Pastor T.C. Arnold
3rd Sunday in Advent
Isaiah 40:1-8
December 13th, 2009
“A voice cries: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.’”
I don’t know about you but every time I hear these words from the Prophet Isaiah or the same from the Gospel according to St. Luke as he quotes it from the Great Prophet, I think about Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s 1967 hit, “Ain’t no Mountain High Enough.” Now I make that particular observation with hesitation and extreme caution because I risk planting a song in your head at a time during the morning I would rather you pay attention to what I have to say rather than humming a catchy tune. So, please, I implore you – try to pay attention. But, perhaps like me, the catchy 1960’s hit comes to mind when you hear the words from Isaiah.
And there is something to think about with this hit song along with the words we hear in the Old Testament text for today. But rather than comparing the song and the text – I believe they contrast. We all know the refrain of the song but I would imagine that only a few of us know the verses. Perhaps I could remind you of a few of the lyrics. The song says, “If you need me, call me. No matter how far just call my name – I’ll be there in a hurry You don’t have to worry ‘Cause baby, there ain’t no mountain high enough Ain't no valley low enough Ain’t no river wide enough to keep me from getting to you.
This popular song shows how mountains and valleys and rivers are no match for keeping two lovers away from each other. However, I believe that is wrong. Oh there is that popular saying, “where there is a will there is a way” and that may contradict what I just said – but I still believe that is wrong. Now it is true that love is “boundless”. Love eclipses a whole host of barriers and challenges – that is not my point. Rather, my point is that sometimes the mountains are too high. Sometimes the valleys are too low. Sometimes the rivers are too wide. And any of you that have faced an insurmountable challenge would agree with me. Sometimes you fight and you fight hard for all the right reasons and you lose. The mountain was too high. Sometimes you hope and you pray and things still didn’t turn out the way you wanted. The valley was too low. Sometimes that disease was too much for your body to shake off, sometimes the job that we depend on so much on falls in on itself no matter how hard we worked to save it or to get it, and sometimes people disappoint us even when we do the very best to please them, to love them and to care for them. Sometimes the river is just too wide.
For us, it’s too high, too low and too wide. We need help. Who is here to help you? “A voice cries: In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. And now here comes the important part for you and me: “Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.” Not exactly like Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell but pretty close. And really – not close at all because instead of you finding your way over those mountains and through those valleys – the Lord makes something miraculous happen for you. He levels those things out so they aren’t as daunting and terrifying as they first seemed. He levels them out because He makes the difficult task an easy one and, more to the point, the impossible, He makes possible.
A voice cries. It’s the voice of John the Baptizer. He cries from the banks of the Jordan River. On Jordan’s Bank the Baptist’s Cry. Isaiah knew that one would cry – so says the prophecy. And where the Baptizer cries is of the upmost importance for you and me. From where he cries shows us from where our Lord would come – from where He would come to save us. The Baptizer cries from the wilderness – he cries from the desert. “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord.” With this the beginning of the church year we often talk about the beginning of our Lord’s public ministry. Here it is in the words of Isaiah. The Lord breaks into history with a dedicated purpose at this moment. The Lord breaks into history in the wilderness of all places. This is where the voice cries. This is where the ministry begins – for us – in the desert.
The famed author C.S. Lewis wrote in his book, Abolition of Man that “the task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles but to irrigate deserts.” In other words “Lewis believed that the task of education was not a matter of cutting down the jungles of false ways of thinking but a matter of stimulating the thinking of learners, helping them to add to their knowledge and improve their method of thinking…”
But we might think to ourselves, “My mind is no desert! My mind is fertile, and capable, and imaginative. To that Lewis would respond that we are all much less than what we could be.” Let us not forget that Lewis himself once went through a desert before he became a Christian (Quotes found in Irrigating Deserts by Joel Heck). And for this reason the Lord’s Word begins in a desert – a virtual wasteland. In places like these there seems to be no hope and no life. How does God irrigate our lives with the hope and love that comes only through Him? He does this by irrigating this desert – by calling out to you in the wilderness through a voice – by making mountains low and valleys level.
Our lives are virtual wastelands without Christ and His most precious word. That is why God Himself comes to the desert to be baptized by John. That is why in the wilderness our Lord would go and pray, be tempted and fast. That is why in the places of this world that many would mistakenly call, “God forsaken” our Lord is to be found.
Our lives are deserts. The wind howls and the dust blows. Our lives are empty and meaningless. That is, they are empty and meaningless without the voice – without the one by whom the voice was referring to. This voice calls out to the one who makes the impossible, possible. This voice calls out to the one who makes the mountains that were once too high and the valleys that were once too low, level. We live life in deserts when we live apart from His Word and His work. When we decide to replace God’s irrigation of Word and Sacrament with what we might call “simple” or “innocent” pleasures or even life’s busyness, we are allowing the dust to continue to blow in a meaningless vast wasteland. This life is not a wasteland. The voice comes to the desert – the meaningless desert – into our sometimes felt, meaningless lives.
It isn’t true. Our lives have meaning. More meaning than one could imagine. In this “meaningless” world, our meaning and purpose is the life we live for the Lord. We have a Savior who comes into the very desert regions of our lives – who meets us in the wasteland of our grief and shame. We have a Savior who makes all the mountains, and valleys and rivers in life passable.
Remember, Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell were right – their “ain’t” no mountain high enough… Not that we can pass such obstacles by our own accomplishments. Yes, hard work is still a part of life. But for the life to come – “The valley is lifted up, and the mountain and the hill made low. The uneven ground is made level.” How? By Christ and Him only. Rejoice with me and your fellow Christians in this time of Advent preparation. Rejoice with the one who cries out in the wilderness… “Prepare ye the way of the Lord. Make straight paths for Him.” Amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.