“Preparing the Way”

Thursday December 17, 2009

Psalm 148

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.

There is an old bumper sticker that I find quite humorous – “Jesus is coming – look busy!”

That call to expectation and to preparation for the coming of Christ seems to resonate with the proclamation that we read about in today’s Gospel lesson – a proclamation offered by John the Baptist as he stood on the shores of the Jordan River. 

Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

John the Baptist is an interesting character in the biblical narratives.  The stories of his journey out into the wilderness, of his fiery denunciations of the people of his time, and of his act of baptizing people in the Jordan are, in fact, far more important to the unfolding message of the Gospel narratives than we sometimes realize. 

Consider.  For all of our focus on Jesus’ birth, in the coming week, it is good for us to remember that only two of the four Gospels—Matthew and Luke—contain any references whatsoever to the details of Jesus’ birth; the Gospel of John speaks about the Word that was in the beginning with God, but makes no reference to Jesus’ birth, infancy or childhood; and the Gospel of Mark makes no reference at all, in its opening chapters, to Jesus’ origins or birth.

But all four Gospels, by contrast, include the story of John the Baptist.  The story of John, in fact, is the first story that all four Gospels have in common.  To put this another way, two of the four Gospel writers knew that they could tell the story of Jesus without Christmas; but all four realized that they could not prepare people to read about Jesus until they had read about John.  Before people could hear the good news of the Messiah, they had to hear the fiery proclamations of the Baptist.

And, even though all four Gospel suggest that large crowds of people were coming to hear what John had to say, they also all suggest that those crowds were not coming to him for some quick-fix, sensitive, emotional, hand-holding message.  Rather, his words were provocative, they were cutting, they were pointed, and they were potentially insulting.  This was not a man who was singing joyful Christmas carols about joy coming to the world, or about silent nights where lowly holy infants were lying.  This was not a man who was declaring the good news about a love divine, all loves excelling, joy of heaven to earth come down.  This was a man railing against the state of the world, and not pulling punches when it came to leveling accusations against others.

“You brood of vipers!  Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits worthy of repentance.”

His subsequent words to the gathered crowds about not claiming Abraham as their ancestor are as relevant today, and to each one of us, as they were in John’s time.  They were not words that were meant to center out the Jewish people specifically, but were meant instead to remind his listeners – and we as readers -- that when it comes to our relationship before God, we should not rely on some religious heritage or ancestral identity.  God’s faithfulness, grace, and love for this world were not – and are not – intended to be a reason for spiritual indifference.  To put it in more modern terms, none of us should lull ourselves into believing that we can do whatever we want, and live in any way that we choose, and then expect that we will be able to claim that God owes us something because our grandmother was a faithful member of her church women’s group.   

So what, then, were people supposed to do in preparation for the coming of God?  John the Baptist’s words were accompanied by specific and clear directions about how their lives should begin to change in preparation for the coming of the Lord.  As verse 10 suggests, in response to their question, “what then should we do?” John gave clear and explicit direction.  To those who were rich, he told them to share what they had, and to give to those who have nothing.  To the tax collectors, he charged them to conduct themselves with integrity and not to collect more taxes than they were rightfully owed.  To the soldiers, he told them to treat people with honesty, with respect and to live contented lives.  

These few quotations are meant to signal, to us, the essential nature of John’s message.  Certainly, John said many other things to those gathered crowds.  But these few snippets of his proclamations offer to us a fairly good insight into what he was trying to communicate – that is, he was warning them that the expected time of God’s Messiah was upon them, and that it would be good for them to get ready.  In preparation for that impending day, John was encouraging them to live with integrity, with honesty, with goodness, with generosity, with joy.   If they persisted in their unethical, immoral, dishonest, violent, greedy ways, the coming of God would not be an experience to be greeted with joy, but rather with anxiety and with horror.  After all, it continues to be true that the only people who should fear the wrath of God are those who are doing things that God might feel wrathful about.  Those who were living as God desired and intended – who were striving to live with compassion, with love, with a hunger and thirst for justice and for righteousness in the world -- had nothing to worry about, if and when God appeared. 

But to those who were not living in the way that they should, John was encouraging them to change their ways; to re-shape their lives; to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord and to smooth out those rough parts of their lives that needed amending before God appeared.  

And it is a message that it is good for all of us to continue to hear.

One of the reasons why the story of John the Baptist forms such a regular and important part of the Advent season is because it is important for us to return to the story of John in the midst of our preparations for the celebration of Christmas, and as a way of reminding ourselves that Advent is not simply oriented towards the past, but rather towards the future.  That is, Advent is not simply meant to be a time to celebrate Christ’s coming in that manger stall so long ago, but also to prepare ourselves for Christ’s return. 

After about two thousand years of waiting, however, we sometimes find it hard to believe that Christ is actually ever going to come.  We may ritualistically repeat the words, during our communion liturgy, about our belief that “Christ has died, Christ has risen, and Christ will come again”, but deep down we wonder if the Bible simply got it wrong, or if Christ himself – if he was even quoted correctly – may not have known what he was talking about.  These days, talk of Christ’s return either seems too dramatic, or sensationalistic, or mythical to actually be believed; and is most often relegated to the lunatic ravings of streetcorner prophets or the prelude to financial appeals on the part of late-night evangelists. 

And, in light of these doubts about when and even whether Christ will come, we often find ourselves drifting into a bit of indifference, into a state of doubt, into a spirit of complacency.  We go about our daily tasks, we try to do a decent job, we make plans for our future, we try to get by. 

But it is in those moments of complacency, those times of indifference, those experiences of doubt, that we most need to hear the urgency in John the Baptist’s proclamation. 

Prepare the way.  Get ready.  Change our ways.  Repent of our indifference to others and our complacency towards God.  Take a good look at our own lives, and make sure that how we are living our lives is in line with the ways that God wants us to be living.   Reflect on our own motivations and our own commitments to ensure that we will be able to give an account for the way that we are living – not simply to celebrate some faithful heritage of those who have gone before us.  We are called to take a look at our world, and do what we can to share what we have with those in need, to live generously, to act ethically, to do our work with integrity and with contentment. 

When we realize that John’s message is a message that it is good for us to hear, to ponder, and to consider, our minds and our hearts find the inspiration to rekindle a true sense of Advent joy.  That is, we are called to live every moment in such a way that if God showed up, we would found as a people of integrity, of faith and of compassion. 

Which is another way of saying, truly, that Jesus is coming – so we better get busy.