Comfort
ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her,
that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity
is pardoned.
The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness;
prepare ye the way of the Lord;
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
These words from the prophet
Isaiah are the first words we hear in that great piece
of music by Handel, Messiah. The tenor voice grabs our
hearts and minds as he sings the phrases of comfort and
preparation. These words John the Baptizer also proclaims
to the downtrodden people of Israel. The Gospels of Matthew,
Mark and Luke all record something like this, “This
is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said,
"The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: "Prepare
the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.' "
Prepare the way. Get ready.
Something very important is about to happen.
Right at the moment as I write
(well before publication date), it is snowing outside.
For two to three days before this cold weather descended,
weather forecasters and news reporters loudly proclaimed,
“It’s coming. Get ready. Cover your plants,
winterize your houses and cars, make sure you’ve
got some extra food and flashlights and candles, pull
out the warm blankets.” In other words, “prepare
the way!” For those who have resources, this kind
of preparation is fairly easy and kind of fun—a
little shopping, haul in some extra firewood, mostly for
ambiance but also for the gentle warmth it provides, change
the filter in the furnace, and find the winter sweaters
and down comforters that have not needed to be pulled
out before.
For those who don’t have
resources, what is a minor inconvenience and often fun
experience becomes a little more complicated—or
even life-threatening. The homeless, the financially hard-hit
who have not been able to keep up with rising utility
costs, those who live in uninsulated or poorly insulated
housing, those who don’t have a ready stock of winter
coverings to wrap themselves in—yes, for those,
the task of “preparing the way” is daunting,
perhaps even impossible.
And so I consider the words
of preparation from Isaiah, from John the Baptizer, the
words that Handel set to such haunting music, the words
that the weather forecasters have been shouting for days.
I wonder how many of us have the resources to “prepare
the way” in our hearts and souls. Because of our
cultural tendency to just skip over this period and move
immediately from fall festivals to Christmas, the glory
of the Christmas message, “A Savior has been born!
Glory to God, Peace on Earth,” tends to fall on
unprepared souls. Both Isaiah and John declare, “Make
straight the road in the desert!” And that is such
hard work, for the desert of which they spoke is one littered
with rocks and boulders, heavy barriers, seemingly unmovable,
looking impossible.
What are some of those rocks
and boulders that we need to consider moving out of the
way so that we are well-prepared for the joy of Christmas?
This list immediately springs to mind: entitlement, selfishness,
destructive gossip, worry, unrelenting despair, hateful
hearts, wells of bitterness, greed, immorality, hypocrisy,
jealousies, living solidly in the midst of the double-standard
so that we give ourselves permission to do what we condemn
others for doing. These are part of the human condition.
But many people I know are stuck with them because they
have not acquired the resources to move these rocks and
boulders out of the way so that the King of Kings and
Lord of Lords might find a straight path into their hearts.
Most are not easily moved—they have been in the
ground a long time, and we’ve just figured out how
to live with them and walk around them. The easy way out.
The call of God is not the easy way, but it is the transforming
way.
