"Someone's Coming"

Today is the second Sunday in the season of "Advent" – the name itself means "coming," and it's meant to be a season of personal and corporate preparation for the coming of Christ: an event which is past, present and future. Christ was...and is...and will be. That is the reality in which we are called to live.

This morning, through the words of Scripture, we hear two voices calling out in proclamation about One who is to come. The prophet Isaiah, in the 8th century before Christ, describes the character and the achievements of a great Ruler who is to come. John the Baptist, preaching in the desert country of Judea, well over 750 years later, proclaims anew that someone greater than the world has ever known is coming...so get ready, be prepared!

Isaiah was speaking to a contemporary audience of his time and was speakingof their hopes for an earthly king. But time and tradition have led Christians to see his words in the light of the One of whom John the Baptist was speaking: the anointed One of God, the long-awaited Sovereign, Jesus: the one whom traditional language has called the Prince of Peace, the King of Kings. When the angels appeared to the shepherds in the fields outside Bethlehem that first Christmas night, they sang their announcement of the newborn Christ, saying "Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth...." Christ came...Christ is here now...and Christ will come again to bring peace to the world and peace to the life of every person. That's the promise of Advent.

But let's get real for a minute. Peace in the world? That's hard to believe. Peace among races and cultures? Yeah...maybe. Peace among Protestants and Catholics in Ireland? Pretty iffy. Peace between the Serb and the Muslim. Not likely. Peace between the Palestinian and Israeli? No way! Nope. Peace? Ain't gonna happen! One 21st century cynic summed it up on a bumper sticker offering a perhaps slightly more realistic hope: "Forget about World Peace...Visualize using your turn signal." Indeed -- for a moment -- forget World Peace. What about the notion of Christ bringing peace to our individual lives? For many people, that's almost as hard to imagine. Not that we don't want that. God knows...(God really does)...we try, in all kinds of ways, to find some inner peace. We try self-help, self-medicating, therapy, recovery, shopping, sex, T.V. and – perhaps the #1 source of momentary feelings of peace at this time of year – CHOCOLATE!

Chocolate seems to hold a special power in our culture. Recently someone sent me some fun thoughts about chocolate that are actually a frighteningly accurate reflection of the way many of us relate to this popular sweet stuff:

> If you've got melted chocolate all over your hands, you're eating it too slowly.

> If you can't eat all your chocolate, it will keep in the freezer. But if you can't eat all your chocolate, what's wrong with you?

>A nice box of chocolates can provide your total daily intake of calories in one place. Isn't that handy?

> Diet tip: Eat a chocolate bar before each meal. It'll take the edge off your appetite and you'll eat less.

> Why is there no such organization as Chocoholics Anonymous? Because no one wants to quit!

> And probably the truest statement of all: Money talks...Chocolate sings!

Of course, all of those things I mentioned, including chocolate, can bring us – to varying degrees and for varying amounts of time – a certain amount of peace...or at least the feeling of peace. Lasting peace? That's hard to come by. And yet the promise of Advent is that true, everlasting peace is coming: not in a thing, a place, a remedy or an experience...but in the person of the Sovereign of Peace, Jesus Christ.

When John the Baptist was preaching his message of repentance and preparation, he did it out in "the wilderness." In Jewish custom, the "wilderness" represents a place of chaos and barrenness, a place where one is called to wrestle with those things that separate us from God and with those things we need to change in our lives. Thus, John's message comes to us "in the wilderness" of our own lives. We are told to "prepare the way" for the One who is coming. In ancient times, roads weren't too good. They were crooked and bumpy, full of holes and obstacles (much like the roads today here in St. Louis!). When a king was going to be traveling through an area, the people would go out and smooth the roads as much as possible...filling in holes, removing things that might get in the way of the King's coming. That's also what we must do in our lives...to make a way for the Sovereign of Peace to truly enter in.

What "holes" or "obstacles" do we have in our lives that slow down or prevent the coming of peace? Advent is about making room in our hearts which means there is no room for emotional and spiritual clutter. Forget the notion of "spring cleaning;" what we each need is some Advent cleaning to remove the stuff we've been hanging onto that simply will not allow peace to come in.

Once there were two monks who were traveling through the countryside during the rainy season. Rounding a bend in the path, they found a muddy stream blocking their way. Beside it stood a beautiful woman dressed in flowing robes. "Here," said one of the monks to the woman, "Let me carry you across the water." And he picked her up and carried her across. Setting her down on the farther bank, he went along in silence with his fellow monk for the rest of the day...until later that evening when the other monk said, "I think you made a mistake picking up that woman back on our journey today. You know we are not supposed to have anything to do with women, and you held one close to you! You should not have done that." His friend replied, "That's strange. I carried her over the river once many hours ago; you've been carrying her ever since."

What are you carrying that you should have laid down a long time ago? What clutter is blocking the road...what holes are making the path difficult...what is preventing the peace of Christ from coming into your life? God is perpetually trying to do something new and wonderful in the world. Christ wants to bring a new kind of peace to our lives. Jesus is coming with a state-of-the-art DVD player...and we're still messing around with a worn-out 8-track! John the Baptist is calling in our wilderness, saying "Stop it! Put that junk down and turn around. Look up and get ready! Someone is coming! And it's gonna be good!"

This One who is coming brings peace – not, as we heard during the lighting of the Advent candles this morning , a peace that is merely the absence of war and conflict, but peace that is the fullness of blessing for all; that is the peace for which we dare to hope! The coming One brings peace through transformation. Isaiah talks about some attributes that come with that special One: wisdom and understanding, counsel (what we might call "insight") and might, knowledge and a deep respect for God. Christ wants to transform our lives to bring in all of that and more. It's not a transformation that we can accomplish on our own – it's not even one that is "natural." It's a transformative peace that is nothing short of supernatural...because it is the peace of God!

19th-century painter, Edward Hicks, took the images of this supernatural peace described by Isaiah and put them into his painting entitled, "The Peaceable Kingdom." He illustrated that vision of the wolf and the lamb, the leopard and the baby goat, the lion and the calf...all living together in peace, with no sense of threat or intimidation, no conflict, no fear.

That is an image that we can look at and think, "Nice idea...but those animals just aren't ‘wired' that way." That's true. Nature doesn't provide for the possibility of total peace. That, you see, is where God must come in! Think of what Jesus said to his disciples in the 14th chapter of the Gospel of John, not long before he would leave them. He said, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." In a world where we find it impossible not to be troubled and afraid, there is still that promise of peace – a peace, St. Paul said, "that transcends all understanding." The amazing peace of God; how can we have it? In our world...or in our lives? Well, we've all sung that song many times in a variety of settings: "Let there be peace on earth...and let it begin with me."

Rev. Billy Graham: "Peace often must begin with ourselves. Love is not a vague feeling or an abstract idea. When I love someone, I seek what is best for them. If I begin to take the love of Christ seriously, then I will work toward what is best for my neighbor. I will seek to bind up the wounds and bring healing...." And St. Teresa of Avila: "Let your desire be to see God; your fear, that you may lose God; your sorrow, that you are not having fruition of God; your joy, that God can bring you to eternity. Thus you will live in great peace."

When we clear away the debris and make a smooth path for Christ to come in...when we seek God first and let the peace that fills our own lives spill over into our dealings with the world...that is when we will start to experience the promise of Advent for real.

This year, as you prepare for Christmas, please...don't settle for a chocolate-covered fantasy of easy peace with no investment. Prepare the way for the One who IS the peace that we seek. Amen.

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