"PREPARING FOR GOD"

She tells about how she was once working as an artist-in-residence at a parochial school, and she would read the Psalms as a source of inspiration to her students and would often have them write their own psalms, as well. She says, "...their poems often had an emotional directness that is similar to that of the biblical psalter. They know what it’s like to be small in a world designed for big people, to feel lost and abandoned. Children are frequently astonished to discover that the psalmists so freely express the more unacceptable emotions, sadness and even anger...even anger at God, and that all of this is in the Bible that they hear read in church on Sunday."

Norris tells about how kids who were picked on by their bigger brothers and sisters were remarkably adept at writing cursing psalms; the writing process offered them a safe haven in which to work through their desires for vengeance in a healthy way. Once a little boy in her class wrote a poem called "The Monster Who Was Sorry." He began by admitting that he hates it when his father yells at him; his response in the poem was to throw his sister down the stairs, and then to wreck his room, and finally to wreck the whole town. The poem concluded, "Then I sit in my messy house and say to myself, ‘I shouldn’t have done all that.’"

Norris writes, "‘My messy house’ says it all: with more honesty than most adults could have mustered, the boy made a metaphor for himself that admitted the depth of his rage and also gave him a way out. If that boy had been a novice in the fourth-century monastic desert, his elders might have told him that he was well on the way toward repentance, not such a monster after all, but only human. If the house is messy, they might have said, why not clean it up, why not make it into a place where God might wish to dwell?"

The theme of this, the second Sunday in the season of Advent, is "preparation." We are to prepare the way for Christ to come...into the world and into our lives. The bottom line is: if the house is messy, why not clean it up, why not make it into a place where God might wish to dwell?

As God’s special messenger, John the Baptist, the Gospel writers tell us, came urging people to clean up their houses – to repent, to turn back to God. The Old Testament writer named as Malachi – a name which means, "my messenger" – warned that preparing for God means cleaning house. Cleaning up God’s house, spiritually, and cleaning up the houses of our hearts. God tends to arrive on the scene suddenly, and we need to be prepared.

It’s amazing how quickly this season is passing. Christmas will be here before we know it. But the day of Christ’s coming – back to the world, into our lives, upon our hearts – that’s a day that’s not written on any calendar...a day and hour which we can’t predict. Now is the time to prepare ourselves for what God wants to bring to us.

So what is this repentance, this "house cleaning," then, that we should do to prepare ourselves for the coming of God? We may tend to think of it in terms of getting rid of the clutter. I don’t know about you, but whenever I do literal "house-cleaning," for everything that I actually "clean" or throw away, there are numerous things that just get sort of "rearranged." Books moved from a pile on the table to a pile on a shelf. Clothes and knick-knacs and junk of various types tossed into the backs of closets or under the bed – that kind of thing.

I don’t think that’s what God has in mind. Rearranging the clutter makes room for temporary guests but doesn’t allow for the permanent residence God wants to set up in our lives. To make room for God, some things have to be permanently changed.

Now "repentance" is a word that brings a bad taste to many of our mouths. "Repent" has too often been the admonition of those who really meant, "Stop being you!" I don’t think God is looking for us to not be ourselves. God simply wants us to make room in our lives for Christ to come in. We don’t have to do anything to get God here; we just need to invite God to come in and stay with us.

You know, its interesting. In the Bible there are four gospels. Only two of them mention Jesus’ birth. But all four of them tell about John the Baptist preparing the way for Jesus. For these writers, it almost seems that John’s preaching is more important for understanding the Gospel story than the story of Jesus’ birth. In three of the four books, direct reference is made to John being a voice in the wilderness proclaiming that a new road is being built so that God can come to God’s people. Drawing on words from the prophet Isaiah, these writers declare that in John the Baptist a straight and level road is now under construction in preparation for God to come to the people through Jesus Christ.

The Scriptures say, "Every valley shall be filled,

and every mountain and hill shall be brought low,

and the crooked shall be made straight,

and the rough ways shall be made smooth;

and all flesh shall see the salvation of God."

What’s the point these gospel writers are making in all of this? Well, the point is quite simple. We cannot go to God. Therefore God comes to us. The road is not being built for us to travel on our upward journey to God. Rather, it is being built for God to travel on the downward journey to us. God will provide a way for Christ to make it to our doors. We don’t choose to go to God...God chooses to come to us. What we need to do is unlock the door and clear away enough of the debris for God to not only get inside but to be able to stay.

I don’t think that God ever wants to leave the house of our hearts. But there are some conditions under which it is very hard for God to dwell. When we live in ways that bring pain and harm to ourselves or others, its hard for God to stay in the house. When we live in ways that deny who we are and force us to embody a lie, it’s hard to have God in the house. When we allow anything other than love to guide our choices and choose our paths, we’re making it difficult to dwell with God...because God is the essence of loving ways and honest existence and health and wholeness and life. God willingly travels here to be with us, but only we can face the messy house and clean it up so that God can come inside to stay. God never wants to leave...but our clutter can force God out to stand, longingly, outside the door of our hearts.

The thing with the messiness is that, in some ways, it can’t be easily undone. Whatever created the messes in our lives happened in the past...whether it was yesterday or least month or twenty years ago. The past is gone and so we can’t undo it. Rather, in the "turning" that repentance requires, there is only one direction we can turn: the future. And that is probably the most difficult turning we can do because we can’t know what’s out there ahead of us. We can only live in faith, in the trust that God is there already waiting to be welcomed in and to dwell in the house of our hearts even in the unseen future.

Advent is to be a season of preparation. Preparing for Christmas doesn’t seem to be a problem for most of us. We put up the tree, we hang up the lights, we bake the cookies, we purchase the gifts. These are annual routines that were established long ago and by the time Christmas rolls around, we manage to have everything ready.

Preparing for Christ, though, is another story. There are no established routines that will guide us in cleaning up our messy houses in preparation for God to arrive. That house-cleaning is personal and unique for each of us. While God stands at the door, knocking and wanting to come in, we must look around and determine what God can live with and what God can’t. We must choose what to discard and what to dust and, let me assure you: stuffing things in the closet will never work! God knows what’s in there, too! The good news is that God’s Holy Spirit stands ready and willing to assist us with whatever cleaning up we are willing to do.

Now is the time, God’s messengers proclaim, to prepare the way for God’s coming. Now is the time to make a way for Christ to come into the houses of our hearts...once and for all. Amen.

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