December 1998 Issue

Isaiah 11:1-10
Romans 15:4-13
Matthew 3:1-12

A recent survey of parents discovered that the three most dreaded words at Christmas time are, "Some Assembly Required." I can relate to that.

Now when I was growing up, however, the two most dreaded words for us at any time were, "Company's comin!" Those little words dropped like bombs in our house, sending us into panic, confusion, and frenzied activity. We had to dust, sweep every inch of the house - even the porch, mop the floors. Mom spent hours preparing meals. We had to take a bath, even if we didn't need one. We had to get the house ready, get ourselves ready, and even the yard. It had to be mowed or raked. Any holes our dog had dug we had to fill back up. Any trash lying around had to be picked up and thrown away. Why? Cause company's coming.

Things haven't change much. Our house gets a little crazy when the phone rings and someone shouts, "Company's coming." Bet it's the same at your house, for when company's coming, you've got things to do. You've got to prepare for them.

If I had to sum up part of John the Baptist's message, it would be, "Company's coming. Get ready." That company was Christ, the Messiah, the Savior of the world.

John came as the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, saying, "Prepare a road for the Lord; make a straight path for him to travel" (Matthew 3:3).

There was a custom in those days, I am told, that when the people of a village learned an important person was coming to town, they would go out on the path or road on which this person would be traveling. They would pick up sticks, trash, toss away rocks, fill any potholes. In other words, they would "prepare a road" or "make a straight path" for that person so that nothing would obstruct his coming to their town. It was their way of rolling out the red carpet or getting ready for company.

John saw his job as helping them prepare the roads for the coming of the most important person of all - the Messiah. But John didn't want the people out on the road, picking up trash and filling holes. No. The road he wanted to help them clear was the one to their hearts. It is as if he was saying, "Messiah is coming. Get your road ready. Not the road to your village but the road to your heart. Clear it of anything and everything that would be an obstacle to his coming. Don't let anything get in his way."

I was driving not to long ago over that winding road to Clifton Forge. But it was soon after a severe storm we had. Leaves, branches, limbs, and even some trees had fallen across the road. It was impassable. I had to turn around and go back.

I have a feeling that as the Christ Child comes this Christmas, he finds the road to many hearts that same way. They are so cluttered with potholes, with fallen trees, with obstacles that he can't get close to us.

Many people will go through this season holding Jesus at arms length, if that close. Maybe they know that he loves them and wants to come into their lives. Maybe they have sensed for some time that they really need to get closer or rather let him get closer. They know they have set up obstacles and have been strongly tempted to start removing them, but for some reason have not. Perhaps many others do not even know this much. Maybe they have yet to see their need for him or to realize that the emptiness, the incompleteness they notice inside sometimes. They do not know yet that it cannot be filled with all the Christmas trees and presents in the world. Only accepting God's gift in the Christ Child can bring that inner peace and wholeness. But they do not know this or will not admit it. What a great road block that is.

How does this Christmas find the road to your heart?

Chances are there are some potholes, boulders, small trees, partial obstacles that would keep the Christ Child from coming more fully into our lives. They are the things we do or do not do that make it more difficult to experience his coming. They are those habits, attitudes, those sins that keep us from living as we know he wants us to live. They are robbers on this road. They road us of the intimacy, the peace that comes when the Prince of Peace is allowed to come unobstructed into our lives.

John the Baptist cries out to us, "Get your road ready!"

If you're going to do road work, you've got to have tools. I went back over that same road not long ago to Clifton Forge and workers were still out there with axes, chain-saws, rakes and shovels clearing the road. But for clearing the road to our hearts this Advent John the Baptist recommends only one tool - the tool of repentance. It comes with a handle that fits all hands. Everyone can use it. Everyone needs to use it. There is no tool better suited for preparing the road of your heart for the Christ Child this Christmas.

Repentance is simply being honest with ourselves and God. It is facing the truth about ourselves - that we are sinners, that we fail to love, serve, forgive, obey. We mess up. We clutter our road with trash, with all kinds of obstacles that we know keeps Christ at a distance. Repentance is taking an honest look at that road, at our lives and saying, "Lord, what a mess. I want to clean it up. I want to be closer to you. But I can't clean it up all by myself. I need your help."

Repentance is also a deep, heartfelt grief for that mess. It's not only admitting it or facing up to it, it's a great sorrow for having let it get in that shape. This comes from knowing that my actions or lack of actions, my sins, hurt God. God is like a loving parent who wants the very best for me, who gives me rules to live by and all that I need to live an abundant life. Yet, I willfully let God down. I go my own way. I disobey God's laws. Only to make a mess of my life and come crawling back like the prodigal, hoping to be received, and finding a forgiveness and mercy that change my life. And I don't want to hurt my Father anymore.

That is repentance. it is not just seeing myself as a sinner or feeling sorry for my sins. It is not wanting to hurt the Father anymore. It's turning from those sins, those lifestyles, habits and values that move me away from God, that set up road blocks to the relationship God wants to have with me.

Repentance is making a 180 degree turn. It is not only seeing the mess on the road to our hearts and feeling regret for them. It is getting out there and cleaning them up. It's doing away with the trash, filling the potholes, sawing the fallen trees into pieces and casting them aside. It's replacing all the things I do that keep God away with that which opens the path, that makes it easier for God to come more fully into my life. It's committing, really committing myself to talking and listening with God through prayer; it's regularly reading and studying God's word; it's making giving of my talents and money for God's work a high priority; it's not forsaking the gathering of God's people for worship and praise; it's trying to genuinely follow the teaching of Christ in my daily life. Repentance, for me, means, that I'm not going to let anything be an obstacle to Christ coming fully into my life. I will keep this road clear, clean, smooth and straight.

Conclusion Perhaps you have seen along side roads a sign that says this road has been adopted by some group or individual. It’s the Adopt A Highway Program. These persons freely volunteer to keep that road clean. I see them out there walking along the road, picking up trash. I saw a group one day with brooms sweeping off the grass and leaves.

Advent is a time for this, my friends (take out the broom). It's a season of preparation, of sweeping the road to our hearts clean, for the Christ is coming. It's a time to adopt the road to your own heart, my friends. To get out your broom, your trash bag and with God's help sweep aside and get rid of anything that makes it more difficult for Christ to come closer to you this Christmas.

It's interesting that many people this year will go to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem which is supposedly built over the place where Jesus was born. They have a little crib set up on that spot, but it's actually in a small cave. And in order to get to it, you have to bend very low. That, my friends, is the message today. To get to the Christ Child or better yet to allow the Christ Child to come to us, we must bend low in repentance. That's how it begins.

Bass Mitchell
Hot Springs, VA
bassm@va.tds.net