A homily for the Second Sunday of Advent, December 8, 2024
Bar 5:1-9, Phil 1:4-6, 8-11, Lk 3:1-6
It’s been said that God doesn’t create in straight lines, and anyone who’s ever taken more than a second to look at the shapes of ocean beaches, lakefronts, leaves and flowers and trees and and and … realizes that.
Even the wind gets the twisties.
So what’s the big deal with straightening roads and flattening the landscape? If God created this world all curvy-hilly-bumpy, why do the prophets make such a big deal about paving some sort of interstate highway system over God’s handiwork?
What’s wrong with leaving it as is?
To quote St. Luke quoting the prophets:
Every valley shall be filled
and every mountain and hill shall be made low.
The winding roads shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth...
That sounds like “leaving it as is” is not an option.
So, why? Why flat and straight etc.?
I think it’s about efficiency. I think it’s about speed.
I think it’s about the message.
I think it’s about the message of Jesus, as foretold thousands of years before his birth, and re-foretold by his cousin John a few months before the start of Jesus’s three-year ministry.
I think it’s about enabling Jesus — and now us — to deliver his message to as many people on Earth as possible, as quickly as possible, as simply and clearly as possible.
Be good.
Be kind.
Be grateful.
Apologize for misbehaving. Apologize to God and apologize to anyone we may have wronged.
The fewer the hurdles, the faster the message could spread.
Then and now.
Let’s start with two millennia ago:
The fewer the mountains, the broader the meadows, and the broader the meadows, the bigger the places where people could gather to hear and embrace the wisdom of the Christ.
To hear the Law of Love, to embrace the Law of Love, and to act in accordance with the Law of Love.
Communication was word of mouth 2,000 years ago. Shoe Leather Express literally was a slice of hide laced onto somebody’s foot; no Timberland walking shoes were available in the Holy Land in the first century.
Talk about miracles. The miraculous spread of the Good News absolutely was propelled by believers making more believers by leading people to Jesus.
During the days when the Nazarene walked the Earth, the new disciples led even-newer disciples to meet this itinerant rabbi who just happened to be the Only Begotten Son of God.
After Christ’s Death, Resurrection and Ascension, the disciples led new believers to Jesus by sharing his words and imitating his actions. By being Christ to everyone they met.
As we are challenged to do, in 2024.
As we are challenged to do as efficiently and speedily and inclusively as possible, one interpersonal connection at a time, one hurdle overcome at a time.
One valley filled and one mountain laid low, and every Alps-worthy switchback road transformed into a dragstrip.
Yes, God doesn’t create in straight lines, mostly, and when we appreciate the beauty of Creation, we are awed by curves and crags and colors.
But in the folds of our brains and the curves of our hearts, God has planted a call for us to bring our sisters and brothers to him in the most arrow-straight way we can.
Our continuing season of Advent is a prime time to waste no time.
