SERMON OF DECEMBER 6, 2009
M. Bruce McKay
Pilgrim - St. Luke’s United Church of Christ
“Preparing the Way”
Malachi 3:1-4, Luke 1:68-79, Luke 3:1-6
In the 15th 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; and 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.”
Advent is a season of preparation.
At home, people are baking cookies, trimming trees, putting up decorations, and hosting parties.
At church, we’re lighting candles, sharing meals, singing carols and purchasing poinsettias.
Advent is a season of preparation and given our busy-ness in these weeks before Christmas we can usually convince ourselves that we’re doing a pretty good job preparing for Christmas – at least until John the Baptist arrives on the scene reminding us that our essential task in this season isn’t preparing for Christmas but rather preparing for Christ.
John the Baptist couldn’t have cared less about our preparing for Christmas, but he was passionate about preparing for Christ – about preparing a way for Christ to enter our lives and our world.
The Women’s Fellowship here at the church has a prayer they say before each meal they share together. This tradition goes back at least 20 years and perhaps far longer. They say simply, “Come Lord Jesus, be our guest and may this meal to us be blessed.”
I don’t know how it is in your house, but when we are expecting guests in our house we look at things in a very different way.
The rug that’s been fine for several days (if not weeks) without being vacuumed now needs attention. The bathroom needs a thorough cleaning. Countertops need straightening out and the coffee table needs to be cleared off. The burned out bulb has to be replaced and the leaky faucet fixed. (Feasting on the Word, Advent, p. 47)
When we’re expecting guests in our homes there’s suddenly an urgency about cleaning, straightening up and fixing things that previously wasn’t there.
Preparing for guests makes us look at our surroundings and ourselves in an entirely new way.
Can I get an amen?
Expecting guests leads to a level of self-examination that we can no longer avoid or ignore.
When the one we’re expecting is Jesus – the Christ - the Prince of Peace - we can’t help but examine ourselves with an honesty and thoroughness that makes vacuuming the living room, cleaning the bathroom and fixing a leaky faucet seem pretty manageable by comparison.
You can prepare for Christmas without ever having to examine yourself or your world. But if you want to prepare for Christ – if you want to prepare to receive the Word that became flesh – the Word of God that came to John, the son of Zechariah, in the wilderness - then you’d better be prepared to examine yourself and your world – no matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey!
When and where do we do this? Here and now - in the 1st year of the reign of Barak Obama, when David Paterson is Governor of New York State and Byron Brown is the Mayor of Buffalo, during the high priesthood of Pat Robertson and Pope Benedict XVI.
That’s when and where we begin – now – in our own historical context – in our own world – a world marked by incredible violence and profound beauty – a world marked by fierce hatred and steadfast love – a world marked by ruthless vengeance and tender mercy.
It’s into the wilderness of this world that the Word of God comes to us just as it came to John the Baptist proclaiming a power beyond that of any political or religious leader – proclaiming that the place to receive this power – the place to prepare the way for the Prince of Peace is not out there in the world around us – but in here – in the world within us – recognizing our own need for God’s tender mercy – our own need for the gift of God’s forgiveness.
As Zechariah said of his son John at his birth “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their sins.” (Luke 1:76-77)
If we don’t feel we need forgiveness ourselves we might as well fold up our bulletin, put on our coat and go home – for there is no way we can prepare for Christ – there is no way we can prepare the way of the Lord into our hearts, our homes or our human household without being ruthlessly honest with ourselves about our own need for forgiveness – our own need to repent.
“The Word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness; and he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”
The word in Greek for repentance is “metanoia”. It means turning around – turning in the opposite direction – making a radical reorientation in one’s life. That process has to begin by making what Dag Hammarshold called the longest journey – the journey inward.
One of our earliest ancestors in faith was the theologian Tertullian, a North African who lived less than 200 years after Jesus. He said that repentance meant “preparing the home of the heart, by making it clean, for the Holy Sprit.” (Feasting on the Word, Advent…Year C, p.48).
We can prepare our home and our church home for Christmas by cleaning, straightening up and fixing things in them. We can’t prepare for Christ – we can’t prepare for the Prince of Peace - without doing the same thing in the home of our heart.
As followers of the Prince of Peace and as children of God, we are all called to prepare the way of the Lord by being and becoming more fully peacemakers in our violent, war torn world. (Matthew 5:9)
Responding to this call on this or any other Sunday, in this or any other season, requires entering the home of our own heart - entering the wilderness within us – the wilderness of loneliness and fear, emptiness and sadness, anger and resentment.
We can’t enter this wilderness without ruthless honesty, profound courage and deep humility.
We can’t enter this wilderness and continue to say that the real problem is out there – in the violence of those around us and around our world. We can’t go there without saying that the violence I must first address is in my own heart – in my own life.
What needs to change in your life now for you to prepare not for the coming of Christmas but for the coming of Christ?
On this second Sunday of Advent, having lit the candle of Peace, what needs to change in your life for you to become more fully the peacemaker God calls you to be?
