Prepare The Way –– 10 December 2023

Mark 1:1–8

In the church, we have to deal every Advent with a great leveling figure. . . John the Baptist is in our face today, as he is every Advent. His words do not have a very Christmas-y sound. They are a pretty startling interruption to our holiday preparations.

Prepare the way of the LORD. Make his paths straight. Repent. Turn around. Look at your priorities. John the Baptist levels with us, and challenges us to look at what is important: to be level-headed, that is, honest with ourselves and with one another. We don’t need to get caught in addictive cycles of spending, or being busy, or caving in to societal pressure, not just this time of year, but anytime. We do not need to repeat the same mistakes over and over.

John the Baptist confidently appears to level things out—to challenge us to turn to God and the things that truly matter.

As one preacher said, Advent is the church’s annual shock treatment, asking us to level, to be honest. And death is certainly the great leveler. We can pretend that we are not getting older and life is not passing before our eyes. But we are simply living in denial.–– Craig M. Mueller

Isaiah 40:1–11

The prophet Isaiah is pretty honest with us. . . All people are grass.Their constancy is like the flower of the field. It all withers and fades. It is the word of our God that endures for ever. –– Craig M. Mueller

"In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD," cries the prophet Isaiah.These will be the words applied to the mission of John the Baptizer, who seems himself as forerunner to the Christ. For the prophet of the Hebrew Bible, this marks the end of the period of exile, and a call for the journey back to the homeland. The Lord would smooth out the landscape itself, to permit his people an easier passage of return. "Prepare the way" meant a restoration and homecoming, not a new journey into the unknown.

Passages of restoration, clustered in this section of Isaiah, have been given abundant and varied meanings: literal, allegorical, and eschatological. One hundred years ago, they were likely to be applied to personal death. . . More recently, Christian renewal movements have focused on these prophecies to proclaim revitalization for the church as the people of God, set free from exile to return to its true identity and mission. . . If we concentrate on the liturgical season of Advent, however, "prepare the way of the LORD" calls us to personal renewal and openness to the birth of Christ in our hearts as well as in Bethlehem. –– Lucy Bregman

2 Peter 3:8–15a

Today’s lessons move out of the shadows from last week’s lessons into an emerging sunrise on the horizon that offers hope and a new day of salvation. Although God is the one in charge of the timing of the salvation, humans are invited to participate in the reception of forgiveness and changed lives through the disciplines of repentance and holy living. –– Carol J. Noren

Craig M. Mueller is pastor of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Chicago, Illinois.

Carol J. Noren, a United Methodist pastor, is professor emeritus of homiletics at North Park Theological Seminary. Her published works focus on worship and preaching.

Lucy Bregman, professor of religion at Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, is the author of several books including Beyond Silence and Denial: Death and Dying Reconsidered (WJK, 1999) and Preaching Death (Baylor Univ., 2011).

Homily Service 42, no. 1 (2008): 16–25.