Sunday, December 8th, 2024: "Preparing the Way"

Watch the Sermon here

The First United Presbyterian Church

“Preparing the Way”

Rev. Amy Morgan

December 8, 2024

Malachi 3:1-4

See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight—indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. 2 But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?

For he is like a refiner’s fire and like washers’ soap; 3 he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness.[a] 4 Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord, as in the days of old and as in former years.

Luke 3:1-6

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, 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, 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, 4 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 God’s paths straight.

5 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,

6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”

They were powerful men. They were politically inept, jealous, murderous, vengeful, paranoid, offensive, cruel, oppressive, unfaithful, impulsive, power hungry, and scheming. But they were the men in charge. And there was nothing anyone could do about it. 

The third chapter of Luke’s gospel begins by naming the civil and religious power-players, the forces of oppression weighing down on the Jewish people like their Babylonian captors 500 years before. It’s a statement that not only roots the story of Jesus in a particular time and place but also sets the stage for the power dynamics that will be in play throughout the life and ministry of Jesus. Before the adult Jesus even arrives on the scene, the powers of the nations are set up against the power of God. 

But the power of God is not announced by an emperor, governor, or priest. It is announced from the literal and figurative margins of society. John, born into a family of religious elites, rejects his position of power, choosing the solitude of the wilderness and sustenance of the desert. He emerges from that liminal space to become the first prophet of the New Testament; the first prophet Israel has seen in 450 years. He reminds these oppressed people of the ancient prophet Isaiah, who spoke to the Babylonian exiles, offering words of hope in a hopeless situation. 

The hope that both Isaiah and John offered is the hope of repentance. Now, that might sound like a strange hope. What’s so hopeful about feeling bad for the bad things we’ve done? Sure, maybe forgiveness feels great, we can have our spirits unburdened or something. But how does that change the situation? How does that free people from oppressive forces? What if we don’t feel like we’ve done anything we need to repent of, or at least we haven’t done anything worse than the people in charge?

We’d rather see John the Baptist marching out of the wilderness with a mob of protesters, ready to speak truth to power and demand liberation from the powerful men abusing their authority. Or, at least, there should be some severe finger-wagging and sharp words for those rulers creating suffering and instilling fear in the people. The way we understand power, the only way for things to change is for the regime to change. Freedom is only granted from above. Only the people of wealth, status, and authority have the power to change anything. The rest of us are helpless, at the mercy of forces so much bigger than us. 

But John does not start his campaign for repentance at the top. John ignores the big shots, for now anyway. His message is for everyone. He talks to the farmers and fishermen, the washer women and widows, the shepherds and servants. And he tells them, the average, ordinary folks just trying to go along to get along, that they must repent and be forgiven of their sins through baptism. 

This seems like a bizarre thing to ask. The little people aren’t the problem. They aren’t murdering and oppressing people and offending God. What do they need to repent of? 

Let’s remember, first of all, that the word “repent” simply means to turn and go in another direction. And the word “sin” means to miss the mark. John’s call to repentance is not a command to feel guilty and ashamed, to search our souls for any minor misdeed or wayward thought. He is urging the people to see that they are doing things that are not helping their cause and to try another way. 

The Jews living under these oppressive powers were longing to be free, and they were doing everything they could think of to survive. Some of them were becoming ultra-righteous, hoping that if they pleased God with their piety, God would liberate them, just as their ancestors had eventually been liberated from Babylon. Others were ready to protest, riot, and even fight to secure their freedom. Several uprisings had already been violently quashed. But most of them just tried to fly under the radar, stay out of trouble, not get too stirred up. 

John knows that a new power is about to walk into town, and that power is going to rescue not just the Jews, but everyone. The sages debating the Torah and the beggars by the side of the road will be saved. The women selling textiles and the women selling their bodies will be saved. The people paying taxes and the people collecting them will be saved. Even Tiberius and Pilate and Herod and Caiaphas will be saved. Even the lepers and the Samaritans and the Roman guards will be saved. 

But some preparation is needed. Not because God demands it or depends on it, but because it smooths the way for us. If we have a medical emergency in the middle of the night, and we live alone and call 911, those emergency responders will find a way to get into the house to save us, but it might destroy our front door. But if we’re prepared for such an emergency, we might keep the door unlocked at night or leave a key somewhere the responders can access it. In other words, we prepare for our salvation. We make the way easier to receive the salvation that is coming. 

That’s what John is calling people to do. They don’t have to earn their salvation, claim their salvation, or even know what salvation means. But they do have to recognize that what they’re doing now isn’t working. They do need to improve their aim and go a different direction. They do need to prepare. 

During the American Civil Rights Movement, there were different reactions within the African-American community, different ideas about what to do to fight racism and injustice. Some, like the Black Panthers, took up arms. Others tried not to make trouble. Martin Luther King, Jr. and those aligned with him followed the path of non-violent resistance. They took this path, not because they weren’t angry or scared enough to resort to violence or apathetic enough to sit on the sidelines or even committed to peace in principle. Non-violent resistance was simply the most effective way to bring about the changes they longed for. Renewal came through taking a different path, recognizing that walking around with assault weapons or maintaining the status quo was not working, not achieving their aims, not rescuing them from oppression. 

And many oppressed people throughout history have experienced this kind of repentance that leads to renewal. From a schoolgirl in Afghanistan to a political prisoner in South Africa, from women sold into slavery in China to Africans sold into slavery in America, oppressed people have improved their aim, changed direction, and overcome powers that seemed impossible to thwart. 

We are not oppressed like the Jews of the first century, or women living under the Taliban or black South Africans under apartheid or so many others throughout history and around the world today. But we all have forces that seem so much bigger than we are, so powerful we can’t possibly change anything or help anyone, not even ourselves. 

Perhaps we are overwhelmed by the geopolitical forces that are creating conflict and suffering in other parts of the world. Perhaps we are despondent about the pernicious troubles of our own society that seem to have no meaningful solution. Or perhaps we are hopeless about our own situation, struggling under the forces of addiction, grief, loneliness, resentment, physical or mental illness, or financial challenges. 

John reminds us that we, too, need to repent, to recognize that what we’re doing isn’t working, to move in a different direction. Not because we’re evil or foolish or incapable. But because a power is coming, has come, and will come again that will renew the whole earth, will rescue us, and everyone else, from the powers that hold us captive to despair. And we need to be prepared. 

This preparation is described by Isaiah as preparing a way, lifting up valleys, flattening mountains and hills, and making crooked paths straight. Again, not so that God can find a way to get to us. God will make a way when there is no way. But this preparation will make it easier for us to receive that salvation. We can sit back and wait and see and go about our lives with the expectation that nothing will change, nothing will get better. But it's going to be pretty disruptive when God comes busting down the door. 

So the work that is ours to do in the meantime is not to point fingers at the powers that be. It’s to recognize what in our lives is pulling us downhill, and fill it in. It’s to recognize the mountains that are wearing us out with climbing, and flatten them out. It’s to recognize what is twisted and distorted in our lives, and straighten it out. 

Maybe this looks like filling up the cavities in our hearts with compassion; flattening out our inflated egos; untangling our twisted relationships. Or maybe it’s as simple as unlocking the doors of our spirits to the hope that Jesus really will show up and do something. 

God’s salvation is coming to all people. To the oppressed and the oppressors, the wealthy and privileged, the content and apathetic, even to you and me. In this Advent season, may we do the work that is ours to do, preparing the way for renewal. 

To God be all glory forever and ever. Amen.