Tending Our Weary Souls
Luke 3:1-6
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.’”
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Recently, I sat down with leaders of the Mahopac Central School District (MCSD) who invited local faith leaders to discuss how we can forge a community founded on mutual respect, understanding, and listening. Before our time together, I got to speak with the MCSD Superintendent, and we shared how difficult these past two years have been for youth and their parents. We acknowledged the great need for mental health support and emotional support for parents and students, as the stress of these times has led to the maltreatment and harassment of school leaders and each other, many of whom are volunteers, as our ability to love (and empathize) appears to have dried up like a vast desert. How do we bring back to life the areas of our hearts that are parched? How do we prepare the way of the Lord so that the transformational grace of God might touch our aching souls?
Perhaps you're in a better place than I am, but when I look inward, I find that there are even in my heart, there are dry places, longing to have the life-giving water of God rain down. So it's okay for us to say that things are hard, that some things might s-u-c-k right now because really, do things feel like they've gotten back to "normal," if there ever really was a normal? And that's it; we can acknowledge those hard places without adding a "but" or "however" or whatever finisher we might use to add a positive spin. There are many hearts right now that find themselves in a wilderness setting, and on our journey, we can see what happens when the fear and dangers break down the resistance we've built up. Somewhere along the line, though, a voice will call out to us, a voice in the wilderness that shakes us from the grip of whatever it is that is holding us and says, "Prepare the way of the Lord."
The wilderness is the place where we learn to depend on God. And it is there where we prepare our hearts to receive God through repentance for the forgiveness of sins (metanoia, Gk. to change one's mind). There is a change within ourselves as we allow the Spirit of God to realign our hearts and minds to the will of God. But, unfortunately, the perception of ourselves often gets in the way of what God calls us to do. Sometimes it's not just our ego but our ability to get caught up in our thoughts, the wilderness that exists within our minds. Yet if we take time to stop, to listen, we might hear the voice of John the Baptist calling out to us to make a straight path in the wilderness. The wilderness is not a place of condemnation but an opportunity to look within ourselves and identify the areas that need tending, the places that need smoothing, and care before continuing on the path of discipleship.
John pulls words from the prophet Isaiah, who was speaking to a people returning from Exile in Babylon. It was a long road, a rough road requiring stamina and energy to cross the rugged terrain, and metaphorically, it was also a challenging one. The people of Israel's time in exile changed them. They were no longer the same people as before when they were first taken away, and the home they were returning to was no longer the same. So, as we consider the people who originally heard these words, how have we been changed these past couple of years while we traveled in the wilderness? How are the roads rough and jagged and make it difficult to journey to where we believe God is calling us to go? For the people of Israel, the prophet Isaiah tells them that God will prepare the way for them, to "smooth the way," for their return to a new life in the land that God has promised.
There are people you know who are hurting right now because the home they are trying to return to no longer exists. And even though we are in an era of great reassessment, reassessment often does not bring comfort to those who are mourning. If you can, dig deep and draw out a little more compassion and understanding. I look around and see that here in Mahopac, there are people who are trying to do good, but people are tired and scared, and after reading only "gotcha" headlines are riled up at the sound of change and don't listen to the voices of their better angels. We need a little (well, more like a lot) peace this day and this season, and while it may not feel like it, we can contribute to making that peace a reality by smoothing out the rough and jagged places in ourselves.
A prophet might kickstart this process because we all need a prophet (literal or metaphorical) every now and then to get our attention when our hearts need tuning (though I understand your concern if you met a prophet covered in animal furs eating locusts and wild honey). We need to listen to how God is bringing us home. I believe that amongst the weeds and stones and rubble we find in the wilderness of mixed realities, we will discover how to make our crooked paths straight. On this Second Sunday of Advent, there is peace to be found, peace to be had if we prepare the way of the Lord knowing that it is in God where we have a place to rest in knowing that we are the people of God, God's beloved.