Christ our highway in the deserts of our lives.
Advent II: Isaiah 40:1-11

Last week we heard about how lamentation or the expression of our sorrow when we feel the absence of God in our lives is vital to our spiritual journey in order to come to repentance or to seek God.

As we enter into our second week of Advent we are confronted with grim news of terrorist attacks, a growing food crisis in many countries in Africa, and news of people still struggling to find help after the Sichuan earthquake seven months earlier. In the midst of such sadness we hear, “Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God.” These words in Isaiah were declared to the Israelites who were still in exile under very oppressive foreign power. In a way, these words could have sounded to the Israelites like condolences offered at the death of loved ones. No matter how many words of comfort friends offer us at the time of our grief, we can merely appreciate their gesture. At the end of the day, we are left with the raw pain of having to deal with the absence of our loved one. The question for us today in all the pain we see in the world is, are these words of comfort from Scripture merely condolences? Does God really care about how we are going to heal our pain? If we are still doubtful about God’s love and care for us, we have not really understood the meaning of Christmas at all. The question posed by Christmas is not about how we learn to deal with our pain, it is about how God has chosen to take our pain upon Himself. Christmas has always been about the declaration of God that He has truly seen and felt our pain and that He has chosen to save and comfort us by becoming incarnate amongst us. To offer condolences for our pain has never been enough for God, He had to come to us in flesh and remove the pain and burden of sin from us.

Advent brings to us forcefully the opportunity to prepare the way of the Lord so that Christ can be born in our lives. N. T. Wright, the Bishop of Durham said, “Appropriate grief and appropriate tears are God’s gifts to help us through the valley.” Indeed, the appropriate attitude for us to have during Advent is one of grief and tears at our own failings to live godly lives as well as grief at how much hurt and pain there is in the world around us. Our grief will hopefully make us ready to accept the glorious and stunning truth of God with us.

Yes, it is true that evil and pain persists in our world, but Scripture continues to assure God’s comforting presence. Our reading from 2 Peter says, “Do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. …But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home. Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish; and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation.” And that is the true source of our comfort that the patience of our Lord is Salvation not only for you and me, but for the world.
A few years ago, our family drove through the deserts of Utah and Arizona. If you have never driven through the deserts of Utah I recommend you do it sometime. It is a spectacular place and to me it looked liked another planet with its tall surreal mesas and buttes. The air like any desert is so dry that if you pour out a bottle of water on the desert ground the water starts disappearing even before the whole bottle is emptied. There is something about the dry majesty of the desert that makes you feel totally insignificant and helpless. But the amazing thing was that as we drove through the beautiful but harsh desert, we saw small towns, roadside merchant stalls, and hotels. We even managed to find a small Chinese restaurant in the desert town of Moab! As we drove on further through the desert I realized that none of the towns, or the roadside stalls or the hotels would have been possible without the road that we were driving on. Our lives are often like the untamed and harsh desert with all the pain of having to struggle for life. But there is a promise and a call given to us, “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” Christ is the highway in the desert for us, because of Him there is hope for life and sustenance, even our deserts can become places of beauty, comfort and shelter because God walks with us. Our deserts need no longer be places of fear and defeat; rather they hold the promise of God’s highway to run through it precisely because it is where we need God’s presence the most.

Every valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
and the rough places a plain.
Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed,
and all people shall see it together,
for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."
He will feed his flock like a shepherd;
he will gather the lambs in his arms,
and carry them in his bosom,
and gently lead the mother sheep.
In a couple of weeks’ time we will celebrate the birth of Christ amongst us, the one who brings redemption. It is mind-boggling to think of God leaving all His glory and majesty to become like one of us with all our pain, fear, and sinfulness, but that is exactly what God has done. In Christ the highway is laid in the deserts of our lives and God will surely come to us. Emmanuel, God with us, is the promise we have received. Amen.