Prepare the Way of the Lord
December 3, 2023 Pastor Pamela Stalheim Lane
How do you prepare for Christmas?
If you asked a dozen people that question, I’m guessing you would get a pretty good list of activities including: Buying Christmas presents, decorating the Christmas tree; going to Christmas concerts – remember there is one here next Sunday – don’t miss it! And of course, gathering with family and friends and making and eating scrumptious Christmas cookies! These can all be good things – and there are more. This can be a busy busy time-- and it can be wonderful. And it can be exhausting. It can be a time you enjoy every minute – and treasure each moment. Or it can be a time of bitter-sweet nostalgia as you remember how it used to be. I wonder… how is it for you?
In our Gospel, John the Baptist invites people to prepare for Christ’s coming. But he isn’t handing out candy canes. It’s not really like our Christmas preparations at all. Instead, like the Old Testament prophets before him, he’s inviting people to repent. And people came. Lots of people came. They were hungry for forgiveness, renewal. They wanted to hear someone who would speak the truth, help them tend to what was broken in their lives and then proclaim the gift of forgiveness and renewal.
We too need to hear the truth – the real truth – not words that are “spun” to fit with some agenda. We too need help tending to what is broken in our lives. We too need forgiveness and renewal.
That’s John the Baptist’s message for the people coming to the Jordan river. And that is why we, as a community, confess on Sunday mornings that we’ve said and done things we regret and we fall short of being the people God made us to be. The good news is that God forgave the people in the Jordan River and God forgives us. Completely. Every time.
Do you have a spot – maybe a drawer or a closet or some other place in your home where things go that don’t really have a home and yet you aren’t quite ready to part with them? When I get around to cleaning out my closet or my “junk drawer,” I’m always amazed at how good I feel after I’ve reclaimed that space. It feels fresh and new.
That’s the purpose of repentance. Not to beat yourself up or feel guilty or ashamed. Instead, the purpose of repentance is to make room in your heart and in your life so that you can be open to receive God’s gifts.
So how do we do that in the midst of preparing for Christmas?
Theologian Edward Hayes writes, “Take time to be aware that in the midst of our busy preparations for the celebration of Christ’s birth in ancient Bethlehem, Christ is reborn in the Bethlehems of our homes and daily lives. Take time, slow down, be still, be awake to the Divine Mystery that looks so common and so ordinary and yet is so wonderfully present.”
Take time. Slow down. Be still. Christ is with us now.
And yet… it’s hard when we are busy doing all sorts of wonderful things to prepare for Christ’s coming.
“An old abbot was fond of saying, ‘The devil is always the most active on the highest feast days.’ The supreme trick of Old Scratch is to have us so busy decorating, preparing food, practicing music and cleaning in preparation for the feast of Christmas that we actually miss the coming of Christ. Hurt feelings, anger, impatience, injured egos--the list of clouds that busyness creates to blind us to the birth can be long… but familiar to us all.”1 A Pilgrim’s Almanac
I don’t know about you… but the old abbot was getting a little close for comfort. I love all of the Christmas festivities – including decorating, preparing food, and singing Christmas carols. So while I think that he is absolutely right that it would be good for me – and maybe you too – to take time, slow down, Be still, and remember that God is with us, Emmanuel, I am also very thankful that it’s not up to us to find Christ. Instead, Jesus is the one who is looking for you…and you and you. Jesus is seeking you - and Jesus doesn’t give up.
I wonder if, as we are preparing for Christmas, it would help us to remember that we are called to “Prepare the way of the Lord” – and that “the way of the Lord” is not our way – it’s the Lord’s way. It’s the way of Jesus Christ who calls us to love God, love our neighbor and also to love ourselves. For love is what opens our hearts, our minds and our whole selves up to receive the gifts of God.
At Christmas, that gift is the gift of God’s own self, taking on human flesh and coming as a baby to be one of us. So take time. Slow down. Hold the baby Jesus in your arms and in your heart and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, the gift of God’s own self, who came to open your heart and fill you with love, peace and joy. Thanks be to God. Amen.