Advent 2 (B) + Make straight the paths + 12.7.14

(Eric Valentine,
http://blog.praisephotography.com/2013/12/the-prophet-isaiah-gives-us-hope.html)

M. Campbell-Langdell+

All Santos, Oxnard

(Is. 40:1-11; Ps. 85:1-2, 8-13; 2^nd Pet. 3:8-15a; St Mk 1:1-8)

I had a rough childhood and early adolescence. So I know a bit about what it is like to feel like you are going through a time so rough you don’t know if you will ever get out of it.

I was a headstrong and bookish child, not a winning combination for making tons of friends, and had just a few good friends in England, but moving to the US did not help. I was different in that my accent and my culture were all British, and that made me seem very cool to the older kids and just plain weird to the ones who were my age. It was hard to make friends and some were ostracized if they tried to be my friend.

So I had it pretty rough for my first couple of years in the United States. I felt like I was not in a promised land but in a sort of exile. But somehow, despite the fact that I thought I would not overcome the mountains of low self-esteem or a seeming lack of friends, God carried me through. God made straight the paths. And I was carried into a much more vibrant young adulthood wherein I finally had friends with whom I could be myself.  And from there I moved into an adulthood in which I increasingly feel I am in the right place with the right people. I have found my way and am comfortable in myself. And I thank God for lighting my way thus far. Looking back, I see how God carried me through and made me stronger as a result. I also learned empathy in this process, as well as patience.

“The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance (says 2 Peter 3:9).” God is patient with us, but in learning to trust God’s timing, we often learn patience ourselves.

This a small part of my humble story, of course. A hardly fitting format in which  to describe all these concepts of “exile” and “wilderness” and “preparing the way” in their fullness.  But the Israelites we hear about in Isaiah 40, what we call the “Call of Second Isaiah,” are just about to return from exile from their homeland. They really had it rough. They have been almost over-punished, says God, so long and hard has been their separation from their land. So, while most prophets are called to grill and prompt and prod the people into action and worship, not so Second Isaiah here. No, he is meant to comfort the people. To reassure them that, although they have suffered during their exile in Babylon, as have those who stayed in Jerusalem under a foreign rule and the devastation of their city, that God is returning to them and God will even make the rugged terrain of the desert wilderness a highway if need be in order to reach out to God’s beloved people. God is making straight the paths, both literally and more importantly spiritually, so that the people will be restored to their home, to themselves.

God will not stop at anything to reach God’s people. To restore us to who we need to be.
And here in Mark we hear it again. John, the new Elijah, or not, perhaps just his own special fore-runner self, says Your God is coming, again! We hear in new words, Here is your God! God is coming in Jesus, indeed is here already, and we must prepare our hearts to see him, to receive his message. Repentance is an act of turning back to God. It’s not just all guilt and ashes; it can in fact be a joyful return to our maker, who still loves us after all these years. It is a return to ourselves.

Our God is a jealous God, who will not stop at anything to reach us. And it is God’s wont to smooth our paths for us. But sometimes we only see that in retrospect. How has God smoothed your path? Perhaps you did not have a tumultuous childhood, or one that was tumultuous in a different fashion than mine. But perhaps you have gone through other challenges, and you have seen on the other side how God was busy smoothing the way for you to make it across that wilderness alive. How did God bring you back to yourself?

If you are in the middle of a challenging time, and if the mountains of the wilderness of your life seem too rocky to get through, know that God is working in your life even now to bring about the life that God has in store for you. God is busy even now smoothing the paths for you. God is restoring you to yourself in this way.

Here is your God, working in your life. We believe that our God, God with us, Emmanuel, is here. And yet we also believe that God is coming again in Christ.

Just as here in Mark we hear John the Baptist state that Jesus was coming (and we know he was in fact already present). John says that Jesus will baptize with the Holy Spirit. This was an entirely new thing. Water baptism was a traditional Jewish purification rite, but baptism with the Holy Spirit was a new thing. Outlandish! Our God is here, here is our God, and God is doing a new thing! Says John the Baptist, the fore-runner.

God is doing a new thing in your life, do you perceive it? God is making the paths straight for you, do you perceive it?
Do we dare believe it? Do we dare believe that not only was Jesus born, the Messiah, two thousand years ago, but that the Christ is coming again? Do we dare hope for that coming again?

We know that a day is like a thousand years to God, and a thousand years like a day. We must cultivate holy patience that allows us to bend and flex into God’s kairos time, the time outside of our chronos-based clocks.

But at the same time, God is here, even now, working in and among us. And wow, do we need it. We are a world in pain. We have many wounds and divisions. There are many times when we ask, are we really ourselves? All around us we see injustice, and lack of mutual understanding. We need restoration. We are in exile, the spiritual wilderness.

And we have heard that everything will fall apart in 2^nd Peter. But we also know that our God is patient and does not want a single one of us to perish. So although we see destruction in our world, we know that even so God is working patiently with and for us, knitting together the future of our flourishing.

Yes, we know that God is, even now, making the paths straight for us. God is rebuilding the heavenly city. We know that mercy and truth will meet and righteousness and peace will kiss each other. All that is broken will be restored.

And we trust that Jesus is coming. Let us make our hearts ready for Him. Let us bend and turn our hearts back to our God, our God who makes all paths straight.