Prepare ye the way of the Lord!
This is indeed a season of preparation. And we are in full-swing “preparation mode” in the Wilson household.
The prime rib was ordered last week, the wine has been carefully selected and I’ve even started creating a playlist in iTunes to have a little mood music.
A popular website, “Planning with Kids,” (the perfect Christmas) was shared with me recently, and they lay it out clearly:
Three weeks ahead
Finalize menu plan for the day.
Order meat required (turkey, pork, ham, seafood etc). Shop for non perishable ingredients.
If you are making your own condiments like mustard, onion jams, etc,, they can be made.
Two weeks ahead:
Create name cards and menus for the table if you are going to be having them.
Decide on table centre pieces and buy/make.
Check that you have enough china and cutlery for the number of guests attending.
Some ham glazes can be made and kept refrigerated.
Make savory tarts and freeze.
One week ahead:
Cranberry sauce can be made.
Make sugar coated peanuts.
Decide on drinks to serve on the day and purchase.
Make mayonnaise.
Five days ahead:
Order bread or bread rolls for pick up on Christmas morning.
Two days ahead
Make cakes.
Buy all remaining ingredients required for the menu plan.
Stuffing can be made.
Make croutons for salads.
Make Christmas sweet treats.
Make cheesecake / Christmas cakes.
One day ahead:
Make dressings and dips.
Marinate the prime rib.
Are you exhausted yet?
What if it turns out that a lot of my preparation and busyness – a lot of your preparation and busyness – has very little to do with preparing the way of the Lord?
What if much of what we consider routine and innocent Christmas preparation is largely about something else?
What if it turns out that we suddenly get really busy in the weeks leading up to Christmas as a way take our minds off the fact that another year of rollercoaster emotions, another year of disappointments, and another year of anxieties is drawing to a close – and maybe it’s closing with some unresolved problems?
What if it turns out that much of what we insist is necessary “holiday preparation” is actually a giant conspiracy – a big mirage – designed to dull our senses – you know, like having a drink before seeing the in-laws or dealing with that weird uncle – uncle Eddie?
What if it turns out that a lot of this secular hustle and bustle is just cover for deeper distress?
Let me change gears for a minute.
If I could prepare for Christmas by going out today and buying something that would make my crooked paths straight…if I could acquire some item that could undo my wrongs, and reconnect me to those I’ve alienated because of my pride…if I could download something to smooth out the rough spots in all my relationships….if I could get on Amazon with Malacy’s credit card and buy a program to delete from her memory the mean things I’ve said, I’d do it! And you would, too.
But I cannot buy what I truly seek; and neither can you. What I really seek this season – what you really seek – cannot be purchased with a credit card, no matter the limit. But what we truly seek certainly can be ignored and covered up.
I’ve told you before that one of my favorite pastimes is going down to the Barnes and Noble on South Tamiami, buying a latte, finding a young millennial, who works there, and saying to them, “I see you have a huge self-help section. But where is your ‘beyond help’ section?”
What I need to prepare for – what you need to prepare for – is not the perfect prime rib, but a perfect Saviour. And his name is the perfect name – the name above all names – Jesus.
Richard Rohr, the contemporary, if not reliably controversial Roman theologian, captures what I call the “December dilemma” well:
“We have moved to a level where we have made happiness and contentment largely impossible. We have created a pseudo-happiness, largely based in having instead of being. We are so overstimulated that the ordinary no longer delights us. We cannot rest or abide in our naked being in God, as Jesus offers us.”
All of this is very griping, but did you catch that last bit – resting and abiding “in our naked being in God, as Jesus offers us?” Being – being content – in our nakedness. This is radical.
Deep down nobody is content with his or her naked appearance! The first time I took a shower in our house here in Sarasota, I stepped out and was devastated to learn there was a wall of mirrors staring at me in our dressing room! I thought my grandfather was getting dressed with me. I only let that happen once! Now I carefully wrap myself in two towels before getting out of the shower. Some of you probably do the same.
And we do things like that because our literal nakedness is a visible catch-all for our spiritual nakedness, and we’re deeply ashamed.
Preparing the way of the Lord is to prepare to be made whole again – to be made worthy to stand in His presence. In a word, to be saved from our sins and have the new life we all seek.
We often talk about being made whole in terms of being clothed, and the Scriptures and Saints rightly speak of being clothed with righteousness. But the real gift, is to take off – to cast off – the wardrobe of darkness and put on the armor of light. And the armor of light isn’t heavy like a jacket or a sweater. It is both light and light, you see.
The armor of light is dazzling bright freedom – perfect freedom to be content in the presence of God: Free to love God and to love one another without shame or fear, because perfect love casts out fear. To be like it was in the Garden! The author of Genesis writes: “the man and his wife were naked and they were not ashamed.”
Unashamed people are persons saved by the blood of the Lamb; naturally bold people: bold in faith and bold in giving.
“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.
Let “every heart prepare Him room.”
Sermon preached by the Reverend Charleston David Wilson
Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota Florida
2nd Sunday of Advent
9 December 2018