiven! The One coming after me will make that clear."

The One who came after him made it clear. Jesus’ ministry led him on a path that he knew was going to lead to his rejection by the religious establishment. Jesus was fully aware of the hostility they had against him and the inevitability of his execution. He was betrayed by one of his chosen twelve, spit upon, beaten, mocked and tortured. He was led out of Jerusalem, the city he had entered only five days earlier with shouts of Hosanna, and nailed to a cross.

Our text this morning is what Mark called the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The story ends with Christ’s resurrection from the dead and his ascension into heaven. Through our baptisms, we are connected to Christ’s death and resurrection for the forgiveness of sins and life eternal.

We are empowered to also go into the wildness and point the way. We can point others to forgiveness and life eternal. John’s voice is still ringing out in that wilderness. With the Holy Spirit as the source of our power, may our voices join with his. Amen.