Prepare the Way

Scriptures:     Isaiah 11:1-10, Psalm 72    Romans 15:4-13,   Matthew 3:1-12

Thompson Street is finally paved.  Hallelujah!  For months, the top surface of Thompson Street had been removed, leaving a rough, bumpy surface, along with manhole covers that stuck up several inches from the road.   For months, traveling anywhere on Thompson Street meant a slow, bumpy, uncomfortable ride.   But, finally, the surface of Thompson Street is smooth.

In our readings today, we hear three contrasting voices.  One, the voice of John the Baptist,  is loud, abrasive, verging on obnoxious.  Another, that of Isaiah, makes promises that seem too good to be true. And the third, that of Paul writing to the church at Rome, urges his readers to welcome the Gentiles, the outsiders, whom God is making insiders through the work of Jesus Christ.  Three voices, seemingly out of sync with one another, yet telling us something about the God we worship.

 Once again, our Gospel reading has us out of sync with what’s going on around us.   At the mall, our children can tell Santa whether they’ve been naughty or nice.  But in our Gospel reading, we’re out in the desert with a loud, cranky, oddly dressed fellow name of John – John the Baptist, as we know him.  And as far as John’s concerned, everyone’s been naughty and nobody’s been nice.  That is to say, for John, all are in need of repentance.

A word about John’s clothing – in wearing clothing of camel hair, with a leather belt around his waist, John wasn’t making a fashion statement.  Rather, John is dressed like the prophet Elijah, who is described in 2 Kings as a hairy man wearing a leather belt (2 Kings 1:8).  And John baptized in the Jordan River, which was where the Israelites had crossed into the promised land.  If we here see someone down at Independence Hall dressed in reproductions of colonial-era clothing, we will associate what that person is saying with the Revolutionary War and the fight for independence. And, aside from the re-enactors we may see down at Independence Hall or at a group of Revolutionary War re-enactors, people may sometimes dress in colonial-era clothing to make a political statement that the country has lost its way, and has to get back to its founding principles. Or we may think of characters such as Philly Jesus, who shows up at public events dressed in a white robe as a statement that the city has lost its way and needs to get back to the message of Jesus.   John was dressed as he was so that his words would be associated with those of the ancient prophets such as Elijah.  In addition, Malachi’s prophecy stated that before the Messiah came, Elijah would return – and Jesus himself referred to John as fulfillment of that prophecy.  

As we read the words that John the Baptist spoke to the people, he comes across as a wild-eyed fanatic.  He tells the people to repent.  When the Pharisees and Sadducees come – and it’s striking that they would have come together, as they were on opposite ends of the religious and political spectrum, and likely they were united only in their opposition to John – John called them a brood of vipers, and their institutional religion a snake pit.  John would know – according to Luke’s gospel, John’s father, Zechariah, had been a priest in the temple at Jerusalem, and so John would have seen the system’s corruption close up, just as any preacher’s kid can tell you stories about the church’s corruption and failings.  And John talks about fire – every tree that doesn’t bear fruit will be chopped down and thrown into the fire, wheat will be separated from chaff, and the chaff thrown into the fire.  John’s message is fire, and fire, and more fire.   John’s message is “turn or burn”.

John’s message is loud, intrusive, jarring.  But that’s intentional – his message is urgent. If there’s a fire, you don’t want a fire alarm that plays elevator muzak and a soothing voice saying, “this building is warmer than usual.…please consider moving toward the exits.”  Rather, if we think of the fire alarms in our homes or at our places of work, they’re loud, intrusive, and jarring – when my office holds fire drills, as we exit the building, there are lights that flash on and off, and the sound of the alarm is so loud I feel like my ears are going to explode – I literally can’t physically stand to stay in the building, the noise is so loud.   And so John’s message is sort of like a spiritual fire alarm, warning his listeners to wake up, to move out of their complacency and pay attention to the one who is to come.

So John’s message is like a fire alarm.  But our Gospel also compares him to a road crew paving the way, smoothing the road, for the coming of the Messiah, just like the road crews who worked on Thompson Street paved the way for all of us to get here this morning.  John is the one who prepares the way, the one who prepares his listeners for the message of Jesus.  To use another comparison, he might be like the opening act at a rock concert….he’s not the main attraction, but he gets the crowd ready for when the featured band walks on stage.

Our readings from Isaiah and Romans tell us what the main attraction will be like.  Paul tells his readers, many of whom were Roman Jews, to welcome each other – and especially to welcome the Gentiles.  To this point, these Gentiles, non-Jews, were considered outsiders, but Paul goes to great lengths to ask his Jewish readers to welcome them – and for the Gentiles to welcome the Jews in return.  So for Paul, Jew and Gentile alike have a place.  And Isaiah gives us a picture of the promised world to come, in which a descendent of Jesse – that is to say, someone in the line of King David – would rule in righteousness, and in which nature will be at peace, so peaceful that a little child will lead.  

Outsiders – children – and nature, the animals and trees – are important in Paul’s and Isaiah’s vision of the world to come.  I hope they’ll be important to us as well.  Are our actions in line with this vision, or working to undermine it.  Are outsiders welcome among us, in this church, in our community, or not?  Are our actions leading toward a world in which children are loved and cared for and can feel safe, or a world in which children go hungry, live in fear, are orphans?  Are our actions leading toward a world in which the natural order will be at peace, or toward a world in which calves and lions and cows and bears have gone extinct?   Today’s scriptures hold up a yardstick and a plumb line by which we can measure the straightness of the path we’re walking, can measure the horizontal and vertical of the world we’re building.     

In this season of preparation, may John’s words shake us out of complacency, and may Isaiah’s and Paul’s words give us a vision to look to.  May God give us the grace to live into this vision, and to welcome our neighbors into this vision as well, as we await the coming of the Christ child. Amen.