December 7, 2008

Second Sunday in Advent

"HOME"

Ref:   Isaiah 40 & Mark 1

Home.  I stepped through the door and saw my mother’s  bright smile and heard her voice and saw her tear around that kitchen counter, through the family room with her arms wide open proclaiming, “You’re here, you’re here!” and engulfing me and everyone else who stepped through that door with a hug that made you feel that your head would pop-off.

Home.  I find it around the dining room table with Eric and our children at the eve of the day when we give thanks to God.  I find it in a love that continues to strengthen, bless, and then send me on my way stronger having known it.

Home.  You walk through the doors and there they are, those hugging Lutherans with their open arms, endless cups of coffee, their sincere smiles, their goofy jokes and funny stories.  You walk through the door and they will wrap a prayer shawl around you, pray for you, pray with you, ask you to come along and serve together with them in the love of Jesus.  I have seen few other homes with such patient grace, they put up with those of us who get moody and they reach out again and again to those of us who are hurting and want to hide.  You step through those doors, my friends and the whole place erupts in welcome home.

Home is where God dwells among his people. 

     Today we hear from the prophet Isaiah and from Mark about how God makes a way to find us and bring us home.  God doesn’t wait for us to find our way home to him, rather he goes out to find us and he often goes all the way out there into the wilderness to find us in the very places where we think, no one, including God would want to go to find us.  Again and again in the Bible, the wilderness is that place of human pain, loss, grief, loneliness, exile…it is that place where we struggle with our brokenness and our sin, where we encounter our limits to cope.  Wilderness for Isaiah was where the Israelites landed when they had lost their old home and needed a new one.  It was often a difficult place where they were not really sure who they were anymore.  God is always going out into the wilderness to find them   It is no coincidence that the Good News of Christ Jesus, the Son of God is first proclaimed by John the Baptist out in the wilderness. God finds us right there in the wilderness places of our lives and brings us home to him, to his heart, to his grace, to his salvation.  He has come to find us face to face in Jesus Christ.  Out there where life is really hard-THAT’S WHERE God is looking for us and where God can find us, and if we will trust and obey, he can lead us to new life and a new chance today. 

     For those who have striven in the dessert wilderness with illnesses and losses, for those who hear the words metastasized cancer, for those who live each day with a depression that drains hope from them, for those who grieve loved ones they miss and long for, for those who feel unworthy, for those who have lost their way, for those who battle with addictions, for those who have suffered crisis and live with foreboding fear of “when is that other shoe going to drop?”  For you the voice cries out in the wilderness, God is coming, Prepare the way of the Lord, God’s hope and love and healing is reaching to you -to bring you home to his own arms for good.  Hear the Good News; God can reach you in the wilderness. 

 Advent is such a short time of the year, but it is an intense time of watching for God. It is a time to hear the call out in the wilderness and come home.  God is present and on the move, at work among his people, not just in John the Baptist, not just in the prophet Isaiah, but in many, many people, most often in the very people who are facing such pain, and such hurt in their own lives.  God wraps his love around them and opens their mouths and actions to become like that voice crying in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord”.    God is on the move.  Watch.  Listen.  Listen to the children singing at the Christmas program- are you aware of what they face even in their young lives?  Do you know the prayers and hopes of their mothers and fathers for them?  If we did, we would never look at a child or any family without great love and great tenderness and care. Notice the gracious welcome of the widow who invites you for a cup of tea. Do you know how much it means to her that she can share this time with you?  Son, can you hear the prayers of your father? Do you know he prays for you on his knees and sometimes he prays for you even when he has no words, only his tears both of love and of gratitude for you?  Sister, can you see how much you are loved by that friend who is always there waiting for you at the door?  I wonder how many times we miss it, the advent that comes to us each day as Christ calls to us, welcomes us, challenges us to stop heading down the old road and instead come along the new one that leads home to God.    Watch. Welcome, Notice. Pray. Listen.  God is on the move.  He comes to wrap his life around you too and make home.  Amen.