Second Week of Advent

Greg Schaefer—December 13, 2006

Readings:
Malachi 3:1-4
Luke 1:68-79
Philippians 1:3-11
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.’”

What a striking contrast in the naming of people in this text. Of course, Luke the historian is setting John the Baptist in his proper time and Jesus against the background of the political and religious power in Israel or, more accurately, Rome. These names, though, have the added bonus of introducing Luke’s God, who chooses and uses the unexpected, who lifts up the lowly & sends the rich away empty.

In this text, lowly John the Baptist comes out strong about the coming of the messiah: Valleys shall be filled, mountains and hills made low. In other words, the playing field is being leveled and all will have their fair chance. After all, Isaiah originally proclaimed these as words of God’s redemption to exiled people. And now John the Baptist uses them to announce the dawn of a new world order.

Indeed, this word of liberation and grace is the heart of the Christian proclamation. But we talk about it every Advent! We know it! So, here at the end of the 1st semester here for some of you, the beginning of your last semester for others, and just another semester for others of us, I want to take a different approach to this text, and that is that the Kingdom of God is hard work!

The Word of God came to John and, in his proclamation, the Word comes to us: “Prepare ye the way of the Lord!” But John the Baptist failed to mention the upheaval involved in this kind of geological makeover.

As many of you know, I grew up on a cattle ranch. It has lots of creeks, valleys, lakes, and hills. As a kid, I would walk along the cow paths. Cows always walk along the same paths. They are usually the easiest, safest ways up and down hills. And, they are inherited paths. Generations of cows walk the same paths across the same hills. Occasionally, some calves will run off of the path, out into the fields. But, they are usually brought back by their mothers, with a look that says, “Nope. This way. We don’t just go off the path like that.” So, as a result, even the spunky calves grow up to be cows who bring other spunky calves back onto the path.

This passage has new meaning to me this Advent. A year ago, a development project began on a large part of the ranch. Talk about mountains and hills being made low! A fleet of tractors has moved in an seriously adjusted the landscape! The cows have adapted. But, the water… the water is mad. The stubborn water manages to flow its old way. There is a reason that creeks run the way they do. Despite all the work that all those tractors are doing, nature finds its way back. The water returns to its own courses. I think the same is true of human nature.

I’ve had a song stuck in my head lately. I’ve had lots of songs stuck in my head these days. If you’re a Handel’s Messiah junky like me, you can’t hear these texts without beginning to hum! But, the song I’ve had in my head for the last month or so is O Little Town of Bethlehem. If you’ve been down to Brewed Awakening, you may have met Samir, the man who owns the place. He and his family are from Bethlehem. Samir was the 1st person I ever met who was from Bethlehem. Since then, I’ve met many more and it has been really helpful because it makes that ancient city real to me.

O little town of Bethlehem,
how still we see the lie.
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep,
the silent stars go by.

That’s sweet. But we know that Bethlehem does not lie still in deep, dreamless sleep. There is discord, walls of separation, war, the daily threat of war, the struggle for survival, hunger, poverty. And Bethlehem is not dissimilar from other places in the world. Disease, AIDS, nuclear proliferation, broken relationships in homes, communities, and countries… I don’t need to rehearse the whole list. The world seeks release from these old, familiar ways. John the Baptist speaks ancient words announcing the coming king, who comes with a new world order, a king who’d say “Come off the old path! Something new is starting!”

The Word of God came to John, and it comes to us: “Prepare way.” Our work is also to encourage people off of the old path, into a new way. The Jesus-way. But, as we know, the world (and I don’t distinguish us from the world) finds easier to walk same paths: Global paths of war and unfair distribution of wealth; Personal paths of greed and looking out for ourselves alone.

In the film “Guess who’s coming to dinner” Spencer Tracy is confronted with a very uncomfortable and overwhelming situation and decides to deal with it by… going out for ice cream! Sometimes I think that doesn’t sound all bad. With the world in the state that it’s in, we are called help realize the Kingdom of God. And that’s daunting, overwhelming, sometimes frustrating. Promised Kingdom can’t come soon enough and sometimes Id rather go out for ice cream.

Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light

Ah, pesky “it’s not all about us” reminder. God promised a new world order. And God keeps promises. God kept the promise to come then to our ancestors, and keeps the promise to come to us now. Isaiah says, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord.” And then, these next few lines are in such welcome passive voice that even an English teacher would love it: “The valleys shall be filled in. The mountains and hills shall be made low.” God is active. God, who’s proven that He makes way when we cannot, is at work.

I have a favorite Christmas card that I received a couple of years ago. My grandmother is a painter who painted a picture of Bethlehem to use as her Christmas cards. And, inside of it, she has the last line from the first stanza of this hymn:

The hopes & fears of all years are met in thee tonight.

This, to me, is the best news of all. “In the 230th year of the United States, when Schwarzenegger was governor of CA, and Anderson was president of PLTS, & Carlton had another paper to write, and Hans had another exam to take, the Word of God came, again, to us. And it said, “Every valley shall be filled, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked made straight and the rough places plain. And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” All Flesh: Those to whom we proclaim and us, too.

I started by saying that “we already know the Advent message of grace.” But, I’m not always sure that we do. The Gospel message is both call to action & Good News to receive. And unless it is first good news for us, we’re not going to be much good for ministry. Unless we can receive the good news of the Gospel as for us, how can we proclaim it to others?

Is the Kingdom of God true to human nature, or will it come despite us? Is love, peace, mercy part of what being human is and we just need to return to it? Or is it so foreign we’d rather return to our old ways, our old familiar paths? Luther tells us that it’s both. We are Simul Justus et peccator. And in that paradox, as we live & work for the Kingdom of God, both our deepest hopes and deepest fears are met in the Christ Child, God whose promised Word of grace comes to us again and again and again.

Amen!