Divine Road Construction

Luke 3:1-6

December 6, 2015

This gospel reading starts off in an interesting way.

Was Luke just focused on history?

Was he just putting us into right setting,

the proper time of Jesus ministry?

I think there’s more to it than that.

If we look at the names, we can see some similarities:

-Emperor Tiberius continued the typical Roman

Emperor’s mission of expanding the Empire to be

the largest in the history through military and economic might.

-Pontius Pilate, of course, would condemn Jesus to death.
-Herod was the Jewish king who consorted with the empire

and would kill anyone who was a threat to his power,

-Philip and Lysanias were part of the same family of

political and military strength that caused so much turmoil

in the life of the people.

-And Annas and Caiaphas  were the high priests who

sold out their beliefs in order to stay in good standing with Rome and maintain their power they would eventually be the ones to

arrest Jesus and turn him into Rome.

Each of these names represent the great powers that all tried

to stand in the way of the message of gospel.

This is the formidable deck that was stacked against Jesus in his life

laid out right in the beginning of the story.

But even with these stubborn, powerful obstacles –

all the power in the world at the time -

The word of God still comes down to John and

says “Prepare for the coming of the Lord.”

We live in a time now where the deck seems stacked

against God’s will and God’s reign.

The darkness seems to threaten the light at every turn

and there doesn’t seem to be any path forward.

We have stubborn obstacles in our time too.

I’m getting kind of tired of having to come

up here on Sunday and acknowledge another tragedy.

I kind of want to avoid it, but I can’t avoid it.

The gospels keep calling me to notice.

These tragedies lately seem to be all human-made tragedies.

Religious extremism, fanatics with guns, violent actions

against innocent unsuspecting people.

It seems like since they’re human made tragedies,

that humans should come up with a solution to all this.

but what could it be? I can’t figure it out.

Is it legislation, more force, gun control, more security?

Whenever I think it through

each of these solutions seems like it has

a road block in front of it.
It’s kind of like a prison that we’ve created

little by little around us, that we can’t seem

to figure out how to dismantle and get out of.

We can’t even decide on what to do in order

to get it started. Stubborn powerful obstacles.

Every time I think about it I want to

throw my hands up and give up.

The situation seems hopeless.

And along with this situation of terrorism

The Big Dig, Boston, MA
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 gun violence, there seems to be

hundreds of other huge and complicated situations

that seem impossible to unravel.

No solution on the horizon,

no agreement, no way forward at all.

The situations seem hopeless. The job seems too big.

Almost like laying a mountain low

and filling a valley up.

almost seems impossible.

This is what the gospel tells us this is the kind of

work we have in store for us as people of God.

Prepare the way of the Lord.

Make the paths straight.

I don’t think that John talking about

road construction literally,

but it’s a good metaphor for us.

Even now, with power tools and heavy machinery,

building a road where there was none

is kind of an overwhelming project

before it’s started and as its going.

I mean just fixing that High street /270 mess up in Worthington

is taking at least three years  to construct

and includes a trench - Ohio’s first ever,

but this isn’t even near the largest road construction project,

like the big dig in Boston which included a tunnel

dug under the city of Boston and Boston Harbor.

They started planning in 1982 and sort of finished in 2007

that’s 25 years!

I know some of you do this or have done this for a living,

but I can’t even imagine how anyone

has the will and the focus to even

start the plans for something like that.

The obstacles must seem overwhelming,

and every solution brings up another problem.

It’s pretty audacious to even embark on that kind of project.

And just imagine what it was like

in bible times, to build a road from

one city to another, without power tools

and gas powered machines.

Just to dig by hand with shovels and wheel barrows.

  

Doing God’s will on earth is like building a road.

There are no quick solutions,

no magical fixes, no one-day projects.

The scripture writers knew about

hopeless situations and difficult problems

and insurmountable situations.

They knew that it seemed like moving mountains.

Like filling in valleys.

But they also know that with God there is hope.

God will get this done,

but for some reason God doesn’t want to do it alone.

As the great theologian John Dominic Crossan said,

"We're waiting for an intervention and God is waiting for collaboration."

John calls out and he makes the wilderness

a place of hope.

He says that the mountains will be

made low and the valleys will be filled.

The road will be built.

You see, even when we have doubt in ourselves,

God still has hope in us.

God chooses us: flawed normal sinners

God chooses the wild man in the wilderness,

the unwed young girl in Galilee

and all of us and has great expectations for us.

God doesn’t have another back up plan,

God’s plan is us -- humanity,

the people and things of this earth.

God wants to use us, our skills and gifts

ingenuity to make that road

to move the mountains and raise the valleys.

We might not know how we fit in

to the big picture, but following God’s

ways of forgiveness and justice and love

we can be part of the solution.

“Getting Ready”  for the coming of God

means knowing what our gifts are,

listening for the ways that God

is calling us to work and to help out.

Seeing what God is doing in the world

and being ready to jump in when we find it.

It also means having hope even when

it seems like there’s no reason to have it.

So in December 2015,

in a time of struggle and trial,

when there was terrorism and violence,

when there was corruption and polarization,

when we seemed divided and estranged

and there were floods and drought

and cancer and heart disease and poverty and hunger,

During a time of seemingly great darkness,

and great obstacles-

The word of God is coming down to you and to me

at Gethsemane Lutheran church

And it’s saying “Get ready,

all flesh will see the salvation of the Lord.”