Sermon "Under Construction"
Rev. Lonnie Richardson
Sunday, December 6, 1998
Under Construction
A recent survey of parents discovered that the three most dreaded words at Christmas time are, "some assembly required." I can relate to that. Now when I was growing up, however, the two most dreaded words for us at any time were, "company's comin!" Those little words dropped like bombs in our house, sending us into panic, confusion, and frenzied activity. We had to dust, sweep every inch of the house - even the porch, mop the floors. Mom spent hours preparing meals. We had to take a bath, even if we didn't need one. We had to get the house ready, get ourselves ready, and even the yard. It had to be mowed or raked. Any holes our dog had dug we had to fill back up. Any trash lying around had to be picked up and thrown away. Why? Cause company's coming.
Things haven't change much. Our house gets a little crazy when the phone rings and someone shouts, "Company's coming." Bet it's the same at your house, for when company's coming, you've got things to do. You've got to prepare for them. If I had to sum up part of John the Baptist's message, it would be, "Company's coming. Get ready." That company was Christ, the Messiah of God.
John came as the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, saying, "Prepare a road for the Lord; make a straight path for him to travel" (Matthew 3:3). There was a custom in those days, I am told, that when the people of a village learned an important person was coming to town, they would go out on the path or road on which this person would be traveling. They would pick up sticks, trash, toss away rocks, fill any potholes. In other words, they would "prepare a road" or "make a straight path" for that person so that nothing would obstruct his coming to their town. It was their way of rolling out the red carpet or getting ready for company.
John saw his job as helping them prepare the roads for the coming of the most important person of all - the Messiah. But John didn't want the people out on the road, picking up trash and filling holes. The road he wanted to help them clear was the one to the core of your inner being. It is as if he was saying, "Messiah is coming. Get your road ready. Not the road to your village but the road to your heart. Clear it of anything and everything that would be an obstacle to his coming. Don't let anything get in his way." This is one of our mottoes at First Congregational Church, it's on the cover of your worship bulletin each week, ... "helping people connect with God," we do this year round.
How does this Christmas find the road to your personal core values? Chances are there are some potholes, boulders, small trees, partial obstacles that would keep the Christ child from coming more fully into our lives. They are the things we do or do not do that make it more difficult to experience his coming. They are those habits, attitudes, that keep us from being as we know he wants us to be. There are robbers on this road. They rob us of the intimacy, the peace that comes when the Prince of Peace is allowed to come unobstructed into our lives. Life on this road ready is a process of always being under construction.
John the Baptist cries out to us, "Get your road ready!" If you're going to do road work, you've got to have tools for clearing the road. John the Baptist recommends one tool - the tool of repentance. It comes with a handle that fits all hands. Everyone can use it. Everyone needs to use it. There is no tool better suited for preparing the road of your heart for the Christ child this Christmas.
Repentance is simply being honest with ourselves and God. It is facing the truth about ourselves - that we can't do it alone, we need help on the construction crew, we need a savior.
Repentance is not just seeing myself as missing the mark or feeling sorry for myself. It is not wanting to hurt the Father anymore. It's turning from those ways that rebel and move me away from God. It's doing away with the trash, filling the potholes, sawing the fallen trees into pieces and casting them aside. It's replacing all the things I do that keep God away with that which opens the path, that makes it easier for God to come more fully into my life. It's committing, really committing myself to talking and listening with God through prayer; it's regularly reading and studying the scriptures; it's making giving of my talents and money for God's work a high priority; it's not forsaking the gathering of God's people for worship and praise; it's trying to genuinely follow the teaching of Christ in my daily life.
Where are you on this road less traveled? Perhaps you have seen along side roads a sign that says this road has been adopted by some group or individual. It's the adopt a highway program. These persons freely volunteer to keep that road clean. I see them out there walking along the road, picking up trash. I saw a group one day with brooms sweeping off the grass and leaves. Advent is a season of preparation, of sweeping the road to our hearts clean, for the Christ is coming. It's a time to adopt the trail that God has blazed. To get out your broom, your trash bag and with God's help sweep aside and get rid of anything that makes it more difficult for Christ to come closer to you this Christmas.
It's interesting that many people this year will go to the
church of the nativity in Bethlehem which is supposedly built
over the place where Jesus was born. They have a little crib set
up on that spot, but it's actually in a small cave. And in order
to get to it, you have to bend very low. That, my friends, is the
message today. To get to the Christ child or better yet to allow
the Christ child to come to us, we must bend low in repentance.
That's how it begins under construction.
