Advent 2B
Sunday,
December 7, 2014
Can you hear
it?
Is it ringing
in your ears?
“Ain't no
mountain high enough
Ain't no valley low enough
Ain't no river wide enough
To keep me from getting to you”
Ain't no valley low enough
Ain't no river wide enough
To keep me from getting to you”
God---through
the prophet Isaiah---is proclaiming to us today:
there’s
no mountain high enough,
there’s
no valley too low
there’s
no wilderness too wild
and
no rough place too rough
to
keep me from you.
God
refuses to be separated from us
refuses
to the point of the Incarnation---God becoming flesh
refuses
to the point of the Crucifixion---dying so that all might live
refuses
to the point of the Resurrection---defying death because love wins
Does
your heart get this?
Can
you wrap your head around this?
The
Creator of all things loves you so much that God simply will not spend eternity
without you. God has vanquished all
obstacles, destroyed all the barriers, removed all impediments so that we might
be intimately connected to God—that we might have a personal and communal
relationship with the Divine.
Do
you hear God’s promise? God will live
with God’s people---God will dwell among us and care for us---an ever-abiding
presence of steadfast love.
But, my
friends, God is not an interloper. God
will not barge into our lives as a dictator or tyrant. God does not desire a relationship based on
fear---when the verb “fear” is used in reference to God in Scripture---it is
not our current understanding of being scared or threatened. To “fear” God means to hold God in awe---to
hold God in reverence---to recognize that God is God and we are not. God doesn’t desire to be some Puppet Master
who makes our decisions and we have a relationship with God because we can’t
choose anything else. The truth is: we
can choose anything else. God desires us
to choose God.
To turn and
return to God—this is the meaning of repentance. Metanoia—a complete turn around. God knows that we, like sheep, will be led
astray. We will see the dazzling life of
consumerism, materialism, and power and be entranced. God knows that our sense of self will, at
times, override our sense of other and community---that our self-preservation
will win over our sense of the common good---and we will stray from the
Way.
But this God of
Steadfast love and forgiveness always offers us another chance. Always.
No exceptions.
And this God of
steadfast love asks us to do the same for others. That we forgive as we are forgiven. That we love as we are loved. That we give as we are given. That we are merciful as we have received
mercy. And by this—by this Way of life, the
mountain of discrimination will be leveled.
The low valley of retaliation, vengeance and violence can be filled with
compassion and reconciliation. By this,
poverty, hunger and thirst can be banished.
By this, the wilderness of depression, isolation, illness and loss can
be left behind as people are restored from the margins of society to the full embrace
of community.
In this season
of longing, of expecting, of waiting---let us prepare our hearts and minds
through worship, through bread and wine, through service, through Word, through
prayer, through fellowship, through study---let us make room for God to grow
and live and move within us---that we might become the light of Christ so that
others may know the Truth we proclaim:
There
ain’t no mountain high enough
Aint’
no valley low enough
Ain’t
no river wide enough
To separate
us from God.
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