ROAD CONSTRUCTION
AHEAD
SCRIPTURE
There is
nothing as disconcerting to the long distance traveler as the highway sign that
says, “Road Construction Ahead.” That
sign leaves so much unsaid. Sometimes it
simply means that a highway crew is out doing patchwork. It can mean miles of single lane traffic on
an interstate highway at 45 miles an hour looking at the backside of a
semi. A sign like that can lead to
cynicism if it is coupled with a sign that says, “This is a temporary inconvenience
for a permanent improvement.” Yeah,
until the next time.
We know
what an inconvenience a community suffers, along with merchants along the right
of way, when the road construction takes place in town. Think
Advent is a
season of roadwork. If you doubt that
listen again to the words of our text, “The voice of one crying in the
wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the
Lord, make his paths straight. Every
valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the
crooked straight, and the rough places made smooth; and all flesh shall see the
salvation of our God.’” Now if that doesn’t
sound like road construction, then I don’t know what is.
In writing
my thesis for my graduate degree, I discovered some people in the nineteenth
century who took that road construction literally. There were those who thought that Christ
would not come again until the world was brought up to the standards of
Christ. Now they had a lot of notions
about what the world would look like if the world were brought up to Christ’s
standards.
Some people
thought that meant that alcoholic beverages would be outlawed. We all know what a success that was.
Others
thought that young women who were moving to the cities from rural areas to work
in factories needed safe, affordable, accommodations to live in, so some
industrialists who were also Christians provided that kind of housing.
Others saw
that the world could not possibly be raised to the standards of Jesus until
slavery was abolished. That was one of
the many enthusiasms of the nineteenth century that was the most controversial
and has had the longest-lasting impact for good on our society.
All of
these people who were advocates for a world safe for Christ were living in a
perpetual Advent. They expected Christ
to come again if only they could get everything right; if only they could
smooth the way with the right kind of road construction.
I am not so
presumptuous that I hold out any one panacea for our time as a means to prepare
the way of the Lord.
Sometime
ago someone left a reading on my desk that was written by someone named James
Bender. It’s called “Growing Good Corn.”
Every year,
a farmer entered his corn in the state fair, where it won a blue ribbon. One year, a newspaper reporter interviewed
him and learned something interesting about how he grew it. The reporter discovered that the farmer
shared his seed corn with his neighbors.
“How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbors,
when they’re entering corn in competition with yours each year?” the reporter
asked.
“Why sir,”
the farmer said, “didn’t you know? The
wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to
field. If my neighbors grow inferior
corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my
neighbors grow good corn.”
So it is
with our lives. Those who choose to live
in peace must help their neighbors to live in peace. Those who choose to live well must help
others to live well, for the value of a life is measured by the lives it
touches. And those who choose to be happy
must help others to find happiness, for the welfare of each is bound up with
the welfare of all.
This
morning we celebrate the life and ministry of one who loves beauty and has
devoted her life to creating beauty for us through her music. Mary Kay, you have enabled us through your
music to allow our spirits to soar. You
can’t see it and no one else can see it, but from my vantage point at the front
of the sanctuary, when you are playing or conducting the choir there are people
sitting with their eyes closed and I can see that they are transported by your
work. You have made smooth the way for
us to experience the touch of the Spirit.
So it is
with those who engage in road construction of the spiritual sort. Christ is seen in our efforts to care for one
another. Every time we do something that
represents a loving deed or thought, Christ comes again. It is then that the road is paved for his
advent. Every time we smooth someone’s
way or fill in the potholes that someone encounters, then Christ comes to that
person’s life.
It isn’t
the grand schemes and great social programs alone that we put forth that mark
social progress. It is in the random
acts of kindness and consideration that Christ comes again and again.
Sermon
preached by Reverend