Prepare The Way

Advent II Year C

Dec. 8, 2024

Luke 3:1-6
Canticle 16

Prepare ye the way of the Lord! These are familiar advent words spoken by the prophet Isaiah in today’s Gospel reading and echoed in a beautiful song sung by John the Baptist’s own father, Zechariah, in our Canticle this morning. This two thousand year old song, also known as the Benedictus, has been sung and prayed in the liturgical traditions every morning, year after year, decade after decade, as a part of morning prayer. Monks and nuns have chanted it and cantors and composers have set it to beautiful music for hundreds of years. 

The Benedictus, a word that means blessed be, were the first words out of Zechariah’s mouth when God finally unmuted his tongue. Nine months earlier, an angel had told Zechariah that his aging wife was going to have a baby. Perhaps understandably, Zechariah found this a bit difficult to fathom. And although an angel of the Lord had made an appearance and was apparently speaking with him in front of the holy of holies in the Temple, Zechariah, a priest, questioned the angel’s message. Maybe Zechariah thought he was hallucinating, I don’t know, but the angel silenced him. 

I don’t think the silencing was a harsh response, but more keeping with how the Spirit of God works with us and in us so we can better understand the things we don’t understand, and quite often that begins with being silent. Zechariah’s role as the father of the boy who would fearlessly proclaim “Prepare the way of the Lord!” and call nations and people to a repentance was going to need to understand the significance of Elizabeth’s pregnancy. So, the angel silenced him and Zechariah was to spend the next nine months listening to the powerful words of a pregnant teenage cousin named Mary who showed up at their door one day singing about the justice of God throwing down the corrupt systems of this world and lifting up the poor. A God who looked favorably on her while the rest of the people gossiped about her behind her back. Zechariah would observe his pregnant wife greet her young cousin and sing a similar song. Zechariah couldn’t interrupt, couldn’t explain, he watched and he listened. And in that time of waiting, watching, and listening, he got it. God was at work in the world in some mighty ways that turned the norms of the world upside down. 

In the beginning of the Gospel of Luke there are six canticles of praise, five of which are focused on the birth of Jesus, but Zechariah’s song honors John, of what is done and what is to come. This canticle is in two movements, praise and prediction, in celebrating fulfilled promises to the nation and in celebrating the meaning of an individual life. Zechariah and Elizabeth were part of the Jewish upper class, he was a priest and she was descended from Aaron, yet he is singing exuberantly about the liberation from oppression. Luke’s Gospel is always pointing to the kingdom of God that turns everything upside down, the poor will be lifted up, the rough roads of life will be made smooth. 

Zechariah sings of his son who will prepare a path by which someone called the Dawn or, in other translations, the Dayspring will walk and bring to us all the knowledge of salvation, a salve of forgiveness for the harm we have caused the world, our neighbors, and ourselves. This Dayspring, which of course we now know as Jesus, will shine on those lost in the shadows and are threatened by death and will brighten the path before us that we may turn in repentance and walk into the way of peace. 

Would Zechariah have reached this understanding without the silence, without waiting, watching, and listening? Here’s a man who has served God in the Temple his entire life. But God showed up to him in a most unexpected way that made it difficult for him to believe what was happening. So the angel said, “Quit talking and watch what God will do.” When Zechariah’s tongue is freed as he writes down the name of his newborn son, he doesn’t just talk about what he’s observed and learned in this time, his heart bursts open in an exhilarating song that begins with the praise of a God that keeps a promise. He is not just surprised that Elizabeth has given birth to a son, he is surprised by joy. This is more than an unexpected pregnancy, this baby is…THE prophet of the Most High! The one that ushers in the Messiah. Now THAT would stun a priest that served at  the Temple in Jerusalem. That would stun a priest anywhere! And in this time of anticipation and watching, Zechariah believed what the Angel of God had told him.

Perhaps we can see through the experience of Zechariah why it is important to wait and watch, why we must listen and stop the chatter for this Advent season. There is so much to learn from the stillness. We are so afraid of silence, we are afraid of the dark. But why? Prophets and saviors are formed in the darkness of the womb, stars that point us to the incarnate God are only seen in a dark night sky. Angels are heard singing in the silence. None of this can we even imagine if we don’t stop from time to time to hear it. The angel had appeared to Zechariah who was alone in the silence of the altar of incense before the Holy of Holies, and Zechariah had been afraid. But he had to be quiet and wait and from that his fear turned to joy.

I think we, too, are afraid of really hearing from God, let alone the messengers of the Divine. And yet we wonder where God is, we decry God’s apparent absence, and when God says “be still and know that I am God,” we aren’t about to entertain that idea. Even the idea of prayer makes us twitchy if we have to stop talking, unless we are so desperate that we drop to our knees. But every single year during Advent, scriptures remind us over and over–prepare yourselves for the arrival of your liberator! Make the paths in your heart and soul smooth that God may enter with ease to restore you, to restore the world. For we are all connected and the restoration of the world, of our communities, is directly tied to our own redemption. Our Deliverer is coming!

I’d like to challenge you this season from now until Dec. 24th, to spend some time in silence every day. Just sit and listen to the quiet. If you are not used to this practice, just do it for 5 minutes. Every day. Try it as a small experiment and see what you notice. Turn off your TV, silence your cellphone. Five minutes. When your mind wanders or thoughts invade, just brush them away like a feather. Zechariah had to be silent for nine months, but I’m only suggesting just sixteen days. I don’t think you’ll have to worry that Gabriel is going to show up while you’re performing your work duties, but you never know! 

God usually works more subtly than that, quietly, gently transforming you, healing you, preparing you to receive the Christ. All we need to do is pay attention. It could be that from the silence you are surprised. Like Zechariah it may be a little difficult to believe, but also like Zechariah you may learn so much from watching and waiting. This is how we prepare our hearts and souls. Just being, and a lot less doing, a lot less incessant noise. 

You just might be able to hear the voice of one crying out in the wilderness of your own heart: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord.’ What you fear from the silence, from the possibility of encountering God in your own heart will turn that fear into joy. I wonder what song would arise in you that you could share with a hurting world. Prepare the way of the Lord. In the tender compassion of our God, the dawn from on high shall break upon us,