Preparations December 9, 2007

ISAIAH 11:1-10
Matthew 3:1-12
At the Wednesday Watchnight we went round introducing ourselves and naming what we like best about Christmas, there was mention of presents and singing, carols, cookies, Christmas cards and letters from friends you have not seen all year, and the children in pajamas as well as those home from college and the newly engaged.
Afterwards it occurred to me that one of the things we have done ever since being a child, was going out in the evening to see the lights and decorations. For some reason, we each had to put on our best then cuddle up under blankets in the Station wagon, as Dad drove from one village to the next, and after ooohing at the 132nd house we would doze off to sleep, hours later to be carried up and tucked into bed.
I think there is something about that glow that reminds me of that brief moment Christmas Eve when singing Silent Night and everyone lifts their candle.
With lights in our windows or along the eves, we bring that glow of Silent Night and the glow of our childhood memories home night after night throughout the Advent season.

In this age of organization and technology, I have put cup hooks up and within 30 minutes can have everything plugged in and sparkling, give or take the hour of untangling wires and testing bulbs. We can electronically send out our Christmas letter, saving the time of addressing envelopes, licking stamps. Christmas cookies even come in a tube, all you need do is slice and heat until done. Where we used to sing carols, you can now find them on every radio station, or to be played on cd with full orchestral accompanient.
But if that is the extent of our “preparations for Christmas”, we have lost the point.
LIFE IS NOT A RACE TO SEE WHO CAN GET DONE FIRST, OR WHO WILL WIN. We are not in competition with one another, in fact no one can play unless we truly cooperate.

It is like the couple who get married and after the wedding is over, she has worn the gown, danced with her father, lit the candles, taken the photos, cut the cake, opened the presents, and the following morning suddenly they realize, WHAT DO WE DO NOW?

What if all our PREPARATIONS were really acquiring the tools and resources to be able to work at PREPARING for LIFE. The question that comes to a couple who have been married for 41 years, is not What is the key to Marriage, or WOULD YOU DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN, or Would you recite your vows anew, but rather, with all that you have shared in 41 years together are you now prepared for the next?

There is a DISILLUSIONMENT that we owe to the parents of Toddlers suffering the TERRIBLE TWOs, all of this is preparation for the THREEs, and fours and Kidergarten, and High School and College. Every year, every day, is precious, we too quickly attempt to get them over, to get on to the next, all the while making certain our child has everything every other child possesses. As much enjoyment as we each had on Christmases growing up, there is a far greater joy, in having had those experiences and now witnessing life anew.

Edward Hicks, the American Quaker artist of the early 1800s, painted a famous illustration of this text from Isaiah 11, which he titled THE PEACEABLE KINGDOM. So often looking at the painting, we are mesmerized by the Wolf and Lamb laying together, the Bear and the Calf, the Lion and Fattling, the vulnerable toddlers and children playing, BUT intgral to the painting are the human characters of Miles Standish and Leaders of the Plymouth Colony trading with the Iroquois and Souix.
The great juxtaposition within the Painting, as well as in the Prophecy are that the two are related, completely inter-dependent so that one cannot be without the other, PEACE in the WORLD if there is not Peace AMONG US.

At such a time as we are experiencing, the Nation was seeking a new leader. According to Isaiah, they were not seeking the most popular, the most Presidential, the one with Oprah or the one with Bill, the Mormon, the Catholic, the One Divorced and Remarried.
The HOPE OF THE NATION, the Hope of All Creation, was that FUTURE LEADERS would have the Spirit of the Lord upon them.
That Spirit of WISDOM, Common Sense, Intelligence and Understanding.
The Spirit of Seeking COUNSEL, Diplomacy, Compromise & Military Resolve.
The Spirit of Knowing God and Trusting God, ACTING IN FAITH.
Not Managers who make policy, because our vision can be clouded,
Not on the basis of the speeches and contracts signed,
But who will lead with CONCERN for the POOR, with EQUITY for the Meek.

John the Baptist was not so SUBTLE. John did not come to the Church and with a cheerful lilt call out: Good Morning! Good Morning! Good Morning!
Instead, John confronted the existent world in ways they/ we could not ignore.
He would not allow people to claim we are above reproach, we are the inheritors of faith from Abraham, because Abraham and Sarah were BARREN, as unproductive as Rocks. And God created life.
So often we do justify ourselves and our half-hearted motions, I hung the lights, bought the tree, even made sure I got something for every person. BUT What if, we took John the Baptist' words to heart? REPENT, FOR THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS AT HAND. PREPARE THE WAY OF THE LORD, MAKE STRAIGHT THE PATHS. This is not a command to fix Genesee Street as it comes through Auburn, but the bigger potholes we are accustomed to; the potholes with our families, with our neighbors, with behaviors no one should have to endure.

There is HOPE. I have heard from several of the College Students, as well as on the news this week, that the SECOND ITEM on nearly everyone's Christmas List this year is PEACE ON EARTH. Would not that be amazing. If instead of giving out awards for films documenting Global Warming, we each tried to give one another PEACE ON EARTH. Maybe it would not be a shiny as the flat screen television under the tree, but how different our lives might be, if there were PEACE?

More than ever before, I find myself this year living in Advent.
Filled with faith, hope, expectation, that everything that has happened, is preparation for what God will do.
Filled with love and compassion for family AND others who are not my family, not my responsibility, but whose lives will be changed by what is to come.
Expectant for peace, in a world so full of war, hate, inhumanity and disposability.
Filled with the Joy of Mary and Elizabeth, that God would use even us for such a time as this.