Sermon, December 7, 2008, Advent 2.B

The readings are about "preparing the way," making the path smooth.

 

Isaiah 40: "Comfort, give comfort" begins the poem which we all know and love due to Handel's "Messiah." In it, Isaiah describes the "leveling of hills and the filling in of valleys." This is a reference to what was, at that time, "the red carpet treatment." Before asphalt, the roads that converged  on a city were all muddy and hard to traverse. This was especially so the nearer to the city gate one came, for there, ALL the little cart tracks and major roads came together, and it was such a "rough ride," that even royalty would have to get out of their "well-padded" conveyances, and walk for fear of injury, unless the townspeople honored them by coming out and leveling out the ruts and cart tracks to make a smooth ride. Here, the poet/prophet envisions God asking the prophet to do this for the slaves returning from their captivity in Babylon–broken people coming home.

 

The Gospel is about John the Baptist preparing the people to expect the coming of the Christ of God, who will bring sinners back to religion and the pagan Gentiles to a knowledge of the One, True God of Israel.

 

And St. Paul tells us how to live our lives in preparation for the Lord's  return. So...we have lots of Preparation for the "returning folk" of the world.

 

God for the returning exiles.
Christ for the returning of sinners.
And WE prepare for the return of the Christ...

 

So, our readings are all about "preparing the way."

 

How does a bird in preparing for the vital days of spring and summer prepare a nest? First, those nests are well-attached, for they are perched 50 feet off the ground, on "foundations" of branches that move violently in the wind, and they are made of strong materials, sticks, not leaves, for leaves are more quickly biodegradable than sticks, and they don't want their happy home turning to dust over night! And, the sticks are well-placed for strength, and  often sparkling things catch their eye, and end up woven among the branches. So much for birds: what can we say? Even bird-brains know how to make strong houses in precarious places! But, at least, from what we can observe, the birds build from instinct, with materials, not with personal values.

 

But, how about us? How do we prepare a home? What is the "foundation" on which we build? What are the non-material resources that we use to make our home?  I ask this, this weekend, for these are the very same things that "prepare the way" for Christ's advent into our world.

 

Warmth (Heating/air conditioning and personal warmth, and knowing when to give the cool glass of water in His Name, Windows and electricity, and the Light that understanding can bring to a family, Plumbing, and the refreshment that forgiveness brings, a Kitchen stove, and the nurturance that profound love and charity bring, a Time out corner and richness that responsibility and honesty can bring to a home and a neighborhood. and the caring that having a time out area signifies, with the security that true caring imparts, a Safe or a vault that can signify how we need to protect what we treasure, which is why we also have smoke alarms in our children's rooms.

 

What we are seeing are symbols–our homes are filled with symbols, our lives are filled with them, and they all point us to what it means to "prepare the way" of the Lord. For it is in cultivating personal warmth and generosity, it is in deepening our understanding of each other, it is in developing our skills of forgiveness, which in turn, deepens our ability to be truly loving and charitable people, andin our ability to be caring, honest responsible people who treasure the gifts of others that "prepares the way of the Lord." How?

 

Well, it prepares our children to recognize the face of Christ shining through the face of the neighbor. They don't learn that by memorizing a Bible verse. They learn that by watching us. Such a life prepares our co-workers to recognize the undeserved mercy of God by our smiling forgiveness and our listening ear. They don't learn that from "witness talks" or sermons; they learn it from watching us and how we treat them. It prepares our neighbors to recognize the eternal presence that treasures them and values them when they see us treasuring THEIR children as we coach them in Little League, and tutor them in after school programs. They don't learn this from tracts we put under their doors, they learn if from watching us live. And when they see us standing for the weak, and working for the rights of others, they are prepared to see the God who never gives up on us. And when we come regularly to weekly worship, they learn where we get our strength.

 

AND, it is in the cultivation of these very values and practices that we "smooth the way" for the Lord of Advent to be Birthed in the manger of our heart over and over again. Have you noticed that God rarely comes on donkeys these days!

 

Now, all of this is so darn simple and obvious that you are probably saying to yourselves, "I could give this good a sermon without ever having gone to seminary! True. You could. I'm not here to be superior to you, you (well not you personally, but a community of Christians in Kansas where I'm from) in the name of Christians everywhere, called me to stand up every week and to remind us all of what we don't want to hear. And as I talk, I'm reminding MYSELF, first of all. I don't know about you, but I've met some folk in the last fifteen years or so, that I don't understand at all, and would wonder about my sanity if I DID! Several things have happened to me in my life that I find it very hard to forgive, and I say I've forgiven, BUT, I hold the memory in my "treasury vault," so that IF I ever need to use it, I can bring it out and go for the jugular! So, I need to hear these readings from Isaiah and from Mark, too, and I need to think about the stuff I've put before all of us to pay attention to. None of us is perfect, that's why we have free confessionals in Churches and why psychiatrists have far more expensive couches in their offices! I like to think of the words of Dear Abby, who was quoting a Church Father who I was too lazy to look up–she wrote: "Churches are not museums for saints, they are hospitals for sinners." Today's readings remind us that they are also "schools" for preparing us to make openings for the coming of the Lord into our world. Only the God and the prophet could smooth those ruts leading from Babylon to Jerusalem; and only we can smooth ours, with His help.

 

Let's take what's left of this Advent season to "give Christ the red carpet treatment" into our lives. Let the manger of our hearts be ready for Him to come to us in ever new and surprising ways, thus making of our lives benedictions of goodness and hope in our world. And may God bless you all.+