"Prepare the Way"
Luke 3:1-6
The time for John the
Baptist to come out of the wilderness came in the 15th year of the reign of
Emperor Tiberius. Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod was ruling
Galilee. Annas and Caiaphas were serving as high priests in the Temple in
Jerusalem. Luke places John in
historical context, much like how the Old Testament prophets were introduced,
placing him and his call to prepare the way for the Lord in the middle of
worldly events and places.
He reminds us that God
sends messengers in the center of our earthly life, too. In the second year of
the presidency of Donald Trump, when Rick Snyder is Governor of Michigan, when
Francis is the Pope in Rome, when J. Herbert Nelson is Stated Clerk of the
Presbyterian Church (USA), we are reminded that no time is forsaken by God. All
time is subject to God’s inbreaking. Prepare the way of the Lord!
Luke’s litany of government
and religious authorities does more than date John’s ministry to 28 or 29 CE.
It also contrasts human kingdoms with God’s reign. The claims to any authority
that Tiberius or Herod or the high priest make are not ultimate. God’s people owe allegiance first and foremost
to God. And it is God’s word that sets John’s ministry in motion. John has been
commissioned to prepare the way not for Caesar or any earthly authority, but
for the one true Lord.
The
major focus for Luke is salvation, but it’s important for Luke that we
understand the messy reality of the day-- to understand the world into which
God is bringing salvation. The word of God came to John in the
wilderness, and spoke through John to a wounded and unjust world.
John proclaims a baptism of
repentance that leads to release from sins. The word that’s translated as “release” is
the same word that Jesus uses twice in Luke 4 to describe his mission: “The
Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me…to proclaim release
to the captives and…to let the oppressed go free….”
The release that follows repentance doesn’t un-do past sins,
but it does unbind people from them. It opens the way for a life lived in God’s
service. When John proclaims this
release, he’s fulfilling his father Zechariah’s prophecy: “You, child…will go before the Lord to
prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness
/ release of their sins.”[1]
I agree with Judith Jones when she says that this salvation
“looks like a new dawn for those trapped in darkness and death’s shadow. It is
light that reveals a new path, the way toward peace.[2]
The second Sunday of Advent invites us to anticipate the
drawing close of the holy in our midst. The scripture texts invite us to listen to the voices of those calling
us to be prepared to welcome the Messiah. John the Baptist comes to us, proclaiming
the baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
God chooses a nobody—an itinerant preacher to call people to repent and
to prepare the way. John went into all
the region around the Jordan River, proclaiming a baptism of repentance. Luke quotes 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.’”[1]
“All
flesh.” All people. All humanity.
Luke quotes Isaiah’s
prophecy detailing what is required if all
flesh is to see the salvation of God. Make straight desert highways. Valleys
will be lifted up, and mountains made low.
I like the way Jill Duffield
describes this: “A great leveling
will occur. Rough places smoothed. Obstacles obliterated. Nothing will
stand in the way, obscure or create a stumbling block for the coming of the
Lord, for the gift of salvation. No one will be left behind, sacrificed because
they are slow or infirm. All flesh
shall see the salvation of God.”[3]
On this second Sunday of Advent in
2018, John the Baptist calls to us to repent…to
prepare the way of the Lord. What do we need to do to get ready?
Whatever it takes will not be easy
or painless. Transformation requires radical change, and change brings discomfort.
Heeding John’s call means giving up our self-satisfaction or apathy or
ambivalence. It means pushing past our fears and resistances, whatever gets in
the way of submitting to the re-formation of God.
Preparing the Lord’s path toward
peace requires overturning the world as we know it. Luke’s gospel is full of
images that help us envision what that means. Mary sings of the God who has
looked upon her humble state, the One who saves by de-throning the powerful and
exalting the humble…sending the rich away empty-handed and filling up the
hungry.[4]
Jesus blesses the poor and the hungry and those who mourn but announces woe for
the rich and well-fed.[5] On the Day of Pentecost Peter warns the
people, “Be saved from this crooked generation.”[6]
The word that’s translated as “crooked” is the same word that Isaiah uses for
the things that need to be straightened out.
Preparing for God’s arrival means
re-thinking systems and structures that we see as normal—but that God judges as
oppressive and crooked. It means
preparing to have God humble everything that is proud and self-satisfied in us,
and letting God heal and lift up what is broken and beaten down. The claims
that the world’s authorities make often conflict with God’s claims. God’s ways
are not our ways. But God’s ways lead to salvation.
What this re-shaping looks like is
different from person to person, from congregation to congregation, from
community to community, but it does require repentance…turning. It can shake things up.
John’s preaching of repentance will
literally turn people away from the powers that be to God and it’s a threat to
those invested in the present order. When we read further on in the story, we
hear that John’s preaching will ultimately lead to his beheading, and later Jesus
will be crucified by the empire. Those who are threatened by repentance and
forgiveness and newness will not go without a fight.
In the season of Advent, Christians
prepare to celebrate a deep mystery of our faith, the Incarnation, how God came
to live among us, full of grace and truth, in the person of Jesus. Part
of what Incarnation means is that God is with humanity and works in and through
us.
I believe in a God who works in and with and through us, through the work of
those who are learning to love as God
loves, those who are learning to love peace
as God does, those who love justice and mercy as God does. Through those
who are learning to reject violence in their own lives… and who work in small
and large ways to end violence and hunger and injustice in our world….
God isn’t finished with us yet.
Preparing the Lord’s path toward peace and justice requires changing the world
as we know it. Preparing for God’s arrival means re-thinking systems and
structures that we may see as normal but that God
condemns as oppressive and crooked. It means letting God humble everything
that is proud and self-satisfied in us, and letting God heal and lift up
what is broken and beaten down.
John’s call to repent reminds us that God’s ways are not our ways.[7]
John and Isaiah call us to open ourselves to let God work in our minds and
hearts and to let God work through us to re-shape the world’s
social systems.
The good news is that God’s ways lead to salvation. God’s glory will be
revealed in Jesus, who comes to save us. This is good news for us and for
the whole world: all flesh
will see God’s salvation. All humanity will see God’s salvation.
Thanks be to God!
Rev. Fran
Hayes, Pastor
Littlefield
Presbyterian Church
Dearborn,
Michigan
December
9, 2018
