Life Is A Highway

Advent 2011

Is. 40:1-11, 2Pet 3:8-15a

Life Is A Highway

 

A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God!”  This sounds like a lot of work to me!  Every valley has to be lifted up and every hill has to be made low so that the uneven ground is level.  All of the rough places have to be made plain; there can’t be any boulders or desert shrubs in the way.  Every obstacle must be obliterated, there is no going around them, and the path must be straight!  This seems especially daunting to me because I can’t cut a straight line to save my life!

In response to this command from God, the voice of the prophet responds, “All people are like grass; their constancy is like the flower in the field. The grass withers and the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass.  The grass withers and the flower fades but the Word of our Lord will stand forever!” 

These familiar lines from Isaiah 40 connect with 2 Peter because both remind us of human frailty and our limitations, they both remind us that we are nothing compared to the scope of God.  In Isaiah we are given hope in the promise that God’s word will stand forever, though all else fades.  2 Peter reminds us that God’s watch keeps a different time, God’s tendency is patience, and God’s surprise entrance calls us to readiness!  What a gift it is to us that God is more patient than we are! I’ll be honest with you, on life’s highway there are days when I experience road rage, where my impatience at yield signs and slow moving vehicles gets the better of me! But, God’s delay in the coming of Jesus shows God’s patience with us and gives us many chances, more than we deserve; to repent and come to trust fully in God. 

When this familiar word came from Isaiah to the Hebrew people, they had been in exile for almost 50 years!  They feared that the Lord had abandoned them; patience had ebbed into acceptance and assimilation into the Babylonian population.  God’s chosen people had become comfortable in their situation as hope that God would save them died out.  We too live in a type of exile.  Consider the way we live amidst terrorism, violence and threats all around us.  We live with unease at poverty, racism and materialism.  We too seem to fake our faithful response to God’s mystery.  We go with the flow because we feel that we are helpless to change it and convince ourselves that we can’t do anything about it because we are just too busy already with the work of the church.  And we find ourselves impatient with the word, “wait”.  We’d rather have some definitive word from God.  Why doesn’t God just come down here and do something about it!  The prophet’s message strikes a chord with us as we realize how easily we are enticed by the latest trends, the freshest stories.  We are inundated with more news that we can absorb. Choices overwhelm us!  We too need to hear the new song in the foreign land of too much stuff, too many choices!

In 1992, singer/songwriter Tom Cochrane had his biggest hit with “Life is a Highway.”  The song was made popular again in 2006 when it was used in the Disney Pixar film, Cars and performed on the soundtrack for that movie by Rascal Flatts.  The song opens with these words:

Well, life's like a road that you travel on There's one day here and the next day gone Sometimes you bend, sometimes you stand, Sometimes you turn your back to the wind There's a world outside every darkened door Where Blues won't haunt you anymore For the brave are free and lovers soar Come ride with me to the distant shore…

These words remind us of the ups and downs of life and the way we respond to it.  Sometimes we bend under pressure, sometimes we stand and face difficulties and sometimes we turn away from them.  But, then you have a promise:  There is a world outside every darkened door where the blues won’t haunt you anymore.  Friends, that world is the one in which strive to we live, to know the promises of God, where we know the truth and proclaim it to others that in God the blues won’t haunt you anymore!  Prepare ye the way of the Lord!

The question is begged of us in 2 Peter today, “What sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of God?”  Who do you want God to see when he comes to greet you? The picture you see below is one from my days of work in retail.  When I was working at Saxon Shoes in Richmond, on slow days I used to love to run stock.  I’d build myself a fort of shoe boxes stacked waist high as I piled them all according to size.  Then I would make space for them in the stock rooms and fill in the gaps.  I remember many a time when I would be up on the ladder and as my friends would come into work they’d come back and visit with me, we’d catch up on our lives and share the latest Saxon gossip.   Sometimes there would be four or five of us congregated back there, just laughing it up and having a good time.  Then, the boss would appear in the doorway and suddenly I had four or five helpers there handing me boxes!  Suddenly, what was a one or two person task had five employees working on it!  We didn’t want to boss to catch us being lazy! And I won’t lie to you, as you can see from this photo, sometimes I was the person who was caught doing nothing!

