Last week I came across some answers that were ‘allegedly’ given by schoolkids in history exams.  “In the first book of the Bible, Guinesses, Adam and Eve were created from an apple tree. One of their children, Cain, once asked, "Am I my brother's son?" God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac on Mount Montezuma. Jacob, son of Isaac, stole his brother's birth mark. Jacob was a patriarch who brought up his twelve sons to be patriarchs, but they did not take to it. One of Jacob's sons, Joseph, gave refuse to the Israelites.  Pharaoh forced the Hebrew slaves to make bread without straw. Moses led them to the Red Sea, where they made unleavened bread, which is bread made without any ingredients. Afterwards, Moses went up on Mount Cyanide to get the Ten Commandments. David was a Hebrew king skilled at playing the liar. He fought with the Philatelists, a race of people who lived in the Biblical times. Solomon, one of David's sons, had 500 wives and 500 porcupines… (moving on to more modern history)  One of the causes of the Revolutionary Wars was the English put tacks in their tea. Also, the colonists would send their parcels through the post without stamps. Finally, the colonists won the War and no longer had to pay for taxis. Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin were two singers of the Declaration of Independence. Franklin invented electricity by rubbing two cats backwards and declared, "A horse divided against itself cannot stand." Franklin died in 1790 and is still dead.  Under the Constitution the people enjoyed the right to keep bare arms.  Abraham Lincoln was born in a log cabin which he built with his own hands. Lincoln wrote the Gettysburg address while traveling from Washington to Gettysburg on the back of an envelope.
Bach was the most famous composer in the world, and so was Handel. Handel was half German, half Italian, and half English. He was very large. Bach died from 1750 to the present. Beethoven wrote music even though he was deaf. He was so deaf he wrote loud music. He took long walks in the forest even when everyone was calling for him. Beethoven expired in 1827 and later died for this.

Well, over the next year we are going to be reading a lot on Sundays from a writer who had a strong interest in history.  Luke.  You know he’s interested in history because he tries to pinpoint the exact dates of the events he describes.  So today’s gospel reading begins, “In the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar, when Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee and Philip tetrarch of Ituraea and Traconitis, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas … the word of the Lord came to John son of Zechariah.”  Now this was really very helpful of Luke because it means we can be pretty certain about the exact year he’s talking about, and also because we know that what he’s going to write is not some vague other-worldly philosophy.  What follows is real history.  These are events that happened at a particular time in a particular place in the nitty-gritty of human life.  The message of the Bible is not one of ideas and clever-sounding philosophy - the message is a man.  The man Jesus of Nazareth, the Saviour of humankind.  Just by mentioning these dates Luke is saying the Christian message is for now, it’s for real life, it’s for living, not just for tickling our brains.  And at this moment in history the word of the Lord came to John.  But because the gospel is now it means we can receive the word of God today, this morning.  Like Luke we could write “In the first year of the Presidency of Barak Obama – when Jennifer Granholm was governor of Michigan, Carl Levin and Debbie Stabinow were US senators, when Pete Hoekstra was US congressman – the word of God came to … to us – to the people of St John’s Episcopal Church.  Because it has.  Even this morning God has spoken to us.  We’ve read four passages from the Bible.  We’ve prayed prayers using the words of scripture, we have sung wonderful hymns that speak to us.  And not just in vague ways, but in ways that challenge and comfort us.  In the last couple of weeks several of you have told me that you’re looking forward to reading the New Testament together during 2010.  And we can anticipate God speaking to us day by day.

So, here we are in the third chapter of Luke and Luke introduces us to John the Baptist.  And John’s task from God was ‘to preach a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins’.  Now next week we’ll read exactly what is was that John said.  But for today let’s just looks at how Luke describes him.  Quoting the Old Testament prophet Isaiah he says John is “A voice of one crying in the desert ‘prepare the way of the Lord, make straight paths for him.  Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low.  The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth.  And all mankind will see God’s salvation.”

