Hospitality: Preparation and Presence
Dec 6, 2009
Scriptures: Luke 1:68-79
“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them. He has raised up a mighty savior for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us. Thus he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors, and has remembered his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham, to grant us that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their sins. By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
Luke 3:1-6
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 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; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”
Sermon: Hospitality: Preparation and Presence by Rev. Doreen Oughton
I remember the first time I entertained in my first apartment after college. I was so stressed, so worried about everything going just so. I cleaned and shopped and cooked, and when my guests came I served and cleaned up after. And the whole time I worried that something would go wrong, that my date would say something to offend someone, that I would say something to upset him, that the conversation would be tense and stilted. And I can’t recall or think with any distance about how it went, I just know that I sure didn’t enjoy it. And it was like that for me for years, with entertaining a stressful event that I couldn’t expect to enjoy, worrying about being judged, about falling short of some important external standard.
In comparison, I think about the first time I prepared to set up household with a partner. I had butterflies, but I didn’t give things nearly the thought and preparation I did to having a dinner party. I wasn’t nearly as stressed in anticipation as I had been having friends over. Maybe it was because I wasn’t making space for someone in a place where I was established,so didn’t have the worry about how someone would think of my space and me in it. But also, there was a certain vacancy in my thinking about it. It was almost automatic pilot or something. I was so caught up in the relationship that I could barely think for myself. My partner’s wishes became my wishes, his judgment the only judgment that mattered. I could adapt to however he wanted to live, be whatever he thought I should be. I couldn’t prepare in any practical way, I had to wait for signals from him for what was supposed to happen, for how things were supposed to go.
In the first situation I was prepared, but not present to the event because I was so caught up in my head. In the second situation I was not prepared at all, and was not present in anyway to myself. And then.. I think about when I had set up a new household, with a partner who made lots of room for me and with whom I could be present. And I think of what it was like when we decided to make room for another, when we were expecting our son, and then our daughter. Oh my how we prepared. The small office converted to a baby’s room, replace all those drafty windows in the house, get lots of baby furniture and clothes, hand-me-downs from my sisters, maternity clothes, car seats and high chairs and saucer things for the baby to jump in. Do you know how much space those things take up!? And was I anxious? Was I ever! I cried when I first got him home from the hospital. But I wasn’t afraid of how I might be judged by others, but of how I might fail him. How he would be affected by my inadequacies, my inexperience, my mistakes. I didn’t worry that I would be judged, but that he would be hurt.
And was I present? I can’t say I was always. There were times when I got caught up in my own head. There were times when I went on auto pilot, when it seemed denial was my friend. But I kept getting pulled back into the moment, finding parts of myself that I never knew existed, that hadn’t existed, but came into being by making room. It both emptied me of myself so that I could see and respond to the child’s needs, and filled me with a sense of purpose and meaning that struck to my core. This emptying was so different from the vacancy of self when I looked to another person to tell me who I should be. It was making room to respond deeply to what I saw and what I felt in fullness.
Today’s lectionary readings talk a lot about preparation, getting ready for the coming of our Lord. In our responsive reading the prophet Malachi speaks of the messenger who will prepare Israel for the coming of the Lord, the messenger who will prepare us, who will be like the harshest soap scrubbing us clean, like the fire that a silversmith uses to purify the silver, who will make us shine. And many hear in Malachi the foretelling of John the Baptist, whose father Zecchariah declares him to be the prophet of the Most High, the one to prepare his people for their Savior. And we have John calling for preparation, “make his paths straight, the rough ways smooth.” God is coming to us. Get ready! How do we do that?
I say, not like a dinner party. Hopefully we are not just inviting Christ into our lives as a guest. As tempting as may be to have him just pass through, we are likely to be so worried about judgment, so caught up in our own heads, that we wouldn’t really be present. If we replayed the visit after, we’re apt to think more about what we said than what he said. And I don’t think it’s what God is really asking from us, to just stop by. I think we are being asked to set up housekeeping, to make Christ our daily companion, one we truly make room for. Not mindlessly, not on automatic pilot, not without preparation. We don’t check out and blindly follow some rules, go with someone else’s idea of who we should be. We don’t get all caught up in how we may be judged, whether by God or anybody else.
I admit I don’t have a clear idea of what John means, about filling the valleys, making the mountains low, making the crooked straight, but I suspect it’s similar to preparing for your baby, preparing and worrying about the cost to others of your shortcomings, and emptying yourself, and being filled with purpose and meaning. And I don’t know who our messenger is. Maybe John is our messenger too. Maybe even now we can pray to John the Baptist for inspiration on how to prepare our lives and our world for Jesus. I must say when I read his words I get highway building imagery. All the equipment and TNT and bulldozers, and trees falling. And I recoil at the destruction I imagine. And yet there is power there. The landscape is being changed! And maybe this power is what John is pointing to. Be ready! This is no gentle breeze blowing through your life, setting your curtains gently flapping. The landscape is being changed!
What does it mean to get ready for Christ? Who will tell us? Reflecting on the passage from Malachi about the refining fire, I was touched when I learned that when a silversmith is purifying the metal, she doesn’t take her eyes off it. Do we have a messenger who is so attentive, so invested in us? I don’t know, but I invite you to contemplate that with me for the next few weeks, maybe pray on it, maybe talk with each other. I suspect our work has something to do with getting practiced at love, at deep responsiveness. And that, I believe, requires our full presence. Amen.
