Prepare the Way!

Well... the Advent season has begun and it is time for me to once again start posting on this blog of mine. As always, it is a journey. May we enjoy it together.

This season, my congregation is preaching through the many prophecies in the book of Isaiah that point to the coming of Jesus into the world. We began with Isaiah 40:1-5 which begins with the familiar phrase "Comfort, comfort my people, says your God." Comfort offered to a people in exile, bearing the weight of their own sin, fearing that God has abandoned them forever. But in the midst of their darkness, a glimmer of hope, a word of comfort, an assurance that God is coming and nothing can get in the way. Not the barrenness of the desert, not the low valleys or high mountains, not the bends or bumps in the road.

In my sermon this morning, I spoke about what we might need to do to get ready. Following John the Baptist's call to prepare the way with repentance, I spoke of the need to recognize our sin, or recognize that God can forgive all our sins, or recognize that God can even cleanse us from the sins of others.

I focused so much on what we need to do to make ourselves ready... what acts of devotion or service or forgiveness or reconciliation. But I realize there is another aspect of preparing the way that we need to attend to. How can we, during this Advent Season, prepare the way for others to receive the Lord so that, according to vs. 5, all people together may see the glory of the Lord revealed?

Where has the church failed to act justly or love mercy or walk humbly with our God? Where have we created valleys of doubt for those on the margins or struggling with those things that are beyond our understanding? When have we erected mountains of greed or prejudice? Where have we created curves in the road... those blind curves that allow us to fail to see the sorrow and struggle of others, so consumed as we are to stay on the road ourselves?


This Advent Season, let us take out the bulldozers and pick up our shovels. Let us fill in the valleys of fear, doubt, and grief. Let us tear down the mountains of greed and injustice. Let us... not just for ourselves, but for all the world... prepare the way of the Lord.