Preparing a Way 12-5-21
Preparing a Way
Daniel 12:1-3; Luke 3:1-6
Daniel 12:1-3
“At that time Michael, the great prince, the protector of your people, shall arise. There shall be a time of anguish, such as has never occurred since nations first came into existence. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book. Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.
Luke 3:1-6
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”
Prayer – God of hope, who never lets us go, draw near to us in these ancient words. By your Holy Spirit may we be filled, lifted up, and leveled as you prepare in our hearts the path of your coming. Amen
I have a confession to make – I saw Godspell some 40 plus years ago and amid all of the songs from that musical, Prepare Ye The Way, was my favorite – always has been. So that is why you got to hear it this morning – that is also why the focus of our time today is what/how/why are we called to prepare a way for the Lord some 2000 year post-birth. Every year during Advent we run head on into John the Baptist. Advent and John the Baptist go together like bacon and eggs, like death and taxes – you can count on the two every year.
Today, John the Baptist stands before us – bold, energetic, loud – out in the wilds of Israel calling for all people, perhaps even all of creation, to be transformed. Before he cheers us enthusiastically down the field, he asks us to check our spiritual compass to assess the direction of our lives and that is always a little uncomfortable. Just as the people gathered on hillsides and in valleys to hear his ringing words of reflection, I can imagine they were listening with one ear and tuning him out with the other – calls to self-reflection are not something we like to hear, or do. But John implores us to make sure we know where we are headed – that we are clear about which direction we are carrying the message of our lives. He assures all of us that it is never too late to look in the mirror and open ourselves to being transformed.
All four gospels force us to deal with bristly John the Baptist – and always in early December – when the rest of the world is wrapped in soft, sweet celebration. John comes to us in the glare of biblical truth to confront us, to afflict us, to discomfort us – to remind us that most of our preparations about Christmas do little to prepare us for Christ at all. Luke’s version of the John story begins in the immediacy of history. It begins right where we are – in the 1st year of Joe Biden’s presidency, when Greg Abbott is Governor of Texas, when I am your stated supply pastor, Rev Gregory Bentley and Elder Elona Street-Stewart are Co-Moderators of our denomination – in 2021, the word of God comes to John – and through John, the word of God comes to us, Sonja and Tom, Ken and Trini, Linda, Peggy and others and the word of the Lord comes to us in a world that easily can be described as wilderness – a world where a black man drives his car into the crowd at a Christmas parade and kills adults and children alike; a world where a former deputy and his son shoot a black jogger in a white neighborhood; a world where refugees are rejected just like a teen mother and her fiancé in a small town called Bethlehem 2000 years ago. Prepare a way for the Lord. Examine your life, examine your priorities, your values and your behavior. Check out your emotional, your spiritual, your ethical life. Are we seeking justice, loving mercy and humbly walking with God? If not, here is our chance, turn around, change direction – that is the inviting, demanding, expectant word John is throwing down on us today.
It is not a very comfortable word when we long for the comfort of family and Christmas. I was scanning Facebook the other day and saw a t-shirt posted from the Christian Left with the word Christian marked out, and underneath it read – Followers of Jesus. I was filled with mixed emotions - pretty sad, pretty uncomfortable, and if I am honest, that is pretty reasonable if I look in the mirror. I can imagine from God’s perspective, we the followers of Jesus have gotten caught up in the world in which we live and John is demanding that we choose to take a closer look because we need to make some dramatic changes in the direction we are going. In the wilderness world in which we live, conditions point away from God’s rule – poverty, homelessness, genocide, war, violence, ignorance, instability, injustice, oppression, racism, ecological disasters – we live in a wilderness world that appears to have lost a vision of possibilities and settled for survival in this the best of all possible worlds. We have become so focused on being right, being certain, that we are unwilling to make any changes in the course we are traveling. Too often we forget that there is NO political, NO economic, NO cultural system that can claim to be Christian, NO nation can claim it knows and does God’s will perfectly.
In our gospel passage this morning Luke is setting the stage for John’s dramatic words – here amid the powerful, here amid the ruling class, here amid the religious right, there is a man in the wilderness, not in the halls of power, but in the wilderness and God’s word came to him – animal skin covered, locust eating John boldly proclaims, take a look at yourself, take a long, hard look at yourself. Against the powerful and prestigious stands paltry, insignificant John, son of Zechariah. The word, as Isaiah says, fills the valleys and levels the mountains, it is a word that straightens out what is crooked and smooths over the rough places, all in order to build a direct path by which God can bring God’s love and mercy. That is a good word for a people struck by hardship and oppression, for a people caught in life’s wilderness.
I suspect that all of us at one time or another have felt overlooked, insignificant and small, surrounded by insurmountable problems, people and challenges. Maybe it’s not an Emperor that makes life miserable, maybe it’s a difficult colleague or an unhealthy relationship. Maybe it’s not a Roman procurator that oppresses, but instead a struggle with addiction to alcohol, drugs, or shopping. Maybe it’s not governors that threaten to destroy, but instead feeling lost at work or in retirement with no real friends or community of support. Maybe it’s not rulers and priests that overwhelm, but instead a struggle with depression, grief or loneliness.
And so this Advent we are called to meet John in our wilderness world once again. We hear his urging to prepare a way for the One who will come after him. So as we hear his words I wonder if we are willing to choose to look in our individual and collective mirrors – what do we see – what are we doing to prepare a way for God’s love and mercy to be shared? How are we preparing a way for ourselves, for people we encounter, to be followers of Jesus and not just Christian? How well are we taking a look at ourselves? That is the choice our gospel poses for us this morning.
This is not a call of judgment. This is a call for reflection. Too often I think we interpret John’s words of repentance as words of judgment. Today the words of John the Baptist – words crying in the wilderness of our humanity – are not words of criticism. They are words of choice – not words judging our worth. John is inviting us into wholeness; he is not criticizing our past. He is offering our future. John is communicating the paradox of our faith – that the free and lavish grace of God invites us into a relationship – a relationship grounded on self-reflection and transformation. I much prefer being in relationship with the Holy One of Israel who is merciful rather than just because that mirror-image I see reflected more often than not falls far short. Just as God doesn’t judge, we are not to judge others. But the truth of the gospel is that we must look in the mirror, in order to prepare a way for the Lord in our world we need to take a look at where we are. We must face the truth of who we are and who we want to become. That is the first step of preparing a way for the Lord.
Perhaps one of the most well-known prophets of our time was Martin Luther King, Jr. His paraphrase of Luke 3:6 testifies to the power of God’s word to take a long look at our wilderness world and he offers a hope-filled vision for a new world. We all know that King was stuck in the wilderness of racism and inequality. His prophetic words prepared a way for civil rights for African-Americans. “I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places made straight, and the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.” And a communal commitment to justice allowed a new thing to occur.
Preparing a way for the Lord means we need to live words of Good News, we need to embody those words in our thoughts, words and deeds. That is the call upon us this morning – take a look, compare yourself to King’s dream – am I helping raise people out of the valleys they find themselves in; am I leveling the playing field for all people; am I smoothing out rough places or am I a stone in the road; am I contributing to social dis-ease, injustice, and corruption? If the reflection we see in the mirror doesn’t reflect John’s words, King’s dream, then perhaps we need to hold ourselves accountable and make some changes.
John’s words of accountability were as uncomfortable then as they are now.And still it is a call, an invitation, to transform our wilderness, our world, into the kingdom of God.During this season of Advent, a season of waiting expectantly and hopefully, we can prepare our hearts and minds for the coming of the Christ and that in doing so, others will see God’s love and mercy – that is my hope, that is my place of shalom or peace – may it be yours as well – amen.