Peace: Preparing the Way

Matthew 3:1-6

December 4, 2016

Mark S. Bollwinkel

The writer of the gospel of Luke wants us to know the exact time and place of Jesus' baptism.  He loves history:

"The fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius 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, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas..."

It was then that the word of The Lord came and Jesus of Nazareth was baptized.

This turning point in John the Baptist's life and Jesus' ministry didn't happen just at any time but at a particular time in history.  In ancient days, writers could date their reports by listing the names of those in authority.  We'll hear those names again, won't we?  Pontius Pilate, Annas and Caiaphas high priests of the Jerusalem Temple?  A few years later it will be these men who will orchestrate the crucifixion of Jesus.  

The historians of the day will record those names.  They will describe the crowds that came out to hear John at the river Jordan, seeking the ritual of cleansing initiation into a new life.  The historians of the day will write about the preacher named Jesus who also drew great crowds and was killed for sedition by the Romans.

It was the year 26-27 CE by our reckoning.

Remember that John the Baptist and Jesus were cousins.  They had first met in utero when young Mary came running to her cousin Elizabeth's house asking her help in understanding all that was happening (Luke 1:39-45).  Mary was pregnant having never known a man.  An angel came to her at night explaining that the son of God was growing in her womb.  The baby in aging Elizabeth leapt for joy when Mary entered the room.  John's mother was the first to recognize that the Messiah...the Christ child...was about to be born and that the world would never be the same.

In his own life, John went to the desert to prepare himself for the coming of the Christ.  The gospels describe him as a desert ascetic, spending days in prayer and meditation, wearing animal skins for clothing, eating wild honey and locusts (Matthew 3:4).  As the messenger of the coming Christ, he quotes from the prophet Isaiah: "...prepare the way of The Lord, make his paths straight..." (Isaiah 40:3-5).

In her book Through the Advent Door: Entering a Contemplative Christmas (Richardson, 2011) Rev. Jan Richardson writes:

”It was only by making himself ready…by straightening the paths within himself and smoothing out all that was rough in his interior landscape…that John was able to do the work that God had called him to do. And so we, too, are called in this season: to attend to and prepare our inner terrain so that we may welcome Christ in our lives and in our world.”

 "Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, the rough ways made smooth..."  An “apocalyptic leveling out" (Richardson) may sound enticing for those of us who make our lives more complicated than they need to be.   But there is nothing easy about it.  It is no academic exercise. 

John will go on to preach to the crowds coming out to hear him:

‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Do not begin to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our ancestor”; [you can't count on your heritage, your ethnicity, or your social status to save you…]....the crowds asked him, ‘What then should we do?’ In reply he said to them, ‘Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.’ Even tax-collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, ‘teacher, what should we do?’ He said to them, ‘Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.’ Soldiers also asked him, ‘And we, what should we do?’ He said to them, ‘Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages’ (Luke 7-14).

Preparing the way of The Lord in our lives isn't about reading the right book or thinking the right thoughts.   It is about sharing what we have with those who have little. It is about earning our living without exploiting others.  It is about getting our lives in balance with each other, God and the world.

The theme for the second Sunday of Advent has long been “peace”.   We read the prophecies of Isaiah foretelling the coming a new Messiah who will usher in a peace in which the “lion and the lamb shall lie down together” (11:6).  He can see the coming of a time when “…a child has been born for us, a son given to us…and his name is Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace...” (9:6).   We live in a world convinced that we can bomb and shoot and kill our way to peace.  Such evils may be necessary at times but they are always an evil (Jimmy Carter).   The Biblical concept of peace is found in the Hebrew word “shalom” which more than the absence of violence means “the wholeness and balance in life and community that come with justice and rightness”.   We who follow Jesus are convinced that if we want peace in the world it begins with peace in ourselves.   And that peace is found in relationship to something greater than ourselves.

John the Baptizer suggests that such a relationship begins in the heart and travels out through our hands and feet, out in the way we live. If we want to know God, he suggests that we do something good for somebody else.

John the Baptist clearly was not a United Methodist preacher looking for a new appointment from the Bishop.  United Methodist preachers don't call their congregations "You brood of snakes!" and expect to get a job somewhere!   Maybe John the Baptist was more like the United Methodist preacher about to retire...feeling that now he can say exactly what he had always wanted to say. [Of course, John the Baptist's 'retirement' came in the form of beheading...but let's not go there just now! (Matthew 14:1-21).]

In her book, Jan Richardson writes (Door 7):

…to follow God does not often mean traveling with certainty about where God will lead us.  Rather, following God propels us to be present to the place where we are, for this is the very place where God shows up.

That's true even in times of change and transition.

We who make our lives more complicated than they need to be have something important to learn from John the Baptist's clarion call for God's future.  John calls us to wash away the dust of the past and move into a new way of living.  That's what baptism is all about.  He calls us a make room for the coming of the Christ.  If we want to know what it looks like to live a life in the spirit of God's future, all we have to do is look at Jesus' life and follow it.   

The Advent invitation to prepare the way doesn't happen just at any time but in our time, in our place, in this moment of time.  It is why John the Baptist hollers at his people, challenging them to enter a new way of living.

It is the heart and soul of Advent, not the repetition of sentimental holiday memories, but the courage and commitment to embrace the possibilities of God's future even when darkness surrounds us.

What will it take for us to walk through the door that balances our resources of time and talent with the opportunity to serve that future?   To simplify and focus our living on what and who really matters?  We talk about it all the time, don't we?  What will it take for us to prepare the way of The Lord?

Amen.