The Road to Bethlehem: The Mountainside

Our journey to Bethlehem continues this week. We have left the comforts of home behind in Nazareth, we have walked into the Jordan River Valley, past the place where one day a man John will baptize people, and now we are approaching the Sea of Death, about ten miles to the south. Joseph and his young wife Mary, who is riding on the donkey and looking very tired, is still with us. We are over 1300 feet below sea level. Another hundred foot drop in the last part of the River will take us to the Dead Sea, the Sea of Death where fish quickly die because of the salt, the lowest place on the surface of the earth, the end result of all those who refuse to climb the mountainside out of the valley.

But now we leave the Jordan River and follow a small stream up the hill a couple miles to the West. We are going to Jericho, perhaps the oldest city in the world. Jericho, the first conquest made by the Israelites in the promised land, the city where the prostitute Rahab lived, an ancestor of David, an ancestor of both Joseph and Mary, a woman who trusted in the God of Israel and was saved from the destruction of Jericho when the walls fell. She is the poster child of God's grace.

Jericho, at 864 feet below sea level, about 400 feet above the valley floor, was founded as a city because of the great spring that lies at the base of the mountain, with a flow of over a thousand gallons a minute. This water was used to irrigate the rich soil brought down the Jordan Valley by the River’s floods. And here, Herod the Great was building his palace. It is the lowest city on earth, but is one of the most beautiful, fertile places on the planet. If only the King didn’t live here, for he is violent and selfish, a tyrant. But he has provided for travelers with a place to spend the night. 

Zephaniah 3:14-20; Isaiah 12:2-6; Luke 1:39-55 
We stop for the night. Fruit and vegetables and flour are for sale by the locals. We could stay here. Some have stayed, working for King Herod in his town. We’d gradually become his slaves, though, as many have done when they choose comfort over the journey. We spend a pleasant evening in a pleasant place – but the toughest part of our journey is ahead. We must get on with our journey to Bethlehem, our journey of life.

For we must climb up the mountainside road, the road that leads out of the valley up through the dry, bare mountain walls, up, up, up almost 900 feet to the level of the ocean, then another 2500 feet to Bethlehem. After the 400 foot climb we made today from the valley floor to Jericho, we must climb another 3400 feet – almost 3800 feet altogether, over four times the height of Seneca Rocks. And we will do it on a rocky path, on foot. Mary will ride a donkey.

Who is this girl, Mary?

She is a cousin of Elizabeth, who is the mother of John, Zechariah’s son. Zechariah is an ordinary priest in the Temple, they live in a small village near Jerusalem. 

Like most women in that day, Mary will have her first child in her middle-teens, at age 15 or 16. But she will not be alone, for she spent several months with Elizabeth, and Joseph and Mary will travel to Jerusalem for the great festivals three or four times a year and probably stay with Elizabeth, for Elizabeth’s home is an easy day-walk from Jerusalem.

The road onward from Jericho is steep, rocky, and dry. Here things get difficult, just as in our real lives there are times which are difficult. 

Children are born and must be raised. Even the best children cause tremendous stress for their parents, for they are individuals, with the ability to act independently, the ability to think independently, the ability to sin – just as we have that ability.

We always want to raise our children in our own garden of Eden, don’t we? We want them to be safe, to grow, to explore, to learn good. But in the Garden beside the Tree of Life was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. In the gardens we build for our children, we strive to give our children life – and we want to teach them the difference between good and evil. But the problem with this is that evil is an attractive part of the fruit. We can’t just eat the fruit of the Knowledge of Good, for with that fruit comes the Knowledge of Evil, it’s a single package, one fruit. To know what is Good, we and our children must understand Evil. And to know what is Evil, we and our children must understand what is Good. The serpent will always sneak in to teach about Evil.

Will we spend enough time teaching our children what is Good by reading to them from the Bible, by talking about those stories and readings, by helping them see how the Bible stories can apply to their lives? Or will we rely upon Children’s church, a half-hour a week? Sunday school can more than double that time. Kid’s and Parents time can add more as adults can take some time at breakfast or lunch or supper to read a half-chapter from the Bible to the family and then all can discuss it. If you want to start this, start now, for it is easier to start the tradition with young children. It’s hard to start when they are 17 and ready to leave home. Start today, for the serpent is slithering into your Garden.

