December 9, 2018: May God’s words alone be spoken, may God’s words alone be heard. Amen.
I don’t know if you noticed the turn. You know, the turn our gospel just took for us today? We are now on our 5thSunday of the original 7 week Advent, and Advent always begins, whether 4 weeks or 7 weeks, with the second coming of Jesus. We have heard these revealing passages these past four weeks, but today…something has changed, hasn’t it. Today, we are not hearing about the second Advent, but the first. After four weeks of his return, we are heading into 3 weeks of preparing the way for his birth. We have made a turn toward Bethlehem.
We also made a turn last week – yes, we went from Year B where we read the gospel of Mark to Year C where we read the gospel of Luke, or the fact that we went from reading a capital P Psalm to a lower case p psalm (because a psalm is a genre of writing, not a text just from the book of Psalms. No, those did happen, but I am talking about a turn toward Jesus this Advent by Walking the Way of Love. You were given calendar with a rule of life for Advent provided by our Presiding Bishop’s office. Each day, there is a single thing to do as part of your practice. Each week rotates through the cycle of Worship-Go-Learn-Pray-Bless-Turn-& Rest.
After thinking about what filled your heart on Sunday in worship, you were asked to Go and “take time to listen closely to someone you may not ordinarily take seriously…” as your practice on Monday. On Tuesday, you were to read Luke 1:26-38 – when the Angel Gabriel tells Mary she has been chosen to be the God bearer. On Wednesday, it was time to pray, setting a timer for 5 minutes, and repeating this prayer silently “Come, Lord Jesus.” Thursday was a call to celebrate the Feast day of St. Nicholas by practicing a random act of kindness, and then it was time to Turn on Friday by reflecting on this question “Where have I fallen short this week? How can I make amends.” And finally, yesterday, as part of the Rest rule, you were to do something that replenishes your spirit. Today, we circle back to worship.
This is a path we are walking in Advent together. And, while the rule of life we follow within it will be the same, the path will most definitely be different for each of us. Such is the Way of Love – the Way of Jesus. Each of us has a path to walk in life, different from all others, and certainly John the baptizer, the cousin of Jesus, whose birth is celebrated by his father in the song of Zachariah (that lower case psalm that we heard this morning), has a unique one. Thankfully, I think, not many of us are likely meant to walk around in the desert wearing camel hair clothing – seriously itchy that – and eating locusts dipped in…well, who cares, I mean –it’s a locust for crying out loud! Although I am sure there is a good crunchiness factor …but, no – just don’t.
But while I don’t think we are all supposed to go find the nearest desert and go for a several year hike, we are not so different from him in another way, and so perhaps we need to pay attention to what the text is saying to us. This week, it’s a bit easier to hear than next week, when John apparently forgot to get to the local desert Starbucks for a latte with wild honey, and is really cranky.
In our passage today we hear these words spoken about what John is up to: “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.”
Now we know this is from the prophet Isaiah (heard too in our processional hymn this morning), and we know this passage well, don’t we, even in our modern context. We heard it from the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who included it in his “Dream” speech in 1963, when he said “I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.”
Why is that? Why is this call to prepare the way for God so much a part of our story – our faith – so much so that a modern day prophet like Dr. King would bring it forward in such an iconic way? I think we need to go a few verses before the ones about what John was called to if we are to understand this more clearly. The author gives us a time and place setting for this prophetic witness of John by setting it in the context of who is leading the earthly kingdoms – “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, etc. etc….” something happened. And what was that? Well, according to the author, “…the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness.”
The word of God came to John – in that time, in that place – and he did what? Went home, microwaved some locusts, and caught a bit of the big game on TV (it was, for those interested – the Jerusalem Jaguars vs. the Galilee Giants)? No, of course not (besides, not if those Giants were playing like the NY Giants this year). No, that is not how one responds to the word of God, because the word of God changes you! It flips you around – you are never the same. Or it will, if you let it.
And so John set about clearing a path, and calling on others to do the same. Sounds good, but why? Why would the pathways to God need to be cleared in the first place? Why would God make the pathways to Her so full of obstacles, so hard to see, so difficult to navigate?
Ahhh, well, the truth is – She doesn’t. God doesn’t throw obstacles at us, but life sure has a way of doing that, doesn’t it? Through chance, or through our own foibles, life can make what seemed like a straight and smooth journey one that seems like nothing but mountains to scale, valleys to fall into, and paths that seem like circles leading nowhere. It is then, most of all, that we can feel helpless, forgotten, and lost. The path to God seems a distant memory then, lost in the brambles and twisting turns of our day to day lives.
So the word of God came to John, son of Zachariah in the wilderness to clear the path, to prepare the way for God, that all may see the salvation of God. Now that might seem like a tall order to lay on the shoulders of a young, poor fellow living on locusts out in the desert, but maybe it will help to realize that, when the word of God comes, it isn’t generally as some sort of grand proclamation – a one sided divine statement. God’s word is almost always a conversation, a partnership into something we do together. John, a man of little means, didn’t walk that wilderness alone, and we certainly won’t walk the wilderness of our lives alone either.
Yesterday, a dear friend of mine, the Rev. Melissa Hall, who you all know as the preacher at my installation as your Rector, preached at an ordination service, and she told this story: An old man lived alone in Tasmania. He wanted to dig his potato garden, but it was very hard work. His only son, Jesse, who used to help him, was in prison for a murder he didn’t commit. The old man wrote a letter to his son and described his predicament.
“Dear Jesse, I am feeling pretty bad because it looks like I won’t be able to plant my potato garden this year; I’m just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. If you were here, all my troubles would be over. I know you would dig the plot for me. Love Dad. ”
A few days later he received a letter from his son.
