Hebrew
Testament Malachi 3:1-4
Epistle Reading Philippians
1:3-11
Gospel Reading Luke 3:1-6
Sermon: ”A New Kind of Peace”
We have an interesting collection
of scriptures to unpack today. First Malachi tells us a prophecy
that God will scrub us
clean and make us good as new.
The Hebrew testament and
Epistle readings
both use the word
“righteous”
and our Gospel lesson implies
it
what with making all the
valleys and mountains
equal to each other and
paths straight and smooth.
Today we are going to
talk about making everything right.
But first, before we can
do that,
we’re going to have to
find some peace.
An interesting project in
this day and time.
**************************
I had a memorable
encounter with this scripture
on one of my first visits
to Guatemala.
Over the 15 plus years I
made regular visits to the country
I watched the country’s
infrastructure improve gradually.
When I started going in
1999
the roads going up the
mountains were one lane dirt roads.
If it rained, the roads
were muddy and slippery.
If you met another
vehicle coming towards you,
one of you—the smaller
one—would have to back up
until there was room for
someone to pass.
These roads going up and
down and around the mountains
were steep and narrow and
dangerous.
It was what you could
legitimately call a spiritual experience because there was a lot of prayer
involved.
But the last time I was
there around 2018,
I started seeing two lane
concrete roads with guardrails.
To achieve this progress
in the last 20 years
there has been constant
chipping away at the mountains
and every time I am
reminded
of the John scripture we
read just now.
20 years of chipping away
at these mountains…….
and still they stand tall
as ever.
And every time I think to
myself,
“Does God really intend
for them all to be smoothed over—
like the earth was some
kind of a giant brown and green blob?
Does God really intend
for
“Every valley exalted and every mountain and
hill made low?”
Or is this a metaphor for
something else? If so, then what?
Does God intend for
everything to be equal?
Smooth? Fair?
The bible uses the word Righteous, and that word fascinates me.
What is righteous?
The dictionary defines it
as “what is morally right”
Is this the reason John
gives for Jesus to be on his way?
So…Will Jesus make things
Right?
What happens if what is right
for you isn’t what is right for me? But if it’s “morally right”
there can only be one
“morally right” way, correct?
And who gets to decide what
is morally right?
We are living in a
hair-trigger world right now
and everyone is on
edge.
And everyone is just
trying to make decisions
based on what they think
is the morally right thing to do.
On the surface, it seems
like our country is horribly divided
but if you look deep
down,
each one of us is really
trying our best
to decide what is the
morally right thing to do.
I had a conversation with
a friend this past week
about something that
happened in her church
during worship the
previous week.
And it happened right
here in Winnsboro.
My friend has a brother
who has some pretty
serious mental problems.
He’s been in mental
hospitals and in jail for them
and she and I have talked
about it before.
She knows that my own
sister was schizophrenic
and so we are able to sympathize
with each other
and speak openly and
honestly.
She said that her brother
walked into church
in the middle of worship looking
for her.
He appeared agitated and
was pacing back and forth.
He was also wearing a
coat.
Now, two things happened
at once.
My friend knew that he probably
wasn’t a danger to anyone.
He didn’t own a gun to
her knowledge, he never had.
He was probably hungry
and needed money.
He was looking for her
because he needed some money.
She figured that if she
just gave him some money
he would leave.
But the second thing that
was going on
in this hair-trigger and
morally righteous world
is that the men in the
church wanted
to protect the people in
worship.
What they saw walking
into their house of worship
wasn’t a mentally ill
brother of a member;
it was an agitated and
ill-kempt man wearing a coat
and they didn’t know what
he was hiding under that coat.
And my friend said these
men started patting their pockets
and their waists and
everywhere
she knew they had
concealed weapons on their bodies.
It was a recipe for
disaster
if her brother had unwittingly
made a wrong move
or one of our neighbors
had overreacted.
We live in a hair-trigger
world.
And we live in a world
where we are desperately
trying to be morally righteous.
Somehow, we are going to
have to find a way
to calm down enough
to avoid making some
really bad mistakes
by getting in a hurry.
There really is only one
morally right answer.
It is God’s answer but to
find that answer takes a long time.
I have been driving past
the same mountains in Guatemala
for twenty years and even
with road clearing equipment
the mountains are still
there.
John tells us that every
mountain will be made low
but he doesn’t say how
long it will take.
I get in a hurry
sometimes because I know that God has eternity
and think that I have
only my own lifetime to see things unfold the way I want to see them happen.
And I get really
frustrated.
You know what I need?
I need
Peace.
I just
spent the weekend at a Spiritual Retreat at Gilmont.
The focus of the weekend was Peace.
One of the last exercises
was to write a poem
answering the question:
“Where
am I yearning for peace?
How
might peace be invited in?
And
where is Christ in the midst of the space?”
Here’s my poem:
A deeply divided family of brothers and sisters
sit and argue without thinking how much harm
they are doing to their children and the world.
And how much they actually love each other.
Christ invites each one of them to supper with him
And they come
Each one thinking he loves them best
Before the meal he washes their feet
Then they eat from the same loaf
And drink from the same cup
And they are united once more.
Now that might sound like
a simple little poem.
But don’t be fooled by
communion.
In some cultures they
call it a Fiesta—a party!
A Feast!
In a few minutes we will
partake in a feast
prepared by Christ
himself –
a feast laid out 2,000
years ago that still hasn’t ended yet.
The table is STILL set
for us.
Christ is STILL the
host.
All is ready for us.
All that remains is for
us to receive the gift with joy.
Let us begin our
celebration with hymn #514….
“Let Us Talents and Tongues Employ”