We continue up the mountainside, the children turn into teens and the serpent talks to them. He comes into their lives in the disguise of their best friends, their popular classmates, the teacher who has always rebelled against religion. That 's why it's important they make friends who are godly - and the way they do this is to spend time in a church when they are young, when they are teens. But even still, the serpent whispers in to their ear, you come home one day, and they have decided not to listen to you. It is a dry day on the side of the mountain when this happens.

But there is comfort in this: You didn’t listen to your parents about everything. There were times you turned away and listened to the serpent. If you have taught them about good and evil, about sin – and most importantly about forgiveness and redemption – they will one day be able to break free, just as you have returned to the God you loved when you were young and living in the green valley of youth.

And God knows where each of those children are, just like God knows where you are this minute.

You look back over the edge and almost fall, for the Valley seems to call to you. You wobble on the path, trying to regain your balance. There is wisdom in the old warning to not look down. And you remember the warning from the angel to Lot’s wife – don’t look back! And far over the valley, on the other side of the River is the mound that is said to be Sodom of old.

Yet there is also beauty in looking back. The trick is to accept the beauty of what you came through, and not stop on the trail, leaning over so far to see our old life that we fall back into it. For Bethlehem is not at the bottom of the mountainside in the rich, beautiful, fertile valley, but is in the cool clear air at the top of the mountain of life. There is where we will meet the Babe.

When we honestly look back, we see that in addition to the pleasant downhill walk that was our time beside the River, there were mudholes, snakes, and fallen trees that blocked our path. Yet, there were also beautiful sights. A mixed bag.

Yet where we are going takes us up, up, up! We must travel up and not look back too much, or we may stumble and fall. And so we take a quick peek from time to time at the view from on high, looking over the Valley as we walk along a mostly flat ledge. Knowing where we’ve come from can give us courage for the climb – but focusing on where we’ve come from for too long can trip us up and make us fall. And so we relax for a couple of minutes on the ledge.

But there are other steep places to travel over. So we look back to the path and walk onward.

The path goes nearly vertical. At least it isn’t completely vertical. Experienced mountain climbers have found that it is absolutely critical to test what they hold onto before putting weight on it, to make sure that the rocks they hold onto are solidly part of the mountain, and not merely loose boulders that will come loose given fifty or a hundred pounds of pull.

You slip on loose stones and almost fall over the edge of the mountain. We all come to places where we loose our footing in life and slide down, down, down and teeter on the edge. Sometimes, it’s because we trusted too much in a job. Sometimes, it’s because a relationship breaks, like a rock slipping from under our feet. Sometimes we lose our footing because of an accident or a sudden illness. And we slip and slide and stumble, trying to find something stable to hold onto. And at that point, the breeze from the East blows hard against us, shoving us back onto the path, giving us a chance to find that stability again. And you remember again that the same word in the ancient languages means wind, breath, and spirit. Was that breeze the Holy Breath, the Holy Spirit of God saving us from falling, putting us back on course? Were you listening for a message as that breeze hit you?

Losing our stability from time to time is natural in this world. It happens because we make the wrong choices in our lives, choosing to treat the unstable as stable, the temporary as permanent, the sand as a rock-solid piece of the mountain. We hold onto people, to things, to jobs as though they were the solid Rock of Christ. And then, we are disappointed when they break loose. Think about it, what gives you stability in this life? Is it a job that could be eliminated, a company that could fold, a government program where funding could be cut, a person who could die or leave, a house made of wood that could burn in a night? Or is your stability based upon the solid relationship and faith between you and the Creator of the Universe? We have to remember that sometimes the insubstantial, invisible wind can bring us the most stability if it is the Holy Breath of God, the Holy Spirit speaking to us about the right course, what to hold onto and what to let go. Hold onto God’s Spirit, God’s Breath, God’s Holy Breeze, for it is more stable than earthly rocks.

But it is also wonderful to have good earthly relationships, people who treat us as they treat themselves. For there are many times on the trail to the top of the mountain where we are dry and dusty and thirsty, and someone gives us water, giving us the strength to climb a bit further. Our good friends give us water – yet there are always those who like to make fun of our thirst, pouring perfectly good water in the dust in front of us, laughing at our inability to talk through dry lips, our coughing when the dust hits, people who pour water on the ground in front of us to taunt us. And there is spiritual water as well as physical water, which takes a dry, dehydrated soul and gives it new energy, new endurance, new life! And, of course, there are people who listen to us and dry us out spiritually even more, making fun of us instead of making fun of the rocks, laughing at us instead of the shared journey, piling on their life problems instead of lifting our spirits with a shared uplifting story. Have you given someone else spiritual water recently, or have you poured it out on the ground in front of them, letting that spiritually boosting water soak into the ground? Have you lifted someone up over a steep part of the journey? Or have you kicked sand in their face? Are your relationships uplifting and supportive to others or do you pull people down, drag them down, threaten to pull them over the edge down into the valley again?

