God’s grace, peace
and mercy be with you. My sermon today is entitled Highways, Wildernesses
and Waiting, and my focus is Isaiah (35:1-10). Let us pray. Heavenly
Father, the psalmist wrote, “I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the
house of the Lord.’” Now that we are within your gates, we rejoice to hear your
Word. As we listen, may your Spirit enlighten our minds and move our hearts to
love deeply as Jesus loved. This we pray to you, Most Holy Trinity. Amen.
Highways. People must
love movies, TV shows and songs about highways and roads because there are
hundreds of them. There were seven Hope and Crosby’s “Road” movies and several remakes
of Mad Max. Audiences still enjoy Route 66 and Highway to Heaven. More than
entertaining us, highways get us places, and tell stories about people.
When I was a
student at Potter Township Elementary School in the 1960s, the Lothrop and
Larson families moved from Potter to Monaca because their homes were located
right where the I-376 interchange is located between the Beaver Valley Mall and
the Shell Cracker plant. I am sure that you have memories to share how a
highway changed life for you, and in a moment, I will touch upon the highway built
by God, which has made all the difference in the world for all of us.
In secular terms,
a highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It is used
for major roads, but also includes other public roads and public tracks.
Highways connect cities and towns, and are maintained by counties, states and
countries. Highways were originally the main roads that ran through towns and
villages. The Romans get the credit for building a system of highways, but we
find its use long before Rome came to exist.
We find highway is
used frequently in Isaiah, we find earlier uses of the word in Judges and
Numbers. “In the days of Shamgar, son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the
highways were abandoned, and travelers kept to the byways” (Judges
5:6). When Moses and the Hebrew people were in the Wilderness of Kadesh, his
messengers went to the King of Edom. “Please let us pass through your
land. We will not pass through field or vineyard, or drink water from a well.
We will go along the King’s Highway. We will not turn aside to the right hand
or to the left until we have passed through your territory” (Numbers
20:17).
In Isaiah, the
highway is sometimes translated as a causeway or raised road. It runs through the
desert, which is transformed into an attractive landscape. We are not told
where it goes, only who can and cannot be on it. No unclean person can be on
this road. The prophet tells us that the unclean disqualified themselves by
failure to use the means of grace. Those walking in grace availed themselves to
grace. Whoever walks on this highway, even the simple and the fool, shall not
stray.
Later, John the
Baptist referred to such a highway leading to the Lord in his preaching.
Referring to himself as a voice crying out in the wilderness, he said to the
people, “Prepare the Lord's highway.” Luke elaborated on John’s
prophesying by writing, “Make his paths straight. Every valley shall be
filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall
become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, and all flesh
shall see the salvation of God” (3:4-6).
In Mark, we find Bartimaeus,
the blind beggar, sitting by the highway side begging as Jesus and his
disciples were leaving Jericho (10:46ff.). In Luke, we hear in the Parable of
the Great Banquet the master instructing his servant, “Go out to the
highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled.
For I tell you none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.”
(14:23-24). And in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught, “You can enter
God's Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and
its gate is wide for the many who choose that way” (Matthew 7:13).
I suggest that the
next time you are driving on any highway to recall this. God does not want us
winding our way through a mountainous desert on a pothole-filled, two-lane road
where drug lords rule. He wants us to come to him with pleasant companions on a
four-lane highway through a garden spot where each new view is more charming
than the last. This is what God promises to those who will abandon their trust
in humanity and hurl themselves on him.[1]
We exit the
highway and enter the wilderness. Throughout my years, I have travelled to some
wild places. Driving through western Utah and Nevada, across New Mexico and
west Texas, I wondered why anyone would live here? Travelling through the Holy
Land and the Badlands, I wondered the same question. Even a couple of trips
into the bush in Ecuador and Venezuela left me wondering the same. Then I
realized after looking up the etymology of the word that I own a piece of the
wilderness. The wilderness is a wild, uninhabited, or uncultivated place. The
word in Old English is wild-deor, meaning wild animal or wild deer. I
can see the wild deer emerge from the steep banks behind my house.
The word
wilderness appears nearly 400 times in the Bible, and in almost every book.
From Genesis when Joseph’s brothers throw him into a cistern in the wilderness
to the mention of Mary fleeing into the wilderness in the Book of Revelation,
wilderness has played a significant part in God’s plan of salvation. After
feeding thousands, Jesus reminded the people that their ancestors ate bread in
the wilderness (John 6:49). John the Baptist lived and preached in the
wilderness, and following his baptism by John the Holy Spirit led Jesus into
the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. The wilderness is spoken of in Acts
by Stephen and Paul (chs 7 and 13).
