December 8, 2024, Advent 2
Luke 3:1-6
Introduction
Must be the second Sunday of Advent if good ole John the Baptist is with us. At least this year he is not calling us a brood of vipers. But he is telling us to prepare the way of the Lord—which obviously begs the question… for who? For those of us in the Church? For strangers? Maybe for a brood of vipers perhaps? Just who exactly are we preparing the way of the Lord for? Because honestly, there’s a particular person in my life I sometimes just don’t want to be with. There are times when I intentionally avoid this person because I don’t always like what I see in them. Other times I am disappointed in or angry with this person. Sometimes we argue. Truth be told, a lot has happened between us. Judgments have been made, criticisms have been exchanged, and wounds have been inflicted. I often don’t understand this person or our relationship. Some days I love this person, and other days not so much.
Truthfully, our relationship is often rough or crooked. Sometimes when I am with this person I descend into a deep valley and make less of myself than I really am. Other times I climb a high mountain and make more of myself than I really am. You know what I’m talking about, right? You know those feelings. I think we all have someone like this in our lives. But it might not be who you think it is.
Have you ever seen someone at the grocery store and then ducked down another aisle to avoid her or him? That’s not who I am talking about. I am not talking about a former spouse. I am not talking about a business partner, colleague, or friend with whom you’ve had a falling out. And I am not even talking about difficult mothers-in-law.
In my case, the person I am talking about is me. I’m talking about the relationship I have with myself. And I am talking about the relationship you might have with yourself.
Friedrich Nietzsche said, “The worst enemy you can meet will always be yourself.” Which is Nietzsche’s way of saying, the person who will treat you the worst, and hardest, as always yourself. And that’s what John the Baptist is getting at in today’s Gospel when he says: “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.”
John is talking about the relationship we have with ourselves. He’s talking about the landscape of our lives. He’s asking us to risk confronting ourselves by preparing the way of the Lord. Yes, there is also a call for us to prepare the way of the Lord for others, sure; but first and foremost, we are to be preparing the way of the Lord for ourselves, because making preparations of the Lord is less about being wrong, bad, or sinful and more about our healing and wholeness.
Move 1
The valleys, mountains and hills, crooked paths, and rough ways of which John speaks are descriptive of our lives, our of interior landscape. They are conditions and states of being within us. They are ways we relate to ourselves and one another.
And so with that in mind, for the next few moments I want us to consider the landscapes of our lives—our valleys, mountains and hills, crooked paths, and rough ways—by asking ourselves some important questions that might just help us not only prepare the way of the Lord, but also help us find some peace through healing and wholeness.
So then… first question…What are the valleys in your life today?
Think about the low places in your life. What gets you there and what keeps you there? Maybe it’s the judgments or criticisms you make of yourself. Maybe it’s self-doubt, second guessing, lack of confidence or self-esteem. In what ways do you diminish or put yourself down? Sometimes we live in the valley of grief and loss. Guilt, shame, embarrassment often take us to the valley. It might be regrets, disappointment, fear, failures. When have you betrayed or alienated yourself? When have you settled or given up? When have you lived less than who you wanted to be or less than who you knew yourself truly to be?
Next… What are the mountains and hills in your life today?
Think about the times and ways you’ve gotten too big for your britches. Think about the ways in which you try to control or coerce your life or another’s life. When have you been selfish, judgmental of others, or intellectually rigid? In what ways are you motivated by power, wealth, success, reputation, the need for approval or to be right? When have you played king or queen of the mountain?
When we live in excess of anything we’re on top of our mountain. When have you thought yourself better than or superior to others? When our ego is inflated and we’re full of ourselves we’re climbing the mountain.
Next question… What’s crooked in your life today?
I’m asking about those things or relationships that are off kilter or out of sync. In what ways are your words and actions not aligned with the values you claim to hold? In what ways is your life twisted or deformed? When we are dishonest with ourselves or others, we’re on a crooked path. Is there integrity in your life, your words and actions? Every time you and I give another reason to doubt the trustworthiness of our words or actions we are living crooked. What’s the shape of your life these days? Is it shaping up the way you want and, if not, what’s crooked?
And lastly… What are the rough ways in your life today?
Think about the ways your life today is uneven, out of balance, or lacking in harmony. What’s missing? What’s causing you to stumble and trip? What parts of your life are lacking order? What relationships need some care or repair? What beliefs, patterns, or habits are making your life bumpy? Are you sometimes more tolerant and gentle with others than yourself? Who are you roughest on and why?
