Excerpt from Mark 1:1-10

"Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight."

Reflection by Donna Schaper

We can begin with Isaiah's prophecy retold by Luke.  The one who is coming, who is now just a glimmer in his parent's eye, will make the way straight and will make the rough smooth. The Advent texts are about a straightening but not a normalizing.  There is a difference.  Straightening has to do with making God's path clear or straight.  It exposes the universal human tendency to get lost, to go crooked, to get roughed up on the way.   The Advent promises are about making the crooked straight and the rough smooth – and they have absolutely nothing to do with the many prejudices of the normal.

When I say that some of my best friends are straight, I don't mean that they are normal.  In fact, what I love about the Christian version of God is the attack on normalcy itself.  You want a Messiah? I'll give you a Messiah.  He will come as a child, with no power, no sword, no press kit.  He will come totally dependent on you and your care of him.  God will relinquish all power and come to earth and be dependent on our love for him to realize salvation.  Humility is what is exalted.  Exalted is what is humbled. 

So if you want what we appear now to call a "takeaway" from this first Sunday in Advent, take this: You may have to reverse path to get on the path.  You may have to become better acquainted with vulnerability in order to be saved.  You may have to have less power in order to have more power.  You may have to get less crooked in order to "get" God.

Prayer

Straighten me out, O God, and then fill me with your power.  Keep me out of my own way.  Amen.

About the Author Donna Schaper is Senior Minister of Judson Memorial Church, New York, New York.