Mary and Joseph and the donkey worked together to climb the path. She rode, the donkey carried, and Joseph guided the donkey. And sometimes Mary got off the donkey and walked. They worked together to climb the mountainside. Perhaps it’s the same in your relationships. Perhaps not. A marriage is part of climbing the mountain. Sometimes it can be steep – other times, it is a relaxing walk along a wide ledge that slowly climbs the mountainside, allowing an easy passage up the mountain.

The Apostle Paul in Ephesians Chapter 5 gave good advice. He said for both the husband and wife to submit to each other as if they were submitting to the Lord. And this is important, for each spouse where possible to do for the other, to defer to the other, to submit to the other to help each other.

But there are times traveling up the mountainside when two different paths offer a way to travel. Both look good, but both are risky. Husband and wife talk it out. They hash out the good and bad of both courses. And when they’ve done this, eventually he says go left and she says go right. And, because they have the donkey, they must both go the same way. So they talk more and still can’t figure it out. And so, according to Paul, the wife makes the decision. She goes in the direction that the husband wants, respecting him, knowing that he loves her like Christ loved the church – which means he’s ready to die for her – which is also how Paul says a man should love a woman. As Christ loved the church.

Both the man and woman understand that he makes the final decision. But both the man and the woman understand that she has the holy duty to point out the risks, the advantages of the other course, that she simply must ask him, “Have you considered this?” And he understands that she is not nagging, not causing trouble, but is truly trying to help him make the best decision possible. And then, he makes the decision because he loves her and wants what is best for her. And she goes along because she respects him.

And if it goes wrong and the donkey falls over the hillside, she steps in to tell him that there is no one she’d rather be sitting beside on this hillside than him, no one who could have made a better decision, no one she respects more. And he looks at her, glad she was not on the donkey, because he loves her and she respects him. And he listens a bit more to her the next time, but for now, they keep climbing the hillside. Together.

Good earthly relationships help us climb the mountainside. But those relationships should not define us, like the woman who was completely lost after losing her husband of fifty years. “He did everything for me”, she said. God said back, “It’s time for you to grow and do with Me. Stick with Me, and the three of us will be together again one day soon.” Soon? How many years and decades is “soon”?

Remember Mary’s reaction to the angel Gabriel when he told her that she would bear the Son of God? “I am the Lord’s slave,” said Mary. “May it be done to me according to your word.” Her relationship with God defined her for all time. It was far more important to her than her relationships with her friends, family, the older women around who said things behind her back. It was even more important to her than her relationship with Joseph – And God rewarded her obedience, for God took care of her relationship with Joseph, making it strong by sending Joseph an angelic dream.

Perspective. We look up at the mountainside above us and it seems like such a long hard climb ahead. And then we turn and look out and down, and we realize that we’ve already covered most of the distance, that the valley is far, far, below us. And this terrible, terrible climb for us - to the eagles who circle above it is nothing.

Altogether, as we climb from the Jordan River to Bethlehem, we will climb 3800 feet, over four times the height of Seneca Rocks, over three times the height of the Empire State Building. But that is still less than a mile. And the diameter of the earth is about 8000 miles. From space, this part of the earth is smoother than a marble.

Perspective is everything. Our terrible climb on the mountainside of life is 60, 80, a hundred years. But from the point of view of Heaven, it is nothing compared to eternity. Our legs ache now – one day, we will remember the flash that is this life in an easy chair. What will be important about this life ten thousand years from now? Will the fact someone dented your car at Walmart matter? Will it matter if the chicken in the refrigerator spoiled and had to be thrown out? Does the color of your fingernails matter, the exact number of points on that buck you shot, whether you are paid $14 per hour or $15 per hour? None of these things will matter – only the people you brought to an understanding of Christ will matter. It will all boil down to this: Did you climb the mountainside? Who did you lead up the mountainside?

Perspective is everything.

