Joel 2: 12-13, 28-29

It’s a busy time of year. We’re making our Christmas preparations: decorating, baking, shopping, inviting… all the while continuing to do all of the other things we do all year round: working, volunteering, caring for family and home… It would be so easy to busily hustle and bustle ourselves right past Advent, barely noticing the special gifts of this season: hope, peace, joy, and love… the themes upon which we dwell for each of the four Sundays of Advent (this morning is peace, by the way). It would be so easy to rush through our days this season, busily preparing for Christmas, and it would be so easy to miss out on the opportunity to spend some time in reflection, preparing our hearts to receive the gift of a Savior at Christmas.

Our lesson today comes from the book of Joel. We hear only four verses, and yet we hear within those verses a theme that is echoed throughout the Old Testament: the people of Israel/Judah have forgotten God. And God is not happy about it. The prophet tells the people to return to God, who is merciful, and whose steadfast love endures forever. He prophesies that, after that, God will pour out his Spirit and all people will see visions and dream dreams. And, although Joel prophesies to the people of Judah in the 9th century BC (the date is debated, but it is still long before Jesus’ coming, nonetheless), even so, many scholars hear this prophesy as referring to the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, about which Luke wrote in the book of Acts. Luke even quotes this passage in his Pentecost account. And, in the person of John the Baptizer, we see a New Testament prophet calling the people to repent and to return to the Lord.

In fact, Mark opens his gospel by telling about John. He begins by quoting from the book of Isaiah:
See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
Who will prepare your way;
The voice of one crying out in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.”

We are being called, along with the people of Isaiah’s time, and along with John the Baptizer, “to prepare the way of the Lord, [to] make his paths straight.” If we are being called to make something straight, the implication is that it is crooked. When we think about our world today, we can see that there is much pain; there is much that is not right; there is much injustice. There is much that is crooked. We have only to glance at a newspaper or Facebook, or turn on the evening news, to learn about all of the ways that are not straight in this world.

Making straight the way of the Lord is justice work. It is literally about re-forming the world. There is much to do, and we are called to do it.

And, we are called to prepare our hearts for the coming of Jesus. We are called to work for justice, to make the path straight, to care for those in need. At the same time, we need to attend to our own hearts, making ourselves ready for the gift that comes at Christmas. Just how are we to do both?

Well, the details will look different for each of us. Some of us will add an Advent devotional to our morning routine. Some of us will bring into our busy days some moments of simply being, whether it be by meditating or by pausing to notice a sunrise or sunset, or by engaging in art, music or poetry.

Here’s the big picture: we are to return to God, who is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love; and God will pour out the Spirit upon us. And we will see visions and dream dreams.

The promises we hear in these verses appeal to us even now, even in these days. Into the midst our most painful, incomprehensible, and wounded moments, God comes. Into our pain, into our brokenness, God comes. Into our anger and confusion, into our questioning and longing, God comes.

In this advent season, we sit in darkness waiting for light. We sit in sadness waiting for joy. We sit in fear waiting for hope. And we sit in confusion waiting for a shepherd.

What we need, what our world needs, is this forgiving, gracious, life-giving God who came among us two millennia ago in Bethlehem, and who stands at the door, seeking to come among us now. Because we live in this broken world, we will still experience grief, confusion, pain, sorrow, and death. We will still make mistakes; we will hurt each other and ourselves. But into this, into the midst of us – in all of our brokenness – Jesus comes. And he is all we need.

God sent Jesus to be hope for us in the midst of our hopelessness. God sent Jesus to be our peace in a world full of turmoil and war. God came among us in a human body, suffered death, was raised and will come again. We don’t know the hour of Christ’s return. But we do know that Christ is present with us, in water, wine, and bread, and in one another. Let us prepare our hearts to receive Christ, not just at Christmas but every day, and let us work for justice, loving God by serving our neighbor.

Amen