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 son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, 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. 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.'" (Luke 3:1-2)
Click the image to listen to an audio recording of the sermon, or, read the transcript below.
Prepare, prepare, prepare. Work, work, work
Preparing is something we are very accustomed to, isn’t it? We prepare our homes when we have guests. Sometimes we prepare meals – like all of you who worked your tails off barely two weeks ago – preparing the feast of expectations also known as Thanksgiving.
We prepare and study for tests and exams. We prepare and practice for big games and tennis matches. Individually and with teams we prepare sales pitches and big presentations. Preparing, generally speaking, is work – heavy-lifting work – for each of us.
Which I’m pretty sure influences how we hear our gospel this morning. Last week at our Outreach meeting we read this gospel as our opening reflection. After listening to it a few times - prepare the way, make paths straight, fill all the valleys, make the rough places smooth - we talked about – probably with the agenda of our many outreach projects hovering in the air – oy vey, even with all of us doing our small part – who can do all this?
Benjamin Franklin – progenitor of our classic busy-bee culture – said – by failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.
In the 15th year of reign of Emperor Tiberius – do you think they thought the same? Is John the Baptist telling us if we fail to prepare we will fail – at Christmas? God with us is dependent on our preparations?
I would suggest not all preparation is of the same type. Sure there are times – at home – at school – at work – when we have to prepare for something. But there is another type of preparation that is equally important and perhaps more valuable. It’s a preparation we invite. Not in order to achieve something but to orient ourselves towards living into something. Living in the fullness of time – living as though we really have seen the salvation that has already come.
The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams has a beautiful book called “Where God Happens.” It is an introduction and exploration of the wisdom of the desert mothers and fathers. Very early on in the Christian movement there were people who thought if they left behind all the work of preparing they would be found by God. And so following the example of prophets like John the Baptist and Jesus – they went into the desert. To be alone to prepare to meet Christ.
And alone they lived in little caves – and surprise – they took preparing with them. They wanted “to do” all the time. Their writings reveal that the hardest part about being in the cave was being in the cave. They wanted to keep preparing, keep doing.
Remember the story of Martha and Mary? They invite Jesus over – and Mary sits at his feet. Martha on the other hand – is busy preparing – and asks Jesus to tell her sister to come and help her. But Jesus says why would I do that? I’m here – can’t you stop – and enjoy it?
Williams’ writes that the wisdom of desert spirituality asks us to question - do we believe our religion is about the fullness of life or about controlling our lives? Is religion what imbues us with the authority to impose our judgements and expectations on ourselves and everyone else? Is God segregated into the portion of our life we call religious? Or are we in a process of integration? Are we using the eyes of faith to see all the ways in which God’s hand is at work shaping us – in every sphere, every relationship, every moment?
If you go back and read that excerpt from Malachi - it seems that the busyness of preparing doesn’t have much to do with us, it’s all God’s work. Will we open ourselves to the refiner’s fire – subject ourselves to be scrubbed with that purifying soap? Neither of which sound very pleasant to me, by the way, but that isn’t surprising. It’s called growing pains for a reason. Growing our awareness of what Williams calls “the peaceful worthwhileness” of myself and everyone else. The awareness that being in and of itself is worthy, can be the refining work of a lifetime.
The way St. Paul writes this – is easier to take in – I am confident that the good work begun in you by God will be brought to completion. Again – God is the one at work. Our part is being receptive, open. And probably doing some pruning – looking at our lives to ask – what is bringing me fullness? What self-imposed busyness keeps me from it?
In our culture – we seem to wear our busyness is like a badge of honor. Oh – its so busy – I’m so busy – this time of year is so busy. Ok. I know. But – really – do you think it is an objective truth that this time of year is busier than any other? And if so, what makes it so busy? Who makes it so busy? Don’t we, in large part, create the world we inhabit?
At the moment I was typing that very sentence while eating lunch at a café this week – a woman walking by my table said in utter exasperation to her friend – no matter what I do – I am always behind the 8-ball. Who puts the 8-ball there in the first place?
The perfect Christmas for God – King of King and Lord of Lord – Almighty God – was a birth among refugees – people who had no time to prepare but were on the move. People who were barely adults – who had no time to prepare a bed, let alone a home – but had to walk into unknown territory, trusting there would be people who would help them.
God prepared the perfect Christmas by silencing the father of John the Baptist – Zechariah – for 9 months. Perhaps the busyness of his religious life (he was a priest), needed to be stopped so that God could complete the good work God had begun.
And then John the Baptist prepared by going alone into the desert to do….(shrug shoulders) – perhaps simply to live with God, within God – until in the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was Governor and Herod was King – and I’m sure it was a very, very busy time for all who were alive – John the Baptist declared the time had come for forgiveness and love to be incarnate in the world. If people would simply take a moment and stop – and allow that truth to wash over them with water. God was about to be and bring fullness of life – fully prepared for us.
Because, in the fifteenth year of the twenty-first century, when Barack Obama was President of the United States, and Larry Hogan was governor of Maryland, and Stephanie Rawlings-Blake was mayor of Baltimore, and Michael Curry was presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, the word of the Lord will come to Ruxton, Towson, Riderwood, Stoneleigh, Sparks, Perry Hall and Baltimore – whether we believe we are prepared or not. You and I don’t make Christmas happen – God does.
And a most priceless gift we can give ourselves is to allow a way in our busy lives for the tender compassion of our God to break upon us – to shine in our darkness – and guide our feet into the way of peace. Amen.
The Rev. Arianne R. Weeks (12/6/15)
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