And the clearest perspective is from the top. I have it on good authority that the first 84 years are the toughest. This from a woman who died at 84 ¾ years of age. Perhaps that’s why so many pastors tell people considering becoming pastors that they wish they’d started pastoring 20 years before they started. Perhaps perspective is why so many older Christians move to be with their grandchildren instead of moving away from family. Perhaps that’s why we don’t remember our old pastors and Sunday school teachers by their charge conference forms, their paperwork, the songs they picked, their bulletin boards, the order of their worship service. We remember old pastors and Sunday School teachers by the times when their sermons, their talks, their teaching, their advice helped us climb over those steep, scary patches on the mountainside of life.

Mary had perspective. One day, many years after her journey to Bethlehem, she had to wait at the foot of a cross and hear her favorite son tell her that His student John was now her son, and that John would now take care of her. 

Another twenty or so years later, she told a kindly man named Luke about everything that happened when that favorite son was born, how she had traveled from Nazareth down the Valley and up the steep mountainside to Bethlehem. But that journey didn’t seem to be nearly as important in the retelling as the visit from Gabriel, the arrival in Bethlehem, the boy’s birth, and the shepherd’s visit. It wasn’t nearly as important as the later visit from the travelers from the East. It wasn’t nearly as important as the day her son died – and the morning He lived again. The climb up the mountainside on a donkey’s back was just about the ordinary struggles of her life, soon forgotten, not important.. Her Son’s story was about all of our lives, eternally. Of immense importance.

And so we reach the top and look back. There is the Valley, way back there. There is the Dead Sea, the Sea of Death we would have gone to if we had decided to stay in the Valley by continuing the easy path by the River. But the journey up the steep mountainside to Bethlehem is about avoiding the Sea of Death.

But now? Now that we are at the top, the wind is blowing again, a cold wind that swirls around us. It’s time to head south overland to Bethlehem. For the Babe will be here soon and we don’t want to be wandering, lost on the road when the storm arrives. 

Consider the story I’ve told, for The Holy Spirit has a story to write today – a story in our hearts. What will your story be? Take a moment to pray to God and find out...

The Road to Bethlehem: In the Valley

Last week, we began our journey from Nazareth in Galilee and started to take the journey to Bethlehem because an emperor in a far off land called Rome has ordered that we be counted. And so, we have to return to the town of our ancestors, a little village called Bethlehem. Walk with me this morning as we travel in our minds, in our imagination.

We’ve left our comfortable homes in Nazareth and are beginning the hundred-mile walk to Bethlehem. After walking for a day, about 15 miles, we reach the Jordan River where it spills out of the Sea of Galilee, and begins the 500 foot downhill travel to the Dead Sea through fertile farmland. But the descent is slow and the river road meanders back and forth like the river. And we begin to think, “this won’t be such a bad trip!”

he river sounds pleasant, and there is humidity in the air, we can smell it, a welcome change from the highlands near Nazareth. And so our journey to Bethlehem begins like our life, a journey that is mostly pleasant and comfortable in the time of our childhood and youth, not understanding what we are missing because we have been mostly comfortable.

Malachi 3:1-4; Luke 1:68-79; Luke 3:1-6 
We grow thirsty and take cool water from the river. There are fish in the River that have drifted down from the Galilean Lake. Wide farms line the banks of the River – trees are plentiful, unlike anywhere else in our land. And so we take our time, enjoying the trip, talking to old friends, making new friends, laughing, for we are twenty years old and our life’s journey is ahead of us. We meet young men and women, and begin to chat with them, eventually settling with the most interesting one. And we walk together down the valley beside the River, the early spring flowers growing beside us, the birds singing, the water bubbling over some rocks. The leaves are green, the sky is blue, and the sun is bright. This is the beginning of the Jordan Valley; This is the beginning of our lives.

The first days are joy-filled and carefree, for we have left the farm, we have left the workshop, we have left the daily grinding of flour and baking of bread, we have left the fights with our neighbor over the land, we have left far behind the thorns of our field, the dryness of Nazareth hill. We have even left behind the constant presence of the enemy, the Romans who walk or ride into Nazareth almost daily. We have forgotten that the enemy would take our lives in a heartbeat if we stood tall to his soldiers. We have forgotten that the enemy would burn our homes, take our livestock, destroy our crops. For we are on holiday, even though this trip was commanded by the Roman leader himself, we have chosen to make this a holiday, and the beautiful river beside us helps us to forget that we will have to come back to Nazareth someday. Someday soon. And so we don’t see that the walls of the valley are rising slowly as we walk south, down toward the Sea of Death. We don’t realize that the valley is becoming a prison, the beautiful river leading us toward Death. We don’t realize that at the end of the River is a place where even worms die painfully. And so we ignore and forget what is ahead because we are enjoying life, the walk, our friends, the pretty girl or handsome man who walks beside us, the flowers, the green leaves, the river.

