It came, a flow’ret bright

Amid the cold of winter

A sermon on Isaiah's superb sermon on the rough places

It’s always true, but it’s especially true this time of the year. There are a lot of voices clamoring for your attention. Aren’t there? There are all the demands, invitations, offers, updates, requests, questions, suggestions, solicitations, pleas, and general inquiries, too. 

And that’s barely scratching the surface. Isn’t it? Those are just the indiscriminate voices! There’s also the voices of your dear friends and families. There’s the voices of those people who have the frustrating knack of getting underneath your skin. And that’s not to say anything of all the other voices constantly sounding off in your own head, too!

Yes, it’s true. There are a lot of voices clamoring for your attention. And it’s especially true this time of the year. However. However, there is only ONE voice that speaks to your wilderness. Yes, you heard me right, your wilderness. 

We all have them, too. Although, it’s hard to see on Sunday mornings. But no matter how prim and proper we may appear, each and every last one of us has a rough patch in our life. Don’t we?

Now, yes, we’re all at varying depths of our low points. And yes, we’re all also at various points of acquiescence of the uneven places in our lives, too. Some of us have brokered an uneasy peace, and some of us are in pieces over those rocky spots in our lives. Either way, we all have some part of our life that is dry, dusty, and barren. 

Why, one of them is especially prominent this morning, this congregation. Yes, we can all say this unification is a blessing. BUT that’s not to say it’s been a primrose path, either. Has it? 

If we all had our druthers, none of this would be necessary. Would it? No, each congregation would grow and grow until it was the only congregation in town—either Faith or Trinity, depending on your proclivity!

And you know what else? Despite how significantly attendance swelled, each congregation would still retain the intimate and personal touch we all cherish, too! Wouldn’t it? We’d be the congregation that broke the mold! We’d be the first megachurch that was unnaturally a local church, too…

Ok. I trust you take my meaning. Our whims are just that, whims. They’re nice to entertain, I suppose. But just as often, they become unrealistic expectations that turn and point the accusing finger in our direction!

All of us, without exception, are all desperately trying to mend, minimize, or just slip past those parts of life that are fading and withering. Aren’t we? And while this impulse is understandable, it’s not all that helpful. More often than not, our knee-jerk reaction to distress only makes it that much onerous! And just as often, this compulsion keeps us from really living our real-life day-to-day lives, too.

On this side of Eden, life has been subjected to futility. Now, it has been subjected in hope, yes. But nevertheless, for now, we still await the restoration of all things. And if you can’t or won’t allow yourself to experience those parts that cry out for redemption, you will not only miss out on the majority of life; you will also miss out on the miracle simmering just beneath the surface of it, too! 

As we like to say, true spirituality is life—where? That’s right, reality! True spirituality is life in reality. Yes, reality with all its twists and turns! God is perfectly capable of working with the entire warp and woof of your life, not just the ideal places. In fact, in God’s own cross-shaped way, the less-than-ideal parts are some of the most perfectly prepared plots for Christ, the Master Gardener, to ply the spade of his life-giving cross in our lives!

And today, at the dictate of the LORD God Almighty, by the power of the blessed Holy Spirit and as part of the retinue of Jesus Christ, God’s only son adored, old Isaiah bursts into our midst and breathlessly says as much, too! “Prepare the way of the Lord,” the wild prophet declares. And then, before you and I can get any ideas in our heads, the mouthpiece of the Lord tells us exactly where to go. Make ready, cries Isaiah, where you’re most unready! God comes, says the fiery prophets, to the ruts, where life is shaky, bumpy, and altogether ragged. 

You know, those places you and I are bound and determined to steer clear of. 

…How do *you feel when something goes awry? This is important, too. So, really try to come up with your answer. What does it feel like when you’re frustrated, worried, or stressed? And where do you feel it?

For me, I experience anxiety in my chest. It’s like a swarm of bees has been stirred up inside me. When I get worked up, it’s as if I can feel the uneasy and incessant spinning of my mind. But what about you? 

How do you experience frustration, worry, or stress? How do you feel when something goes topsy-turvy? Really! What’s it like? I want you to know! I want you to know because, frankly, that prickling, no matter how unpleasant, is probably really just holiness you’re experiencing! That’s right, holiness. 

This has Scriptural precedent, too! Take Isaiah’s call story. This comes from the sixth chapter of Isaiah. Therein, the awed prophet recounts how one day, while he was sitting in the temple for church, the smoke from the incense filled the room. Cloudy though the sanctuary was, he clearly witnessed for the first time what was really going on! 

Turns out worship isn’t just a human affair! No, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit Thyself attend every worship service! And wherever God is, so is the holy consort, too! And that’s what the venerable prophet beheld that day! 

