Wednesday, December 4, 2024
Please read Luke 3:1-6
One voice cries out in the wilderness – Prepare the way of the Lord. A lonely voice, a coarse and gravelly voice, a voice that warns, a voice that disturbs. Prepare. Make sure all is ready. Sweep aside the brush, whatever may litter the way. Shovel the sidewalks, sprinkle the rock salt. Chip away at the thick accumulation of ice. The valleys – they will be filled; the mountains and hills – they will be made low. Everything must change. The crooked – it shall be made straight; the rough places – they shall be made smooth. Everything must change. Everyone must be open to being changed.
“And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” Indeed, this Advent season, as in every Advent season, all flesh stands in hopeful expectation, necks craning, eyes eagerly scanning the horizon. All flesh awaits the birth of a baby, all at once gentle and unassuming, yet filled with the breath of God, the power of God, the glory of God. All flesh – vulnerable flesh, scarred flesh, flesh young and old, weak and strong, certain and unsure.
As we wait, we prepare. We get ready. We set the stage. We lay the groundwork. When I was growing up, my mom was one of the adult leaders for the Methodist Youth Fellowship group at our church. Each year, the young people were given the task of crafting a worship service, soup to nuts, Call to Worship to Benediction. I know I was not alone in looking forward to this annual occasion. It was something different, something creative, something crackling with energy. I remember one year in particular… When it came time for the Prelude, several of the youth rushed into the sanctuary with feather dusters, buckets and rags, and a vacuum cleaner. A curmudgeonly older gentleman served as a plant. He stood, all too ready to scold, asking, “Just what do you kids think you’re doing? We’re trying to worship here!” And the youth responded, “So are we! We’re preparing the way of the Lord!” And we fade into the wonderful chorus from Godspell, “Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord.”
So often, we forget that our Advent preparation and our holiday preparation are not one and the same. Our Advent preparation has nothing to do with decorations – with untangling strands of lights, trying to find the one that’s burned out, or worrying whether or not the wreath is hanging straight. It has nothing to do with cutout cookies or kolache, pizzelles or sugared pecans. It has nothing to do with travel plans and traffic patterns, delayed flights and long lines to get through security. It has nothing to do with the quest for the perfect present, or the perfect hiding place for that present.
That is not what our Advent preparation is meant to be. Rather, it has to do with preparing our hearts, our minds. It has to do with paying attention to the dark, crooked, gnarled places in our worlds, in our lives. It has to do with being unabashedly honest about what we see. It has to do with hope for the hopeless, and faith for those drowning in doubt. It has to do with peace for the battle weary and the war worn, and love for the lonely, the forgotten, the friendless. It has to do with promises.
God made a promise to our ancestors. And God will remain true to that word. But there are preparations to be made – there are things we need to learn, things we need to know. Salvation, forgiveness – we need to understand. We spend so much of our lives in darkness – in fear, frustration, sadness, despair. God’s mercy offers light. God’s compassion offers warmth and will “guide our feet in the way of peace.” How very important that is, when, all too often, we tend to follow paths which lead us to war without realizing what we have done. We cannot be at peace with the world, in the world, until we learn how to be at peace with and within ourselves. As often as not, we need someone to show us the way. Come quickly!
Rev. Erica L. Brown
Pastor of Howland Community Church
Warren, Ohio