Who will prepare the way Dec. 14

WHO WILL PREPARE THE WAY?

Isaiah 40:1-11; Mark 1:1-8

The texts before us today tell a tale of two deserts: The literal desert that stretched from Egypt to Israel, and the spiritual desert that turns and twists between God and humanity.  We know that the first desert was about wanderings, wars, and willful disobediences. The second desert is about making the spiritual path between the Christian and God straight, not crooked; smooth, not rough.

It took 40 years for the Israelites to cross that desert, but even after reaching the  Promised Land generation after generation continued to stumble and sin until finally sent them into Exile. Looking back, following God’s way was easier for the Israelites in the first desert—God was very apparent to them in pillars of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day; they had the parting of the seas and manna from heaven and water from stones to assist them on their journey. 

The second desert, the spiritual one, seems so much harder to cross. Gone is the pillar of fire; haven’t noticed lately any tendency of the Atlantic Ocean to part itself. Manna is in short supply, and water comes from a faucet, not a stone. Those miracles worked in a physical desert, but what will work for us who stand in a spiritual one? Is there still a voice of one crying in the wilderness to help us find our way to God’s promises?

 The time is right to ask these questions because we are now in this place called Advent: a holy season of waiting and watching, listening and longing for the voice of one. The voice does not say here are the solutions to your challenges and hurts; this voice cries directly into our spirit’s own wilderness:  “Prepare the way of the Lord.”

Some of you may know that my brother Robert and my niece Kaylee are living with me at this time. My brother works 3 twelve hour days on weekends and Mondays, so for a while he was home for four days.  Kaylee was spending everyday sleeping and playing with her X-box. When she had a friend over, the same thing happened with them.

One day I realized it was really bugging me that I was going out the door to work every morning, and there were people at my home, hanging out—and not contributing. So that night when I got home, I announced to my niece in front of her friend who’d been there for three days and as far as I know never moved from the recliner, “Anybody who lives in this house must have a job.”

Well, Kaylee’s friend left the next day, Kaylee was “wander-some” for a few days. That’s when it occurred to me that perhaps my niece did not know how to go about getting a job. She was unprepared for the challenge.

I started leaving her notes in the morning before I left the house. Monday: go to at least three places in the area or at the mall and pick up an application. She went to seven places. Tuesday my note said, “Apply for at least three of those jobs.” And she did, with most of the applications being completed on line. She continued to work on applications Wednesday and Thursday.  Friday she had an interview. And Monday she had a job. And, boy, is she dedicated to it! You have to be to get yourself to work by 4 am in time to make the donuts!

In today’s passage, the Israelites are captives in exile. In their darkest, emptiest moments the prophet Isaiah who speaks the word of the Lord, “Comfort!” And then Isaiah speaks the message of hope from God again—“O Comfort, my people.”

Every time I encounter those words, I feel a blanket of relief cover me. And I KNOW that the God who spoke “tenderly to Jerusalem” is still speaking to his children today. Yet the noise of guns shooting, bombs dropping, children dying, women crying, men breaking, earth choking, money draining and nations warring is enough to deafen us to the voice of one crying in the wilderness, “Comfort, O Comfort, my people… prepare the way of the Lord.”

The Way, we know the Way, do we not? We hear of it, read it, study it, speak it. The Way is Jesus, the Way is righteousness; the Way is to love God and one another. My observation is, however, that though we Christians work very hard at serving in churches that are struggling with various challenges related to our exile, there is still something that is getting in the way of The Way. And I wonder if that something has to do with not knowing how to prepare for the coming of the Lord.

A task cannot be accomplished if we do not know where to start. When it comes to faith in Jesus Christ in the 21^st century, I am beginning to believe that many of us are unprepared to prepare—the roads are rough—we live in an era when society has become hostile to Christianity—Christians are exiled from the mainstream. We have never been this way before, is there anything we can do?

The voice tells us to prepare a way for the Lord: the Lord is coming; we are told to prepare a high way for our God. In the spiritual desert there is no physical highway to be traveled, so the voice must be talking of a different kind of highway—a spiritual high way. What might that high way be? The Message of Advent is to make a permanent room for Jesus in our hearts, for He is coming. 

Our hearts have rough places and crooked paths; they get rough by grudges and grief, apathy and anger. Our spirits are made crooked by disobedience, ignorance, lethargy. To prepare the way of the Lord in our hearts is to address the sins and to clear the heart of all the things that get in the way between us and the Lord. Make room for him in your inn, because there are many in our communities who have lost their way; the light of Christ in you and me is the lamp they need to find their way home again.

Even in the midst of the darkest days of the year, we who are aware of the Lord mustearnestly prepare our hearts, for others are suffering because they have no hope—they jump in front of trains to die; they want the police officers to shoot them dead.

Advent is not just a time of watching and waiting; it is also a time of preparing our hearts to receive the Lord.  Christ needs our hearts prepared now to serve and receive those who cannot feel the blanket of his comfort. There are those who cannot hear how tenderly the Lord speaks to those who are still wandering in the spiritual desert with no idea which way to turn. They endure a bleak midwinter.

“In the Bleak Midwinter” by Christina Rossetti

In the bleak mid-winter
Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter
Long ago.

Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him
Nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away
When He comes to reign:
In the bleak mid-winter
A stable-place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty,
Jesus Christ.

Enough for Him, whom cherubim
Worship night and day,
A breastful of milk,
And a mangerful of hay;
Enough for Him, whom angels
Fall down before,
The ox and ass and camel
Which adore.

Angels and archangels
May have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim
Thronged the air -
But only His mother
In her maiden bliss
Worshipped the Beloved
With a kiss.

What can I give Him,
Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd
I would bring a lamb;
If I were a wise man
I would do my part;
Yet what I can, I give Him -
Give my heart.

Making paths straight and rough places smooth is what Advent is for. Let us not neglect to prepare our hearts for the presence of Jesus Christ. Christ is waiting; souls are waiting. All earth is waiting. Will you be one who prepares a way for the Lord in your heart? Amen.