But let me tell you, this vision was not tranquil. Far from it! The temple, as magnificent as it was, was only large enough to barely contain just the hem of God’s robe! And as the congregation sang the Sanctus, “holy, holy, holy,” the seraphs, these six-winged angels, joined in, too. But their voices were so loud their singing shook the temple down to its very foundations!

As you can imagine, this wasn’t a warm and cuddly experience for Isaiah. Quite the contrary, it was terrifying! BUT, as Isaiah learned, that feeling was nothing less than his sacred-sensor going off. That’s right, his sacred-sensor.

…So, what about you? How do you feel when life is helter-skelter? Knowing this is important. It’s important because, like Isaiah, it’s probably just holiness you’re experiencing. However, like Isaiah, that won’t be how you first react. Typically, when life gets out of hand, our first thought is to try and regain control. Isn’t it? 

But that’s always a mistake! Trying to hold the reigns of our own life is just to try and take ourselves OUT of God’s hands! And not only is that a fool’s errand, it’s also just plain foolish! Out of God’s hand is the worst place to be! Isn’t it? As the North American theologian Stanley Hauerwas says, “Christianity is living life out of control.”

However, the old creature in each one of us is utterly terrified of losing its lousy control. Aren’t we? When we first experience God’s destabilizing activity, our gut reaction is to get out of dodge, fix it, or get out of the way. 

Now that you know better, though, you might try something else! You could lean into it. You could start getting ready for a miracle! In other words, you could heed the prophet’s words! You could prepare for the coming of the Lord! That’s right, the coming of the Lord!

“A voice cries out, ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord.’” In the wilderness! The wilderness! The wilderness is not where faith dies. No, the wilderness is where the One who rose from the dead goes TO you and buries his redemption with you!

When Christ transformed the rocky ground of Golgotha into the holy ground of Calvary, he thereby paved the way for all the barren stretches in your life to blossom with e’er blooming rose of his resurrection! As Mary mistook Christ for the gardener at his tomb, so too will you witness what Mary did at your tomb! Like Mary, you WILL find Christ digging around in all those places in your life that are faded and withering! Now, your open pathway to paradise!

It’s like we say: God’s office is at the end of your rope. So, if that’s where you are today, get ready! If you’re at your wit’s end, and who isn’t? But if you are, and we all are, if you’re at your wit’s end, you’re finally at that place where faith really begins!

…Here’s another one: Grace is GOD’S one-way love. But today, the blessed prophet Isaiah tells you precisely where this highway runs: headlong into your dead ends! The impasse of life is really just the onramp to faith!

Yes, God’s love goes in one direction and one direction only. But the real shock is that God’s highway runs directly into the badlands! It’s not just that God goes to you. No, it’s that God goes to you in the least godly places of your life!

We all have rough patches. There’s nothing unusual about that. That’s just a feature of life on this side of the fall. What is nothing less than miraculous, though, is what God does with these lowdown, bedraggled, and altogether good-for-nothing places. God blesses them! On account of the old rugged cross, now those spots in your life that are run down and ragged are just bursting with the mercies of God that are new EVERY morning! 

Including this one! 

This is not once-upon-a-time business, folks. No, this is the time-altering romp of eternity BURSTING into the everyday! I already told you God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, attend every worship service! And I’ve already told you their heavenly entourage tags along, too! I’ve even already told you that the prophet Isaiah, that mouthpiece of the Lord, speaks that Word into our midst today, too! Right now, even!

This Word has always existed. Its just waited for someone to utter it! And today, right here, at the command of God, on the breath of the Holy Spirit, the prophet blows in and declares that eternal Word, Christ himself to us! 

…There are many voices clamoring for your attention. But there’s only one that speaks to the wilderness. And today, this Word sows itself in yours. And this Word will not return to the Lord empty-handed, either. No, Christ, the Word made flesh, will accomplish that which the Lord purposes, and Christ will succeed in that for which God has sent him, too!

This is, of course, nothing less than your very salvation. God really IS doing it! God is, right NOW, blessing the dessert places in your life! God is lifting, leveling, clearing, and cutting away to prepare you for the Lord’s arrival in your wilderness! So make ready! 

In communion, you will ingest this seed, the very body and blood of Jesus Christ himself. And in turn, he will bury himself deep into you. He will take root. He will blossom in you! He will make you bear the fruit of his redemption! 

And then one fine day, either on your last one or the great final one, Christ will gather that harvest! By the vitality of the Holy Spirit, Christ will raise you up to the Father in heaven! And on that day, the saying will be fulfilled!

A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God! Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has SPOKEN.”

…The mouth of the LORD has SPOKEN. There’s nothing left for me to say. Now it’s your turn. But let’s be clear: this response is NOT yours. No, it’s nothing less than the work of Christ sprouting up in you!