Prepare the Way

The Advent readings this week are from the prophets. "Prepare ye the way of the Lord!" Isaiah 40:3-5 tells us that a voice cries this in the wilderness. Malachi 3:1..."Behold, I send my messenger to prepare the way.." The Gospels quote these prophets of old as well and add their own stories exhorting people to prepare for the Lord. Matthew tells Jesus' parable of the maidens who went to the wedding feast unprepared and slept, missing the bridegroom when he came. Luke begins his Gospel with the story of John who came before Jesus to prepare the way for the Word of God. Preparation, it seems, is a very important part of Advent. How do we normally prepare for the birth of Christ? We bake, we decorate, we send greetings to friends. We shop and party and generally get caught up in the swirl of holiday fun. Is this how God wants us to prepare? Is this what the prophets had in mind? I believe, that while God doesn't have a problem with this superficial activity, He really means for us to go much deeper, to cleanse our hearts and souls, and to meditate on His word. Elizabeth's Saturday evening homily likened it to deep cleaning your home before you have houseguests. Your guests will poke in the closets, raid your refrigerator, and notice if the bathroom isn't sparkling. All those hidden places better be clean and free from the detritus of worldly living! God knows all those hidden places of your spirit. Are they clean and sparkling? Are they cluttered with worldly junk? As I prepare for Christmas, my deep cleaning includes my Centering Prayer practice and learning about lectio divina. How are you deep cleaning your spirit this Christmas?

This Virgin and Babe are part of one of my Christmas creches.

Called to be a Prophet?

We heard from Amos and a plumb line at church last night. Elizabeth's homily focused on this prophet and God's metaphor of the plumb line as a measure of what is right and true. Prophets have always made me a bit uncomfortable. Elizabeth shared seeing a 'prophet' at the downtown Farmer's Market that morning, standing on his soap box between an organic vegetable stall and an artisan cheese display. Complete with a tee shirt emblazoned with "Repent," he was witnessing his faith..and making most of the Saturday morning shoppers uneasy. This has been my vision of what a prophet is...someone a bit whack-a-doodle, preaching on a street corner and making everyone squirm. When I read Marcus Borg's, Reading the Bible Again for the First Time, I encountered a different meaning for what a prophet is. Borg sees the prophets as lightening rods for social justice. God empowers them to speak out and indict those abusive forces in society, to threaten and name those abusers, and to give voice to oppressed peoples. They 'draw the line in the sand;' either take action to right this wrong or suffer the consequences. Their plumb line divides the upright and true from the wrongs of society. Prophets are not crazy men, predicting the end of the world; they are concerned citizens speaking up for what is right. Rich Mayfield references one such 'prophet.' See if you can guess who he's writing about before you get to the end of his essay. Does this mean we are all called to be prophets? That was Elizabeth's challenge to us.