Sermons Peaceful Highways | Peaceful Highways |
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Isa. 40:1-11; Mark 1: 1-8 Peaceful Highways E/GR Dec. 4/05 1) Wild and hairy John the Baptist comes tromping again through our Advent! Shouting, ?Prepare and make ready the way of the Lord.? Bad roads were notorious in his day. A message was always sent out to tell people to get the roads ready for the king coming. John has just spent time in the wilderness seeking God?s will for his life. After this long preparation, he is convinced that God?s Messiah is coming soon, and the people need to prepare the highways of their hearts. 2) This is Isaiah?s cry as well. ?Prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight the paths.? The people fear that God has given up on them, and abandoned them in exile in Babylon. With great compassion, God instructs Isaiah to ?Comfort, O comfort my people. Tell them I am indeed with them, and will lead them home on peaceful highways, the best, flattest, straightest, smoothest highways they?ll ever see! They will be fed and cared for and comforted.? 3) ?Comfort, comfort my people.? Our word, comfort, often means helping people to feel better in their situation. The Hebrew word also meant strengthen. These people were in for a mighty long walk home. They had been prisoners in Babylon. Comfort had everything to do with being released ? set free. It meant change. It meant mobility. Babylon may have felt safe. It was after all known, even if a prison. Some did stay. Most were eager to return to their homes, no matter how scary or difficult the journey. Trusting in God to be with them. 4) At first glance John the Baptist?s message sounds exactly opposite to Isaiah?s. Fierce, uncompromising John calling people to prepare for the coming of Christ by repenting. But the rest of the sentence turns it into grace. ?For the forgiveness of their sins.? To repent is to think differently, to have a change of heart and mind. John tells the people to look at things in a new way, and to be comforted, so they can be open to see a new thing coming for them as well. 5) What is the liberation you long for this Advent? Do you feel trapped on a winding, rocky, steep path in your life? Do you yearn for a peaceful highway home? John the Baptist tells us repentance is the answer. Repentance is an uncomfortable word, isn?t it? I think it?s because it?s always been associated with long lists of ?Thou shalt nots.? It?s connected with moralistic pointy fingers that leave us either so angry or so shamed we cannot act. I really like instead Louis of Granada, a 6th Century Spanish priest?s definition of repentance. It is ridding ourselves of impediments to love. Ridding ourselves of impediments to love. It has nothing to do with not having fun with our family and friends, but how we treat them! It has nothing to do with long faces and everything to do with generosity. It is removing obstacles of criticism, despair and hopelessness. Being able to forgive and to receive forgiveness. Really believing that we are worthy of receiving forgiveness. It is making time for the things that deeply matter like God, friends and family. 6) Louis goes on, ?if we refuse to rid ourselves from impediments to love, then our souls are left cold and damp, so they resist the fire of God?s love. If we sincerely make efforts to remove any impediment to love, we create a climate of warmth and receptivity. Then love can burst into flame and burn bright in us. That?s what Advent can be for us ? a time to create the place for love to burn even brighter. 7) Isaiah uses the haunting imagery of waiting, longing for home. Home. The place where we find peace of mind. That?s part of our longing at Advent. Peace. And that?s why every year we?re given the opportunity for repentance. Not because we?re such bad people, but so we can receive peace. Peace that begins with me. Only I can know what those obstacles are. Only I can remove the obstacles, so Holy healing, love and peace can enter. Friends, counselors, ministers, family can be the sounding board for us to check with when we?re ready. But we must do the hard work. Again and again, so obstructions don?t build up. So we can receive peace ? be home. 8) Home for the holidays. The next step! When you think of all the hype around Christmas, it?s very clear that part of our longing is for family to celebrate with. And unfortunately the Hallmark picture of the ?perfect family? is only that ? a lifeless picture. Hate to tell you this. No perfect families! Just had a big family gathering. Living proof! We want them to be perfect, and then families and branches of families and parents and children collide. Crazy Uncle Harry will still be Crazy Uncle Harry. So how does our longing for peace get lived out with extended family? How do we prepare the way for peace in our families? I think the same principles of inner peace apply. Now moving outward. Removing impediments to love. Am I doing the loving thing? Am I loving even those who are very difficult to love? Am I setting the boundaries so I?m not steam-rolled or abused? Am I able to forgive? Am I doing everything I can for reconciliation and then leaving the door open if the other is not quite ready? If every one of us is able to do that individually, what a difference that will make. But even if one person in every family changes, the rest of the family has to change in response. It will still be important not to be expecting perfect, but we will be moving toward more peaceful, and there?s always next year and the next and the next! 9) And peace cannot just end with self and family can it? If there?s a block in the flow from God to us to family to God?s world, there is no real peace. Our psalm tells us how this happens. Love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss. The impediments to love are being removed. That?s our faithful part. Righteousness means right relationships. In families and in brothers and sisters around this country and the world. Recognizing the responsibility and privilege we have to care for one another. One young woman, thinking about the controversy in health care, said, ?Canadian Society has been built on our understanding that we are responsible for all. Why is it that now we?re becoming so selfish?? Good question. I?d really like to answer by showing her one person at a time that we are faithfully removing our impediments to love so that righteousness can indeed embrace peace. Peace will come only with right relationship. It?s pretty evident isn?t it that world peace depends on right relationship with people within nations and between nations, within religions and between religions. 10) Home. Millions of people are on the move, living as refugees and strangers far from home. Separated from their homes because of war or flood or economic circumstances, they seek the comfort, not simply of home, but of home made safe for themselves and their children. Isaiah?s vision of everyone living beneath their own vine and fig tree, everyone unafraid, is a true picture of peace. Peace is when all have access to land and the means to make a fair living. With our rural and farm roots, we understand that with a connection to farm or garden, we can begin to fashion an alternative universe. 11) But what can one person do? ?Tell me the weight of a snowflake,? a sparrow asked a wild dove. ?Nothing more than nothing,? came the reply. ?Listen then,? the sparrow said, ?while I tell you a marvelous story. I sat on the branch of a fir, close to its trunk, when it began to snow. Gently, beautifully. I had nothing better to do, so I counted the snowflakes settling on the twigs and needles of my branch. I counted to 3,741, 592. When the 3,741, 593rd dropped on the branch, nothing more than nothing as you say, the branch broke off.? The dove, thought for a moment, then said, ?Perhaps only one person?s voice is lacking for peace to come to the world.? 12) Into the darkness of his people?s lives, Isaiah proclaims peace. Into the darkness of our lives, whether personally, in families, or around the world, Isaiah proclaims peace. God is coming on a beautiful wide, flat, straight, smooth highway, to lead us to peace. Our job is to remove the obstacles to love, so that we can enjoy God?s coming. So love can burst into flame and burn bright in us as we travel this peaceful highway with God |