At my grandparents’ house there was a big iron farm bell that hung outside their kitchen garden. And no matter where we were on their place, when you heard the bell toll, you knew you were being called home.
The prophet Zechariah, prophesying in the 7th century BCE, first tells Jerusalem that they will suffer catastrophe, destruction and exile and then he concludes with these verses that we heard today.
Now he promises Jerusalem and Zion – God’s people – that despite their disobedience and the suffering they have endured, God rejoices over them with singing and jubilation. Reviving the metaphor of God’s relationship to God’s people as one of deep love and intimacy, like a marriage, the prophet promises God forgives them and will gather them in and bring them home.
John the Baptizer too is calling God’s people home. He begins, in the verses we heard last Sunday, with a call to repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Sin is anything that separates us from God, anything that keeps us from being who God has created us to be and to live according to God’s commands. And unless we repent, or turn away, from sin, we cannot live in the fullness of God’s love.
Echoing the prophet Isaiah, John sets out some house rules for living as God’s people.
I remember some of the house rules my grandparents had. The big ones were that we had to have shoes on to come to the dinner table and you didn’t pick up your fork until Grandmommy picked up hers. Others like the dogs staying off the furniture and writing down any long-distance phone numbers we called. More than merely good manners, those rules gave us structure and taught us how to live together.
When John declares:
'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 5 Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; 6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'" (Luke 3:4-6)
he is announcing what life together in God’s kingdom looks like.
When the valleys are filled and the mountains are made low, the playing field is leveled, and it creates a just landscape where everyone can participate in God’s kingdom here one earth without obstacles or barriers.
John’s words prompt me to think about our house - our sanctuary here at Ascension - and how, despite our efforts to love our neighbors, we still have barriers that keep people from coming into this house to worship.
In our physical space, our restrooms aren’t accessible and if you can’t navigate stairs, there’s no way to move between the two floors of this building without going outside.
And physical space is only one part of how we call people home and welcome people so that they may know God’s love. We must recognize the ways some of our structures and institutions are rotting or compromised and in need of repair.
This is the call to God’s people: to clear the threshing floor and separate the wheat from the chaff so that we may both preserve the good and reject and destroy the things that keep us from living faithfully as God’s people.
Hearing John’s call, I wonder what it would take for us to remove barriers and expand our welcome and ability to call people home to God’s house here at Ascension. And I invite your curiosity and wonder too. Where might God being calling us to expand our welcome?
The words can sound harsh, but neither Zephaniah nor John hold back when they address God’s people. God is present in our midst and that should disrupt our routines and get our attention. God’s abiding presence with us and for us should not merely be a footnote in our lives; it should transform our ways of being with each other and in the world.
So how might we re-order our house that it would better reflect God’s kingdom? What would we need to do differently that all might flourish and know God’s rejoicing over them?
Zephaniah’s invitation to God’s people wasn’t to return to what they had done before exile. It was an invitation into a new life with their God. We too are invited to look for the ways that God is redeeming our future. In this Advent season, we are invited to faithfully re-imagine what coming home to God can look like, knowing that God rejoices over us and loves us.
Let us pray…[i]
Good and gracious God,
We cannot thank you enough that you are forever welcoming us home, just as we are.
You paint a picture of a world that could be and remind us that there is enough love to go around.
Thank you for the voice in the wilderness that calls to us.
Give us courage to live as your people and be transformed by your radical welcome and unchanging love.
We pray in the name of your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Amen.
[i] Adapted from a prayer by Rev. Sarah (Are) Speed | A Sanctified Art LLC | sanctifiedart.org.
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