Over the centuries, thousands, even millions of people have made this trip. The only thing that makes the trip different this year is that the Emperor has commanded it. Even the man leading his donkey and his very pregnant young wife on the donkey are common sights every time we travel the journey. There is nothing special about him and his beard, his strong muscles, his calloused hands. There is nothing special about her, the weary eyes still smiling after a day and a half on donkey back. There isn’t even anything special about the donkey, walking easily down the road. Even their names are common. Y’sef. Miriam. Joseph, Mary.

Where are they headed to? Bethlehem, The House of Bread, it means in the language of the day. The village was the hometown of King David and had a great history. It was where Jacob’s favorite wife Rachel was buried, where Ruth and Naomi moved to after the famine killed their husbands in Moab, where Ruth married Boaz and had a son Obed, who had a son Jesse, who was the father of King David. The village is over 2500 feet above sea level, and there are many limestone/sandstone caves in the area. David hid out in one of those caves.

Back to the road beside the river...

The next day, during the walk beside the river, we come to a place which is known through history as the place where John baptized people. Of course, this was thirty years after Joseph and Mary’s journey.

John was a real character. His father was Zechariah, the temple priest who gave us the lovely song from Luke 1:68. Did you notice what Zechariah said about John?

And child, you will be called
a prophet of the Most High,
for you will go before the Lord
to prepare His ways,
to give His people knowledge of salvation
through the forgiveness of their sins.

Sometimes people get confused, for there are at least two Johns in the New Testament. There is John, the son of Zechariah, who baptized people at the Jordan River – including Jesus at the beginning of His ministry. And there is another younger man also named John, who was a student of the older John, and who became one of the chief disciples of Jesus. This younger man is celebrated as the author of the Gospel of John, and probably also wrote the three letters, I John, II John, and III John, and also likely wrote Revelation when he was a very old man.

But let’s go back to the older John, John the Baptist, or, more accurately, John the Baptizer, who was the cousin of Jesus.

Zechariah said his son would be called a prophet of the Most High, a prophet of God, for he would go before the Lord and prepare his ways. He would give people a knowledge of salvation, an idea that they needed to be saved and that they could be saved through the forgiveness of their sins.

So many people today who do not regularly attend church fall into one of two categories. First are the people who believe they are good. They don’t understand their need for salvation, for they believe that all people except those who are Hitler types or serial killers end up in Heaven. They believe that they are basically good enough for Heaven, that God looks at people on balance – They think: "Today, I cussed out a telemarketer, but I also held the door open for an old lady, so that probably balanced out. I smiled at my kids, so I’m ahead for the day." 

So many people believe that when we get to the end of our lives, God adds up a ledger of good and bad deeds and decides if the good deeds outweigh the bad to decide who gets to go to Heaven. And most people believe that they are so much better than the murders and Hitler, that God will let them into Heaven – assuming they “believe in God”. And they do. They even pray occasionally to God. So they don’t worry – in their minds, they don’t need salvation, for they believe they already have it. You may have once thought this yourself.

The second common category is the set of people who look at their lives and are acutely aware of the sins they’ve committed. They realize that Hitler was worse than they are, but they also realize that they have some sins they commit over and over and over again. In their mind, they have done so much bad that God will never forgive them. Sometimes it’s because of a life full of different sins, committed daily…other times it is one BIG sin in their lives. And they believe that God will send them to Hell and there is nothing that can be done about it. They know they need salvation, but they don’t see how they can be saved.

John the Baptizer began to speak of the need for salvation. He spoke mainly to the “good people”, the people who believed they were good people, destined for Heaven, doing all the right things, for the "good people" were more numerous and more difficult to convince. At the top of the list was the fact they made a sacrifice every year. Every year they went to the Temple and did what was asked of them. Still other people simply looked around and concluded that since God had clearly blessed them – they had nice clothes, a nice home, good food, spoke well, were educated, had some money – then this was proof they were good people. To them, God’s blessings meant they were good and going to Heaven.

