Mark 12: 38-44
In the first year of office of Prime Minister Hatoyama, when Masaaki Kanda was governor of Aichi Prefecture, during the High Priesthood of Emperor Akihito, the word of God came to attendees of Meito Christ International Church, in the city of Nagoya, Japan. They all went into all the country around the region of Chubu, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins; “As is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet: “A voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the Way of the Lord, make straight paths for him. Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth. And all mankind will see God’s salvation.’”
So what do you think? Has not the word of God come to us? Is it just a confidence thing? Perhaps we are like the church to which the John of Revelation writes --- “lukewarm?” Or is there something else?
On many, many occasions we talk about the Christian life in terms of imitating Jesus … of following Jesus. And I think that is right. But, that makes we wonder, as we get ready once again for the arrival of the birth of our savior, what are we are to make of this “prepare the way” of the Lord --- because to “prepare” would somehow seem to ignore our reality.
Did not what John in the wilderness do and say not already happen? In other words has not Jesus already come? Has not Jesus the Christ been crucified, resurrected and ascended into heaven? Has not Jesus the Christ told us that he will come again? Are we simply reviewing a historical event explained by Luke, a timeline for the history books: the Hebrew Prophets, John the Baptist, Jesus, the Apostles, and then Paul? Nothing against those who have not heard about Jesus, but rather it seems to me the reality is we really are just waiting around.Well, let us think through this.
For Luke, the appearance of John the Baptist signals the beginning of the end. The time has come to a certain place and certain time; “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar …..” Those words of Luke are similar to the opening lines of the other prophetic books, the beginning of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea and Isaiah. As well as the time, we the readers know that the place and details of the birth, the growing up and adult hood of Jesus are complete. Now we have come to the beginning of the end when the Word of God has come to the last of the Hebrew prophets, the son of Zechariah the priest, John.
It does not come to John in the city or small town but in wilderness? Is John an “Essene” a member of a strict, separatist Jewish sect living in Qumran by the Dead Sea who felt that the religious establishment in Jerusalem was corrupt? Is it personal; John alone as if a hermit? Is it metaphorical; being in the “wilderness?” Does it re-call perhaps, the formation of a people into a covenantal relationship with God? Whatever the case, Luke joins all the other gospels and reinforces not only that the time, John has come to prepare us for the messiah, but also emphasizes John’s call by quoting from Isaiah 40. In the original Hebrew, “prepare the way” literally is to remove stumbling blocks. For example, another reference for the phrase "prepare the way" is found in Isaiah 57: 14; “And it will be said: ‘Build up, build up, prepare the road! Remove the obstacles out of the way of my people.’”
Moreover, Luke joins the other Gospels, in that John does not claim to possess anything that he can give; all John has is an act of preparation, the baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins --- so the people will be ready when the holy one comes.
Now let us return to us, in this time of Hatoyama. For Luke and the other gospels John fulfilled scripture and created a favorable environment, making it easier for Jesus to enter into and operate in the lives of the people. But does this necessarily mean we are to do the same? Are we not all just about waiting? Or we about preparing the way?
In short, yes … that is the paradox … it is both. In Advent we await very aware, every single one of us, that things are just not as they should be. We are also aware that what John prepared came among us and will come again.
The key for us centuries later is that the Word of God is not only a history of God’s coming to humanity, and an event for the future but also for … now. It is nothing other than the history of love, God’s love for us; a light that grows and one to which we follow in this darkness. As we wait out this paradox of the Word of God our time is complicated by the fact that the world is full with a thousand voices all day long assaulting our hearts and souls. For it is the world of the Satan --- the adversary, the accuser, the prosecution; or Lucifer --- the bringer of light and revelation that is really darkness and death; or Mephistopheles --- the self-doubt created by the questioner.
For example, have you heard about the Death Clock?1 It is a site on the internet where you enter some simple information about yourself like your date of birth, your sex, your body mass index and whether or not you smoke. It will then calculate when it is expected that you will die.
I think that information is pretty morbid, so not only are we bombarded with voices taking us away from God, but I also know that time is passing for those of us who are waiting. Whether it passes quickly or slowly, time is all we have. The question is, how shall we use it.
You see every year we go through this same routine right before Christmas, a child who will later to die on a cross; the revelation of God in a life; Jesus the Christ. It is a revelation that is forgiving and loving as well as prophetic and healing. It is a revelation that is paradoxically historical but through out all time.
So we wait. As author and pastor, Barbara Brown Taylor eloquently said, “there are all kinds of waiting. There is the tense dread-filled waiting of those whose hope is gone. There is the resigned waiting of those who for whom a spade is always a spade. There is even a kind of waiting, in which one collects” signs of the end times “like souvenir spoons… get the whole set and the end comes!”2
For me I wait in this paradox of the Word of God who came and who will come, at the same time living to “prepare the way” in my own life and in a small way in the lives of others. So, what preparations do you and I need in this time in whatever way we are waiting? How do we prepare for the coming of the savior in this age of Hatoyama and does it matter that some are totally oblivious? You tell me … because I do not believe that I am the only one who feels that things are not just as they should be. I do not believe I am the only one who has not interest in watching a death clock. Do you think there is anyone else who feels that way? Wait in comfort and joy and Prepare the way of the Lord. Amen.
1 www.deathclock.com
2 Bread of Angels, Barbara Brown Taylor, Cowley Publications: Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, 1997. p. 160