 

That is exactly what Peter is teaching against!  We don’t know when God is coming, in fact it shouldn’t matter because you should behave in holiness and Godliness at all times!  The scriptures are telling us to be prepared for anything!  Think about the ways you prepare for other things in your life.  For those of you who like camping I bet you have a packing list of important things to take, you probably have all of your gear organized in one location.  Before you cook thanksgiving dinner or host a holiday party I bet you make a list of what you need to buy at the store and get all of your recipes out on the counter.  How is it that we can be so ready for these things, and feel completely unequipped for the coming of Christ? Jesus comes at Christmas, Jesus comes soon, Jesus comes NOW!    Jesus comes in the homeless guy who stands on the street with a sign begging for food.  Jesus comes in the best friend who asks you to keep her cancer diagnosis a secret.  Jesus comes in all forms, usually in the most unsettling and least expected ways.  We can prepare all we want for the coming of Jesus but the truth is we will never be completely ready, things never go as planned.  But, what we can control is what kind of persons we will be as we wait. 

We are called to be patient and trustful.  Waiting for God isn’t idle hand wringing or twiddling of thumbs but expectant and servant filled.  We are called to strive to be found at peace without spot or blemish.  In other words, we are to live as God’s people, not just as an inner journey of waiting but an outer journey, living life in the way Jesus Christ lived in the world each day.   We are called to be at peace, to know God’s love and grace.  This peace is not the absence of turmoil but rather the peace of God which passes all understanding.  Being servant filled particularly during this season means we need to slow down during this season not speed up. This is easier said than done, is it not? It is about finding a balance in our lives between our culture’s holiday demands and what our faith says about being a Christian during Christmas.  I'm not saying you should boycott all Christmas parties or vow not to travel this year, but rather spend some intentional time reflecting on the hope that the birth of Christ brings into our world!  Maybe this means you start an advent wreath tradition in your own home or dedicate time each day to prayer.  Maybe this means that as you put up your Christmas tree you thank God for something with each ornament you hang.  As you wrap those gifts consider why the shepherds came to Jesus' side, and why the wisemen brought gifts to him.  The answer I think you will find is two-fold.  Love, love for the child there in the manger and love for the God who loved us so much that he sent his only son.  And second, Hope, in Jesus we catch a glimpse of hope that the world can and will be changed.

What are we as a congregation preparing for?  Is whatever we are preparing truly focusing on the coming of Christ and our job to make the path straight? Are we actively waiting for the Lord’s return or are we twiddling our thumbs? Maybe we are waiting for more people to come through our front doors!  Maybe we are waiting for the other shoe to drop, because mainline churches are diminishing and we wonder if we will be next!  Friends, we are required to be engagingly expectant.  Perhaps it is time to challenge the ways we think about ‘doing’ church.  Perhaps it’s time we beg the question, what are we missing at church, and rather than sit back and wait for someone else to do something, we jump in ourselves! Do we want the boss to catch us sitting in the pews, sitting behind the pulpit twiddling our thumbs, or do we want God to see us trying our best to build a highway to God through the wilderness that is our society, our country, our world?  I don’t want God to catch me laying down on the job!  We are called as followers of the Way to reveal God’s glory to the world!  God is present and preparing even now to restore God’s people.  God will abide with us and help us find a way through whatever wilderness we find ourselves in, in whatever exile we find ourselves trapped.  God is at work regardless of how things appear.  He is building a road in the wilderness, breathing new life over decaying grass and withering flowers!  We are called to daily open our hearts and minds to God’s transforming grace. 

Another verse from  “Life is a Highway” says this: They knock me down And back up again You're in my blood I'm not a lonely man There's no load I can't hold, The road's so rough this I know, I'll be there when the light comes in, Just tell 'em we're survivors.  The world threatens to knock us down, it threatens to overtake us, to overwhelm us, but God is with us, the Spirit of Christ is within us, we are not alone!  It is difficult to wait, it is difficult to live in peace, a life without blemish but God’s love never falters. God’s Word stands forever. The season of advent reminds us that as we wait for the birth of Christ within us, we are given plenty of time to lead lives of holiness and godliness dedicated to being disciples of Christ.  Because of God’s patience and grace, we are survivors.  Amen.