Advent 2 - Make Way!

Scripture: Luke 3:1-6

Luke 3:1–6 NRSV

1 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, 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, 4 as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 5 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; 6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’ ”

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Preparations

Advent is a season of preparation. It is a time of making lists and checking them twice.

Most of us were born with two ears, two eyes, and one mouth. Traditional wisdom tells us that might be a hint that we should watch and listen twice as often as we speak. Over time, our hearing and vision fade, but we usually are able to speak just fine well into old age. Perhaps that is wisdom encouraging us to learn while we can so that we can give an account for our lives when we meet Jesus.

Despite the gifts of our eyes and ears, and the mechanical helps we use to augment them, we are still unable to know the innermost thoughts of each other, which presents us with the need to open our mouths and ask each other this time of year, "What do you want for Christmas?". Now some of you have watched and listened all year and you have a pretty good idea. But we are not mind readers. We don't always get it right. When it comes to getting to know one another at the level of our innermost thoughts, there are always things that clutter the way.

Sometimes it is on our end. We get too busy to spend time with others and we lose touch with them. Maybe we have differences in culture, language, or how we view things that leaves us confused when we try to communicate. Often our old enemy sin is involved and there are things that have been done by or to us, or both, that leave hurt, unforgiveness, bitterness, and brokenness that block the path to relationship and understanding.

This is not new to you. You know this instinctively, even if you've never put it into words. And, if you have been reading through Matthew 5, 6, and 7, you may have noticed that Jesus taught about this problem all through the Sermon on the Mount, and then gave us things to do to overcome those barriers to build and grow our relationships. Those lessons are very much about our relationships with each other, in nearly every verse... but they are more than that as well.

The same truth about things getting in the way of us building relationships with each other is true between us and God. Our eyes cannot see into the mind of God any more than they can get into the minds of our parents, our spouses, our children, or our neighbors. When we are honest, we admit that we really don't know what God is thinking, and when we just allow life to happen we grow apart from Him, moving from not knowing what God is thinking, to knowing about Him, but not really knowing Him, until eventually, we stop recognizing Him when He shows up in our lives. We do a lot of guessing and hoping, because we only have two eyes, two ears, and one mouth, and there is a lot of stuff that gets in between us and God.

We are not without hope though, which means we are not without responsibility. We prepare for the advent of Christ by clearing out the things that stand in His way to our lives.

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Out of Nowhere

Israel had more than two eyes and two ears to be on the lookout for Christ. They had thousands of thousands of eyes and ears scattered all across the Roman Empire. But they were blind to the sight of God and deaf to His word. Some of that was because of their situations, outside of their control. Some of that was their own hardened hearts.

John the Baptist did not preach in the temple or a fancy synagogue. He did not hold revivals like we see on TV. He was born, raised, called, and sent with a singular purpose: to prepare the way of the Lord. He was a Fig Tree in the desert, teaching all the plants around him to look up, open their leaves, and prepare to receive the light of the Son of God into their lives. And he was able to be that Fig Tree, because he spent his entire life clearing out anything and everything that got in between him and God.

We think of fasting in terms of hours, days, or sometimes weeks like Jesus did in the wilderness or we celebrate during Lent. John the Baptist fasted his entire life, living off of locusts and wild honey, and wearing the skins of animals. He gave up a normal life, not for an earthly reward, but because God called Him and John answered that call. John lived the life that prepared the way of the Lord for us all, and he did it by starting with himself.

He knew Jesus. He leapt in his mother's womb when pregnant Mary came to visit, before either boy was born. He lived out the teaching of Jesus, to remove the plank from his own eye before picking at the speck in the eyes of others. He put God first in his life in every way, so that he could show others, in word and in deed, how to see, hear, and be in relationship with God again. He prepared Himself and His relationship with God, so that he had something to offer others.

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Make Way!

We are called, with John, to make the path straight for Jesus to come to us and work through us. Valleys must be lifted up. Mountains and hills must be laid low. Crooked roads need to be made straight. Time overturns and washes our work away and we continually have to clear the way for Jesus to come into our lives.

What are those roads we have to clear? The same roads we clear for other relationships.

Time

Space

Energy

Our Resources

These can get really sophisticated quickly, and not necessarily in a bad way. But let's think about it in a more personal way, because the goal is to have a closer relationship with God.

How have you used your eyes to try to understand God better this week? Maybe you read scripture. Perhaps you went for a walk outside, at a park, or maybe walking through a store, intentionally looking for ways God is working. Maybe you started praying for your co-workers or neighbors and are watching them to see where God shows up in their lives and where you might have opportunities to encourage them. How are you using your eyes to find and clear the way for Jesus?

How have you used your ears to listen for God's voice? What fills your ears that is not from God? What would you need to do to get to a place where you could hear God more clearly? Do you need to get some time alone, or do you need to find a small group of people to go with you into God's presence? Are you listening for the way God is working in the lives of those around you? How are you using your ears to clear the way for Jesus?

After looking twice and listening twice (remember 2 ears, 2 eyes, 1 mouth), how are you using your mouth to clear the way for Jesus? John preached, encouraged, used gentleness and tough love, but ultimately offered forgiveness as the way to clear the way for Jesus. That may sound really warm, fuzzy, and Hallmarky like all those Holiday movies that are playing on TV now, but let me tell you, it is quite a feat to offer forgiveness to others.

The 12-step Anonymous groups, which can be an incredible gift and ministry themselves, give us the impression that we minister best to people who are most like us. We think that we cannot help someone if we have not been where they are.

I have heard it said that the gospel is simply one beggar telling another beggar where to find food. And this is true. However, the beggars are not going to take advice on food from someone who is starving themselves, who is more hungry than they are. They follow the old adage that you should never trust a skinny cook.

If we are not any different from the broken people out there in our lives, we may not have anything to offer them. I'm not saying we should be better than them, I'm saying different. John the Baptist did not claim to be better than others when he preached to them or taught them. He showed them a different way to live and offered them forgiveness, a chance to start over in their lives. You don't have forgiveness like that to offer when you are stuck in the same mess, in need of forgiveness yourself.

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That is why we have to start by clearing the way for Jesus to come into our lives. It may not just be rocks and trees in the way either. We may have built barns and houses to fill our lives with activity, maybe even built in His name. But if it stands in between us and God, it needs to be cleared away. There would be no hope at all if Jesus didn't make the first move, but we have to respond. That is why we gather here today, this second Sunday of Advent, getting ready to celebrate Holy Communion together.

The forgiveness you are being offered today will not fix or change your life. It will give you the opportunity to pick up where you last left off with God, and begin building a deeper relationship with Him today. The path you clear for God will be filled with Grace - which is not just having your debt of sin cancelled - it is power to live and grow beyond your own capability. It is the power to live that life of singular purpose so that you can look back at the end of your life and know, not guess, but know who God created and called you to be. Receiving Grace is not just getting up and trying again. Receiving Grace is recognizing that you were never meant to do this on your own.

When you make the way clear for God to come into your life and work through you, you won't have to convince or persuade anyone of God's existence. Their eyes and ears will see Him working in you and you will have grace to spare and grace to share with those who are clearing the way for God in their lives as well.