"Road Work Ahead"

A sermon peached at Holy Fellowship MCC, London, ON

December 7, 2003,  Second Sunday in Advent

(At Christos MCC this Sunday, Anne E. led an Advent meditation on "Comfort Ye, My People"!)

Scriptures:  Malachi 3:1-4, Luke 3:1-6

Did you ever wonder what it might be like to be a person like John the Baptist? Growing up, as I did, in the Baptist church, I was kind of pleased, not to say perhaps a little SMUG, to know that the great prophet John was "one of us."

But... you know, John the Baptist really ISN’T the sort of person who you really want to identify with. Proper folks would say, "he’s not our sort...." He’s a little rough around the edges. He’s uncomfortable to be around. Probably gives folks weird vibes. You invite John the Baptist over for dinner, and either there are a lot of those long, awkward pauses in the conversation... or you WISH there were, when he turns the discussion around to the subjects of sin and repentance. But that’s what it’s like to be AROUND him.... what might it be like to BE him? It’s not just that he ran around in camel skins and ate locusts and honey. The really unsettling thing about John was that he heard the voice of God. That’s unsettling. To see signs and visions. To be forever telling people things they don’t want to hear, and you just KNOW you have to tell them. It’s important. You’ve gotta tell them. And HOW do you know? Well.... Luke tells us how he knew.

John the Baptist, by Hieronymus Bosch.... Bosch really seems to capture John's strangeness....

"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 Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness."

The word of God came to him. Did you ever think that the word of God could come to you?

I had a little epiphany this past week. I was driving down Bloor St. in Toronto the other day, and the word of God came to me. And it was, in fact, the same message that came to John. "Prepare the way of the Lord, make God’s 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."

Prepare the way of the Lord.... Well, actually, that’s not EXACTLY the word that came to me. In literal truth, the word that came to me was: "Road Work Ahead."

See, they’ve been doing some utility work along Bloor, and they had the street kind of torn up... and while I sat there behind a dump truck... stopped and inconvenienced, the word of God came to me... which I took to be a sign from God, and it said.... "Road Work Ahead."  Which, in three little words, kind of sums up the whole Advent message, the message of preparing for Christ to come into our lives and into our world. There’s some road work ahead in our lives and in our world.

....There's a little Road Work Ahead....

Now, there are a couple of things about road work. The first thing is, it’s inconvenient. At one point this week, they actually one block of Bloor St. completely closed for a while. So for me to get from home to Christos, I had to detour BLOCKS out of my way, and there are all these one-way streets in that area, so there’s no other direct route, and, frankly, it was a kind of a pain in the neck. Actually, I had a slightly lower opinion of it. About 18 inches lower. All because, I was inconvenienced. It took a little extra time. It took a little more thought on my part. It required me to go out of my way.

The second thing is, road work often leads to a change in direction. Where I grew up in the San Francisco area, there are lots of reminders of the big 1906 earthquake. Just north of San Francisco, there’s a road through the countryside around Point Reyes, that runs for a long way, due west, straight as an arrow, along one side of a valley. Except, in one place, where the road zigs to the right at a 90 degree angle for about 20 feet, then zigs back to the left again at another 90 degree angle, and continues on just like it was going before. And that’s because that road runs right across the San Andreas Fault, which is the major north-south earthquake fault in California. In 1906 the tectonic plates shifted underneath the road, and everything moved. An entire section of California, all of Point Reyes, moved about 20 feet to the north in a matter of a few seconds.

Pt. Reyes from space... inching its way up the California Coast...

And this is what John is telling us, when he preaches repentance for the forgiveness of sins. You know, I think sometimes we get it all wrong when we consider the message of John. We combine the word of John about repentance with the message that he and the prophet Isaiah spoke of, that Luke quotes in our gospel lesson today, about preparing a way for God in the wilderness, and we conclude that we’re the ones who have to do the road work, the work of making level every mountain and hill and raising up every valley and smoothing every rough place, as some kind of favor to God.

