Prepare the way for the Lord. Raise up the valleys, lower the mountains and hills. Make the rough ground level. Make the rugged places smooth.
These words remind me of traveling with my family. When I was a child, we took long vacations, driving across the country to visit historic and inspiring sites. Traveling on I-20 in west Texas, I remember asking my Daddy “Why did they tear up the hills like that when they built this road?” For rising up on either side of us on the interstate was part of the inside of the hill—exposed rock. Why did they blow up the hill to put the highway through it? Why not make the road go up and down the hills. My Daddy told me they build the roads somewhat level because cars labor going up and down steep hills and people can travel faster on level roads. (Actually, anyone who knew my Daddy knows his answer was much more involved with the history of road building for the pioneers and the science and math of angles of incline.)
Kevin and the girls and I also drove long distances for our summer vacations. The mountains in New Mexico and Colorado were favorite destinations. After we bought a 4-wheel drive SUV, we got brave and ventured out on routes such as “Oh My God” Road.
We traveled roads that twisted and turned along switchbacks, gravel and rock roads, narrow roads with no guardrails between us and the downside of the mountain. Roads that were anything but straight, level, or smooth. Oh, the sights were beautiful, but the drives were long and bumpy and at times a little scary.
Kevin and the girls and I also drove long distances for our summer vacations. The mountains in New Mexico and Colorado were favorite destinations. After we bought a 4-wheel drive SUV, we got brave and ventured out on routes such as “Oh My God” Road.
We traveled roads that twisted and turned along switchbacks, gravel and rock roads, narrow roads with no guardrails between us and the downside of the mountain. Roads that were anything but straight, level, or smooth. Oh, the sights were beautiful, but the drives were long and bumpy and at times a little scary.
Our Old Testament text today says: Prepare the way for the Lord. Make a smooth, level, straight highway so that the Lord may come quickly.
Why is haste so important? God’s people are in Babylon—in despair. For 50 years they have been exiled from their homes, their land, and their temple. They feel like they have been exiled from their God. For Jerusalem and the land surrounding it was the place of God’s promise to their patriarch Abraham. It was the place of God’s promise to their ancestors, the Hebrew slaves fleeing Egypt. It was the place ruled by God’s promised dynasty—King David and his descendants. It was the place of the temple where the people worshiped God. It was the place where the stone tablets containing God’s law where housed. To be cut off from the land of God’s promise, to be cut off from the rulers anointed by God, to be cut off from the place of worship was to be cut off from God. God’s people, banished to Babylon, feel banished from God.
The prophets of the time immediately preceding the exile—Jeremiah and Ezekiel—laid the blame for the fall of Jerusalem, the devastation of the land of Judah, and the exile to Babylon squarely on the shoulders of the Jewish people and their leaders. Time and again, God had tried to call God’s people back to right relationship, but they had not responded. Now, 50 years after they had been marched away from Jerusalem, these exiles—and their children and grandchildren born in captivity—hear from God through the prophet Isaiah— “Comfort my people. Tell them they have served their time. Tell them I is making a smooth, level road that cuts a straight line from Jerusalem to Babylon.” You see, God is making a road to speed God’s reunion with God’s people. God is making a road to speed the people’s return to the place of promise. They will be restored. Even though they have not been faithful to God’s covenant, God is faithful to them. God says, “Tell them I am preparing the way.”
This is truly a message of hope to the exiles. God is on the way—not as a judge, for God has forgiven them. God is on the way, coming as a gentle shepherd drawing them close to God’s heart.
While we may not have been banished from the place of our roots, Isaiah’s words offer us hope, as well. For at some point in our lives, we, like the Jews in Babylon, may find ourselves in despair—feeling cut off from God. Worrying how to pay for unexpected bills, lamenting a relationship that seems to lie in ruins, fearing a doctor’s diagnosis, grieving the death of someone we love, we may find ourselves losing hope—feeling exiled from God—abandoned and alone. But this text tells us, that when we despair, God prepares a way to be with us, to assure us of God’s loving presence, to draw us as close to God’s heart as a shepherd holding a lamb to his bosom. In the midst of such despair, this text gives us hope.