Do we still do that today? Do we still assume that because we live in a nice house, we mostly pay our bills, we dress well, we speak well, we have a car that we can count upon – Do we assume we are good people? And do we assume that the man begging at the intersection is "bad" because he doesn't have these material things? Maybe we do and maybe we don’t, but I’m sure we each have friends who assume this. We all have friends who assume they have no need of salvation because they are already good enough for God. Or if they aren’t, they believe that’s because God is mean and not good enough for them.

John spoke directly to these people. He called them out to repent, to re-think their relationship with God.

He then said to the crowds who came out to be baptized by him, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Therefore produce fruit consistent with repentance. And don’t start saying to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones!”
Just like the Jewish crowds, who assumed that because they were Jewish, God’s Chosen People, descended from Abraham they would each be saved, don’t we often say to ourselves, “But I am a Christian, descended from Christians. Of course I’m good and will be saved.”

John continued: “Even now the ax is ready to strike the root of the trees! Therefore, every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” 

What is the fruit? Could it be leading others to the love of God through our piety, our good deeds, our clear love for others? Could the fruit be results, actual results that comes from helping others?

“What then should we do?” the crowds were asking him.

He replied to them, “The one who has two shirts must share with someone who has none, and the one who has food must do the same.”
And John spoke on and on about what it meant to be a good person, the daily sacrifices that had to be made, the need to stop being so comfortable and selfish and the need to personally help those who did not have those comforts.

And John offered to wash away their sins with the water of baptism. John offered to give them a chance for a clean start, a chance to start over doing what was right instead of living comfortably, assuming they were good because they were comfortable.

Are you comfortable?

When a pair of eagles is about to lay eggs, they build a nest. They start with big sticks and then gradually move to smaller and smaller sticks and then twigs. Then, they put in leaves. Finally, the mother eagle takes the soft down hair from her chest and she feathers the nest with it so it will be soft and cozy for the eaglets that will soon be hatched, so they will be comfortable.

Is your nest soft and cozy? Have you ever thought about when your nest is feathered enough? How much feathering of your nest are you going to do?

Then, after they are hatched, they grow and grow and finally, there comes the time when they need to fly from the nest. So mother eagle begins to pull those soft down feathers out of the nest so the nest bottom will become sharp and poky and uncomfortable for the eaglets. They move up to the edge of the nest and one day they fall over and have to fly.

Perhaps your world has become sharp and poky. Perhaps it is becoming uncomfortable. Perhaps that’s because God knows that it is time for you to stop hiding in that soft, cozy, comfortable nest. Perhaps God knows that it is time for you to FLY! Perhaps it is time for you to go into the world and achieve the godly goals God has for you!

John made things uncomfortable for his listeners. And many of them chose to rethink their relationship with God. They began to understand that, despite the fact they were good and successful and comfortable by the standards of the world, they needed to change. They needed forgiveness. They needed to grow closer to God.

There were many people in that crowd that didn’t take long. They were the people who already understood their sin. They were the people who already knew they needed forgiveness, they needed salvation, they needed a new start. Others in the crowd walked away and went back to their comfortable homes, to their servants, to their pleasant lives where no one reminded them that God wasn’t looking at their ancestry, but at their lives, where no one reminded them that God wasn’t looking at the sacrifices their grandparents had made, but what they had given up, where no one reminded them that God was a jealous God who wanted to be worshiped far more than they worshiped their comforts, their homes, their money.

And those who went home…they missed the main event, the big show, the most important part of what happened in that spot there beside the Jordan River in the Valley. For John was just the warm-up act. John was the carnival barker attracting the crowd to the Big Tent. John was the pre-game show, who said He wasn’t even worthy to untie the sandals of the One who would come after Him.

Imagine being there that day. Imagine you can see what is happening...

The vision forms...John has been speaking in the heat that morning…and you can smell the sweat from the crowd. The water looks cool and inviting before you. A gentle breeze is blowing from the East and it bring the mixed smell of flowers – and animals. It is the smell of life blowing in. It reminds you that the same word is used for wind, for breath, and for spirit. God’s Holy Spirit, God’s Holy Breath, God’s Holy Breeze.

A fly buzzes near your head, trying to distract you from what John is saying. A group of well-dressed young men from Jerusalem have been asking John what to do and finally, in disgust, they decide to leave. But several men and women go forward, down into the water for John to baptize them, and they all come up from the water filled with joy! Again, the breeze blows from the East.

