December 4, 2011 - Advent II

Isaiah 40 1-11. Mark 1: 1-8

Do you ever get the feeling that the sun is beginning to set on our North American culture? Do you ever fear that our society has peaked and is on the downward slide and maybe even picking up speed? Do you ever feel like an exile in today's corruption plagued economic system? Isaiah knows the fear and despair that plague the souls of his people Exiled in Babylon.

So much has changed. How do we sing a new song in a foreign land?

There they languish far from home, far from the peace they need. And then Isaiah hears a message of comfort. "Comfort, O, comfort my people." The ordeal will soon be over: A voice calling in their wilderness. "Prepare the way of the Lord."
Some of us know the alienation of exile like Isaiah, as the need to come home to oneself, or one's family, or to have someone come home to us. Some might need the deep peace of homecoming just as Isaiah needed a message of comfort and a vision of return for his community in Babylon.

Fast-forward five hundred years: Mark knows another situation of destruction in Jerusalem, another time of facing deportation. He feels the uncertainty, the despair, the wondering of his fellow Christians. "What did we do to deserve this?" Mark begins to write out the gospel story for his community in their anxiety "What do we do now? How do we live faithfully now? Now, that the Romans have destroyed the Temple. Now that the city lies in ruin." He begins by connecting Isaiah's experience and vision with the story of John the Baptist and the coming out of Jesus.

Some of us know the unsettling feeling of an uncertain future or crumbling infrastructure complicating our lives. We know the fear of plant closing and job insecurity. Some of us face the shift to retirement or retirement homes with the change of status and/or loss of independence. We might feel uneasy in our skin because of how difficult it is to trust those in power these days. Add to this, the loss of status for the church and faith in God in Quebec. We might feel like something is missing or incomplete in our belief system in these challenging times, similar to the throngs of people streaming out to John the Baptist at the Jordan River so long ago.

What was needed then and is needed now, is the peace of repentance: The peace of letting go what needs to be let go of in the past and moving on in the present.

But, we resist. Better the devil we know than the angel we don't know. We hold on.
We hold on to the past abilities and attitudes and expectations long past their due date. We hold on long past their shelf life and wonder why things just are not working out right. I don't know about you, but when I'm holding on, when I'm white knuckling it peace is nowhere in sight.
The reality is, we can't always be in control. We can't always be the centre of attention. Generations replace generations. Our way isn't the only way.

In our resistance like Isaiah's community or like Mark's community, we build up hills of anger and can make mountains out of molehills. In our resistance we can dig out valleys of despair and hollows of victimization in which to wallow. In our resistance, we can create the uneven ground and the rough places of our acting out. In our resistance we all too often take the crooked path of avoidance. But we also know that being out of sorts and out of step gets us nowhere and rarely offers us peace.

We need to remember that letting go and letting God is at the heart of peace. Isaiah remembers it. Isaiah remembers that God's grace wins out in the end.

Isaiah hears the message of comfort. Isaiah hears the voice crying in their wilderness. "Prepare the way of the Lord, the highway for our God." Every crooked path of avoidance will be made straight. Every valley of despair and hollow of victimization will be lifted up. Every mountain and hill of anger will be made low. The uneven ground and rough places of our acting out will be made smooth.

Everything that keeps us stuck will be overcome. Everything we need for the deep peace of Advent to well up within, God will provide: When we stop holding on.
When we look around, and remember to let go of what needs to be let go of, we open up to the peace God offers. The word repentance simply means to stop what we are doing, look around and change our actions.

Mark remembers it. Mark remembers as he tells the story of John the Baptist, like a voice crying in another wilderness proclaiming a baptism of repentance, a baptism that lets go of what they were holding onto and lets God guide them in the present.

Mark tells how the people streamed out to John. But John points to another: to the one who could really get them going. John points to Jesus and Jesus points to God.

So lets get with the program. Lets stop holding on. Lets look around, and recognize God's abundant grace in the midst of our struggles. Lets remember God's comfort and care, that we might accept the peace of letting go and letting God this Advent.

Even during dark and uncertain times we can let go of our fears and resistance and let God comfort and direct us.


Application for Today:
I invite you to take a deep breath and close your eyes if you feel comfortable.
Be present to yourself within. (breathe)
You are not the receding past. (breathe)
You are not the gathering darkness and despair. (breathe)
You are not the loss of what once was or might be. (breathe)
You are one through whom God brings comfort and care. (breathe)
You are the light in gathering darkness. (breathe)
You are the peace that passes understanding. (breathe)
So let go and let God.
Amen.