THE THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT
Isaiah 61: 8-11 + John 1: 6-8, 19-28
Grace and peace to you from God,
and the savior Jesus-Christ.
For many of us,there is something we do
that we’re best known for out in the world.
Sometimes it’s easier for us to
think about this in terms of others.
For example, if you think of George washington,
it would be pretty tough
to think about him without remembering
that he was the first president of the united states.
He did other things in his life,for sure—
he was a husband,
he was a general,
he owned land.
He was a child at one point, I imagine—
but we never think about him in these terms right away.
If you say George Washington the firs tthing I think of is:
oh yes, George washington, first president.
Got it.
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The same might when thinkign about each other
we know people in one way,
and others know us one way.
WE know that there are other facets of our personalities
because we live in all of them each day,
but to those who see us in one capacity
there’s only one sense of us.
I think that can be said of me,
Before being called to seminary,
I was a swim coach an dpool manager
for years.
If I ever taught you in a swimming lesson,
if I was ever your swim coach,
if you ever camae to me to complain
that the vending machine wasn’t working or
that the umbrella is in the wrong place,
it would probably come as a surprise to find
that I serve now as the pastor of a church.
There are people who might only remember me
for helping hold them up while they learned to swim,
or as someone who without mercy
forced them to swim butterfly
back and forth in the pool, forever.
But here in this place,
I do different things.
(Thanks be to God!)
I stand here some Sunday mornings;
we run into each other durinng the week
in the grocery store or at the hospital
or here.
Coach Dan and Pastor Dan
are the same person.
it’s still the same person in all these situations,
but if you met me first as a coach or first as a pastor,
that might make a difference for how you remember me.
(It works both ways, by the way.)
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In the gospel reading today,
we’re introduced to a man named John.
And in some other gospels he’s identified differently,
like we sometimes are.
In Matthew baptist
Mark baptizer
Luke son of zechariah.
but here in John
(and it’s not by him, by the way,
John the gospel-writeris differnet than John the baptist)
he’s known simply as John.
And in the story we find,
if we ask him,
that he won’t even tell anyone who he is.
Not only doesn’t he have several roles
he doesn’t even give us one!
He’ll only tell them who he isn’t.
Are you Christ ?
Nope.
Not Christ.
Elijah?
Prophet?
At the end of the story the authorities
are so fed up with him
that they finally say,
look John,
you’re doing all these things that only
the Messiah or Elijah or a prophet would do.
So if you’r enot them,
you don’ thave any businses doing them.
Who do you think you are?
It dooesn’t help that he hasn’t combed his hair,
or that he’s just wearing camel pelts
and he’s eating whatever he
manages to find out in the middle of nowhere.
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But it doesn’t matter to John,
because he’s different than people like us,
who exist in different ways and different times all over the place.
John lives for one reason
and for one purpose
The only reason he exists in the world is
to prepare the way of the Lord.
That is it.
He is a one man super-show for the coming of the messiah.
He points the way to the light in the distance.
There’s a line from the book of Isaiah
that mentions the voice of one crying out
“in the wilderness, prepare th eway of the Lord.”
John says “that’s me.”
I’m the one that isaiah is talkgin about;
I’m the guy who’s meant to go into the wilderness
and prepare the way.
It’s me.
That’s why I am here.
it’s why I was born.
Don’t worry about who my parents are
or where I’m from
or what I doo when I’m not baptizing everybody;
if you really want to know who I am
know this:
I am preparing the way of the Lord.
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The line in Isaiah that’s repeated again in John’s story—
“in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord,’
stretches into our lives even now.
Sure we’re not in the desert,
and we go about baptism a little differently these days,
but there is still a wilderness that needs to be prepared.
it’s in our hearts.
Again in Isaiah God mentions it.
God hates robbery and wrongdoing.
God prefers that we be faithful.
God prefers that we love each other.
It’s not as though God’s hopes for us is a secret,
we hear about how we’re to love God
and our neighbor all the time.
But our hearts are filled with wilderness.
Our hearts are unkempt and unmanaged.
And we live in a world that wants us
to think only about ourselves and our individulaity
rather than to consider the needs of anyone around us.
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In a wilderness—a true wilderness,
not managed land or a state park,for instance
things can become overgrown.
There are invasive species that can take over others,
and before you know it,
trees are being suffocated by vines,
you can barely move,
and things are just a mess.
Or like the wilderness in the middle east,
where there is nothing growing,
there are only rocks
and there’s barely any water.
Whether a jungle or a wasteland,
Each thing fights for itself.
But preparing a way in the wilderness
doesn’t pick you up and plop you somewhere else.
Instead, preparing a way
makes that same wilderness flourish and grow.
Maintains a bit of space
and provides enough nourishment
for each creature that exists there.
There is room for more than just one expression of life.
more than just one being.
There’s room for growth, for sprouting.
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So it is with us,
both in our minds and our hearts.
Have you ever felt
as though you’ve pushed another person away
because you couldn’t deal with them at that moment?
Have you ever found yourself
in a situation where you needed
to ignore the needs of others because,
if you didn’t,
you might implode?
Does your heart even know what it wants,
or even kno what it is,
or where it’s going?
Is there a hole
left in your heart by another person—
by someone you loved,
by someone you wanted to love but couldn’t.,
a person-shaped hole
marked by a partner who’s passed away.
Do you feel like you need to protect that hole?
because you don’t want
to forget about that space
that used to be occupied.
You protect it
so that nothing else can get it.
There are times for guardedness;
there are times we really need to raise defenses
and protect ourselves.
But there are also times to cut back that wilderness,
cut back those places
that have grown wild and grown over inside us.
Open up those spaces and prepare a way for something new.
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That’s the way that John is telling each of us about.
The way that is freed up
so that our wilderness is maintained
and turns into a beautiful garden.
Not one where the shapes are unnatural,
where it looks just a little too planned.
But one that is allowed to grow and change.
It’s like that Eden where God started everything.
A place that contains blessings,
that harbors relationship.
It’s a place where creation and newness
are the defining quality—
not brokenness.
It’s what we mean by “the reign of God,”
a world that has the comfort of new creation.
it’s the world as it should be.
Where we each know who we are and who we aren’t.
Where we know how to relate to one another,
how to open up our hearts
and expose ourselves
to the unknown possibilities that creation holds.
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THAT’s what John is pointing to.
That’s the good news tthat’s meant for this wrold.
It’s a new creation,
it’s that light frm the beginning of Genesis
“Let there be light!” that can only look forward.
It’s not the light that comes whe you switch on a night light,
or the weak light that comes from the moon at night
or the twinkling light that stars come from.
It’s not even the light that the sun brings in the mornig.
It’s light that inspires all the others.
That brings FUTURE to the world.
Light that means that everything
is about to change,
be remade,
or be realized.
This man John,
whose entire being belongs to the work of Christ,
comes before to prepare the way
for that transforming light.
To Encourage us to help prepare the way.
To encourage us to help clear the brush
from our lives and others lives.
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It’s hard work, sure,
and you need your gloves
and someone might ask what you’re doing
and why you get to do it
if your not a prophet or Elijah or Jesus .
But we don’t need to worry about that.
We’re preparing the way.
WE don’t need to worry
about what others happen to be calling us,
because we have our call right here.
In the heart and the spirit.
That divine gardener is clearing the way
for something extraordinary
to break into our ordinary lives.
so that we can recognize—
and show others—
the plantings of that new creation in our hearts.
So let’s go out into the wilderness,
and get to work
preparing a way for the Lord.
AMEN
The Rev. Daniel Kuckuck + December 10/11, 2011
St. Paul Lutheran Church in Davenport, Iowa
