Hymns: Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence, Gather Us In, Prepare the Way
Music: Prepare Ye the Way; Klokken Ringers: O Come, O Come Emmanuel
Liturgist: D. Carlson Reader: Rae Forster Candles: Evans Family
Bible Study Openers
- What memories do you have of paths? Are they straight?
- How would you straighten a path anyway?
- What happens on a bumpy road?
- Are people too cagey or politic or polite when they speak normally?
- If God were to change us, how would that happen?
- Have you changed any habit in your life? How?
- Does your life have a direction?
- In what way could we change to make it easier for God to get to us?
Luke 3:1-6
3:1 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, "The voice of one crying out 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 be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'"
Sermon
The Appalachian trail is traveled by thousands of hikers every year. Over 9600 people traveled it's entire length which represents about 10% of those who attempted to complete its 2178 mile length. It is one of the best known footpaths in America, yet it requires a great deal of upkeep. The Appalachian National Scenic Trail, as it is known, or the AT, takes massive efforts. This year over $650,000 was spent on trail upkeep including basic repairs to washed out sections, refurbishing shelters and some relocation in Virginia. Over thirty different clubs maintain the path, with thousands of volunteer hours logged each spring to clear trails.
Trails and footpaths and roads of any type really don't just take care of themselves. We all know the joys of a freshly paved stretch of highway. We all curse the same old potholes and patches we live with all the time. Paths connect us to the people and projects that are important to us and as a means to an end, we want them to do their jobs.
Helping God Get to Us
It's a funny idea that God would need us to take care of the divine turnpikes, but it is apparently the case. Some part of the freewill business suggests that at some point in the divine journey to our hearts, we can encourage the enterprise or resist it. Whether God is a commuter or an occasional visitor to us, we can make the path to our lives a smooth sailing or a tortuous route of frustration for both God and us.
There are some easy ways to keep God at bay for awhile. Like trying to keep the owls away from Harry Potter, eventually God will out, but we can decide not to shovel the walks.
Anger is good to keep God's paths rocky. Being angry and generally critical will certainly make it hard for beauty and gracefulness to fight their way in. Thoreau talks about the paths of the mind when we wrote, “As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.”
Self pity, greed, and jealousy all can do their part to fortress us against God.
The sixth chapter of Proverbs has a list of things God would not be happy about, that would keep the hound of heaven from your door for a bit. They are described mostly in terms of body parts.
- Proud eyes
- A lying tongue
- Hands that shed innocent blood
- A heart that plans wicked plots
- Feet that are swift to run into mischief
- A deceitful witness that speaks lies
- The one who sows discord
John the Baptist and Humility
John the baptist has an answer to that question. Humility. John's life and ministry is about being humble. I mean here is a guy who dresses in cheap, uncomfortable clothes and who eats bugs. His baptism is for the remission of sins and he is always yelling at the posers of the world. We may think of baptism in the Christian sense as a mark and sign of our community, but for Judaism, the mikvah was and is a mark of moral and spiritual purification.
So when John cries “Prepare ye the way of the Lord!” He has something rather specific in mind. This is no philosophical musing about how God might travel, this is the commandment to stop thinking so highly of ourselves that God is having trouble making it up the hill of our egos. .
Humble Suggestions for Humility
At the risk of being like Roman Catholics priests discussing the finer points of marriage, I wish to enter certain disclaimers about my own humility and lack thereof. We are about to enter a dangerous realm where I am going to make some recommendation that I have often not been able to achieve. But the fact that I sometimes speed does not mean I don't know the speed limit.
This morning I have three suggestions that are cerainly not exhaustive of the possibilities to remove the speedbumps for God to get to us. Listen, open, and work. For those of you keeping track of this week's acronym, that would be LOW.
Listen. Interpersonal humility often has to do admitting that another person could be more right about something than we are. In driver's ed in high school I remember an old black and white film called 'Dead Right' in which a driver was stubborn and it ended badly. We all know of people who would rather be right than happy in their relationships and it may be the same for God. Listening to anyone, including God requires us to abandon the project of being constantly right and requires us to listen for new ideas. When we truly listen to another, the walls of our own pride no longer separate. “Trust in the LORD with all your heart; and lean not to your own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6
Open. Since God may arrive in an unexpected way no matter how much notice we have been given, it appears that we need to keep on open mind and heart about the particular way God gets to us. God may arrive on a donkey, or in a minivan with a bunch of kids in the back. A true humility of spirit lets the world and all its overwhelming holiness in. Sometimes God arrives by the narrow gate, but perhaps also by the four lane highway. We keep the roads open. We plow away the debris.
Work. We don't all have to wear hair shirts and eat bugs, but sharing our resources and engaging in the world, will probably require a little effort. The journey of truth is rarely the path of least resistance. We all love to mock the road crews where there are five people standing around leaning on shovels, but that may be just the situation on the road to our hearts. Rick Warren once wrote “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less.” If we are engaged in the work of the kingdom, our own dramas and limited horizons may fall away.
This listening and openness and work that God calls us to is a joy for all. John did not take application forms while standing in the river helping people change their lives. This joyful humility is for you. We celebrate a God child that entered the world listening to everything, open to everything, with much work to do.
Prepare the paths of the Lord, make God's way clear.
Intro:
Thomas Moore called humility “that low, sweet root, from which all heavenly virtues shoot.”
Elements:
Even as the needle, that directs the hour,
Touched with the loadstone, by secret power
Of hidden nature, points unto the Pole;
Even so the wavering powers of my soul,
Touched by the virtue of Thy Spirit, flee
From what is earth and point to Thee.
When I have faith to hold Thee by the hand,
I walk securely, and methinks I stand
More firm than Atlas; but when I forsake
The safe protection of Thine arm, I quake
Like wind-shaked reeds, and have no strength at all,
But like a vine, the prop cut down, I fall.
- Francis Quarles
“Education is the path from cocky ignorance to miserable uncertainty.” Mark Twain
“As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.” Thoreau
On (mere!) clarity: Transcendence of mere clarity and order is necessary for dealing with the unforeseen, for progress, for excitement. Life degenerates when enclosed with the shackles of mere conformation. A power of incorporating vague and disorderly elements of experience is essential for the advance into novelty. - A.N. Whitehead (Modes, p. 79) (too complex to use, but I needed to share it)
By confronting us with irreducible mysteries that stretch our daily vision to include infinity, nature opens an inviting and guiding path toward a spiritual life. Thomas More
“The more you lose yourself in something bigger than yourself, the more energy you will have.” Norman Vincent Peale quotes
“Humility is the foundation of all the other virtues hence, in the soul in which this virtue does not exist there cannot be any other virtue except in mere appearance.” Saint Augustine
“Humility is the only true wisdom by which we prepare our minds for all the possible changes of life.” George Arliss
“Pride makes us artificial and humility makes us real” Thomas Merton
“Humility, that low, sweet root, From which all heavenly virtues shoot” Thomas More
“Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less.” Rick Warren
Down the garden path.
Shining path.
Path ology.
Path of least existence. (me)
