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| "...the uneven ground shall become level..." |
The Rev. Kathi Johnson
Advent 2, Year B – December 7, 2014
Texts: Isaiah 40:1-11 and Mark 1:1-8
Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Grand Prairie, Texas
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Grace and peace are yours, from God
our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
It was the summer of 1972. A young
Air Force Lieutenant was on assignment in Southeast Asia. He’d just returned to
their base in Taiwan to find six letters from his new wife waiting for him. He
opened each letter in order by date, and in the last one, found the good news
that would change their lives forever: the lieutenant’s wife was pregnant with
their first child!
This news was so good that my dad
talked over and over about that moment of reading that letter from my mom. He’d
been listening to a recording of bagpipe music – and the tune they were playing
in that moment of good news was none other than “Amazing Grace”. In his letter
to my mother, he said, “[s]omehow, every time I hear that hymn it will bring
back all the memories of that moment for me.”[1] The
good news of my impending arrival stayed with him, and he shared the story of
receiving that news like one shares a cup of cold water with your best friend
on a hot day.
We have good news in Isaiah today.
This section of Isaiah was written to Israelites who were living in exile – their
people had been removed from their homeland by an occupying force - removed in
tears and sorrow and judgment. Just what does the prophet say to a group who’s
living in exile from their homeland?
“Every 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.
Then the glory of the Lord shall be
revealed, and all people shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord has
spoken.”
This word of good news is saying to
those in exile: “Yes, you are in need of comfort. Comfort is coming to you. And
I, the LORD, will lift up the low places and lower the high places. I will make
level all those rough patches that trip you up. You will see my glory. I
promise it.”
And as one author says, “These
words are not the glib musings of the comfortable but the trusting cries of
those who see beyond the present dimness.”[2]
This prophet knows that God’s people are hurting in exile. He knows that they
feel that they are beyond the grasp of where God can reach. And so he tells the
herald to get up to the highest mountain he can find, and share the good news
that “[God] 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.”
We have good news in Mark today,
too. We’ve moved away from the darkened sun and moon and the falling stars of
last week – back to the beginning – “[t]he beginning of the good news of Jesus
Christ, the Son of God,” as Mark tells it, anyway. The good news of Jesus
Christ, to Mark, begins with John the Baptist preparing the way for the arrival
of Jesus, the Son of God. In Mark, the good news about Jesus doesn’t begin with
dreams or visits of angels, but with a flesh-and-blood man, telling people that
Jesus is coming – so get ready.
Where on earth is the good news in
that?
The good news is found in John the
Baptist’s promise that God is breaking into our lives to dwell with us in a
remarkable way. “I have baptized you with water;” John says, “but he [- Jesus
-] will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” And so Jesus brings with him the
promise of the Holy Spirit – the same Spirit who calls us to faith, who
strengthens us in faith, and who enlightens our darkened hearts with the very
light of Christ.
Here we are in Advent again. It is
during Advent that the good news of Jesus Christ is slowly revealed to us –
revealed more and more each week - until finally, on Christmas, we see Good
News in the flesh: God with us. This good news of Jesus Christ reaches into all
of our news - good, bad, and indifferent – and covers us with the love of God.
The good news of Jesus Christ may
not always mean very much to us. The good news of Jesus Christ might get
drowned out from time to time, by our own very good news, or even by our own
very bad news. Many days, we might not think about the good news of Jesus
Christ much at all.
But the good news is still there –
it remains with us, even when everything else around us is changing and
shifting, in times of joy and in times of sorrow. The good news remains with
us, even when all the news on the TV and the internet seems to indicate that
there is no good news, anywhere. The love of God in Jesus Christ remains with
us always – nothing can separate us from this great love.[3]
Think about the last time you
received some good news. Maybe it was some news from a family member or a
friend, or something at work or school. What did you do after you received the
news? Hopefully, you joyfully told others all about it.
This same joy is how we should talk
about the good news of Jesus Christ. There are people who have been hurt –
deeply injured – by Christians and by the Church – in many different ways. And
yet, we are called to be bearers of good
news – the good news of Jesus Christ – the good news that God loves us so much
that Jesus came here, to live as one of us.
I recognize that it is not always
easy to talk about our faith in Jesus. It can seem fake or embarrassing or like
you’re trying to sell a used car. My advice, then, is not to talk about Jesus
like he’s a used car. Think about your own faith – think about the good news of
Jesus in your own life. Think about ways you’ve seen God at work in your life, and
in the lives of those around you, and in the life of this congregation.
Think about all of this, and then
begin talking about it with others as you can. Invite someone to join you here
– Christmas Eve is a natural time for someone to visit a church. Instead of
thinking of yourself as convincing someone to believe in Jesus, think of
yourself as bearing good news.
For that is what we are all called
to do – each and every one of us is called to bear good news.
Amen.
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[1] Personal letter from RCI to DWI, dated July 1, 1972.
[2] From Laurence Hul Stookey’s book, Calendar: Christ’sTime for the Church. Abingdon Press in Nashville. p. 124.
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