Prepare the way of the Lord

December 06, 2015

The Second Sunday of Advent

Another week. More senseless killings. And even as I say that, I find myself falling into the current vernacular of our culture:senseless killings.What killing does make sense?

What is it that makes a person stash an arsenal of ammunition and pipe bombs for the purpose of a mass killing in the same house as her six-month old daughter? What is it that makes a person shoot another person— and continue repeatedly? What is it that makes a person strap on a bomb and walk into a café with the willful intent of killing others and himself?

It seems to me that at some point in time, a choice evolved and a decision was made. And I imagine that that decision was a result of encounters, of interruptions, of challenges, which chipped away at the being God knew when he formed that person in the womb (Jeremiah 1:5).

The lives we live are filled with choices. We are who we are in how we choose to live into the way God wired each of us to be — in how we choose to live into God’s presence — in how we choose to live into what we believe is right and good and true.

And what we believe has everything to do with the extent to which we deal with the mountains and valleys in our lives, because when we do that — when we flatten down the mountains of fear and anxiety and fill in the valleys of deception and darkness, when we straighten the crookedness of our misdirected desires, and smooth the rough and jagged edges of our hardened hearts — when we do that, we create space for God in our word, thought, deed, and spirit. We prepare the way of the Lord.

I am pretty sure that is what John did. I imagine John flattening down the mountains and lifting up the valleys of his life as he prepared a way for God so that when God spoke, John heard.

“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 . . .”

But the word of God came to John not because Tiberius and Pontius Pilate and Herod and Philip and Lysanius were the political powers of the time. The word of God came to John not because his father was a priest and his mother was a descendant of Aaron, Moses’ brother. The word of God came to Johnnotbecause he wore an itchy camel’s hair shirt and ate locusts and honey. The word of God came to John because John confronted the mountains and valleys of his life and, in doing so, prepared a way for God.

John made room for God and the word of God came to John. And John heard the word of God. That man in the hairy shirt who ate locusts and honey and who cried out in the wilderness — that man proclaimed a baptism of repentance, a baptism of turning away from that which is life-draining a baptism of turning toward that which is life-affirming a baptism of making space for God.

John was the voice crying out in the wilderness telling all who would listen to prepare the way of the Lord, to fill in every valley and flatten down every mountain and hill, to make straight the crooked and make smooth the rough.

The perpetrators of those senseless killings could not and did not hear John crying in the wilderness. Maybe they could not conquer their mountain of fear. Maybe they could not find their way out of the valley of darkness. Maybe their anger made it impossible to make straight their crooked path of destruction. And maybe they could not smooth the sharp edges of their hate. The perpetrators of those senseless killings could not hear John crying in the wilderness.

Let us be intentional this Advent. Hear the voice calling to you in your wilderness. Hear and prepare the way for the Lord. Prepare the way for God to enter into your comings and your goings. Prepare the way for God to enter into your waking and your sleeping. Prepare the way for God to enter into all you say and do and into all you leave unsaid and undone. Make space and invite God in…today, tomorrow, forever, and always

Amen.