Loading...Sermon December 6, 2015
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, LSW
The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen, Newport, PA
"The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
'Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.’”
Luke 3:4
Please be seated.
I love to travel to Italy. My maternal grandfather was born in Sicily and my grandmother’s parents were from Lipari, another Italian island. I’ve been to Italy five times since 1978 and if I could, I’d go visit every year.
One of the most beautiful places is on the Southwest Coast of Italy… the Amalfi Drive. It is 30 miles of narrow, S-curve roadway strung halfway up a cliff with the waves crashing below. It’s on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It’s spectacular and harrowing! And it takes 3 hours to drive that 30 miles.
The first time I was on the Drive, someone else was driving the car. They’d heard that driving from south to north was best, because then you’d be on the inside of the drive right next to the cliff wall. Being on the passenger side, I was well protected! I thought this description on a travel website was accurate:
If you are determined to take your life into your own hands, you can drive yourself along the twisting, death-defying Amalfi Coast …. And as the driver, ask your companion to take lots of pictures because you'll be too busy digging your fingernails into the wheel, violently pumping the brakes, and otherwise desperately trying not to end up smushed against the cliffside—or flying off it into the water 80 feet below.
It took me nearly 30 more years to get there again. That time, I took a bus. Here’s what the travel brochure says about the bus:
On the bus, you get to admire the pretty view (rather than mentally revising your Will as you careen terrified around blind corners), plus it doesn't take three burly men and a crowbar 20 minutes to un-pry your fingers from the steering wheel at the end.
I ended up only going to Positano, which is about halfway. The thing with the bus is that it honks every single time it comes to a curve, so if there’s anyone coming from the opposite direction, they can stop. The bus needs both lanes to make the curve! I think that night I heard those beep, beeps in my dreams!
My friend and I decided to take the motorboat taxi the rest of the way. It was much faster by water!
Can you believe I thought of this road when I read today’s Gospel lesson?
In ancient Israel, if a King was coming, a road would be made in the desert… a road to make it easier for the Royal person to come to the town. The road would be made as straight and level as possible. Luke uses these words from Isaiah to show the Israelites’ longing for a King to lead them and to allow them to live according to their culture and their religion.
Now today, we don’t long for a King in the same way as the Israelites; however, we do long for Jesus to be ever more present in our lives and in our hearts and in our world. And we don’t need to prepare a road through the desert, either. However, we do need to prepare ourselves.
As we look at ourselves, what kind of road have we made for Jesus? I think mine is often like the Amalfi Drive, full of so many twists and turns that it takes three times as long to get to the destination! I mean, I get so focused on the tasks I need to do, that I often forget about the people. That’s not so loving or caring. I’m often self-centered, focused only on my life and what I want and I do want it right now!
So what to do? How do I straighten out this very crooked road even just a little? After all, Advent is an especially good time to do that. I believe the answer is spiritual discipline and spiritual formation. That looks different for each of us and in my experience changes over time. Advent is an important time to take stock of what we are doing for our own spiritual formation.
Some spiritual formation are things we do alone. Maybe we have a prayer space in our homes. Maybe we have a prayer routine. There are wonderful daily devotions in the Book of Common Prayer on page 136 and online tools that we can use. There are many ways to review our day, recalling gratitude and joy, as well as our sorrows or regrets, turning it all over to God. We have some Advent Meditation booklets and there is Forward Day by Day. I personally also have a Spiritual Director who I meet with monthly.
Some spiritual formation occurs in community like coming to worship on a regular basis, participating in the Eucharist. Parlor People and Godly Play encourage and support our spiritual growth. We’re talking about building a labyrinth in a portion of our backyard, which serves us individually and together. This week we’ll go to Episcopal Commons for a light lunch and craft, because service also strengthens us spiritually.
Today and this week, take some time to review your road to Jesus. Take some time to figure what you might do to straighten out that road to Jesus. Our efforts allow us to sing with the angels as we welcome Jesus on Christmas Day.
Amen