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Asking ourselves these questions, trying to answer these questions is no picnic, and no, not very Christmasy. But when we do ask ourselves these questions, and seek out their answers, I’m confident God will be at work within us, making paths straight, filling valleys, making mountains and hills low, straightening out what is crooked in our lives, and making our rough ways smooth. And wouldn’t God’s work doing all that in our lives bring to our lives new levels of peace?
Move 2
Now when it comes to these landscapes in our lives, it’s not just about us as individuals. The work of preparing the way of the Lord and the peace of God needs to be happening everywhere—in our church, in thee Church, our community and all around the country in the world, of course because we all know the top graphical landscape of our society today. There are mountains of racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia. There are the crooked ways of socioeconomic inequality and political division and backstabbing. They are also the rough and difficult relationships with people in our lives.
And so, if we want the peace of Christ we anticipate and prepare for during Advent, then we must also be ready to partner with God in the work God is doing to bring forth God’s path of peace in every landscape of our lives.
So let us consider in what ways are these also a part of our life’s landscape? In what ways are we walking that terrain today? And then ask ourselves… Am I preparing the way of the Lord in this life landscape I’m walking within?
Move 3
The landscape we are walking in is a mirror that confronts us with ourselves. This confrontation with ourselves, however, isn’t meant to be a final judgment or conclusion. It’s a diagnosis. It’s naming the places in our lives and world where it hurts.
Where does it hurt today? Healing starts with where it hurts. Before there can be treatment there has to be a diagnosis. And sometimes the most difficult and scariest part of healing is going to the doctor to find out what’s wrong.
But I want you to know this. Whatever the terrain of your life and world might be today, wherever it hurts, know this… “Every valley shall be filled…” “…every mountain and hill shall be made low…” “…the crooked shall be made straight…” and “…the rough ways shall be made smooth.”
That’s the Good News John brings from the wilderness. It’s the Good News God promises will bring you and me back to ourselves and to God. It’s the hope that you and I will one day live on level ground and walk a smooth straight path together. That’s what I want, don’t you? That’s what I want for you, our nation, the world, and myself. But like I said last week, hope is a call that asks something of us—hope is about remaining open to the future and refusing to let the present moment close us in and define who we are. Hope is the belief that the future is always better, not because it necessarily will be, but because it can be. And that hope always leads us to peace.
Conclusion
John is telling us to prepare the way of the Lord—which makes us think he wants us to prepare this way so that others can be ready for the coming Savior. And while that is true, John knows the preparations for the coming Savior is work we need to do in ourselves first.
So imagine what your life would look like if you lived on level ground and walked a smooth straight path. Imagine what life would be like if we didn’t settle or give up. Imagine what life would be like if we were honest with ourselves, if we shaped our lives in the ways of Christ, if we worked to remove what causes us to stumble. What would life look like if we were more gentle with ourselves.
That’s what John is offering each one of us. To “see the salvation of God” begins with looking at the landscape of our lives and realizing that those who John the Baptist is calling us to prepare the way of the Lord for is us. And these preparations will always lead us to the peace of God that comes to us through the one we call the Prince of Peace. Amen.
Pastoral Prayer, December 8, 2024, Advent 2
Gracious and loving God, you know how often we take your words, “Prepare the way of the Lord” “Make straight the paths” and take them as a task to do for others, assuming our minds, hearts, and spirits, are always in perfect alignment with yours because we know you, because we strive to follow your Son, because we see how so many around us are in need of your ways.
Forgive us for our narrow thinking. Forgive us for assuming so often. Forgive us for overlooking the needs in our own lives.
Forgive us then remind us, our lives could be filled with that which offers a peace beyond all understanding. A peace that can guide us through the chaos, the clutter, the fear, the misassumptions—helping us to see our lives and then the world as you see it— as places in need of hope, peace, joy, and love; and that it can be found and shared; that it can make a difference, when we look inside ourselves and see the mountains, the valleys, and the ways that need to be better prepared for you.
Holy God help us to take a deep breath in and know you are here. Help us to know you never leave our sides and you carry us with you always.
So today, we pray with tender spirits and ask you once more bless us with your peace that passes all understanding. Lead us with your peace that will help us declare in our lives and in our spirits that we walk the path you set before us, and that we know with all faithfulness making such preparations in our minds, hearts, and spirits will always lead us to having lives filled with all that is of you and from you.
We ask that you would listen now the prayers we lift to you in the peaceful calm of Holy Silence.
All this we pray in the name of Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior, the Prince of Peace, who taught us to pray saying, “Our …”