“Dear Dad, for heaven’s sake, don’t dig up that garden. That’s where I buried the BODIES. Love Jesse.”
His dad’s heart fell thinking maybe his son really was guilty after all. Of course mail from prison was censored, and at 4:00 the next morning, the federal & local police showed up and dug up the entire area – every nook and cranny of that dang garden. They didn’t find any bodies – not a one. They apologized to the old man and left, with the garden all dug up. The same day the old man received another letter from his son, and to his heart’s delight it read,
“Dear Dad, go ahead and plant the potatoes now. It’s the best I could do under the circumstances. Love Jesse.”
“It’s the best I could do under the circumstances.”
Sometimes we need help. Sometimes we need to help others. But no matter what, God is always present.
This past week, our Jewish sisters and brothers began the holy celebration of the Festival of Lights – Hanukkah. It celebrates the miracle that followed the Maccabean revolt of the 2ndcentury BCE, when the people of Israel defeated the occupying armies and re-took control of the temple. When they went to light the temple menorah, there was oil only for one day, yet it lasted for 8 days. A meme I saw the other day put it in ways we might understand today – it would be like your iPhone having only enough battery for 1 day, but lasting 8 days during a power outage.
Anyway, back to more sacred things than iPhones (though most of us do seem to cling to them more than a Baptist to the old rugged cross). In the celebration of this miracle, there is one candle that is different than the other 8 in the Hanukkah menorah. It is called the Shamash, and it is the very image of who we are when the word of God comes to us, and we respond. You see, the Shamash is the servant candle – the assistant – that makes the light possible to shine in the other candles. Or put more beautifully by Rabbi David Wolpe, “The Shamash is the candle that lights the others. Be a Shamash.” Indeed. Be a Shamash. And to be clear, the Shamash doesn’t think it has to be all 8 candles, but only to be the spark of light that serves to enlighten them.
We are servants too, called to carry the light of Christ to others – to allow the light of God’s love to shine through us that others might have their hearts warmed, their paths toward relationship with God made easier to follow, their lives lifted from the valleys and filled with love. We may already have experienced a John the Baptist in our lives…no, not a wild eyed prophet from the desert calling us to repentance, but perhaps it was the one who called us when we lost our job, the one who visited us in the hospital, the one who sat with us in our grief. They managed to clear a way for us, even if only for a small time. In them, the path to God was made clear. Through them, the valley we were in was leveled, the mountains we had to climb made low. Their name likely wasn’t Tiberius, Herod, or Pilate – at least, I hope not – how tough would it be to go through school with one of those names, right? And of course, that’s the entire point of this gospel. No, not that Tiberius is not a great name for a little kid, but that God didn’t choose to come to those in great power. Remember,the word of God came not to the emperor, or the governor, but to a poor man, living a marginal life, out in the wilderness of his time. That is who God chose to come to.
Maybe it would help if we heard it this way. “In the eighteenth year of the twenty-first century, when Donald Trump was President of the United States, and Phil Murphy was governor of New Jersey, and Michael Venezia was mayor of Bloomfield & Stuart Patrick was mayor of Glen Ridge, and The Most Rev. Michael B. Curry was presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, and The Rev. Diana Wilcox was Rector of Christ Church in Bloomfield & Glen Ridge, the word of the Lord came…to you![1]
What would that look like to you – and…most importantly – what would you do with that? Because the word of God has come to you – is always coming to you – here, in your home, on your way to work… in the face of the stranger, in the smile of your child, in your baptism, in the body and blood of Christ… the word of God is Jesus – the light of life, the light that shines in the darkness, the Word made Flesh has come, is coming, and will come. In the silence of our thoughts, or the stumbling on our path – He is with us, beside us, calling to us – if we will only be open to being filled with his light, to allowing him to be born in our hearts, to working alongside him in the world as the servant assistant we are called to be.
The word of God came to John, but didn’t abandon him there, God walked with him. The word of God has come to us, and God is present with us, luring us toward the path, nudging us to clear a way, imploring us to make a way for others. Preparing the way of God will sometimes be a walk on the wild side, and…sometimes it is as simple as just being…being present, being near, being silent, being willing to do what we can under the circumstances, and in that way, we become who we are meant to be – the Shamash.
The word of God is all around us – we just need to pay attention. This is why we are practicing our rule of life – walking The Way of Love – this Advent – so we might pay attention and hear the word of God as we prepare to welcome him born anew in our hearts at Christmas. And all God asks is that we do the best that we can do under the circumstances, and most importantly, that we say “Yes!” to the invitation She offers us in that word.
That is why I think there is a reason we were asked, as part of our Walking the Way of Love in Advent, to read that passage from Luke this week, because it included Mary’s response to the Angel Gabriel, her response to the word of God. She said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” The word of God came to Mary, the poor and young woman, and she said “Yes,” – yes to bearing God into the world. Yes to carrying the light that would light others. The Word of God comes to those that perhaps we least expect – folks like Mary and John, the poor and those living on the margins, ordinary people asked to respond to the extraordinary in their lives, folks like you and me.
In the eighteenth year of the 21stcentury when the world seemed dark and cold, the word of God came to you, a servant of the Lord. What will your answer be? Choose wisely, that all flesh may see the salvation of God, and the dreams of many prophets may become real in our time.
Amen.
For the audio from the 10:30am service, click below, or subscribe to our iTunes Sermon Podcast by clicking here:
[1]From a concept by the Rev. David Lose.
The Rev. Diana L. Wilcox
Christ Church in Bloomfield & Glen Ridge
December 9, 2018
Advent 5 (7 Week Advent) – Year C
1st Reading – Baruch 5:1-9
Canticle 4 or 16
2nd Reading – Philippians 1:3-11
Gospel – Luke 3:1-6
