Getting outta God's way

Luke 3: 1-6
New Ark United Church of Christ, Newark, DE
December 6, 2015

            Thanks to David on our honeymoon, I am an avid listener of public radio. I listen in the car and in the kitchen; in the bedroom while I’m dressing, in the bathroom while I’m showering. I’d listen in a box with a fox, in a house with a mouse.

            I don’t like anything getting in the way of my public radio.  But here in the city of Newark there are dead zones, deserts where the airwaves can’t travel.  At the bottom of Paper Mill Road near the reservoir—this is where radio signals go to die.  When I drive to church, I avoid this route for that very reason.  When I drive home, I know not to turn on the radio until I’ve come out of that small valley.  Oh, that 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 hear NPR without interruption!

            But that’s not exactly what John the Baptist was talking about.  Although God gets plenty of static and interference from us, God wants nothing to get in the divine way in reaching any and all of us.  This is satellite radio we’re talking about.  God is getting rid of the dial-up AOL modem and going with fiber optic broadband.  We’re talking live streaming in multiple venues, in every language possible, close-captioned, video-descriptive, an internet highway for our God.

I hear the prophet callin’,

“Prepare the way of the Lord.”

I hear the prophet callin’,

“Prepare the way of the Lord.”

Come and make straight the way in the desert,

a highway  for our God,

Come and make straight the way in the desert.

Prepare ye the way of the Lord.

Prepare ye the way of the Lord.[i]

            Make no mistake though.  This wasn’t a sweet song that John sang to the crowds.  The voice that calls us to repentance more often than not has an edge to it—sometimes it’s harsh, other times a whisper, that still small voice, but it nags at us until it has our attention.  And it’s pesky words like repentance, sins, and salvation that certainly put us on notice.

            Once again we need to reclaim Christian language rather than be repelled by those who have co-opted it.  To repent is to turn around, to turn away from sin, from the way that leads to death and turn toward God.  Another word for repentance is the Greek word metanoia.  Metanoia is the journey of changing one’s mind, heart, self or way of life.  Metanoia is the essence of the Christian life.  Metanoia is the way of a transformed life.

Our sins are those obstacles that we put between ourselves and others, between ourselves and God, between others and God with our actions, behaviors, beliefs, and attitudes.  The biggest obstacle is the human ego and its free will.  Who’s right and who’s wrong, who or what we’re supposed to do, value, be afraid of, who belongs and who doesn’t, and the words, tools, and weapons we use to enforce these.

In order to overcome the human ego and free will, God does not use coercion or force or power.  Instead, God becomes weak and human and shares that power.  God hides the divine presence in the world so that we would come and find the Holy One in the midst of creation, amongst and within human beings.  This is the way in which God saves us.

            Salvation is a word many people don’t like.  Most of us would say we lead a decent life.  What do we need to be saved from?  Simply put, salvation is right relationships:  with God, with our neighbor, with the earth, with oneself.  We all know how it feels to be out of sync with someone, how it feels when there’s hurt or resentment between us; that somehow a barrier or a wall has been built between us and another human being.  We know how it feels when those ties that bind are strained or torn asunder.  We know how it feels to be cut off from God, from what is sacred, from a feeling of wonder and total acceptance.  We numb ourselves from the feeling that we are estranged from ourselves and that which makes us come alive.

True peace never seems to last as long as pain and struggle.  We long for ease, acceptance, and comfort, or at least civility or a lack of conflict.  But we know that most of the time, relationships are work, the heavy lifting of human life, and for the most part we need help getting them righted again.  We need to repent, that is, think differently, and be saved, that is, put right our relationships.  More often than not, we can’t do it alone.  And that’s why a savior was born.  Someone who could save us from ourselves.

            Trouble is, we get in God’s way.  We think we know best or we hate being wrong or powerless to do anything.  We take matters into our hands, sometimes violently so.  We are our own worst obstacle between ourselves and the salvation, the right relationships, the peace that God intends for all of us.

            So how do we make peace?  It really does begin with us.  It begins with admitting that we’re not in charge, that there is a power greater than ourselves at work in this world, however we conceive of it.  Peace begins with us just as we’re about ready to give up on someone or ourselves or God.  We’ve been leveled, we don’t have anything left for the valleys and hills, we’re stuck in a crooked place; nothing is smooth.  We say the words that act like a speed bump, that get us to slow down and get out of the way:  thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

            Amen.

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[i] “I Hear the Prophet Callin’”, words and music by Pepper Choplin (based on Isaiah 35: 1-2, 4-6; 40: 3), © 2008 Lorenz Publishing Company.