The Rev. Sara Warfield
Scripture: Luke 3:1-6
Contrary to what Rev. Sara says in the video, she did read the correct gospel!
The theme of this second Sunday in Advent is peace. I spent a lot of time this week thinking about what peace means. I started by looking it up in the Merriam Webster dictionary. There were four overarching definitions for peace:
a state of tranquility or quiet
freedom from disquieting or oppressive thoughts or emotions
harmony in personal relations
a state or period of mutual concord between governments
I was actually pleasantly surprised by these definitions. Because I think we tend to define peace as the absence of tension, the absence of disagreement, the absence of conflict. But that’s not what these definitions are describing. A state of tranquility or quiet or freedom from disquieting or oppressive thoughts or emotions doesn’t imply that all the internal tension has been resolved. Harmony in personal relations or mutual concord between governments doesn’t mean that all the conflict is gone.
Say your child has decided that she wants to learn how to play the violin. I don’t know if you know this, but listening to someone who doesn’t know how to play the violin play the violin might be one of the most horrible things a person can endure. It is the sound of a broken machine, gears squealing at the highest pitch possible. It is the sound of nails on a chalkboard, only it goes on for longer—punctuated occasionally by the bow hitting the strings where it’s supposed to and a beautiful note arises. When your child is practicing, these are the sounds that fill your home.
I know this because in fifth grade, I tried to learn how to play the violin.
Now peace isn’t taking the violin away from your child so that no one in the house has to endure that gut-wrenching scratching. Peace is acknowledging that the scratching, the squealing, the dissonance is part of the process of learning, of growing. It’s maybe sitting down with your child and making a practice schedule so that you and the other members of your household can plan not to be in the house when they’re practicing or to know what they’re agreeing to if they choose to stay in the house.
Peace is making intentional space for what might seem like a disruption but is actually a path. It’s making a path straight.
I think it’s helpful to remember that as a child, Jesus was a bit disruptive. The scripture just before the gospel we heard today talks about how 12 year-old Jesus and his family went to Jerusalem for Passover, but when they started the trip home back to Nazareth, Mary and Joseph realized that Jesus was not with them. They had to search for three days before they found young Jesus in the temple. When they found him, you can almost see them grabbing him by the shoulders and shaking him, “We couldn’t find you. We were so worried!” Jesus’ reply? “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”
I’m sorry, but parents, can you imagine searching for your 12 year-old kid for three days, and then he responds like that when you finally find him?
But I think that we can guess from the kind of adult Jesus becomes that Mary and Joseph saw something in him, and they made space for his quirks, his gifts, his unique ways of being. They made room for him to learn and grow just as he was. They made his path straight.
In the gospel today, we learn that John the Baptist is also called to make the path of Jesus straight.
He doesn’t do that by quietly going up to Jesus and whispering, “Listen, here are the rules and norms. You need to follow them so that you don’t make anyone uncomfortable. This is what you say, this is what you don’t say.” No, John’s role is to prepare the world for the strangeness, the uniqueness, the depth of who Jesus is and what he has to bring into the world.
'Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.
Every valley shall be filled,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth;
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'"
Part of the experience of the salvation of God is peace. And peace isn’t the erasure of our differences so that everyone can be at ease. Peace isn’t conforming to one person’s or one group’s idea of what is “good” or “right.” It’s not suppressing who we are and what we think so that no one is uncomfortable.
Peace is a space where we all get to bring our full selves, and where we all make space for others to bring their full selves. The way Mary and Joseph and John the Baptist did for Jesus.
Peace actually requires us to make room for tension—the way that family might make room for the child learning how to play the violin. It requires us to get comfortable with conflict—because our different ways of being aren’t always totally compatible. For some of us, a good time is a party with loud music and lots of chitchat with people whose company we enjoy. For others of us, a good time is being curled up on the couch in a quiet room with a book and a cup of tea.
Peace isn’t agreeing on one definition of a good time. Peace is being understanding about why the person with the book may not often show up to the parties, or why the party person can’t sit still on a couch with a book for more than three minutes.
Now it’s important to remember that all real peace is based on Jesus’ summation of all the law and all the prophets: Love God, and love your neighbor as yourself. Peace does not mean making space for abusive or disrespectful ways of being. Sometimes creating real peace requires calling out someone’s hurtful behavior, and then calling them back in, if they’re willing. Again, sometimes peace requires getting comfortable with conflict. Because the foundation of real peace is always love.
—
At Bible Study on Tuesday, the conversation kept leading back to how at home we all feel at St. Luke’s, how accepted we feel at St. Luke’s, how so many of us had never felt like they belonged in a community until they came to St. Luke’s. Now I don’t say that to pat us on the back, though I will pat us on the back. Good job, everyone!
But I kept trying to figure out what that had to do with the scriptures we were studying. Today’s scriptures. But then someone said, “We are the messengers,” and it all clicked. They were speaking of John the Baptist but also about what we heard in Malachi. ”See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple.”
We are the messengers. We are the ones who prepare the way for Jesus to arrive. Yes, during Advent when we prepare the way for baby Jesus to come into this world. But also every Sunday. We are the messengers who prepare the way for Jesus to arrive in every person who walks through those doors. We make their path straight by seeing their quirks, their gifts, their unique ways of being, and making space for them in our community.
And maybe not just on Sundays. What if we brought that kind of peace wherever we go, to whoever we meet, whatever day it is?
Amen.
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