"Now Entering God's Construction Zone"

Sermon 12.06.09
Now Entering God’s Construction Zone

If you were to be sitting in a doctor’s office in the year 30 AD and paging through a copy of People Magazine, it is highly likely that you would find news about the people mentioned in today’s gospel text from Luke. One page might contain a picture of Emperor Tiberius on his way to an official royal event, another might show Herod chasing a new girlfriend. There would be photos taken at a party attended by Pontius Pilate and Lysanias, plus new book reviews of texts written by Caiphas and Annas. The only person not to be found in the pages of People magazine would be John the Baptist. John is the single most important individual in this passage, and apparently, he’s missing all the action.

John the Baptist is in the margins of the Advent season as well. Most of us love the pictures of Mary and Joseph with the babe in a manger. Some of you will send out cards depicting angels singing Glory to God in the highest. Even the Wise Men are a featured staple. But John the Baptist is not. I dare you to go into a Hallmark store this week and ask them where they have their John the Baptist greeting cards. You can get a card saying you’re sorry that a neighbor’s dog has heartburn, but there is no section for New Testament Prophets at the drugstore.

The problem is both the message AND the messenger. John is rude, crude and has a socially embarrassing attitude. The other gospel texts reveal that he lived alone in the desert eating locusts and honey and wearing a rough woolen garment. It’s certainly not an image that says “Holiday greetings”. He goes from town to town preaching a baptism of repentence. He’s a big pain in the butt for the religious authorities.

The message that he brings does not sound cheerful, upbeat, or jolly. “Get your act together” is what he tells the people. We really want to hear “Happy Holidays” or “Merry Christmas” or “Seasons Greetings” and here is a man who has the audacity to dash all of our jovial spirits.

The image that his uses is that of road construction, a hugely important task in the Roman empire: “Prepare the way of the Lord.” He tells the people that the path needs to be smooth. Mountains and hills need to be leveled, valleys are to be filled in. Anything that’s rough or crooked should be fixed.

We can all identify with these images. Our streets are continually being repaved, bridges are being rebuilt to meet safety standards, highway directional signals are repainted regularly and the traffic cone may as well be the state symbol.

But the roads that John talks about are the roads to our hearts, which need to be made straight to Jesus. All of us could use a little construction work at this time of the year.

Some of our paths are full of ruts from doing the same selfish deeds over and over again. Some of our lanes are constantly backed up due to our own pig-headedness in thinking that we own the road. Some of our driveways are too steep when we think that we are the most important people living on the top of the hill.

Some of us need to do repair work on the potholes that we have made in our relationships with co-workers, friends or neighbors. Occasionally, we’ve got to block the street to take care of a water main break or a sinkhole that has completely shut off the path when we have distanced ourselves from a loved one.

The bottom line is that John calls for everyone to put on a yellow hard hat and get to work on whatever it is that needs fixing because the Lord is coming, and it shouldn’t be a rough ride. He preaches a baptism of repentance in a season where the last thing on our minds is spiritual reconstruction. It’s no wonder that he wasn’t in that issue of People magazine.

How do we fix our roads and prepare our paths? How do we make the route ready for the coming King? The apostle Paul mentions one way in his message to the Philippians: He says, “And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.”

An increase of love might be the blacktop that is needed. A heart that is pure and blameless might be a fresh coat of macadam. The harvest of righteousness might be a small backhoe to attack our apathy, our prejudices, our willingness to look the other way when justice is not being carried out.

Road work is not easy. It takes pure strength and concentration to the task at hand. It takes place in all kinds of weather, there is always the potential to be hurt by an accident with the equipment, or even when a car careens by above the posted speed limit. It means that when there’s a blizzard and everyone is inside relaxing with their hot cocoa, you need to go out in the snow and pave the way.

Making our hearts ready to pave the way for the infant King and Lord of Lords is John’s message, whether we like to hear it or not. To be honest, most of us already have enough to do at this time of year, and would prefer to sub-contract all this road work out to somebody else. Christmas is a time of great preparation, and Lord knows, we don’t want to add sweaty, soul-searching to our already overloaded calendar.

But if we don’t repair the road, our spirits will suffer. You can only ride on ruts for so long before the shock absorbers will give out on the car. The time is coming, John the Baptist says in verse 6, “for all flesh to see the salvation of God.” Do we really want to welcome the Christ Child with a road full of detours and lane closures.


The good news from this morning’s gospel is that we will always have road work with us. It’s not seasonal, it never ends, and there are enough worksites for everyone to be busy.

Make yourselves ready this season by doing the necessary work to spiritually reconnect the path between your heart and the true reason for the season. Make a commitment to get out there and take care of whatever construction is necessary to clear the road and make it level and even. The coming of the Savior draws near; pick up your tools, punch in at the time clock and get on the Lord’s payroll. Put in some overtime if you need to. But get the roadwork done. Amen