Listen to the Sermon.
[Sing, from Godspell]
Prepare ye the way of the Lord. (x2)
Here it is the 16th of December, there is so much still to do to prepare for Christmas! Just 9 days left to
Finish (or perhaps start) shopping for the perfect gifts
Plan a delicious Christmas feast
Shop, cook and clean for said feast
Attend, or maybe throw, a party or two
Find an appropriately festive outfit to wear to that party
Decorate the house
Bake Christmas Cookies
Prepare for guests or travel
Phew! I’m exhausted just making the list. And, when we pause to think about it, all of those things get us ready for celebrating Christmas. But how many of them prepare our hearts to receive our God, who comes to be among us?
We can guess what John the Baptist would say about our Christmas preparations. Based on the vignette in today’s gospel reading, we can guess that he might be more than a little critical of our consumerism. The desert-dwelling man who wore animal skins and ate locusts might take some issue with our excesses, and the lack of any Jesus in many of our preparations. What John does offer us today is concrete ways to prepare ourselves for the wonder and mystery of God: Find our humility, and live out of it.
Well, John says it a little more like a prophet. Instead of find your humility, he says, “Bear fruits worthy of repentance.” Bear fruits means let your life show the essence of your heart and faith. And show your repentance. Repentance usually means understanding our sin and committing not to do that same thing again. Another way to think about repentance is being willing to continually acknowledge our lack of perfection at living Christ-like lives and God’s grace in loving us as we repeatedly self-correct. That spiritual posture of acknowledging our imperfections is called humility.
We can humble our thoughts around expectations of Christmas. We can acknowledge all the emotional pressures of the holidays, and humble our expectations of getting our emotional needs met by others. We can recognize that others are also doing their very best under all the pressures of the season, and extend some grace to them. That’s a moment of humility when we withhold judgement and see with eyes of love. More than one person has defined the posture of humility as seeing ourselves as God sees us, no more and no less.
When we see ourselves as God sees us, we see a clear and realistic picture of our selves – our physical selves, our emotional selves, our selves in relationships - then we are right-sized, clear about our roles in different situations, and able to regulate ourselves. Humbled before God, we feel complete and authentic. No longer disjointed, out of sorts, or anxiously missing something we cannot quite name. We humbly remember that we are not in control of our world and all the people around us.
God knows the experience of humility, because God humbled Godself and came to be among us. God gave up a perfect divine existence, and came to be human and imperfect – to the point of death. In Advent, we prepare our hearts to receive that God who humbly comes to know us, to be in relationship with us, so that our joy may be complete.
There’s one more thing to notice about today’s gospel reading - the last verse. “So, with many other exhortations, he (John) proclaimed the good news to the people.” (Luke 3:18) John just called people to repentance, threatened that those whose lives don’t bear fruit will be cut down, and that the one who is coming after him brings a winnowing fork and will burn the chaff with unquenchable fire. Good news, huh?
Hidden in the midst of John’s strong images are his exhortations. To exhort someone is to strongly and earnestly urge them to do something. In this case, John exhorts the people to be more Christ-like, to live as though the Kingdom of God is here. To guard against complacency, inaction, and self-righteous certainty. To remain on our toes, waiting expectantly and hopefully, with intention and focus outside of ourselves. These are the preparations of Advent.
John the Baptist exhorts us to live lives worthy of repentance, lives that demonstrate our humility. And when the people ask him just what that means, he tells them to be honest, to share, to work hard and don’t be a bully. Humility recognizes ‘enough’ is sufficient for a full life, that we don’t need excesses of two coats or food or money or even power. In humility, we say, ‘This is enough. Our basic needs are met – how can we share this bounty with others?’
Deep humility begins with listening to our hearts and our God. The happiest man in the world says his practice of life, which results in deep joy, begins with rest. Making room for the spirit of God to speak is a practice of humility. We make room for God’s spirit, for God to come among us, when we take time to breathe, to see the world around us, to see and do something about the inequalities in our society.
Let’s face it. None of us are going to create the ‘perfect’ Christmas. It’s already been done. When God came among us, to love us just as we are, already complete and enough in God’s eyes.
Here’s the challenge: For the next 9 days, let go of the drive for perfection, which is a kind of pride, and humble yourself. Instead of being a slave to your to do list, make some time to rest and prepare your heart. What we have is enough. You are enough. God gives us all that we need. Find joy in it, and share that joy.
Prepare ye the way of the Lord.
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