Scripture: Luke 1:68-79 / Delivered: Dec 8, 2024
One of the first things you learn when you work in an Emergency Room is that you never use the word “quiet.” There may only be 5 patients in the whole department, no one in the Lobby checking in, no ambulance traffic on the way and you still never, never say something like “It sure is a quiet night around here tonight.” Because, more often than not, once someone utters that word within a short period of time, we are going to be running around like crazy with patients overflowing the rooms, lobby, and even hallways. As a person of faith, I probably shouldn’t encourage such superstitious like activities. But even I have seen it happen often enough that I too refrain from using the word quiet. I do like to get creative with my comments though. So often I may walk out to the Lobby, wave my arm at all the empty chairs, and say something like, “I like what you’ve done with the place.” Even with that I sometimes get hard stares and warnings to watch what I say.
Quiet. We all love quiet time. Those times when we can exist in the stillness and silence with no activity going on around us and no pressing need to attend to and we can just sit and relax. Perhaps sitting in a chair with the fireplace going, a good book to read, a dog napping in your lap, and drinking a cup of hot coffee or tea. I love those moments of quiet time. They don’t seem to come often enough here lately.
We often pair the word quiet with the word peace. One will proclaim I just need some peace and quiet. Stillness and silence. That is one aspect or way of peace. Yet, peace is not only found in the stillness and quiet. Peace can sometimes come the middle of noise and clamor as well. I experienced such a moment over the Thanksgiving week. It was at the family dinner on Thursday that I shared with my parents, aunts and uncles, and cousins. After the meal I had the chance, for the first time, to hold the newest baby in the family. Darci is just shy of 3 months old. I sat in the living room holding her and just watching her as she looked at me. The house was full of about two dozen people moving about and talking, but I was at peace just holding a baby, praying over her, and thinking of all the good things in life she has ahead for her in her future. And I knew that not only her parents, myself, and everyone in that room would be doing all we could to prepare a way of peace where-ever she goes.
Preparing a way of peace. That is what we are called to do. We are called to help others find that way of peace. Verse 78 we read, “By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” That dawn from on high, that light, that guide into the way of peace is of course Jesus. The Prince of Peace. Emmanuel. God with us. On Christmas morning that dawn did break upon us. God came into the world to be with his people in a new way. I say a new way because God had always been with, resided, and walked among his people. But this was different. Now, he was coming within the constraints of a fleshly body subject to the same pain and suffering that we feel. But with the purpose to show a way into a life of peace.
Yet again, we must understand what that life of peace looks like in the here and now. I mentioned that sometimes peace is defined by stillness and quiet. But I also mentioned that sometimes peace is found in the midst of noise and activity around us.
Other ways to look at peace is to see it as the absence of conflict. In military terms as governments define it is that we are either at war or at peace with another country. But in our day to day lives and personal encounters with others, that boundary is not always so clear. The idea of conflict does not always have to be in a negative light. To be sure, at times it is. But conflict is often just disagreement, that is not seeing things eye to eye. It does not necessarily mean we have to come to actual physical fighting to come to some agreement. Yes, here in the United States we prepare, train, and arm a military force ready for war. But, yet we also train and send out diplomats to other countries, whose purpose is to talk and try to work things out with treaties and compromises.
Which leads me to my personal best definition of peace. That is peace as being a state of people living in harmony. I like to think of that in terms of its musical definition. When a choir or group sings in harmony in simply means that although the varied voices may be singing the same song they are doing so with different notes. Some sing Soprano. Some sing Alto. Some sing Tenor. Some sing Bass. But when each different note is sung together there is a blending of them all that combines each individual voice into a beautiful chorus. To me, the idea of peace is the bringing together of our individual voice, gifts, and talents and working together to bring about God’s kingdom here and now.
Zechariah spoke about his newborn son John and what the future held for him. Perhaps he too was holding the child in his arm just as I was holding Darci in my arms as he spoke the words of both prophecy and blessing. He says, “you child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their sins.” And indeed he does. This child becomes the wild locust and honey eating man wearing clothing of camel’s hair and a leather belt that travels the Judean countryside calling people to repent.
He is described in Luke 3:4-6 as the one written about be the prophet Isaiah. “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’ “
Preparing a way of peace. That is what John the Baptist did. He cried out to those living in the wilderness and in the darkness to let them know that their salvation was not just a far off dream but was in fact coming to walk in and among them. Prepare the way of the Lord. Look at how those preparations are described:
Create straight paths. Fill the valleys. Flatten the mountains and hills. Straighten the crooked curves. Smooth out the rough and jagged walkways.
To sum it all up, basically remove obstacles.
We all know that the easiest walking path is one that is flat, even, and straightforward. Now, sometimes I do enjoy a nice hike in the woods or up at South Mountain State Park. But, for most daily activities I want smooth easy pathways with little to no obstacles in my way to make getting to my destination easier.
That is what God wants for all of us. God wants the smoothest, easiest pathway to obtaining our destination of a relationship with him. God wants the obstacles removed.
As Christians that is what we are called to do. We are called to be like John the Baptist. It is our duty and our time to be the ones calling out to those in the wilderness and the darkness that salvation is near. The Prince of Peace is coming. The Light of the World is coming. We are called to prepare a way of peace.
We need to pick up our spiritual shovels and help to fill in the potholes that cause people to trip and stumble.
We need to haul out our backhoes and start tearing down hills that are too hard for people to climb over.
We need to use that dirt and land from the hills we’ve lowered to fill in the valleys of despair that many find themselves in.
How do we do that? By continuing to build upon what we talked about last week. By shining a light of Hope for others by reminding that the days are coming when God’s full justice will reign and the created world will be restored. Today we add the work of shining a light of Peace to people who are living in world of chaos. Last week we talked about and stressed the words of righteousness and justice.
Today I would add that the way to prepare the way of peace is to focus on the idea of compassion and how we show compassion for others. In Latin the word compassion means to suffer with. That describes what Jesus did. Kate Bowler put it this way while including a translation of John 1:14 from the bible translation of The Message: “In becoming human, Jesus ‘became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood’. Jesus is God-with-us so he could be God’s compassion for us, in word and deed.”
Christie Watson, a nurse and author, in an interview with Kate Bowler talked about meeting with a nurse who was described as the “kindest nurse in Britian.” As a parish nurse she worked with homeless people and at times even came in contact with convicted rapists and murderers. This nurse talked about that aspect of her care by saying, “We don’t have time to judge them, because if we’re busy judging them, we don’t have time to love them.”
Compassion. Suffering with others. Loving them rather than judging them. Instead of asking or wondering how or why people are in the situation they are in, trying to help meet their need with what resources you possess. That is how we make straight paths for people to encounter the love of God. That is how we create a way of Peace.
May we all find ways encounter and create ways of peace during this Advent season. Both for others and also for ourselves. It’s okay sometimes to acknowledge you are the one needing the light of others to shine for you to give you Hope. It’s okay to hand over that shovel and let someone else work on filling in the potholes in our own pathway. It’s okay to ask someone else to help you tear down the mountains and fill in the valleys that are your own personal obstacles.
I hope you all find time to sit and relax and get away from the worries, responsibilities, hectic schedules of life. Soak it in. Enjoy the peace and quiet. But, then once you have been rested, refreshed, and renewed I urge you to stand back up and lend your voice to the harmony that proclaims a song and a way of Peace for all.
Notes from a Book Nerd 