Adam J. Copeland

First Pres Hallock, Minn

Dec 6, 2009

Prepare the Way

Luke 3:1-6, Malachi 3:1-4

In Northfield, today, south of the cities, hundreds of singers and orchestra members are preparing the annual Christmas Festival. Though it’s been five years since I’ve sung with them, my heart is still with the St. Olaf students who have spent so many hours preparing for a successful weekend the festival. Thousands come to Northfield for the performances, and even more listen on the radio or watch on TV. (You can catch this afternoon’s performance at 3:30 on Classical MPR stations.)

It’d take a PhD in statistics to figure out how many collective hours are spent prepping for the concerts. Five choirs of around one hundred people each memorize the words to a couple dozen songs and hymns. The St. Olaf Choir rehearses every day for and hour and a half. Orchestra players learn their parts on their own before playing with the group. Singers come back three days early from Thanksgiving break for rehearsals. And by the time of the concert, all is prepared. The stage is set with beautiful props, every choir member knows how to process and recess into the hall. If it’s a TV recording year, all is choreographed with the video cameras as well. After months of preparation the concerts go always manage to go off without a hitch, and then, a few short weeks later, a committee meets to begin preparing the theme for the next year’s festival.

Today, a few hundred miles north, Malachi and Luke speak of another sort of preparation. Malachi writes, “See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me…the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, indeed, he is coming.”

Malachi anticipates the messenger, but Luke names him clearly. He’s called “John the Baptist” and he’s sent to prepare the way of the Lord.

The writers of Mark and Matthew talk about John the Baptist coming from the wilderness strangely dressed and eating locusts and wild honey. But Luke doesn’t say much about that. Instead, Luke chooses to quote a longer passage from Isaiah after introducing John the Baptist:

Prepare the way of the Lord,

make his paths straight.

Every valley shall be filled,

and every mountain and hill shall be made low…

Early December is the season of many preparations — buying presents, decorating trees. Julie and David, Jan and Dave, have had a few weeks of special preparation that is now just over, getting their houses ready for a successful Tour of Homes. Advent is about preparation too, but a different sort than that of buying stocking stuffers and pie ingredients. John the Baptist calls us to prepare for a new sort of world order, one in which Jesus and love, not consumerism and self-interest, rules forever.

So what sort of preparation do we need to do this Advent? How is John the Baptist calling us to prepare for Christ’s birth and eventual return?

One way we can prepare is in a personal/ way, preparing for Christ to speak to us individually this Advent season and beyond. Look at your life, what can you do to prepare? Some of us can probably add something — add prayer time each day, add more caring for those less fortunate (or even those in our family), but others of us would best prepare by taking things away. Maybe turning off that TV and spending more time with loved ones will help you prepare your heart. Maybe taking away that stressor in your life that makes you cranky is your best way to prepare.

Isaac Watts famous hymn, “Joy to the World,” has the line: “Let every heart prepare him room.” I guess even in Watts’ time, a few hundred years ago, hearts had to be opened to make room for the good news of Jesus. A lot of times making room in our hearts calls for clearing out the clutter and debris that separate us from God.

According to Luke, John the Baptist preached a baptism of repentance. Years ago, the old church father Tertullian said, “repentance should…prepare the home of the heart, by making it clean, for the Holy Spirit.” [as quoted in Feasting on the Word Year C:v1, Bartlett & Tayler, eds. (Louisville: 2009), p. 48.] The word in the Greek that means “forgiveness” comes from a word that means “to let go.” This Advent we must let go of our sins and anything else in our heart that holds us back from having space for the Christ child.

But think, if those St. Olaf choir singers all learned the music themselves, and practiced individually, and then showed up for the Christmas Festival to sing together for the first time, the music wouldn’t sound very good. The director of the St. Olaf choir tells the story of a previous director who, when he thought the choir members were getting a bit too full of themselves, made each member sing a difficult bit of music solo in front of the whole choir. Some did ok, but most of them sounded pretty bad and got off their high horses real quick. Together, they made beautiful music, but individually they had a lot to work on. Advent is about that individual side of preparation, but it’s also about preparing the world to receive Christ again.

If John the Baptist just worried about his own heart, just worried about his individual preparation for Jesus, the world would have been even less ready than it was to receive Jesus’ ministry. John, though, was about spreading the word of Jesus’ to others. Luke quoted Isaiah saying,

Prepare the way of the Lord,

make his paths straight.

[And] Every valley shall be filled,

and every mountain and hill shall be made low

Advent isn’t only about individual prep work, Christ’s coming affects every valley and mountain, ever snowflake and ice patch, even all people everywhere.

I’m guessing a few of us are thinking about now, “Well, I think I’ll just work on preparing my heart first. Maybe I’ll get to sharing the good news with someone else eventually, but I don’t want to step on any toes, and I know I’m not prefect. I’ll just work on my heart for the moment.” That type of humility is certainly a big part of Minnesota culture. I love it, but sometimes, it might hold us back a bit.

Don’t worry, I’m not talking about knocking on your neighbor’s door, dropping off some Christmas cookies and asking, “How are you with the Lord?” Even if we could find folks to do it, I think it’d put people on the defensive pretty quick. But here’s the thing: preparing for Jesus individually is great and all, but what’s the point if the gospel is only about us and our salvation? If the good news of Christmas is that God sends God’s son to show us how to live, to save us and give us eternal life, then it seems like the most selfish thing in the world not to share that good news.

Of course, we don’t have to prepare the whole world ourselves. Our partners in the faith are doing that all over this good earth. At the Northern Plains Presbytery meeting a few months ago, Chenoa Stock visited and shared her story with us. Chenoa is a member of a Presbyterian church in Pennsylvania, and she serves as a missionary for the denomination in Sri Lanka–part of our mission dollars go to support her work. Chenoa shared stories for us of her time working in Sri Lanka as a facilitator for an organization dedicated to doing away with hunger, poverty, and injustice in Sri Lanka. As she’s worked, she said, her faith in Jesus Christ has grown and she has shared that love with hundreds of others. Even as we prepare in this place, our Presbyterian partners in Christ’s mission are preparing all over the world.

We’re not all called to be missionaries, but we can all prepare for Christ by serving him where we live. Maybe our congregation can prepare by extending hospitality to those in our community not connected to a church, or welcoming further those who are connected to this one. Maybe we can increase our giving to aid organizations in our local community, or sponsor a missionary abroad. There’s plenty of ways to prepare.

I said earlier that Luke quotes a longer section of Isaiah than the other gospel writers. That verse reads “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; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’ ”

Did you catch the good news there? “All flesh shall see the salvation of God.” Ultimately, Luke and Isaiah agree that, thank goodness, Jesus isn’t dependent on our preparation. That’s good news, because our prep work is never going to be perfect. Advent is about preparation for Christ’s coming, but celebrating Christmas isn’t ultimately contingent on how we do. Christmas is coming no matter what and, in the end, Luke promises, “all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” That’s the good news: Jesus is coming. It’s not up to us to decide when that is or how Jesus will return, but in gratitude, we are to prepare for that glorious day. Prepare your hearts. Prepare the world. Prepare, for Jesus is coming.