And then, as if He came in on that breeze, a taller man walks down to John. They look similar – there is a family resemblance. But where John is roughly dressed, the new man is middle-class. Where John’s skin looks like leather, the new man’s hands are rough and calloused. Where John seems like a wildman – the new man seems almost kingly in bearing.

They talk in the water. John shakes his head no. The other man insists. And John baptizes the man in the water. As the man comes up from the water, a dove descends on his shoulder, and the crowd says “OO!” And you realize something important has happened, you just don’t know what. But you hope you’ll find out. You’d like to talk with that man. Maybe someday. And the vision fades away…

But all of this is years in the future. Is that what it is like to be a prophet, to see a vision? It’s something to consider later. For now, we have to follow Joseph and Mary and that donkey down stream, deeper into the valley, closer to the Sea of Death, having Faith that one day, that new man who seems so kingly will actually come to the River to meet with John. For we have days and many miles to travel until we get to Bethlehem. And the worst part of the road is still to come. We all have to walk into the wilderness in order to escape the Valley and reach Bethlehem.

This week, I ask you to come to prayer with the question of comfort on your mind and on your prayer lips. Come to God and ask what comforts in your life are keeping you from God. For instead of being comforted by STUFF, God wants to be your comfort. Ask God what comforts you need to give up so that you might fly before the Holy Wind of God, the Holy Breath of God, the Holy Spirit of God. What comforts are holding you back, keeping you from being free?

The Road to Bethlehem: Leaving Home

Last week, we faced the question of whether Jesus was our Lord – or merely our friend, an interesting man from history, an idea that gives us comfort. I asked you to come to the altar and, if you felt this way, to state that Jesus is Lord, understanding the full meaning of those words, that you were acknowledging that Jesus was more than a friend, more than an ordinary man, that Jesus was indeed your commander, your leader, your guide, and that you were doing more than studying Him, but were following Him. The Apostle Paul once wrote to a church he loved, the Thessalonian church. These words express how I feel about your response last week to the question of “Is Jesus your Lord?” Paul wrote:

How can we thank God for you in return for all the joy we experience before our God because of you, as we pray very earnestly night and day to see you face to face and to complete what is lacking in your faith?

Now may our God and Father Himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you. And may the Lord cause you to increase and overflow with love for one another and for everyone, just as we also do for you. May He make your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints. Amen.
Your response last week filled me with joy.

And now we turn to Advent, the time of preparation for the Lord’s arrival. We want to jump ahead to Christmas, but for now, we will wait in Advent, preparing and waiting...

Jeremiah 33:14-16; Psalm 25; Luke 21:25-36 

Yes, we will talk about the arrival of Christ on earth as a small baby. But we will also talk about the next arrival of Christ on earth at the head of the greatest army the world has ever seen. And we will also be talking about the arrival of the Lord into the lives of individuals, the time when someone realizes for the first time that Jesus is still alive, that being called Son of God has a meaning that Jesus is also God in the flesh, God walking upon the earth, that Jesus and Holy Spirit are here to bring us into a relationship with God the Father.

As many of you know, I once owned an orchard. Apples, peaches, pears, cherries, even persimmons grew in my orchard. When the derecho came through, I lost a small apple tree and a large pie cherry tree went down. I cut that cherry tree off about two feet above the ground, because that was where it broke.

Over the next months, a green shoot grew up from the trunk, using the stored energy from the roots to send out new leaves, for the heart of a tree is in the roots. The energy is stored in the roots, the power of life is in the roots. Left by itself, the shoot would develop into an entire tree, as strong as the first one. In fact, every year, to ensure that orchard trees and grapevines continue to bear well, the old wood is pruned off, cut off, and new shoots are encouraged to grow. With many grapevines, it is common to cut off 90% of the old growth and only leave 10% as a basis for the new growth, for it is on the new growth that the fruit grows.

In ancient Israel, the greatest the kingdom of Israel ever grew to was under the leadership of King David and his son, King Solomon. After that point, Israel became weak and divided. Eventually, even Jerusalem was conquered and the people taken into captivity. Jeremiah saw this destruction, but God spoke to Jeremiah:

“Look, the days are coming”—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
“when I will fulfill the good promises
that I have spoken
concerning the house of Israel
and the house of Judah.
In those days and at that time
I will cause a Righteous Branch
to sprout up for David,
and He will administer justice
and righteousness in the land.
In those days Judah will be saved,
and Jerusalem will dwell securely,
and this is what she will be named:
Yahweh Our Righteousness. 

