Second Sunday in Advent

December 5-6, 2009

“Prepare the Way”

Luke 3:1-14

Grace, mercy and peace be unto you from God our heavenly Father, through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Preparation is the key to success, most people will tell you. And it’s true; in order to succeed in business, in sports, in retirement planning, in just about everything, you have to be prepared. Many of you will remember the name Lou Holtz; the head coach of the Notre Dame football team some time ago. You may also recall Notre Dame, under Holtz, winning the national championship in 1988, with a quarterback named Tony Rice. What some may not remember is the doubt of many in the media, and many fans, in Tony Rice’s ability to play against the tougher teams on the schedule. He had a bad habit of throwing some inaccurate passes at crucial moments. But before that 1988 season began, Coach Holtz went to Tony Rice with a gift – a dart board. He told his quarterback to throw darts at that board for an hour every day. Rice didn’t see how that would help his passing game, but he did what his coach told him to do. And during that season, he threw passes with an accuracy and confidence he had never shown before, with the result being a national title for the Irish. All it took was some preparation, and things fell into place for them.

Our Gospel lesson today has to do with this idea of preparation. It is St. Luke’s account of John the Baptist’s ministry in the region of the Jordan, preparing the way for the coming of the Messiah. And it starts in typical fashion for Luke, with a reference to real people who existed in real places, giving us the full setting of these events. It’s a nice touch, and just another way for us to remember that all of the stories of the Bible happened in the course of human history; these are not just made-up fairy tales with no connection to reality.

And these details make the story come alive for us; an event, marked in time and place in the midst of the world order of the day: “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberias Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the Word of God came to John…” There is no mistaking where and when this all happened.

And how audacious for John, the son of Zechariah and Elizabeth, a recluse from the wilderness, to proclaim the Word of God before priests and kings, and declare that God Himself was about to burst onto the scene. The world, as the hymn goes, was about to turn. He came to prepare the way for the One who was coming, the One the people of Israel had been waiting for, the One who would catch them by surprise, even though all the signs were there. So to the old world order, John came to preach repentance; the preparation of the heart for the coming of the Christ. It was John who was prophesied about by Isaiah centuries before: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, 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 become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”

It was not necessarily a popular message, this preaching of repentance. Most people don’t care to be told that they are doing something wrong, or heading down a path that leads to destruction. No, most would rather charge ahead, blissfully ignorant of their impending destruction. John had a word for everyone. For those with money, food, possessions to spare, show mercy toward those who have none. Tax collectors, stop cheating people. Soldiers, stop threatening and intimidating people, and be content with your position. Everyone, including the priests and religious leaders, bear fruit in keeping with repentance. No one is exempt from the need to repent; to be prepared for the Kingdom of God. Not always a popular message; in fact, a message that one day would lead to John’s imprisonment and execution by Herod.

So where do we stand? St. Luke might put it like this: in the first year of the reign of Barack Obama, President of the United States, Mitch Daniels being Governor of Indiana, and Charles Oberlie being Mayor of Michigan City, during the time of presidency of Gerald Kieschnick in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, the Word of God comes to you. And we are called to be a voice crying in the wilderness, “Prepare the way for the Lord!”

Sound too far-fetched? Well, consider the first century world into which John the Baptist was called. Most people were bound to religions telling them they had to earn salvation for themselves; countless people had a spiritual hunger for a God who loved them and had mercy on them, though they didn’t know that God; most people were self-absorbed, looking out only for themselves rather than the needs of others; wealth meant power, and status in society meant privilege and getting to play by your own set of rules. Now I don’t know about you, but that first century world John the Baptist was facing sounds an awful lot like the twenty-first century world we live in. It is to us the Word of God comes with the message of repentance. It calls for us to proclaim, in our words and actions, that the way power and influence is determined in this world is not the way of God. It calls for us to speak truth in the midst of those captivated by the father of lies. It calls for us to give witness to justice and mercy in the way of the one true God. To this world, our world, we are called to say, “Prepare for the One who comes to make all things new. Repent, and turn to the One who makes all things right.”

We know the message of love, truth and grace that our world desperately needs to hear. And it’s not a message of worldly prosperity; it’s not a message of personal glory; it’s not a message of self-improvement or self-help steps to a better you. It’s a message that is primarily about one thing: the forgiveness of sins. It’s a message of love: that God so loved the world, He sent His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. What we will celebrate at Christmas in just a couple of weeks is more than just the birth of a baby, who grew up to do some great things with some wonderful teachings. We will be celebrating the incarnation of the very Son of God; the Son of God taking on our frail human flesh and blood and breaking into this world in grace and truth. The Son of God living a perfect life on our behalf, as we never could. The Son of God, taking our sins on Himself and earning forgiveness and life for us by His death on the cross, and His resurrection from the dead. That is the message the world needs to hear, so they can be prepared for His return, as He will return one day.

As His people in this world, we are called to “make His paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways.” Why? So that “all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” We are called to prepare the way, so that others can come to know this Jesus, and what He means for them. And that’s not easy. It means putting the needs of others ahead of ourselves. It means being the light of Christ to everyone around us, caring for them and serving them with the love and compassion of Christ. And it also means being honest with ourselves, and removing the obstacles we put up in our personal lives and in the Church that can work to push others away from Christ, or confuse them when our actions and behavior don’t seem to match our confession of Christian faith.

In the end, it is all about preparation. Our hearts are prepared as we live in the grace of our Baptism, listen, mark, and inwardly digest the Word of God, and partake of the very body and blood of Christ in the Holy Supper at His Table. And then we are sent from this place, to go, and prepare the way. This calling is yours, as you know and believe the message of truth and grace. And you are sent in full confidence, having heard once again this day that your sins, all of them, are forgiven in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep both your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.