Isaiah 40:1-11, Mark 1:1-8
Have you heard
the news? Just a little over a year from now, on December 18, 2015, the new Star Wars movie is debuting. Back in the
late 1970s, when Jim and I had just started dating, the first of the Star Wars
movies had just come out, and I think we actually went to see it on one of our
first dates. Jim loved the
pyrotechnics and the special effects not to mention the Science Fiction
storyline, a favorite genre for him. I
loved watching Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford, - and Chewbacca, of course. Every
three years after that, a new episode
of the trilogy was released on the big screen, each one a blockbuster in its
own right. I have to confess that we made our own contribution to the billion
dollar-plus draw of the franchise.
Sixteen years
later, three more Star Wars movies were
released, once again, at three year intervals. Now, these movies were not sequels. They are what are level, and the rough places a plain.”
As the incarnation of God in John’s own time, Jesus will, once and for all, level
all the obstacles placed before humankind to receive God’s mercy and grace;
Jesus will level the playing field of people of every time and every place to
take part in the glorious kingdom of God.
Back in the 6th
century B.C.E., the People of Israel, exiled for more than a generation in Babylon,
needed to hear these words of comfort
and promise from Isaiah. But these words, repeated by John the Baptist also fed the hope of the people of first
century Palestine, oppressed and living under Roman occupation and rule. And in
the 21st century world of today, we acknowledge that these are words
that we, who are living in an often hostile,
violent, and broken twenty-first century world hunger and thirst for as well. In the wilderness of our world, we witness and absorb acts of
brutality of one person or nation against another played out daily on the
local, national, and international scene. Yes, we need these words of promise,
and we acknowledge that we continue to hunger and thirst for the love and grace
of Jesus to dwell with us, and in us, and to abide in our world today.
Comfort, comfort now, my people, says your
God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,…” For years, the people of Israel had
been inhabitants of the great city of Jerusalem, with its temple, the central
symbol and locus of their religion. Their status as God’s chosen people was central
to their lives and to their identity,
and yet, they had forgotten about their role in keeping covenantal relationship
with God, had sinned appallingly against God, had neglected the poor, the
widows and the children.
And then they
became a conquered people, long exiled to Babylon. A generation passed away and
another came of age following the conquest destruction of their city and the
desecration and annihilation of the Temple, the locus of their ritual life with
God. Finally, the prophet calls out the word of the LORD, “Comfort, O comfort…cry to her that her penalty is paid.”
Isaiah is announcing to the people
that something spectacular is about
to happen. God is about to come, to rescue God’s people, to lead them home. God
will give them the comfort, God will deliver them from their hopelessness, and God
will transform their lives. Have no fear, the messenger is telling his people –
wilderness, mountains, valleys and rough places hold no threat against this
coming of the LORD. God will indeed come. God will lead them home.
What must it
have been like for those people, who have languished their entire lives in this
land of Babylon, to hear those words, “Comfort,
comfort now my people,….The glory of the LORD shall be revealed and all people
shall see it together…” What was it like, for the people in first century
Palestine, living under Roman occupation, watching and waiting for the promised
Messiah, the anointed one to arrive, to deliver them from their oppression, to
hear the words of John, words that connected them to their backstory – to their
beloved Scriptures – “As it was written
in the prophet Isaiah, “See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will
prepare your way; the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the
way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’”?
As we read these
words today, I wonder if we can see the remarkable way in which they reach out
and draw us into this story of God’s advent? I wonder if we can see parallels
in these stories of the ages? Like the people of Isaiah’s time, we might often
feel that we, too are languishing. We might feel that we, too have lost our
way. Whether we are personally experiencing a rich harvest or famine in our
lives, we have to acknowledge that that are so many points of connection
between our story and the Israelites – or the people of 1st century
Palestine – or any time in between.
Throughout the
history of humankind, we have seen cycles of conquest, exile, rebellion, and
the continuing fight of good against evil. The Israelites lived it. The people
of first century Palestine experienced it, and it is part of the landscape of
our world today.
Our Old
Testament and gospel readings each refer to the wilderness. Wilderness can be
described as inhospitable terrain, empty or pathless region, uncivilized, wild,
or uncultivated state. Wilderness is symbolic of much of human life. Wild. Unpredictable.
Uncontrollable, no matter how much we like to think we can and do have control. In many ways, especially
when we consider its vast potential, the wilderness of our lives is barren.
Yet it is in
this barren place that we hear God’s promise. “Comfort, comfort” proclaims the
prophet – our God promises and will provide, Comfort. In Jesus Christ, every
valley is lifted up, every mountain and hill made low, the uneven ground is
smoothed out, and all those rough places are made a plain; leveled, like a field.
And yet, we know
that the fulfillment of this promise
is not yet complete. Through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ,
this leveling, this comfort, this promise is
breaking through the wilderness, and we are part of its revealing. The good
news of this gospel is that God is now present,
now working, now comforting and consoling, now
coming, now feeding empty stomachs, now clothing, now encountering, now
embracing the suffering, the hungry, the thirsty and the lowly ones. In the
mystery of the ages, God has come among us in Jesus, who remains with us
through the power of the Holy Spirit, and Jesus will come again, bringing this
promised leveling and lifting up to a complete and glorious end.
We are
surrounded each day by images that stay with us and inform our world view.
Lately, many of those images are disturbing: Violence in Ferguson, Ohio and New
York, terrorism in Syria and Somalia, racial and ethnic unrest, disgraced
celebrities and politicians, beheadings, massacres, innocent children suffering
every manner of torment, and more. But the scriptures we have read today
deliver God’s word to us that is more powerful than any worldly power or the
power of evil itself. Comfort, comfort,
now my people….I am sending my messenger….Every valley shall be lifted up…every
mountain and hill be make low…uneven ground become level….the glory of the Lord
shall be revealed.
And so, I would like to leave you
with other images today…images from just the past week: Pope Francis I and the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of the Eastern Orthodox Church embracing, and the pope bowing for
blessing by the patriarch in an historic moment of reconciliation; white police
officers embracing young black men; black women holding the hands of white
officers and praying with them and for them; lists of names published daily in
the local paper, of people in our community who have contributed to a fund to
help the needy; piles of Christmas gifts forming in my office, donated by Grace
members to provide Christmas for poor families; people of many backgrounds
coming together to contribute to the needs of refugees; there are so many more.
In our text from
Mark, a messenger has come once
again. John the Baptist delivers the good news that God has entered human
history in an amazing and unprecedented way, and the same message is given, “See, I am sending a messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” WE are part of the
good news of the advent of Christ. May we be comforted in our work and in our
lives. May we be inspired to daily acts of loving kindness and reconciliation.
May we pray and daily support peaceful resolution of worldwide conflict. And
may we, who live yet in the wilderness, find our rest in Christ, the one who
came, is coming, and will yet come again, freeing every captive from every
thing that binds us. Amen.
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