I want you to think about that for a moment…
What do you need to do to prepare the home of your heart for the Prince of Peace?
Now usually when I ask that sort of question in a sermon, I then move on to my next point.
But I don’t really have a next point this morning, so I’d like to propose that we try something a little different – something a little edgy. After all, John the Baptist was a pretty edgy sort of guy.
I want you to turn to the person sitting next to you – or find someone in the next pew - and tell them one thing that you would like to change in your own life to prepare the way for the Prince of Peace in this Advent Season – to more faithfully respond to God’s call to be a peacemaker.
And I’ll do the same… (People in congregation pair off…)
How did it go?
Were you able to come up with something?
I told Roy that I need to be more disciplined and more faithful in prayer. Not so much in terms of talking to God, but in listening for God’s voice in the midst of the many other voices that come to me each day – for only then will I be ready to respond to what God is calling me to do.
Late in 1943 when Dietrich Bonhoeffer was in prison for his resistance to the Nazi war machine, he wrote to a friend saying: “life in a prison cell reminds me a great deal of Advent—one waits and hopes and putters about, but in the end what we do is of little consequence, for the door is shut and can only be opened from the outside” (sojo.net – sermon prep 12/6/09)
The door to being a peacemaker in this and every Advent Season can only be opened from the outside – by the amazing grace and faithful forgiveness of our God.
A local Episcopal priest tells the story of a colleague in Western New York who was a chaplain in the Philippines on December 7, 1941. He was taken prisoner in May of the following year when the Japanese captured the Philippines. He was one of thousands of Americans and Filipinos forced to make the “death march” to prison camp.
Those who survived the march were tortured in the camp. The chaplain was at first spared, but then he too was tortured. Conditions in the camp were deplorable and prayer alone kept hope alive as countless prisoners died. It was nearly 3 years before the Philippines were liberated.
Lifted by the joy of freedom the chaplain held a communion service. There was no bread or wine, so he used rice and water. One of the first people to come forward to take communion from him was a man who’d tortured him.
Without hesitating, he handed him the consecrated rice and water, and together they shared the body and blood of the Prince of Peace who would make his home in each of our hearts whenever we redirect our lives to him - no matter who we are or where we are on life’s journey.
As Zechariah proclaimed: “By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet in the way of peace.” (Luke 1:78-79)
“To guide our feet in the way of peace.”
John the Baptist doesn’t tell us how to take every step of that journey – but he does tell us how to begin it – by preparing the home of our heart with the humility and courage it takes to repent and receive the gift of God’s forgiveness.
When we do this we discover that the door leading to the way of peace always opens from the outside at the initiative of our gracious and guiding God who makes a way out of what seems like no way.
John the Baptist insists that people change their lives and he points to the power that can make that change happen – the power present in the One whose way he and we are called to prepare.
I’ve mentioned how we prepare for guests in our house, but I neglected to tell you about something Phoebe has been known to do when our guest comes from a great distance, is a member of her family or mine, or happens to be special in some other way. Phoebe not only insists on our fixing, straightening up and cleaning our house – but doing the same thing on our block as well.
If someone has graffitied a street sign, she’ll try to get it replaced.
If an empty lot is littered with trash she’ll clean it up.
If a vacant house on the block has a layer of leaves on the front lawn she’ll rake them.
Preparing our own home for special guests isn’t enough. She’s determined to prepare our block as well.
In the same way preparing the home of our hearts for the coming Christ isn’t enough unless it also leads into the world around us by “guiding our feet in the way of peace” – unless it also leads to lifting up those living in valleys of despair.
Unless it also leads to bringing down the mountains of poverty in our city and the mountains of prejudice in our state that continues to deny equity of opportunity to gay and lesbian couples wanting to be married.
Unless it also leads to straightening out a health care system that leaves 47 million people uninsured and some saying that the richest nation on earth can’t afford anything any better!
Unless it also leads to smoothing out the path to citizenship for 12 million immigrants seeking a better life for themselves and their families.
Preparing the home of our hearts for the coming Christ isn’t enough unless it also leads to allowing him to guide our feet in the way of peace.
When this happens God’s promise to the prophet Isaiah will be fulfilled.
Howard Thurman puts it this way in his poem, “This is the Season of Promise.”
“Let the bells be silenced
Let the gifts be stillborn
Let the cheer be muted
Let the music be soundless
Violence stalks the land:
Soaring above the cry of the dying
Rising above the whimper of the starving
Floating above the flying machines of death
Listen to the long stillness
New life is stirring
New dreams are on the wing
New hopes are being readied:
Humanity is fashioning a new heart
Humanity is forging a new mind
God is at work.
This is the season of Promise.”
God is at work in the wilderness within us and in the wilderness of the world around us creating a new humanity and a new future, despite all the evidence to the contrary.
This is the season of Promise – the season when God promises peace.
So prepare the way of the Lord knowing that one day –one day – “all flesh shall see the salvation of God!”
Amen!
