Pentecost 22A

II = Advent

December 6, 2009

Rev= . Ken Wratten at St. Stephen’s, San Jose

Bar= uch 5:1-9 &n= bsp; God has ordered that every high mountain be made low.

Can= ticle 16 &= nbsp;

Phi= lippians 1:3-11 &= nbsp; It is my prayer that your love may overflow.

Luk= e 3:1-6 &= nbsp; Every valley shall be filled.

Describe Kendall ‘in’ the canvas labyrinth; thought she couldn’t get out.
Describe Sissy’s Cardboard box jail; stayed in it for hours; couldn’t get out.

You and I have a path between ourselves and God. God wan= ts that path to be straight and level; He wants us to have easy access to Him;= to feel that it is effortless to get to Him. John the Baptist (echoed words fr= om the prophets Baruch and Jeremiah) said that we need to make that path straight. He said that it is filled w= ith curves and potholes of our making.

Like the labyrinth, life and friends and job can put you= on a winding path that takes you away from your goal, not toward it. And life = can feel sometimes like you can’t get off that crooked path and just go straight to the goal that you know would fulfill you. But it is possible. In the labyrinth that Kendall was stuck in, her mom came into the labyrinth, picked her up, and carried her out. Jesus can do that for you; giving you the focus to reach t= he goal.

You can make the path to God straighter by immersing you= rself in God; making it a top priority to spend quality time with Scripture, pray= er, and faithful people.

Like the cardboard jail, you can make wrong choices that= box you in; where you feel like you can’t get out, that you are stuck in = a place you know is dysfunctional, and saps your energy, and wastes your time, and embarrasses God that you are wasting yourself in a hurtful relationship, or addictions, or cheating, or greed. <= /span>

But it is possible to fill those potholes. In the cardbo= ard box Sissy was trapped in, her mom found her, and lifted up the box, and pic= ked her up, and saved her. Jesus can do that for you, giving you the will to fo= llow the counsel of John the Baptist.

The word he used is ‘repent’; which literall= y means to re-think the choices you are making. And where you know you are making t= he wrong choices, know that it isn’t enough to be sorry. You have to re-think your life in = that area; there need to be changes made.

If you are learning a new skill, like Spanish, you might have tried to sit down and read a textbook on Spanish, but after a few chap= ters it proved just too hard to do, and you couldn’t stay with it. So you start at page 1 again, and again, and again. Eventually you learn that the = same action is going to give the same result. Eventually you learn that you have= to attack learning the skill in a new way; use Rosetta Stone, or hire a native Spanish language tutor, or travel to Bogota to force you to learn Spanish= in order to get food. Filling the potholes in life needs to be handled with the same deliberate strategy.

As we wait for Jesus to come into our life every day, an= d at the end of the age, we need to work on the road that connects us to him. Jo= hn pleads with us to make a straight path for Jesus to get to us, to use us, to empower us to live our lives in keeping with God’s purpose.

Jesus coming on Christmas Day, and into our hearts every day, only happens if we are expectant and waiting and ready. Otherwise Christmas is the secular holiday about gifts being advertised in that flood= of catalogues we’ve been getting in the mail since before Thanksgiving. But you and= I KNOW that isn’t what Christmas is about. The heart of John’s message is that God will move heaven and earth to help us get to Him; filli= ng valleys and lowering mountains if necessary. But we still have to be the on= es to prepare the way.

For the remaining 2 ½ weeks of Advent, think about the curves and potholes you have put in the path that connects you to God, making it harder for Him to live inside your mind and soul. Be intentional about preparing your heart for Jesus to arrive in a new way into your life;= to a new level; with a higher immediacy, being part of every decision you make, and every intentional action you take.

This is the time for us to prepare our thoughts and our wills, to take an inventory, and to invite God to help us re-think what just didn’t go the way we know it could have gone, or the way it should ha= ve gone. This is a time to re-think, re-do, or un-do anything that could cause= you to miss the mystery and power and grace that are about to come up and greet= you anew, in a fresh arrival of Jesus into your life. That personal greeting fr= om Jesus Christ himself is the true meaning of Christmas. May we all be at work, preparing the way.

Amen.