Tomorrow is the fourth Sunday of Advent. It's almost
Christmas, with only six days to go. I wonder, how different is this last week from
the more usual weeks before Christmas in times when we don't have to worry
about pandemics, masks, social distancing, and statistics about new cases and
deaths? I'm sure there's a lot less running around, looking for the last few
gifts to be purchased and the trimmings for the family Christmas dinner procured
and prepared.
One thing that is missing this year is the annual
Christmas presentation of Handel's Messiah, the oratorio written and
first presented 279 years ago. Although only half of it is directly related to
Christmas and the prophecies surrounding the coming of the Messiah, the entire
three-part oratorio is presented most often during the Christmas season by
professional choirs and orchestras as well as volunteer church choirs and
musicians. It is a marker of the season and a tradition that has continued for
centuries.
The daily office gospel is a familiar passage from Isaiah
40:4, "Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill made low;
the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain." The first
three verses of the chapter are sung as a tenor recitative and continue with the
singer continuing with the lovely and melodic aria with the fourth and fifth
verses.
In the gospel of Luke, John the Baptist repeated Isaiah's
words to reiterate to the crowds that he was not the Messiah, nor was he the
prophet Elijah, the one said to be the forerunner of the Messiah on earth. John
was a messenger, like the master of ceremonies who sets the stage for the leading
performer. His job was to encourage repentance and cleansing that came from
ritual immersion in the living water of the Jordan river. He was to get the crowd
ready, and he was successful at it.
I find that hearing the tenor air makes me think of what
the world would look like if the mountains and valleys were suddenly equal. I
know I've watched enough documentaries on mountains' geology and the various
natural phenomena that either build them up or tear them down. I also remember
seeing images of villages wiped out through avalanches and mudslides so that
the valleys where whole villages suddenly became elevated by mud, rocks, and
sometimes snow. It is impossible not to think of the loss of human life and the
destruction of decades or even centuries of domestic inhabitance.
Still, the metaphor of the mountains flattening and the
valleys rising reminds me of how perhaps God wanted the earth to be: an even
playing field with no rich and poor but only equals in every sense. The early
church tried this utopian idea by putting all their wealth and worldly goods
into a repository for the common good. There have been many civilizations and
groups who have attempted this since then. Still, most have not succeeded for
one reason or another. Yet the dream remains, and the metaphor continues to be
food for thought.
With its geological and meteorological drifts, the earth
is diverse. Its different climates and cultures have adapted to those cultures
and locations. I know that diversity is
an unshakeable reality, but too many seem to find this unacceptable to their
beliefs or status. Just as there are mountains and valleys, many status
divisions depend on culture, religion, economic and financial positions, even
health or disability. How do we lower the mountains and raise the valleys to
make all equal without destroying some of the very things that make diversity
in our world today? Perhaps the key to the solution is found in the words of
the prophet Micah, "Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God
(6:8)." Or, as Jesus taught, "'You shall love the Lord your God with
all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is
the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: 'You
shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments
hang all the law and the prophets." (Matthew 22:37b-40).
As we prepare for the celebration of the birth of Jesus,
we might give some time to personally reflect on what all this means, what
loving neighbors, humility, being merciful, and above all, loving God with
everything we have inside us. Perhaps the leveling of mountains and valleys is
an internal job that we need to do to get ready for what is to come.
We can't change the past, only repent of whatever wrongdoing
we have done. However, we can resolve to try to live as God wants us to, even
sending God's Son to earth to provide us an example. If we can watch videos to
learn how to do new things, reading scripture, and using Jesus as a model can
help us become the people we are intended to be.
COVID-19 or not, we can still celebrate Christmas and
resolve to be present to God throughout the season. We can also be mindful of
the needs of others and work to meet those needs. We can do some interior
landscaping with our prejudices, faults, and sinfulness to make them grow less
as we grow in grace and attitude. We can't wrap that and put it under the tree.
Still, we can accept those two gifts, especially the grace, and use it to
change our mountains and valleys to peaceful, useful, and godly plains.
Happy Fourth Sunday of Advent and Merry Christmas.
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