Advent II, Year C
The Rev. Nigel Taber-Hamilton, Rector
Last year Rachel's brother Don and his wife came up from Southern California to celebrate Thanksgiving with us and Rachel's father.
Now I don't know about all of you, but there's one very important thing that always happens in our house before we have guests - cleaning!
"Cleaning" involves the usual sort of stuff - the guest bedroom and bathroom gets special attention. This includes finding a home for all the odds and ends that have ended up on the guest bed, removing the dust-bunnies from beneath it, and vacuuming the spiders-webs from the fan.
But the rest of the house gets a "going-over" too. That way, if the guests haven't been in the house before, we can say with confidence "sure, I'd be glad to show you around!" secure in the knowledge that there will be no embarrassing 'faux pas' as we 'make the rounds'.
But there are other reasons to clean that go beyond 'self-interest', beyond 'keeping up appearances'.
Cleaning is a way to honor the guests. When you clean you're saying "you're important to me and so I want everything to be just right for you while you're here."
That's John the Baptist's message. When he says: "Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth" he's talking about a particular sort of cleaning.
But he's not talking about actions where God is the subject. God is not going to fill in valleys, reduce mountains, straighten and smooth out roads.
He's telling us that we are the ones who are going to do that.
From time immemorial the actions of a new king have followed a set pattern. Actually, most anyone who comes into a position of power or leadership does the same thing: they take inventory.
Anyone heard of the Domesday Book? When William the Conqueror finally subdued all of England a thousand years ago he ordered an inventory of the entire nation.
Such inventories appear in the bible too. As far back as King Solomon - remember he was only the second king Israel ever had, after David - as far back as Solomon Israelite kings took inventory. They learned to do this from the neighboring kingdoms.
The pattern was pretty much the same. The king would go personally to all of the major and often many of the smaller settlements in the kingdom and survey what was his.
And that act of inventorying served another purpose - it said "here I am, your king. I'm in charge here, and don't you forget it!"
So every able-bodied person in every settlement went about cleaning up - straightening roads, filling in potholes, making the rough smooth, 'polishing the silver', cleaning the bathrooms, sweeping the living room.
Solomon did something very unusual. He started his reign by riding to Gihon - and his coronation - on a mule. A warrior-king would make that ride on a war-horse in full armor - a sign that he came as an oppressor, with ready violence in his hip pocket. Riding a mule meant "I come in peace" - which is, of course, the literal translation of the name "Solomon": "Peaceful".
When we come to Palm Sunday, remember the symbolism of the king who comes riding a mule.
When John the Baptist spoke those words, his invitation was appealing to an ancient tradition, knowing that the One who was to come was in the lineage of David - and thus of Solomon - "King Peaceful".
So it is that his invitation is to a different sort of preparation - a preparation for the One who would be the king of our hearts as well as the savior of our souls, who would - to jump ahead in Luke's gospel - bring peace.
As we continue our preparations for this One who brings peace today's invitation is to do some preparatory work on our hearts - some cleaning, straightening, leveling, making smooth - work that goes beyond 'self-interest', and, instead, honors this special guest, so that we can say to him, with genuine care, "You're important to us. We want everything to be just right with us so that when you come again at Christmas you may find a home in our hearts."
Amen.
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