Jeremiah spoke of a branch of the family tree of David sprouting up from the roots like that shoot growing from that cherry tree. And so the people of Israel began to look forward to a coming Messiah, a Savior, a man who would rescue Israel and make Israel great again, a place of peace, a place of safety, a place of beauty.

Around the year 4 BC, a man and his young wife began the journey from Nazareth, a village near the Sea of Galilee, to Bethlehem, a village about 3 miles from Jerusalem. What? Not in the year zero, you ask? No, for the monk who 400 years later would calculate the date made a mistake, but by the time the mistake was discovered, it was over fifteen hundred years too late.

The man was named Y'osef and his young wife was named Miriam. Later people would Romanize the names to Joseph and Mary. Both were descendants of King David, the king who had lived some 1000 years earlier. Mary was pregnant with her first child, so tradition has it that Joseph put her on a donkey. Their family was still missing something – a child. They had a journey of about a hundred miles to travel on dirt roads that would scarcely hold a single cart.

Galilee is the land around the freshwater Sea of Galilee. The lake is fed by snow melt from the mountains north of the sea, in modern day Syria and Lebanon. But the surface of the lake is almost 700 feet below sea level, about 13 miles long north to south, and about 8 miles wide from east to west. The Sea is about 140 ft deep and contains many fish. To the south flows out the lower Jordan River, which leads to the Dead Sea. It is down the Jordan Valley that the road lie to the Jerusalem, because it was down this valley road that people could count on having water.

The land around the lake has long been a farming area. The land is well-watered, and the low elevation means that the area stays warm even in the winter. In ancient Israel, Galilee was considered to have some of the best farmland in the Holy Land. By ancient standards, living in Galilee was comfortable. But the journey down the Jordan Valley would not be comfortable. Mary’s discomfort began the day she realized she was pregnant, for at that time she was not married. And her society was much less tolerant of single mothers than our society, for they blamed the mother for everything, never thinking about the responsibilities of the father. But the Father of Mary’s child would always be with her, even after Joseph accepted her pregnancy. But for now, Mary was not comfortable.

In our lives, we live in comfort. However, just like Josef and Mary, we often discover that we are missing something in our lives. We have an emptiness in the comfortable lives we live. We work – but why? To make money to keep our comforts? We spend tremendous time and money on leisure activities – watching television, on social media, looking at our phones, preparing food for family get-togethers. But what is our purpose?

Joseph and Mary knew they had a purpose. At one level, their journey to Bethlehem was simply following the order of the government, an order to return to the home of your family to be counted, and since Joseph was from King David’s family, he was to return to Bethlehem, the home town of King David. But Joseph and Mary both knew that their baby who was soon to be born was special, perhaps even the promised Messiah, the Savior of Israel. They had a purpose, a purpose they would not fully realize for many years as that son grew and ultimately began his ministry to the world. Their purpose was to protect God on the earth.

Each of us needs to journey to Bethlehem from our comforts in Galilee. We need to find our purpose, our calling, our life which God has planned for us. Each of us needs to understand why God is sending us on journeys that are difficult, that take us out of our comfort, that beat us up as we walk over difficult roads.

But there is a purpose to leaving home. No one has ever become great who did not leave the comforts of home. No tool of metal ever became tough without being placed in fire and beaten by the hammer of the blacksmith. No tree ever bore good fruit without being pruned.

Jesus left His comfortable home in Heaven to be vulnerable among us, to be hungry in a cradle, to walk barefoot on the earth, to experience the cruelty of children to each other, to work and sweat and thirst, to be taunted by people, to be beaten, to bleed, to hang upon a cross, suffocating, and to die. He had a purpose in leaving home – that we could become reconciled with God the Father once more, that we would live forever in comfort instead of suffer eternally in pain. That’s why Jesus left his comfortable home and came to be with us. That was His purpose.

As we look forward to the arrival of Christ once more, I ask you to take your Bible out of the bookcase, to open up to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, to read a chapter in each – one every morning, one every evening. And ask – Lord, what is here for me this year? What is my purpose over the next twelve months? What shall I do for you, Lord?

As we join in Holy Communion. I ask you to come to prayer with those questions:

Lord, what is here for me this year?

Lord, what is my purpose over the next twelve months?

Lord, what shall I do for you?

And listen for the answer in all reverence.