In our New Testament reading today, we hear the same words. “Prepare a way for the Lord. Make straight paths for him.” But these words, spoken at a different time—500 years later, to a different audience—descendents of the Jews who had returned to their homeland, through a different prophet—John the Baptizer, these words, spoken here, have a different meaning. For John the Baptizer calls the people to prepare the way for the Lord. Not a physical road for the people to travel along, the straight path to which John the Baptizer refers is a metaphor. For it is the rough places of their hearts which must be made smooth. How? Through repentance. By turning back towards God, the people will be forgiven. John’s baptism with water is a public commitment to prepare the way for the Lord in their lives. John the Baptizer promises their repentance prepares their hearts, their minds, and their lives for the transformation they will experience when the One who is more powerful than he arrives. For that One will baptize them with the Holy Spirit. And who is this One coming after John the Baptizer? Who is this One who is more powerful than he? It is Christ. Christ is coming.
So John’s message reminds us of Advent. Advent—a time of hopeful expectation, a time to prepare for the way of the Lord, a time to prepare for the coming of Christ.
Last Sunday, I offered that, as part of my own Advent preparation, I seek to be aware of Christ’s presence in my day-to-day life. How else can we prepare the way for the Lord?
Perhaps we can prepare ourselves by heeding the call of John the Baptizer. We know, that through the grace of Jesus Christ, we are already forgiven, but that does not preclude our repenting—our turning back towards God—our re-focusing on God. Perhaps we can re-focus through daily prayer, study, or reflection. In the Spirit Box, I invited our children to try out daily reflection by reading the Advent pages I gave them, lighting a candle, and singing with their families. Perhaps you could try that, too. I didn’t print copies for each of you, but our church's webpage has a link to an Advent resource online.
If we truly want to invite Christ into our lives this Advent, we need to prepare the way—prepare the way of our hearts through prayerful reflection.
How do we know that we need to prepare? God says “I will send my messenger ahead of you . . . a voice of one calling in the wilderness.” In both our texts today, God calls someone to be the messenger—someone to bring the good news: “You who bring good news . . . lift up your voice with a shout,
lift it up, do not be afraid; say . . . , ‘Here is your God!’” (Isaiah 40:9 CEB)
Perhaps you are the messenger this season who will bring hopeful news of comfort and peace to someone who despairs. Perhaps you are the messenger who will invite a friend, neighbor or a co-worker to worship and fellowship. Perhaps you are the messenger who will befriend someone who is lonely. Perhaps you are the messenger who will visit someone who is homebound. Perhaps you are the messenger who will offer a smile of kindness and a word of thanks to a harried store cashier. Perhaps you are the messenger who will sort, display, and provide warm clothes through our Thrift Shop. Perhaps you are the messenger who will collect or distribute food for Operation Christmas. Perhaps you are the messenger who will wrap gifts with Cops for Tots. Perhaps you are the messenger who will greet people with the sound of the Salvation Army bell. Perhaps this season, you are being called to be the messenger to prepare the way for the Lord for someone else.
Prepare the way. When Kevin’s brother and sister-in-law lived out in the country, they had a ½ —mile long dirt driveway. Now over the course of a west Texas year, with sun and rain, heat and ice, snow and wind, their drive got bumpy with ruts and wash outs. People would not visit them if their cars were going to bottom out driving up the driveway. So when Jack and Barbra wanted company—especially when they wanted to host the big family get-togethers and reunions, they had to prepare the way—the driveway. They had to haul in more dirt to fill in the holes, pack it all down and grate it smooth.
During this Advent season, what roads are you called to make straight? Whose way to the good news of God’s presence and love and grace are you called to make smooth? Prepare the way for the Lord.
(My apologies to the artist of the beautiful piece at the top of today's entry to the blog. I failed to keep records of how I found it.
The picture of "Oh my God Road" is from http://inlinethumb36.webshots.com/42083/2471250910101960247S500x500Q85.jpg
My apologies to the photographer of the straight highway heading to the mountains. I cannot remember the search I tried to find it.)
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