Isaiah 40: 1-11 & Mark 1:1-8 "And Advent/Christmas Has Its Promises to Keep"

Isaiah 40: 1-11 & Mark 1:1-8

            Grace, Mercy, and Peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ: AMEN!

            So, as you know by now, I am a music fan. Sometimes a song just pops into my head when it comes time to think about a sermon and the scripture. Today was no different. One of my nephews got me hooked on this contemporary rock group that only gets together around this time of year. The group is the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. I have seen them three times and would love to see them again. When I found out they had a video album all acted out, I went and got it.

            My family and I were watching this video this past weekend and Robin and I will be watching it again before Christmas. There was this one song that began calling to me as I read this week’s scripture. The song is called “Promises to Keep.” One verse of this song goes right to the heart of our scripture readings: “And the dream is still alive, from that first December morning, and it always will survive as long as we can see, that the dreams we find in life are the dreams we tend to seek AND CHRISTMAS HAS ITS PROMISES TO KEEP.”

            That very last part “and Christmas has its promises to keep,” is what got to the heart of this second week in Advent. How so you might ask? The promise of the coming savior did not start with the birth of Jesus. This promise began long before that night in Bethlehem. It began in the words of Isaiah. In our first reading the prophet Isaiah (that voice in the wilderness) cries out “prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” Isaiah is telling us to make our paths straight for God’s coming into the world. He says that when we make straight the way that mountains and hills will be made low (I was going to break into Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, but another time). Everything will be level.

            What does that mean? It means that there is no place that will be able to escape the glory of the Lord. There is no place that one could hide because God will be able to find us all; whether we want to be found or not, and sometimes we may not want to be found. God will find us all. With all things level it means that God’s love and mercy will be everywhere. There will not be one place that can escape God’s merciful and loving touch.

            But it does not end there. In our Gospel reading we have another voice crying in the wilderness. This guy John who just happens to be the cousin of Jesus is this guy who is a little eccentric, to say the least; but, he cries out to “prepare the way of the Lord and his paths straight!” We have heard this before in Isaiah and now this messenger of God is telling us that this there is this person coming who will baptize us with the Holy Spirit…not just water but with more than that is pretty incredible.

            What John is telling us is that this one who is more powerful that John is bringing a lot more than just good tidings. John is telling us that God has made a promise. It is the promise to come into the world and be with a broken world. He is telling the people of Jesus time that there is someone special coming who going to do more than just take a look around; and this person brings the authority of almighty God.

            John is telling us that the promise that was made by God through Isaiah is coming to them and to us. John is telling us all to be prepared because God’s promise is that our lives are about to change, forever! It is the promise of God to come into the world to see and experience just how tough this world is. SO I would change the lyrics of the song to say “Advent has its promises to keep.”

            And we know the promise that is coming because the promise will be fulfilled on the night of the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. God’s promise is going to be kept. With that promise comes the call to make straight the way of the Lord. I think this is part of what advent is about; What does it mean to make the Lord’s path straight? It means that we prepare our hearts and minds and bodies to be changed. We open ears and eyes to see the coming of the Lord. We get ready for God to have a straight line into our hearts; and the way that we can do that is by letting go of all those things that distract us from God’s love.

            When we are focused on worldly things we become distracted. As we spoke this past week at the women’s bible study, this world is so full of loud noise. Noise in social media (I am not against social media), people yelling at one another rather than talking TO each other, people always wanting to be right rather than compassionate…with all this we put stumbling blocks in to our minds and our hearts. We put up barriers from past hurts, actions, and sometimes want to say or do hurtful things to others because we have been hurt.

            John is telling us that one of the ways to clear all that away so that God can get to our heart is to release all that. Confess our troubles, our sins, those moments when we may not be the most upstanding person and confess them to God. By confessing these things to God, we get rid of barriers so that God has that direct line to our hearts and minds. When we prepare by seeking God’s mercy and love AND forgiveness, we realize the promise of God and experience the anticipation of the coming Christ to change our hearts, open our eyes, and experience the love of God: AMEN!