The wilderness is
a physical place, but it can also be a symbolic place. You may be isolated from
others. That is your wilderness. You may be constantly exposed by evil. That is
your wilderness. Then again, as the Prophet Hosea reminds us, the wilderness
may be a place where God calls you and speaks tenderly to your heart (2:14).
That wilderness attracts you and you should go there to experience intimacy
with God.
The desert
wilderness is where the early roots of Christian monasticism are found. Christian
hermits and ascetics, who lived primarily in the desert of Egypt, beginning
around the Year 270. Anthony the Great heard a Sunday sermon stating that
perfection could be achieved by selling all of one's possessions, giving the
proceeds to the poor, and following Jesus. He followed the advice and made the
further step of moving deep into the desert to seek complete solitude. Anthony
and other Christians lived in the desert wilderness during the Diocletian
Persecution, the last great formal persecution of Christians in the Roman
Empire, beginning in 303 AD. Only ten years later, Christianity was made legal
in Egypt by Diocletian's successor Constantine I. I am not suggesting you leave
everything behind and move to the desert, but you should find a place, even in
your own home, where you can be alone with God.
Personally, even
though I spend the first hours of the morning praying, reading, studying and
working on my sermons, I love the time outside where I hear nothing but the
songs of birds and feel the breeze of the wind. Now, let me segue to my third
point, Waiting.
Advent is a time
of waiting. Sometimes, we wait longer than other times. Advent always has four
Sunday, but this year, our Advent Season is a full four weeks. Today, we
literally mark the midpoint of Advent by lighting the pink candle of the Advent
wreathe, but much more importantly, by observing Gaudete Sunday. Today’s pink
color is an ancient symbol expressing joy. So, we wait with joy in our hearts
for the Christmas Season to begin and for the Second Coming of Christ.
While we wait, we
do all the things necessary for the birth of any child. We stay busy, and as we
engage in activities as a mother, father, sibling or grandparent, we also
ponder thoughts, feel emotions, pray and work. When the moment of new life
finally arrives, we behold the child.
Behold. Behold is
not a word we us very often. It means to see or observe, and we favor those
words over the archaic behold. It is used quite often in the Bible, almost 2000
times. In our study of Isaiah several weeks ago, the word behold is used three
times in two verses in chapter 62. My study led me to the musings of John
Oswalt, one of America’s leading scholars on Isaiah. He wrote how we all find
ourselves in a situation where we are completely abandoned and rejected and
then, unaccountably welcomed and taken in. If you have ever felt that, you
should read Isaiah 62.
When Oswalt was in
college, he admired a pretty, witty, popular girl in his speech class. The
professor assigned each student a partner, and the assignment was to assess the
personality of another class member through what we project while speaking.
They were to share their observations with each other privately. Well, you
guessed it, Oswalt was partnered with the girl he admired.
Upon learning this
Oswalt wrote, “I can hardly describe the terror I felt. I knew that she was
going to fillet me like a fish. I knew that when she finished with me, I would
be able to slither out under the door of the room without opening it.” Then, he
said, “To my surprise yet today, she singled out trait after trait of mine that
she found attractive and compelling. She handled areas that needed improvement
with tact and insight. In fact, when I left the room, I could have floated out
the window. She had found some things in me that were valuable. I have never
forgotten that gift.”
Oswalt’s point is
that is what God does to each one of us. God says that he sees worth and value
in you. In You! God wants to be with us because he likes us and that we are
important to him. This is so because of who God is. “Because God is the kind of
person he is, he is able to see all things in us that lie buried beneath layers
of sin and shame. He is able to see possibilities where nothing but failure
would be perceived by anyone else. But even more than that, he is able to
uncover those hidden things, to let loose those possibilities, because he has
taken all the failure, the sin, and the shame into himself. He is able to not
only show us what there is but to set it free. He is able to give each of us on
a cosmic and eternal level the kind of gift that girl gave me so many years ago
in speech class.”[2]
Behold, the child
of God this Christmas. See in that child one who will uncover hidden things in
you; one who will let loose possibilities in you. See in that child one who
takes all your failures, your sins, and your shame into himself. Behold, the
child of God. Behold, the Son of God! My friends, as you wait for Christ’s
Second Coming and Christmas, behold the wonder of God within you, and when you
do, may the peace of God keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, Amen.
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