6 Dec 2015
2nd Sunday of Advent, Year
C
“A shepherd boy was tending his flock near a village, and
thought it would be great fun to hoax the villagers by pretending that a wolf
was attacking the sheep; so he shouted out, ‘Wolf! Wolf!’ and when the people
came running up he laughed at them for their troubles. He did this more than once, and every time
the villagers found they had been hoaxed, for there was no wolf at all. At last a wolf really did come, and the boy
cried, ‘Wolf! Wolf!’ as loud as he could.
But the people were so used to hearing him call that they took no notice
of his cries. And so the wolf had it all
his own way, and killed off sheep after sheep at his leisure.”
That’s one of the great fables written by Aesop: The Boy Who
Cried Wolf. And sometimes—just sometimes—it
can feel like we’ve heard John the Baptist say about a million times: “Prepare
the way of the Lord! Prepare the way of
the Lord!” Every Advent it’s the same
thing: “Prepare the way of the Lord!”
But where is the Lord? What’s changed since last year at this time? Or
since the year before that, or the
decade before that, or the millennium
before? Where is
the Lord that John keeps telling us to “prepare the way” for?
He’s beginning to sound like that shepherd boy who cried:
Wolf! And a lot of people throughout history
have given up on the Lord because they see in John the Baptist (and in the
Church) that boy who cried wolf. Many
people have given up hope. And this is
what the Prophet Baruch was trying to head off in his writings.
The big temptation with the Israelites when they were in
their Babylonian exile was the temptation to give up. They were tempted—constantly—to abandon God
because, well: “Where was God?” “If God is faithful,” they thought, “where is he?
Why doesn’t he come?” And so, Baruch was out there giving them all
a pep-talk: “Jerusalem, take off your robe of mourning and misery; put on the
splendor of glory from God forever! . . . Up, Jerusalem! stand upon the
heights; look to the east and see your children . . . rejoicing that they are remembered by God.”
Some of the Israelites probably thought: “What is he talking
about?” But for a lot of others, the
encouraging words of Baruch were just that: they were encouraging. We hear—again—this
year from John the Baptist: “Prepare the way of the Lord! Every valley shall be filled and every
mountain and hill shall be made low.”
Prepare the way of the Lord!
And some people say: “What’s he talking about? He’s been crying wolf for two thousand years
. . . and nothing’s happened.” But for a
lot of others, the words of John the Baptist awaken us—again—to the hope inside
us that makes us come and worship the Unseen God. Of course, God is not necessarily meant to be “unseen.” After all, Isaiah does say that “all flesh
will see the salvation of God.” God—or,
at least, the salvation of God—is meant to be seen; it’s meant to be known and encountered. And that’s what we hope for, isn’t it? To know salvation
really and truly?
John the Baptist isn’t like the boy who cried wolf, because
the boy who cried wolf was lying and just having fun with the villagers. John the Baptist is quite serious. And we have to hear his message again and
again and again, year after year, century after century because to “prepare the
way of the Lord” means to change our habits of thinking; it means changing our
concepts of ‘love’ and ‘forgiveness.’ It
means reorienting our whole lives back toward God. Preparing the way of the Lord is no small
task; it takes time, discipline, patience, humility, forgiveness, suppleness of
heart, wisdom, love, curiosity, even a sense of “adventure.”
The Lord is already here.
But it takes work to “prepare the way” so we can see him. But we have on our
side the grace of the Holy Spirit, and the power of water.
Water has the capacity to wear away even the hardest
materials. I think of stones in a
riverbed that begin as all jagged and rough; but, in time, the water wears them
down until they’re smooth. Also in
rivers I think of wood—you know: sticks, bark, logs—floating in the water. Now, wood is hard. Even pine is kind of hard if you get hit with
a 2x4. But, there, floating in the
water, wood becomes nice and soft.
Or you can think of places like the Grand Canyon. Miles of canyon cut through solid rock by the
power of flowing water. Just imagine
what baptismal water—infused with the
Holy Spirit—can do for all those “jagged” and “hard” parts of our souls. How many of us have mountains of pride or
self-righteousness in us? And what about
those valleys of spiritual drowsiness
and apathy about faith?
Maybe there’s the mountain in us of “being busy all the time.” Martha certainly had one in her: she was
constantly preoccupied with this or that—never any time to just sit down and be
with God. And that’s a big one . . . for
her and for us.
In St Paul’s letter to the Philippians, he writes: “Brothers
and sisters . . . this is my prayer: that your love may increase ever more and
more . . . to discern what is of value.”
He’s praying (and is still
praying today) that the flowing love of the Holy Spirit will wear down what we think is important in life so that we
can focus on what really is
important; what is “of value.”
To “prepare the way of the Lord” is to let our baptismal
grace flow in us so that we can focus on what’s “valuable” in life, and so to really
“see God at work.”
One particularly valuable aspect of life (although it’s easily
overlooked or dismissed) is in the assertion that “God loves you.” That’s
important. It’s important to know it.
It’s important to believe it. And it’s important to accept it. It’s just a
little bitty statement: “God loves you.”
And it can be steamrollered over in a heartbeat by other things we may
hear. But preparing the way of the Lord
(and coming to see the Lord) requires
us to accept God’s love for us as something “of great value.”
Today, we spend so much time and effort trying to be somebody else. And, sometimes, that’s good. You know, maybe we need to be more patient
with others, or more forgiving, or less judgmental, or whatever. Maybe we could exercise more and eat better
for our own health. Who knows. Sometimes the call to change is good and
legitimate.
But such a call only
comes from Somebody who loves us absolutely. Even without
making those changes, even without
becoming a perfect saint, even without
eating better and exercising, there’s one Person who loves and accepts us
absolutely and unconditionally—and that Person is our God. Lucky us!
How blessed are we!
That’s an important bit of truth inside each of us that the
waters of our baptism are trying to keep exposed. The Holy Spirit is constantly trying to keep
God’s absolute love for us from being covered over. Covered over by what? Well, you name it: people criticizing you
because you’re not fast enough, or you’re too loud (or not loud enough), or
your hair looks weird, or you have some interest or hobby that’s
off-the-beaten-path.
We human beings just have the nasty habit of running each
other down. We also have the nasty habit
of listening to people who run us
down. We let them tell us who we
are. We let other people tell us whether we are worthy or acceptable. Of course, that’s what a lot of commercials
are all about on tv or the internet: “Buy our product or be a loser.” “We have what you need because you aren’t
good enough the way you are.”
“Prepare the way of the Lord,” John the Baptist says—again. Get rid of all those lies and garbage you
hear people tell you about yourself. “Prepare
the way of the Lord.” Let the waters of
the Holy Spirit expose—again—that basic truth that’s inside each of us: the
truth that “God loves you . . . as you are.”
It’s a thing “of great value,” a fundamental truth that many
people dismiss: “So what if God loves me?
How’s that gonna pay the bills?”
Or, worse, “What do you mean ‘God loves me?’ God can’t love me; I’m
unlovable.”
Prepare the way of the Lord . . . get rid of the mountains of
excuses, the mountains of lies we believe about ourselves, get rid of your
worries about what others think about you . . . Prepare the way of the Lord. When we finally begin to do that, then we’ll see the salvation of our
God. Then
we’ll see that—really, truly, absolutely—we are deeply loved by God, as we are,
today and always.
Prepare the way of the Lord.
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