All his talk of lifting up every valley, and making every mountain and hill level and all the crooked places straight... that’s not talk about what we’ve got to do as part of our repentance. Rather it’s what God does IN us as a RESULT of our repentance; as a result of our turning toward God and acknowledging our need to have God in our lives, and determining to walk in God’s ways. The good news of our faith is that God reaches out to us, and comes to us, and invites us to be re-united with God, and to live in joy and peace and communion with one another and with God.

In the prophecy of Isaiah and the proclamation of John the Baptist and in the ministry of the Messiah to whom John pointed, God is the one who levels and smooths the rough road. God is the one who lifts up and makes straight the path. What we’re called to do is to repent, to believe, and to walk the road that God’s prepared and is preparing within our lives, within our world, the road that leads us to God and God to us. That specially smoothed road. That lovingly leveled road.

So what IS repentance? Well, first of all, repentance isn’t a word that was invented by the church. I think as a child, I probably thought the Baptists had invented it, they shouted it so much. But the Hebrew word that means repentance comes from a nomadic time, a time prior to the creation of many roads or maps. Moving through the wilderness you can get lost. You notice that the countryside looks different. You finally stop and say, "I think I'm going the wrong direction." That's step one. But you don't really deal with the problem until you change directions. That's step two.

The Judean wilderness.... a person could get lost without directions....

But you don't really deal with the problem until you change directions. That's step two.

An illustration: Occasionally when Anne and I are driving somewhere she may note something like I’ve made, oh, say, about five right-hand turns in succession and may ask: "Honey, are we lost?"

And being the humble soul that I am, I respond "No, we are not lost." And then after a few more right hand turns we stop and ask for directions.

That's kind of like John's preaching in the wilderness. At first you don't really want to hear it. I don't know about you, but often I don't want to ask for directions. I want to believe that I'm totally self-reliant and in control. But finally - the message sinks in - and I have to admit that I while I may be driving the car, I am NOT really in control. And I stop and ask for directions.

Admitting I'm lost is the beginning of repentance. That's step one. Step two is to take the advice I’ve received and actually turn the car around and go in the direction that I have been told to go in.

And, you know, it’s really kind of an easy thing to do -- as long as I don't forget step one: the step that requires me to admit that I need to follow someone else's directions... the step that requires us all to admit that we need to do what God asks us to do rather than doing what we think is best. So, to repent, we have to change direction, and all the thinking, and wishing, and praying, and resolving in the world will not create repentance in the absence of some action. We actually have to turn around and go down the road.

What I’m trying to say is that Repentance isn’t a guilty feeling. Repentance is an action. It’s a kind of confession, coupled with a kind of action, a change in direction. And when we confess and act -- when we decide to go the way God calls us to go and then do it, then God takes care of the rest. God prepares the road for us and leads us to Godself. Indeed God comes down the road to meet us.

And that’s what John is telling us. He’s telling us that the Messiah has come. That God is coming down the road to meet us, and what this means is that there’s been a shifting of the tectonic plates of history. When John says repent towards forgiveness, he’s not talking about an interior change of heart, he’s talking about a change in the landscape, a change in the world. He says, don’t stand back there on that side of the fault line.... step over here. On one side there is evil power and injustice that will tear down the world. On this side there is love and forgiveness and grace and justice. And you can’t go back and forth. You have to decide which side of the fault line you’re going to be on. And John the Baptist says, "Folks, don’t you know there’s been an earthquake.... live on this side where there’s redemption and forgiveness."

Now, I’m not going to be foolish enough, or arrogant enough, to suggest the particular repentance and disciplines that you may need. Nor am I enough of an exhibitionist to confess to you the kind of repentance and disciplines which I desperately need. But I AM going to say that, for all of us, the need is there. Of that I have no doubt. So, maybe a likely place to start is with the words quoted by John the Baptist: The crooked places in us which need straightening... the rough things that needs smoothing... the cringing selves that need uplifting... the pride which needs leveling.

If we truly want our "flesh to see the salvation of God", want it with all our being, then the grace of Christ Jesus will enable it to happen. God is preparing the way for us. God will do the road work. We just have to turn on to the road, and when we do, we find that God will come to us.

Are we ready? Blessed are the prepared, for they will meet the Christ in Christmas.