Dear Friends,
In this season of anticipation we hear the words of the Prophet Isaiah:
“Every valley will be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.” (Isaiah 40:4) And when all that is complete we will be prepared to see, hear and taste together the glory of the Lord.
We live with hope, looking forward to what God is doing in the world and because of the love we know in Christ Jesus, we see the miraculous things already at work. Without hope, we only see what is wrong with the world. Thankfully, there is hope wherever God is creating and recreating.
Isaiah’s words were preparing the people to go home after years of exile. Jerusalem had been ravaged, the temple destroyed and the land laid waste. The people of Israel—much like Native people and African-Americans in the United States—were stripped of their history, names and traditions as a part of a calculated move to denigrate and oppress. They suffered mightily under the yoke of the state that denied their humanity, culture and religious beliefs.
This familiar scenario is how it was for Israel.
“Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.” (Isaiah 40:1-2 NRSV)
God would redeem the people from their suffering. Isaiah gave them a picture of a highway that would take them through the desert with no distractions. No detours, potholes, or traffic jams. They would not have to worry about mountains and valleys impeding their travel. And when the nations saw this great procession, this caravan, they would know that their God was, the Lord, God Almighty.
Friends, when the road seems too circuitous, remember that our hope is not built on everything going right. It is built on God. With God charting our path, making the crooked places straight we do not have to depend on global positioning systems.
When John the baptizer brings the message of hope foretold in Isaiah, he looked a little different. His style and his approach was not what they were expecting. John was preaching about baptism and a changed life that would lead to forgiveness. Some people took off in the other direction; there are always people who want everything to stay the same.
When John enters the scene, he is baptizing them in the river. It was a physical act of being immersed into the water, but it was a spiritual experience. God was moving in and through them. John told them it was an act of repentance and for the forgiveness of sins.
They had to hear this Word with fresh ears.
Isaiah’s vision of a voice crying in the wilderness, preparing the way for the Lord was finding meaning in the hearts of God’s people.
Once a prophet spoke you could not pretend that your daily decisions were of no consequences.
The reality of sin and injustice operates in contradiction with the presence of God in the world. To pretend that there is no injustice is not acceptable any longer.
What is crooked will have to be made straight.
The Christian challenge is a serious commitment, a daily process. I too recognize my aversion to facing uncomfortable truths about the world—and about myself. Still, we cannot continue to overlook those who live in substandard housing, and who are food insecure. We cannot sit by silently as children are afraid, hungry, ill prepared for the future and disproportionately subjected to a range of things that inhibit their present and future well-being and success.
We all must acknowledge that being a Christian is a challenge.
The good news is we don’t have to journey alone. We are part of a connection that can make a difference, but it will take willing hearts. Advent is the time to hear the promises spoken or sung with the community of faith and sit with them through the season.
Christmas is the time for our Christian community to find its voice, confront and overcome the sin of systemic racism, and move in a direction that offers peace and comfort to all. May the hope of Christmas be yours.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Rev. Dr. Denise Smartt Sears