I wonder what your favourite landscape is.  Maybe the ocean?  The Lakeshore?  A forest?  Some people like an expanse of flat, open farmland?  Well, my favourite has to be mountains.  I’ve never really done any serious hiking and certainly never any mountaineering with ropes, but for me there’s nothing quite like gazing at hills or mountains.  And then maybe taking a gentle stroll in them before ending up in a nice pub.  So, if you’re like me you can read this description of John the Baptist’s mission with some disappointment.  His job was to fill in every valley and make low every mountain; the crooked roads to be made straight and the rough ways smooth.  Now hang on, you might think, I like hills – give me some mountains and valleys and some windy tracks.  So I wondered to myself why the mission of John the Baptist was to get into his earth mover and make everything flat, spiritually speaking of course – he didn’t literally level the countryside.  And this is what I thought: mountains and valleys are great unless you want to get somewhere. They look wonderful, but they make serious travelling difficult.  Hikers and cyclists know that.  If you have ever driven through a mountainous region you know that your car doesn’t like hilly terrain either.  Your gas consumption much prefers a flat road to hills.  So, however beautiful the view, if you’re serious about getting somewhere it helps to have flat and smooth.  And spiritually speaking, John’s task was not to provide nice scenery; it was to prepare the way for the Messiah.  And the Messiah whose way he prepared was not on vacation.  Jesus was not going to take the scenic route.  John got the road ready for Christ.  And Christ was coming with a purpose.  So I wondered to myself: ‘When do you want flat, straight roads?’  And I came up with three answers.

1          When you’re on business.  If you need to get to your destination fast you want flat and straight.  And when the Son of God came to earth he was on business.  He had a job to do.  When we read the gospels we get the unmistakable message that Jesus was single-minded in his life.  That’s not to say that he didn’t enjoy himself, relax and have fun.  In fact, quite the opposite.  His mission included times of rest and recreation, socializing and enjoying the good things God had given him.  But even in those times of relaxation Jesus was about his Father’s business.  He used his socializing to spend time with the needy and party with those who needed God’s love and forgiveness.  Jesus knew what he was here for.  He understood what he’d been put on earth for.  And that is a great example to us.  If I were to ask you why God had put you on earth I wonder what you’d say.  Why has God placed you here at this time and this place?  What is your calling, your reason for living?  Because each of us has one.  You can be sure of that.  If God did not have a purpose for you then he’d have taken you to be with himself by now.  The very fact that you are alive proves that God has a plan for your life – and it’s a plan to bless others.  A few months ago I read something about finding out God’s purpose for your life and it suggested writing a personal mission statement.  A short, sharp summary of why God has put you on earth.  And I spent a while think about that and this is what I came up with for myself…. Actually, to my embarrassment, I can’t find what I wrote, and I’ve forgotten it.  Which shows you just how much I am consciously trying to live out my mission statement.  Here lies the truth of all preachers – they serve as examples of how not to do it.

But back to the point.  John’s mission was to prepare the way for Jesus, and Jesus was on serious business.  He lived a life focused on doing God’s will for him.

2          You want flat and straight when you need to be rescued.  If you could pick somewhere for your car to break down where would you choose?  Half way up a Swiss Alp?  Perhaps in the middle of Yellowstone Park (good luck with the bears)?   Or maybe you’d prefer to break down on I96?  That’s where I’d choose.  Vacation in the Swiss Alps and the national parks, but breakdown in civilization.  Because when you need rescuing you want the saviour to get there in a hurry.  You want flat and straight, not hilly and twisty.  And that was John’s task.  To get things ready for the Saviour.  And like the tow truck with the mechanic coming to the rescue of the stranded motorist, so Jesus came to earth.  He reached down to our level like some giant crane at the site of a disaster, and lifted the victims out of the wreckage and took them to safety. 

3          You want flat and straight when you’re at war.  If you’re in a battle and you occupy a hill then all the better.  But at the very least you want to face the enemy on level ground.  The last thing you want is to be in a valley, defending attacks from the hills.  In the hills the enemy can lurk unseen.  In the hills arrows, cannonballs and bullets fly further, in a hill you have an advantage over an opponent in hand to hand combat.  During peace-time it’s wonderful to stand in a valley and look up at the mountains, but you really don’t want to be there when fighting an enemy.  And so when John, spiritually speaking, makes level the hills and fills in the valleys it is a symbol of how the ultimate  battle against the forces of sin and evil was about to begin.  Jesus came with destruction on his mind.  Not the destruction of people, of course.  But destruction of the things that oppose people – those enemies of men and women, boys and girls – those frustrations, suffering, death, and all those things that hold us captive and dehumanize us.  Jesus came to rescue those in need.  And that includes us.  So this Advent season let us make way for him to come again.  To rescue, to liberate and to establish peace and justice throughout his creation.