Prepare For Arrival
Sermon
It's News To Me: Messages of Hope for Those Who Haven't Heard
Cycle A Gospel Sermons For Advent, Christmas, Epiphany
Have you ever been on a plane and heard the captain tell the cabin crew to "prepare for arrival"? That announcement lets everyone know that the plane is approaching the gate, and the doors are about to open. When the passengers hear it, they immediately start to gather their belongings, put on coats, and prepare to de-plane.
That's like almost everything else in life. Virtually anything we do requires some sort of preparation and getting ready. On a plane we have to prepare the doors and the cabin for take-off and arrival. In school, we have to prepare our homework. We have to study in preparation for final exams, and we have to prepare the house and the meal before guests arrive. If we happen to be expecting a baby, we have to prepare the nursery, as well as preparing ourselves mentally, physically, and emotionally for what's about to happen. At this time of year, we have to make all our preparations in order to be ready for Christmas.
However, the reality is that we are not always ready when Christmas or any other major event happens in our lives. That was the case with us when our daughter Erin arrived. Erin is adopted, so her arrival was a bit more difficult to predict. We had been through all the infertility studies, and had decided to pursue the adoption route. However, this was at a time when it was becoming increasingly difficult to adopt, and the waiting lists were three or more years long! We made all the necessary contacts, and then began the task of waiting for the event to happen. Because it seemed so far away, we didn't even think about doing any preparations for fear we'd be disappointed. Instead, I kept on teaching (my first career), and we began planning our next trip.
A few months later, just four days after Christmas vacation, at the end of a very long day of school, I was told that I had a phone call, and that my husband Mike had called and was on his way to the school. That seemed strange to me, because I knew he had just gone into a three-day planning session at his company. As soon as I got downstairs, picked up the phone, and heard the name of the caller, I knew what was going on. In disbelief, I heard the words, "We have a baby daughter for you. She was born yesterday, is very healthy, and she can be in your arms tomorrow. All you have to do is say, 'Yes,' and oh -- by the way, you need to have a name for her."
Those next 24 hours were a whirlwind! We called our families; we called friends who had adopted a child just three months before for recommendations for a pediatrician, and for ideas about what we needed to get. They said, "Meet us at Ayr-way"-- our forerunner of Target -- "in thirty minutes," which we did, and then watched in amazement as they filled our shopping cart and steered us to the check-out lane.
Within 24 hours and 30 minutes of that original phone call, we had our beautiful daughter, Erin, in our arms. However, we were ill prepared to be parents! When we finally made our way home, we didn't have anywhere to put this precious child. I had called a friend who'd had a baby a year or so earlier, and she offered a cradle that would work for a while. But when we first walked in the door, there we were -- the three of us -- and very little else. After a few minutes, the doorbell started to ring and a baby cradle and baby things began to arrive, along with friends who turned out to be a big help! I had no idea how to make formula, so somebody was in the kitchen doing that, and others were helping get things set up in the little room upstairs where Erin was to sleep.
As you can imagine, we were totally exhausted by the time that day was over, and we collapsed and slept soundly -- it never occurring to us that babies wake up in the night and want something to eat! Thank goodness our friends from Chicago had arrived and were spending the night, because Carol heard Erin crying, fed her, changed her, and put her back to bed, and we never heard a thing! It's a miracle she's made it to adulthood and the gracious young woman she is, because she certainly has had a set of parents who were poorly prepared for the task!
Our experience certainly flies in the face of the Bible passage for this morning which is talking about preparing and getting ready. In this passage, John the Baptist is paving the way for Jesus. He got people's attention and tried to prepare them for the arrival of the Savior. He's telling the people of that day and ours to "prepare the way for the Lord." In telling his listeners to prepare the way and make the path straight, he was echoing the words of the prophet Isaiah whom we read about in the Hebrew writings. He was making a reference to something people of the time would have understood.
The message as it came from Isaiah was to remind people of the necessity of preparing the roads for the coming of a king or ruler who would lead them. I guess in some ways the preparation needed for the arrival of a king then would be like a city getting ready for the arrival of the President today. Every detail of the President's itinerary is carefully crafted to make sure everything goes as smoothly and as safely as possible.
There were a couple of things the people of John the Baptist's time needed to do to get ready for the leader's arrival. They were to prepare the roads by clearing them of obstacles like boulders or stones that were in the way, and they were to smooth out all the bumps and dips that made the ride so rough and bumpy.
We can probably get a good idea of what those roads might have been like if we just think back to what happens around here in the early spring. After the cold and snow of winter, our streets are a mess with potholes and broken pavement everywhere. Our worst roads probably would seem like floating on a cloud compared to the roads of that day! The roads were terrible, and travel was rugged. To be asked to prepare the way for the king meant making the path smooth and less blocked and cluttered with obstacles.
In the same way that John the Baptist called on the people of his time to do whatever they needed to do to prepare for the arrival of the one they had been waiting for, he is doing the same thing for each of us even today. John the Baptist would urge us to do whatever we need to do to prepare for the arrival of the one we've been hearing about and looking for -- the one who promises to change life as we know it.
We're encouraged to get ready for his coming, but even so, I would guess that most of us aren't there. We're simply not ready. The truth is that just in the same way that Erin surprised us by coming when we least expected, so it is with God. God's blessings often come to us in unexpected ways, at unexpected times, and in unexpected places, and it's easy to miss out if we're not ready. How is it possible to be totally prepared? What if we don't think we're really ready for the unexpected, for the surprising, for the wonderful things that God brings to our lives?
I'd like to suggest a couple of things we can do to get ready for Christmas this year, and they have nothing to do with trimming the tree. They're very basic, and the first has to do with being willing to say, "Yes," to whatever new and surprising comes into our lives. I hate to think what our lives would have been like had I said to that caller on that Thursday in January of 1975, "Oh, we can't... after all we don't have the nursery ready, and we have a trip planned."
I'm so glad we said, "Yes," and I've learned a lesson from that. You and I may never feel ready enough, or good enough, or worthy enough for anything as overwhelming as God's unconditional love, but that's not the way God sees it. God offers it anyway, and we just have to say, "Yes," and accept it. It's a gift, freely given, and it's for you and for me. Being ready for Christmas really is about being ready to say, "Yes," and accept the surprises that come to us during this Christmas season.
There's a second thing I'd like to suggest when it comes to trying to prepare for Christmas, and that's the necessity of learning to slow down and stop and look and listen. It's a matter of being open and ready to see what is in front of us. Sometimes we just need to take a deep breath in the midst of all the hustle and bustle, and relax and let God in.
Maybe when we're in the middle of the mall, totally overwhelmed with a long shopping list and crowded stores, that just might be the moment we need to take a time-out. Perhaps we could get a cup of coffee and just sit down and observe the people around us. Maybe we could actually listen to the Christmas carols playing through the sound system, and remember what it's all about.
Sometimes God breaks through to us in some unexpected and surprising ways, and we just need to be open to receive. That happened to me during Erin's very first Christmas. It was Christmas Eve morning, and I had been out running some errands. As I was on my way home, I had the radio on in the car, and the station I was listening to was playing Christmas carols.
I was really only half-listening to the songs, but suddenly I became aware that "Silent Night" was playing, and I began singing along. Before I realized what was happening, I was overcome with emotion, and the tears began running down my cheeks. I was so taken with the words of that carol that I had to pull my car off the road until I could recover. I wasn't sure what was going on, and it wasn't until much later that I began to realize what had happened. God had broken through to me, and the truth of the Christmas message became real in a way it had never been before. In those moments, I experienced God's breaking into my little world in a surprising and beautiful way.
The truth is that you and I may never feel we're totally ready for Christmas, but our preparations really have nothing to do with the shopping and the wrapping and the decorating. Getting ready for Christmas is really about slowing down and preparing our hearts to say, "Yes," to God's incredible love.
Closing Word
My husband has a habit that I'm trying to acquire. When we fly into a different time zone, he always sets his watch to the time at our destination. That helps us start living in that time zone. I really think that's the way it is when it comes to Christmas. Maybe we need to set our clock to Christmas Time, and be prepared to live in this wondrous moment.
As you leave here this morning, know that the love of Christmas is all around us. Live in the midst of it; be prepared to receive it, and go in peace. Amen.
That's like almost everything else in life. Virtually anything we do requires some sort of preparation and getting ready. On a plane we have to prepare the doors and the cabin for take-off and arrival. In school, we have to prepare our homework. We have to study in preparation for final exams, and we have to prepare the house and the meal before guests arrive. If we happen to be expecting a baby, we have to prepare the nursery, as well as preparing ourselves mentally, physically, and emotionally for what's about to happen. At this time of year, we have to make all our preparations in order to be ready for Christmas.
However, the reality is that we are not always ready when Christmas or any other major event happens in our lives. That was the case with us when our daughter Erin arrived. Erin is adopted, so her arrival was a bit more difficult to predict. We had been through all the infertility studies, and had decided to pursue the adoption route. However, this was at a time when it was becoming increasingly difficult to adopt, and the waiting lists were three or more years long! We made all the necessary contacts, and then began the task of waiting for the event to happen. Because it seemed so far away, we didn't even think about doing any preparations for fear we'd be disappointed. Instead, I kept on teaching (my first career), and we began planning our next trip.
A few months later, just four days after Christmas vacation, at the end of a very long day of school, I was told that I had a phone call, and that my husband Mike had called and was on his way to the school. That seemed strange to me, because I knew he had just gone into a three-day planning session at his company. As soon as I got downstairs, picked up the phone, and heard the name of the caller, I knew what was going on. In disbelief, I heard the words, "We have a baby daughter for you. She was born yesterday, is very healthy, and she can be in your arms tomorrow. All you have to do is say, 'Yes,' and oh -- by the way, you need to have a name for her."
Those next 24 hours were a whirlwind! We called our families; we called friends who had adopted a child just three months before for recommendations for a pediatrician, and for ideas about what we needed to get. They said, "Meet us at Ayr-way"-- our forerunner of Target -- "in thirty minutes," which we did, and then watched in amazement as they filled our shopping cart and steered us to the check-out lane.
Within 24 hours and 30 minutes of that original phone call, we had our beautiful daughter, Erin, in our arms. However, we were ill prepared to be parents! When we finally made our way home, we didn't have anywhere to put this precious child. I had called a friend who'd had a baby a year or so earlier, and she offered a cradle that would work for a while. But when we first walked in the door, there we were -- the three of us -- and very little else. After a few minutes, the doorbell started to ring and a baby cradle and baby things began to arrive, along with friends who turned out to be a big help! I had no idea how to make formula, so somebody was in the kitchen doing that, and others were helping get things set up in the little room upstairs where Erin was to sleep.
As you can imagine, we were totally exhausted by the time that day was over, and we collapsed and slept soundly -- it never occurring to us that babies wake up in the night and want something to eat! Thank goodness our friends from Chicago had arrived and were spending the night, because Carol heard Erin crying, fed her, changed her, and put her back to bed, and we never heard a thing! It's a miracle she's made it to adulthood and the gracious young woman she is, because she certainly has had a set of parents who were poorly prepared for the task!
Our experience certainly flies in the face of the Bible passage for this morning which is talking about preparing and getting ready. In this passage, John the Baptist is paving the way for Jesus. He got people's attention and tried to prepare them for the arrival of the Savior. He's telling the people of that day and ours to "prepare the way for the Lord." In telling his listeners to prepare the way and make the path straight, he was echoing the words of the prophet Isaiah whom we read about in the Hebrew writings. He was making a reference to something people of the time would have understood.
The message as it came from Isaiah was to remind people of the necessity of preparing the roads for the coming of a king or ruler who would lead them. I guess in some ways the preparation needed for the arrival of a king then would be like a city getting ready for the arrival of the President today. Every detail of the President's itinerary is carefully crafted to make sure everything goes as smoothly and as safely as possible.
There were a couple of things the people of John the Baptist's time needed to do to get ready for the leader's arrival. They were to prepare the roads by clearing them of obstacles like boulders or stones that were in the way, and they were to smooth out all the bumps and dips that made the ride so rough and bumpy.
We can probably get a good idea of what those roads might have been like if we just think back to what happens around here in the early spring. After the cold and snow of winter, our streets are a mess with potholes and broken pavement everywhere. Our worst roads probably would seem like floating on a cloud compared to the roads of that day! The roads were terrible, and travel was rugged. To be asked to prepare the way for the king meant making the path smooth and less blocked and cluttered with obstacles.
In the same way that John the Baptist called on the people of his time to do whatever they needed to do to prepare for the arrival of the one they had been waiting for, he is doing the same thing for each of us even today. John the Baptist would urge us to do whatever we need to do to prepare for the arrival of the one we've been hearing about and looking for -- the one who promises to change life as we know it.
We're encouraged to get ready for his coming, but even so, I would guess that most of us aren't there. We're simply not ready. The truth is that just in the same way that Erin surprised us by coming when we least expected, so it is with God. God's blessings often come to us in unexpected ways, at unexpected times, and in unexpected places, and it's easy to miss out if we're not ready. How is it possible to be totally prepared? What if we don't think we're really ready for the unexpected, for the surprising, for the wonderful things that God brings to our lives?
I'd like to suggest a couple of things we can do to get ready for Christmas this year, and they have nothing to do with trimming the tree. They're very basic, and the first has to do with being willing to say, "Yes," to whatever new and surprising comes into our lives. I hate to think what our lives would have been like had I said to that caller on that Thursday in January of 1975, "Oh, we can't... after all we don't have the nursery ready, and we have a trip planned."
I'm so glad we said, "Yes," and I've learned a lesson from that. You and I may never feel ready enough, or good enough, or worthy enough for anything as overwhelming as God's unconditional love, but that's not the way God sees it. God offers it anyway, and we just have to say, "Yes," and accept it. It's a gift, freely given, and it's for you and for me. Being ready for Christmas really is about being ready to say, "Yes," and accept the surprises that come to us during this Christmas season.
There's a second thing I'd like to suggest when it comes to trying to prepare for Christmas, and that's the necessity of learning to slow down and stop and look and listen. It's a matter of being open and ready to see what is in front of us. Sometimes we just need to take a deep breath in the midst of all the hustle and bustle, and relax and let God in.
Maybe when we're in the middle of the mall, totally overwhelmed with a long shopping list and crowded stores, that just might be the moment we need to take a time-out. Perhaps we could get a cup of coffee and just sit down and observe the people around us. Maybe we could actually listen to the Christmas carols playing through the sound system, and remember what it's all about.
Sometimes God breaks through to us in some unexpected and surprising ways, and we just need to be open to receive. That happened to me during Erin's very first Christmas. It was Christmas Eve morning, and I had been out running some errands. As I was on my way home, I had the radio on in the car, and the station I was listening to was playing Christmas carols.
I was really only half-listening to the songs, but suddenly I became aware that "Silent Night" was playing, and I began singing along. Before I realized what was happening, I was overcome with emotion, and the tears began running down my cheeks. I was so taken with the words of that carol that I had to pull my car off the road until I could recover. I wasn't sure what was going on, and it wasn't until much later that I began to realize what had happened. God had broken through to me, and the truth of the Christmas message became real in a way it had never been before. In those moments, I experienced God's breaking into my little world in a surprising and beautiful way.
The truth is that you and I may never feel we're totally ready for Christmas, but our preparations really have nothing to do with the shopping and the wrapping and the decorating. Getting ready for Christmas is really about slowing down and preparing our hearts to say, "Yes," to God's incredible love.
Closing Word
My husband has a habit that I'm trying to acquire. When we fly into a different time zone, he always sets his watch to the time at our destination. That helps us start living in that time zone. I really think that's the way it is when it comes to Christmas. Maybe we need to set our clock to Christmas Time, and be prepared to live in this wondrous moment.
As you leave here this morning, know that the love of Christmas is all around us. Live in the midst of it; be prepared to receive it, and go in peace. Amen.
