“Ready to Receive”          2011

Isaiah 40:3-11                  Mark 1:1-8

 Isaiah 40:3-11

3A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 4Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. 5Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” 6A voice says, “Cry out!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All people are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field. 7The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass. 8The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever. 9Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!” 10See, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. 11He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.

 

Mark 1:1-8

1The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 2As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, “See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; 3the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’”4John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 6Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. 8I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

 

Wow, already the second Sunday of Advent;   we’re moving quickly

            along our journey of preparation for the coming of Christ –--

  - Christ who came 2000+ years ago as a baby in Bethlehem,

            - Christ, presently at work in our lives and in our world,

                    - Christ who will surely come again in glory someday.

 

Today,

            I want to take us way back to long before the birth of Christ.

One of the crucial and formative events of Israel in the Bible

            was the Babylonian exile and captivity.

 

Of course long before it happened, God had been sending prophets

            to warn the Israelites about the dire consequences

                        of turning aside from God, His Commandments and ways.

They refused to heed the warnings and their nation was destroyed.

 

Typical of when armies conquered other nations in those days,

            in order to avoid future insurrection and rebellion,

                        the educated and skilled workers were forced into exile…

            … and Scripture is filled with writings

                        about how terrible and degrading that experience was.

 

Some 40-50 years later,

            the Babylonians were conquered by the Medes and Persians;

                        and Cyrus, the King of Persia gave permission

                                    for the Israelites to return to their homeland.

 

            But during those years of the Babylonian captivity,

                        many of the Israelites married despite being in Babylon,

                                had children, started businesses and had prospered…

… now the ways of Babylon were familiar and felt like home to them.

                       

The Promised Land, and stories about Israel as their homeland,

            became a distant memory of their parents and grandparents --

-- and the descendants of those taken in exile to Babylon,

            born & accustomed to living & raising their families there,

                  were settled into a comfortable lifestyle for themselves.

 

The only home they had ever known was Babylon and its culture,

            so they had no desire to trek back through the wilderness,

                        try to start-over, and rebuild a new life back in Israel.

 

The book of Isaiah from chapter 40 onward is like a travel agent,

           trying to encourage the Jewish people dispersed in Babylon

                        to pack-up, return across the wilderness,

                                    and make their life in Israel, the Promised Land.

 

The message: “You are God’s chosen people. You ought to return

            to the Promised Land, to the home God gave your ancestors.”

vs. 3, 11

            A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.  He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.

 

In Scripture,

            the Promised Land represents more than just a place to live.

It became a symbol of God’s steadfast faithfulness fulfilled,

            because God had heard the cries of the slaves in Egypt,

                        had sustained them through the wilderness,

                                    and had led them to the place He gave them to live.

 

The Promised Land means more than just dirt, valleys and fields,

            but is a spiritual matter of receiving what God has given.

This passage from Isaiah is about far more than just

            a literal migration from Babylon back to the land of Israel.

                        It is framed as a theological issue… a return to God…

                                    a call: prepare and make straight a highway for our God.

 

The words in Scripture,

            Babylon, the Promised Land, and a wilderness journey

                        are all used as symbolic spiritual metaphors.

 

Babylon symbolizes corruption, complacency & unholy compromise

            with the world’s flawed perspectives, ways and values.

Babylon represents being distracted  and spiritually complacent,

   and buying-in to materialism and the corrupt values of culture …

            … rather than staying loyal, faithful and focused on God,

                   and living within the Lord’s ways of grace and blessings.

 

The message of Isaiah 40, to leave Babylon, is a call to recognize

            the ungodly compromises and distractions of our own lives—

                        to prepare, and make way to receive the Lord anew.

 

The trek from Babylon into the wilderness is a spiritual metaphor

            that is reminiscent of the story of the Exodus from Egypt,

                        that earlier wilderness journey into the Promised Land.

 

The word, “wilderness” is used almost 300 times in the Bible ,

            because so many significant events occur in the wilderness.

 

It was in the wilderness that the former slaves of Egypt

            received the 10 Commandments as a covenant with the Lord,

                        learned to depend on God for guidance, water and manna,

                                    and in the wilderness they became the people of God.

A wilderness journey describes the sacred & spiritual experience

            of the people of God listening, waiting and trusting,

                        a place of being touched, filled and inspired,

   of growing deeper and more focused in our relationship with God.

 

This spiritual wilderness experience is described in Deut. 8:2~3

            Remember the long way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, … He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, … in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

           

For us, the symbol and experience of a wilderness journey

            can also mean a place of testing, our spiritual preparation,

                        learning to pay attention, and growing deeper with God.

 

It is crucial for the creatures of God to step back occasionally

            from the rush and responsibilities of our lives à

à and pause to notice and appreciate the works of our Creator,

            and feed on the truth, hope, wisdom and promises of God.

           

It is also significant that the people had to journey out

            into the wilderness intentionally to see John the Baptist --

                        which represents their repentance and spiritual hunger

                                    all in preparation for the coming of the Lord… à

vs. 4-5

            John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him…

 

In a similar vein, the purpose and call of Advent

            is for us to make our own journey into the wilderness,

                        also in preparation for the coming of the Lord.

 

For we can find ourselves too comfortable and compromised,

            too complacent amid the corruptions of our world’s Babylons;

                             distracted by flawed and destructive ways and values

                                    that can keep us from experiencing the full measure

                                                of the peace & blessings our God intends for us.

 

I’ve got a file cabinet in my office at home filled with papers

            that we’ve moved from home to home several times,

                        but that I haven’t looked at for many years and decades.

 

It’s been easy to let things accumulate, so a few weeks ago

            I started working my way through some of those old files,

                        and pitching out the papers I know I’ll never need.

 

Part of the process had been to revisit some old memories,

            and reconsider, “What are the things that still matter?”

 

The truth is, sometimes we let life just happen to us ---

            - absorbing without-care from events going on around us,

                        accepting without question and packing it all away…

… and so it accumulates more and more,

            making it harder and harder to find and focus,

                        and separate the stuff of this world,    from God’s Truth.

 

We can get very, very busy, pre-occupied, overgrown and driven.

            The demands & goals of our lives can become all encompassing.

The situations and circumstances of our lives

            can absorb all our energy, our thought, our attention andà

                        become all consuming,  like a black hole in outer space.

 

In the busyness and matters of our comfort & living in this world,

            we can forget about our spiritual needs,  that we have souls;

                        as we relegate our walk with God    to the back burner.

 

            Advent is a time to check, and see what’s on our back burner.

                        To clear away the spiritual obstacles and overgrowth

                                    compromises and distractions from faithfulness,

                                                allow and welcome

                                                     the coming of the Lord to rescue and save us.

 

I need for Advent this year, especially this year,

            to be my personal journey and trek out into the wilderness,

                                    to ask and explore, to learn and experience afresh

                                                the peace, presence and promises of the Lord,

                        and move closer to becoming the person

                                    God intended me to be in the first place.

 

            Don’t we all need to seek God’s wisdom and truth,

                        and help to recognize the things that really do matter,

                                    and separate from all the rest that really does not?

 

As we pass through our wilderness of preparation during Advent,

            surely Communion at the Lord’s Table of grace and love,

                        is an ideal opportunity for us to examine ourselves,

                                    our lives, our attitudes, our values and hopes,

                                                and especially, our present walk with our God…

                        …for here we can be honest and authentic,

                                as by the grace and peace and presence of the Spirit,

                                                we fall in love with our Lord all over again.     

 

In Matthew 7:8-9, Jesus promised:

            For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.  Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone?